Should we involve our students in our research project?
It's our choice to involve our students in researching teaching and learning. We can ask for our students' perspective in various ways: they can be invited to keep diaries, we can talk to them, we can examine their written products,etc.
Should we involve the students as co-producers of research?
What would they gain out of this process?
Dear Majid
As you say, how can one do research of their classroom without involving their students.I believe the same, but there are enough cases that I can see in universities here where the teachers consider their students mere 'subjects' to whom they apply questionnaires and that's about all the participation for their students. This experimental treatment of students is not at all benefic for the students, I believe. More than that, ignoring the perspective of the students/'subjects' cannot offer a valid image on the matter under study.
In what you say about involving students in the different stages of research (in identifying a topic for research, in offering their perspective on things through the data collection instruments they agree to use, in validating the data - you call this clarification and confirmation, in implementing some of the findings) you advocate for research as a participatory process, and I believe this is what we teachers we should aim for.
I could see that through involving my students in the research i have done, in these stages mentioned by you, I helped them reflect on and make sense of their own learning (for example when they had to keep learning diaries, but not only); moreover, the data collection instruments could enlarge the conceptual frame within which my students operated (for example when they went through a questionnaire they learnt to see reality in a structured manner and they had a chance to stop and think of what they did and how they did things).
So let's keep our students involved in our research and let's try to identify means to involve them for their own benefit.
Mihaela
Dear Majid
My grade 11 students have been active in my current research pertaining to testing. After I showed them the powerpoint that I plan on using for the conference, my students suggested that my testing method be used throughout the school.
They were eager to show me how the results of the research can be used to further benefit them
Melanie
Dear Melanie
That's very interesting...
Can you remember what your students indicated to you as 'further benefit'? I'd be very interested to learn what they said, and maybe other colleagues would be encouraged to involve their students in research hearing about your good experience.
Mihaela
Hi Mihaela,
My students mentioned several things as being benefial
1. They wanted other teachers to include this form of testing as well
2. They felt as if they were more incontrol of thier learning
3. They were not as apprehensive with the testing because they felt that they could include thier personality
4. The most important benefit was to see the elevation in their self esteem. At-risk students do not get motivatied about anything, especially about testing. They felt as if they were making a difference not only for themselves but for me as a teacher and as a person as well.
Melanie
Dear Mihaela and Melanie,
I totally agree with involving students in the Research process. By definition that implies that: a. we are taking them into account; b. we are giving them what I call a "voice" which means to me the feeling that they can express themselves and will be respected and taken into account; c. that we trust them which seems to be one the problems with the ELT profession at the moment. Giving up our traditional role of controllers and make students active participants in what goes on in the classroom.
As Melanis says:
"They felt as if they were more in control of thier learning"
And, as I see it that is one of the ways in which you can get as closer as possible to developing Auronous learners.
María Sara
Dear Maria,
I have been working on a teaching method which places students at the center stage of learning. The teacher does not have the ownership of ideas in class. Students are active participants through both group and individual work.
As you stated "giving up the traditional role" as teacher is not easy for most. At firt I had a difficult time convincing teachers to be part of my research because they would not be in total control of all learning
Melanie
Dear all,
I also involve my students in my research. Sometimes I give them a questionnaire a cetain aspect of teaching / learning process and then analyze it or interview them and correlate their results with their academic success.
In the "Research Methods" course that I offer in Education Faculty I work together with my students and I am the co-producer of their research. They form groups and decide on a topic and start with a hypothesis and we do the research together.
Every year my departmental students tell me that they are very exhausted even about to die but they learn and enjoy a lot. I guess this is the best result I can get at the end of an exhausting semester.
Nazan
Dear Nazan,
I also teach the "Research Methods" course to graduates at the teacher training college . It's a kind of preparation for their individual research at schools.
What kind of topics do your students choose for a group research?
Elena
Hi Elena,
Sorry for being late for responding.
As my students were from Psychological Councelling and Guiadance department, they chose topics such as anxiety, stress, violence, and the relationship with success in the school and in their personal lives.
Nazan
Hi Mihaela,
Involving students in researching teaching and learning will be more than welcome. The optimal objective of any type of classroom research (I am alluding to action research or exploratory practice, see the other thread of dicussion in this area for details) is to improve teaching (input) and learning (outcomes). How can a researcher make sure that this objective has been reached without consulting the most concerned parties (i.e. learners)?
Here I should clarify the degree of involvement. The students should be involved in identifying the investigated problem and in data collection (fill in questionaires, take part in interviewing or in focus groups, ...) But I have a researvation here, they should not be involved in things that are beoynd their capacities; for instance, evaluating the products (written or oral) of one another without having clear and tangible criteria in the form of checklists.
The interpretation of the results can be complex and it should be done by the teacher. The latter can consult the students for more clarifications or confirmations of findings, or else for formulating new research questions.
Another level at which students should be involved is the implementation of findings. Once the recommendations emanating from the research findings are formulted, the teacher should get students involved in decision making of how they can benefit from that research.
Best regards,
Majid