CARRYING OUT RESEARCH YOURSELF
Why?
Carrying out your own research can help to make all your work more meaningful
and dynamic. It can and should feed your
teaching, making it livelier and more informed for your students. With your own experience of research from the
inside, you may find you have a better understanding of the key features of any
research report you read, and a clearer idea of why things were carried out as
they were. It may also help you and your
student teachers to take a more critical approach to the research you
read. Above all, it should help you see
how research can and should inform practice in school.
Types of research
Section 2 above draws on research of all types, from large
surveys of existing practice, to experiments, to case studies of particular
classes and/or particular groups of children.
The data-gathering tools will therefore also vary: they might be tests
of the children's performance, questionnaires (for teachers or children),
interviews, observation schedules, video or sound-tape. Analysis might concern itself with the
correlation between the incidence of a particular experience and a particular
outcome, the numerical distribution of different types of classroom behaviour,
or the meanings participants give to their actions.
Different
types of research are needed to answer different types of question. Surveys can
tell you, for example, which authors children like to read, while carefully
conducted experimental studies might tell you which classroom groupings are
most effective for literacy teaching.
But in both these cases, the study will have to involve large numbers of
children if the findings are to be reliable.
Action
Research has a particular role to play in investigating education. It is a small scale activity, and therefore
much more manageable for those new to research than a survey or formal
experiment would be. It is essentially
cyclical and oriented toward the enhancement of direct practice. Carr and Kemmis provide a classic definition:
Action research is simply
a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social
situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own
practices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in which
the practices are carried out
(Carr and Kemmis, 1986 p.162).
Action research was first developed soon after the second world war by Kurt
Lewin, who set out the cycle involved, usually seen as follows:
1.
Identification
of a general or initial idea
2.
Reconnaissance
or fact-finding
3.
Planning
of intervention
4.
First
action step
5.
Evaluation
of first action step
6.
Amendment
of plan
7.
Implementation
of second action step.
(Source: Lewin 1948, p. 206)
Action research is, of
course, highly contextualised. It does
not yield general truths, but shows what can happen in particular
situations. But it can be a very useful
guide to those wishing to make changes in their ways of teaching.
Bearne et al. (2007) and Macintyre (2000), listed below, provide an extremely
useful guide to classroom action research in literacy. One of the themes emphasised, is the value of
setting up collaborative research with schools.
It can be empowering to both school and university staff to work together
to examine classroom practices, consider possible innovations, implement these,
observe how they are operating, amend them and move on through the action
research cycle.
So how do I get started?
Talk over interesting areas with colleagues with whom you are
in academic sympathy. You might want to
be involved in a research project a colleague has started or is proposing. This is more feasible if you already have an
MA (or similar) with a research component in it.
If you don't already have an MA, it might be a good idea to
sign up for one, in your own institution or another. But you may find your own institution won't
fund you to take a course elsewhere. You
will also need to talk through with appropriate colleagues just how the work
for your MA would fit in with what is bound already to be a very heavy
workload.
You could also apply to do a research degree, but be aware
that this is a major, long-term commitment, and rather lonely unless you take a 'cohort route' such as an Ed.D.
If none of this 'training' is relevant, if you feel you'd
like to get started, your colleagues, in your institution, or in NATE or UKLA,
are your best helpers. Informal
discussion on key themes can help you identify problem areas it might be
fruitful to investigate.
It's then well worthwhile doing a preliminary literature
search, using what seem to be the key words, to see what has already been done
on the question. Your work should be
informed by previous research, but also extend it.
How can I get my work known?
Conference presentations and publication! You have to decide what kind of an audience
you would like to communicate with. If
you are still fairly tentative and would like feedback on your work, aim for a
conference presentation in the first instance.
Again, you might choose to do this with a colleague. You will be able to give each other support,
encouragement and constructive criticism.
The big annual conferences held by NATE and UKLA invite research
presentations. But you will need to start
planning about a year before. Look on
the Associations. websites for the Call for Proposals, and take very careful
note of what they are looking for.
Even if you are planning to do a presentation on your own, it's a good idea to
have someone experienced to give you advice on how you phrase your
proposal. Many are rejected because they
do not supply the information requested.
Then make sure you submit the proposal in time.
Publication
Either after such a presentation or independently, you should think of
publication, either on your own, or with a colleague. If you are yourself currently following a
Masters or research degree course, your supervisor may be interested to publish
with you, and give some useful advice and support.
But whether you are writing on your own or in collaboration, it's a good idea
to browse through the journals in your library, either in hard copy form or
electronic version. Look for journals
with appropriate subject matter and a tone that seems right to you. You might look at Literacy, the Journal of
Research in Reading, the Journal of
Early Childhood Literacy, Reading Research Quarterly or English in Education. Or you may find US, Canadian or Australian
journals more sympathetic.
Then go ahead and WRITE!! You may have
only small stretches of time for writing, but try to ensure that these are not
so small and far between that it takes you all your time to tune into where you
were last time you sat down to write. It
may be helpful to have a friend or colleague read your first draft when this is
complete, and give you some constructive criticism. You may need to redraft it two or three
times, before it says what you want in a way that is clear and supported by
evidence.
Before you send your piece in, either by e-mail or as a website submission,
which is much more usual these days, make sure you read the 'Notes for
Contributors', usually tucked away on the journal's inside back cover, in very
small print, or in a corner of the journal's website. Reading these can save you from wasting time
and energy, or alienating the editor and reviewers who will read your work.
When you have submitted your paper, you should get an acknowledgement, but
don't expect an editorial decision for some time, as at least two 'peer
reviewers' are likely to be reading your paper.
When the decision does come, you may well be asked to make amendments:
very few papers indeed are published without such revisions. You will probably be sent the reviewers'
reports, as well as a letter from the Editor.
All of these should give you constructive feedback, and even if you are
not successful in this attempt, they should help you get published in the
future.
References
Bearne, E., Graham, L.
and Marsh, J. (2007) Classroom Action
Research in Literacy: A guide to practice.
Leicester: United
Kingdom Literacy Association
Carr, W. and Kemmis, S.
(1986) Becoming Critical. Education,
knowledge and action research. Lewes: Falmer.
Lewin, K. (1948) Resolving social conflicts; selected papers
on group dynamics. Gertrude W. Lewin (Ed.). New York: Harper & Row, 1948.
Macintyre, C. (2000) The Art of the Action Researcher in the
Classroom. London:
David Fulton.
© NATE/UKLA
Henrietta Dombey November 2009
Links with other areas of the ITE English website
The simple view of reading http://www.ite.org.uk/ite_readings/simple_view_reading.pdf
| 
Download in PDF form