Reasearching while teaching

An educator is always learning. Our discipline is in constant evolution, this is beauty of it. Every day we are motivated to research about diverse topics, such as themes that we are interacting with during our classes or even curiosities that are born from our students. There is a need for teachers who assume themselves as thinkers, as Paulo Freire said, we should "carry out the permanent task of structuring reality, of asking and asking about the everyday and evident, an unavoidable task for every social worker."

Research in the educational discipline is a complex process in which we must investigate the way our students learn and the way we teach, this process begins with observation, the most basic, and important part of a research. When you observe you discover what needs to be researched: an exceptionality in the classroom, a topic, statistic data and much more. When we find answers, we are able to expand not only our knowledge but also our students’. It is important to inspire our students and motivate them to be active learners and researchers; they should question everything, and this should be one of their principles to follow.

Our students may begin with simple questions: How does it happen? Why does it happen? Why should I do it? These questions awake the researcher within them and ignite curiosity that will develop into investigation and therefore, active learning. How does a teacher do this? Being an example!

As teachers we must first research about each of our topics, and we should anticipate questions to inquire deeper within these. An important part of motivating our students is demonstrating that we have an interest for the topic and that we know about it; this can never be done if we don't investigate. Now a days information is a click a way, we can find books, peer reviewed journals and informational websites on line. There is no excuse, knowledge is more accessible than ever and it can be done in various ways.

As educators we must also know the interests of our students, this is another way of investigating. We should elaborate tools to discover their interest and needs, to act upon the found information throughout the semester. After that research continues to be born: How can we help the students reach the tools or abilities to meet their goals? What strategies can we use?

A great way of investigating is through Action Research. An action research is a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the student in improving and/or refining his or her actions.

Educational action research can be engaged in by a single teacher, by a group of colleagues who share an interest in a common problem, or by the entire faculty of a school. Whatever the scenario, action research always involves the same seven-step process. These seven steps, which become an endless cycle for the inquiring teacher, are the following:

Selecting a focus

Clarifying theories

Identifying research questions

Collecting data

Analyzing data

Reporting results

Taking informed action

In my case, I identify many aspects to be observed and researched, such as: Control of hyperactivity and attention span, participation control, motivation to participate and frustration control, discipline and language proficiency level. There are students with ADHD, this limits their ability to pay attention for an entire period and acquire all of the necessary information. In addition these students are usually very hyperactive which takes them to move a lot and therefore also affect the attention of other students. I’ve also had students with a low proficiency level or that have very low motivation to participate alongside frustration levels. They require guidance to enhance their educational output. However, I also have students with a very high proficiency level and they always want to participate which at times discourages the others. All of this has been the center of an action research, in search of development and improvement of each student’s outcome. (Attached is the document)

I’ve explained how to be an active researcher, but how can we CREATE active researchers in the classroom? Well, that’s actually quite easy, encourage your students to question everything around them; start with the semester-long topic. One of my topics was “Cultures Around the World”, therefore, we had a Country Research Group Project in which they had to apply all of the acquired knowledge of the cultures while writing and creating art. We wrote about the six countries we learned about: China, Mexico, United States, Italy, France and Spain. The students had to compose paragraphs and create cardboard three- dimensional representations inspired on the traditions and customs of those countries.

The students would research information in the library. They would search about their assigned country and focus on the topic they chose by brainstorming (As part of the pre-writing process of a paragraph).

They must take notes and summarize the information and work as a team to select an interesting topic and search more about it.

All of these steps created active researchers that were gaining new language skills.

Another way of creating active researches in an informal way is by motivating students to search for information about a specific subject or one that they are curious about and have them bring it to class to present to their classmates. They can bring printed information or an object and present information about it. This action would count as bonus points at the end of the year.

An important element within research is the consideration of ethics. Ethics is the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation, that is, the way in which a person develops a correct relationship with students and colleagues. The consideration of ethics in investigation ensures the well-being of our students and the correct development of the aforementioned parties. To teach with ethics is to be able to ensure that each student has equal opportunity to learn any given subject, to devote time and energy into their development as required and to challenge them as well when considering their needs. This idea goes farther than just the students, also keeping a link towards the fellow educators with which one must maintain a link of communication and respect as to create a safety net for mutual students and other situations that may in the ambiance.

As everything, an educator can encounter problems or difficulties while investigating or encouraging to investigate. For example, the students can be reluctant to involve themselves, the process of investigating can take much time and even take up time from planning or teaching, or finding a topic to investigate may be challenging. However, this does not make it impossible. Encouraging our students can be done by becoming an example and choosing interesting topics or permitting them to choose. Choosing a topic can become easy by observing and searching for information. Time.. well.. time can be managed!

Teaching about researching can be as simple as just making questions or even receiving questions in a positive way. An example of this is when my students asked me: “What are the most spoken languages in the world?”, after reading I Hate English by Ellen Levine. I answered that the top spoken languages are: 1. Chinese, 2. English, and 3.Spanish. They asked for an explanation and I provided it, of course, my answers were based on my research from 2015. After the weekend, one of the students told me that he researched the top spoken languages in the world and said that in actuality, English was in third place, this obligated me to research once again, and so I did. He was right! The next day I congratulated them for researching, for questioning everything, this is an important part of their development and it should be recognized, even if it’s just a simple question born out of curiosity. These types of questions are the beginning of educational investigation and the first step of becoming a leader.