What is research ?

The word research has its roots in the old French word “recherché” meaning to investigate thoroughly. Books on
educational research often go a little further and define research as “seeking through methodical processes to
add no one’s own body of knowledge and ,hopefully , to that of others by the discovery of non-trivial facts and
ire sights”(howard & sharp 1983) this definition convey the idea that research has two important components
(killen 2009)

1. Inquiry that is carried out systematically and purposefully

2. Inquiry that focuses on revealing some new knowledge.

We can note then,that there are several very important steps in any research. First, there must be a clear
purpose we must formulate a question that we will answer. Second, there must be a detailed plan for trying to
answer that question so that the research will be systematic. Third, data must be gathered and analyzed in an
attempt to answer the question so that new knowledge can be revealed finally, some conclusions must be
reached either to answer the original question or to explain why we could not find an answer . to use student
research as a teaching strategy, you have to help the students understand and work through each of these
stages so that they learn how to investigate, experiment ,relate information, and draw logical conclusion.

These are different approaches to research, and these are used relatively to the field of specialization of the
teacher. In general, there are three approaches to research that are useful for the teachers and the students
(killen 2009),

1. Research based on finding. Interpreting and using information that has been produced by
someone else.
For example, a research that located historical accounts of the Boer war ( e,g some written by
Boers, some by English soldier and some by Australian soldier) and compared them would be a
research that used existing information even though that information might be re-interpreted to
provide a new perspective.
2. Research based on gathering, interpreting and using information that did not exist before the
research was conducted.
This could be exemplified by a research that involved interviewing Australian who had
served in the Gulf War and drawing conclusion about the impact of the war on their lives would
be generating new data.
3. Research based on some form of experimentation.
For instance, a research that investigated the effects of applying different amount and types
of fertilizer to roses to see how it influenced their blooms.

All research should set out to answer one or more research question. It is the systematic attempt to
answer a research question that changes an “activity “ or “projects” into research. When students
research is used as a teaching strategy the research question should focus on important issues to which
the students can relate, but which the students do not fully understand(otherwise there is no point of
doing research ) sometimes a useful way to get the students to focus on an important issue is to have
them develop their own research question .
 Furthermore, teaching the students on how to do research is necessary but not sufficient in helping
them learn about the subject through research. Whenever you use this strategy you must emphasize to
the students that the purpose of the research is for them to gain some specific knowledge. Often you
will not want to tell them exactly what the knowledge is , because discovering it will be the focus of their
research however, they need to understand that they are not just doing an exercise they are engaged in
a search to deepen their understanding.

When and why should research be used as a teaching strategy?

A prerequisite for using this strategy is that your learners must be capable of working effectively
in groups of individually of they can work in groups, you can use this strategy in conjunction with group
work, cooperative learning, or problem-solving . the following are the advantages of using student
research as a teaching strategy according to killen (2009).

 Research encourage the learners to ask question, to investigate, to discover, and to create
answers for themselves , rather than waiting for someone else to provide the answer for them it
helps them to be more independent learners who believe they are capable of understanding
complex issues and of discovering important new knowledge themselves.
 Research can enable the learners to develop a deeper level of understanding of the subject in
comparison with using teaching strategies such as direct instruction or discussion it encourage
them to strive for more than superficial learning.
 Research helps the learners to progress from what they already understand to what they need
to understand deliberately building on their existing knowledge. It encourage them to be
metacognitive.
 Research can challenge, engage, and extend all the learners, not just the more capable learners.
 Research encourage the learners to be skeptical about ideas that others present as facts. It
encourage the learners to view knowledge as problematic, to appreciate that knowledge in the
area they are studying is limited, and to recognize that there are still unresolved problems and
unanswered question.
 Research encourage critical thinking and reflection, both of with are extremely important is the
context of the increasingly extensive amount of information that are available (especially from
the internet ) without having passed through any appraisal , censorship, or review process.
 Research can provide a meaningful context for the learners to use and develop the
communication skill it can help the learners develop their reading skills, note-taking skill,writing
skill, and oral communication skill particularly if they are required to discuss their work present
their findings and propose courses of action based on their research.
 Research can help the learners develop their organizational and time management skill.
 Research can be a fun and motivating way to learn, particularly for the gifted learners.
 Research can give the learners experience working in the way professionals work for example
can help children to become young scientist (Heckman et al 1994)
 Research can help the learners understand the essential nature of a field of study for example, it
can help them understand that science is “process of creating laws, model and theories that
enable one to predict, explain, and control the behavior of the world” or that mathematics is
more about the study of patterns and relationship than it is about number and calculation.
  Research that requires the student to think in different and deeper ways can help the
understand and remember important ideas because the information they are grapping with
embedded in a meaningful context.
 Research can teach the learners on how to make use of the source of information that available
in their local community.
 Research can be effective way of getting the parents involve in their child education. This start
with simple things such as having the students interview their parents on a designed and then
sharing the data so that the class can analyze the pooled data to answer a research question .
 Research provides the teacher with an opportunity to stand back and observe the learners
analyze the way in which they interact with one another, and to reflect on their learnings style.
With this new knowledge, the teacher primary role should be help the students learn how to
think, rather than teaching them how to remember.
 Research project provide an ideal opportunity for you to help the learners develop their
computing skill and their familiarity with modern technologies such as the internet in turn these
technologies provides very useful tools to assist the learners with their research.

Student research is not always appropriate in all occasion there are some limitation to this strategy. The
table below shows the advantages and limitation of student research as a teaching strategy.

Use student research if: Do not use student research if:

 The outcomes you want the students to  The student lack the basic skill to work
achieve are readily related to issue independently or in small groups
beyond the classroom
 The learners have sufficiently high prior  The students have very poor literacy skill
knowledge to guide their own learning
 The students are self-motivated and can  The students do not have access to the
learn with minimal assistance. equipment or information they need to
produce worthwhile data from their
research
 You want to encourage the students to  You cannot allow the students sufficient
take a deep approach to learning time to complete the research task
 You want the students to learn how to
enjoy leaning.
 You want to encourage the students to
be independent learners
 You want learning to be driven by the
students curiosity

How to use research as a teaching strategy?

Research is very much a students-centered approach to learning, but it is not something

that you should expect your student to do totally independently. It will not be sufficient to
simply give the students a research question and leave them to their own device to find the
answer instead you will have to plan each phase of the research carefully and prepare your
students by making sure that they have all the prerequisite skills or that the research project
 is structured in such a way that the students will develop these skill as they work through
the research.
You have to plan carefully for each of these things. You might proceed as follows:
 Decide exactly what you want the students to learn. You should have clear learning outcomes.
 Develop suitable research question ( or a set of question ) that will be the students research
activities and that will help them achieve the desired learning outcomes.
 Identify what prior knowledge and skill the students will need in order to conduct their research
if necessary teach that prior knowledge. This may involve teaching for research ( developing the
students understanding of the subject) and teaching about research ( developing the students
understanding of how to do research).
 Identify a number of strategies that the students might use if they are to be successful in their
research and be prepared to recognize and encourage the students who use these approaches
 Plan the lesson in which you will introduce the student to the research exercise. Decide how you
will explain what you want the students to learn and what you expect from them during their
research
 Plan how you will monitor the students progress this should involve at least being able to
identify the parts of research exercise that are likely to cause the most difficulties for the
students decide what these difficulties might be and develop some strategies for minimizing
these difficulties
 Make sure that you have arrange for the student to get appropriate access to equipment,
documents, or people so that they can gather the data necessary for their research
 Plan how you will assess what the students learn from the research
 Plan how you will evaluate the research activity

It is also important that you prepare the students for their research you can consider these guidelines

 Explain carefully to the students why you are using this teaching strategy and what/how you
expect they will learn from it
 Spell out your expectation and check that the students understand such things as when they will
be doing the research how much time it will take what sort of things they will be doing what
type of product you expect them to produce, how you will assess their learning whether you
expect them to work in teams or individually and what you will be doing while they are engaged
in their research
 Ensure that the students have the necessary communication and social skills to work effectively
together

Get the students enthusiastic about the prospect of doing something worthwhile. As much as
possible, involve the students in planning process so that they feel that they are doing something
they want to do and that they consider meaningful. If possible motivate the by showing them
research that has been done by your previous students or students from other batches in the
campus.

The student will need to work through eight district phases in their research activity. They will have to:

1. Clarify the purpose of the research so that they understand exactly why they are doing the
research and what outcomes they are supposed to achive.
 2. Develop their research question
3. Develop a research strategy
4. Filter, organize, analyze, and evaluate the information or data
5. Locate information or gather data that will be used to answer the research question
6. Develop an answer to the research question
7. Report the result of their research question in an appropriate way
8. Evaluate the effectiveness of their research strategies, including the way their result were
presented so that they are better prepared for their next research project

To help the students do these things you will have to provide a carefully structured learning
environment particularly if your students have not had much experience with this learning strategy. The
minimum guidance you will need to give the students if you want them to learn through research is:

 A well defined and realistic issue or problem to be investigate

 Assistance with developing and/or refining their research question
 Suggestion about how they might get started. Teach them how to delegate task for each
member of the group
 Assistance with developing a research plan
 A clear timeframe for the research. Set deadlines by which key parts of the research must be
completed
 Some self-checking guidelines so that they can monitor their progress
 Guidelines on data gathering and data analysis
 Suggestion about the presentation of the research findings. Insist that the students develop
their research report as they gather information and interpret it, rather than leaving it all until
the research is complete
 Guidelines about participation and collaboration so that they can effectively exchange
information through reading, writing, speaking, and/or listening
 Details like a rubric to show the students how their learning will be assessed

Structuring the learning experience for students

When using students research as a teaching strategy you will need to give your students clear
information about what they are required to do and what your expectation are. If the students are
working in groups you could give them a handouts similar to the following:

Guidelines for Student Research

Learning outcome: After completing this research project, each member of your team should be able to

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The research question that you will be trying to answer is:

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

You will be working in groups of _________________ for the next __________________periods days
weeks. Use theb following guidelines to help you work through your research project.

1. Discuss the research question and make sure that everyone in your group understands what the
research question means.
2. Make a list of the things that you think you will need to find out or do in order to answer the
research question. Try to express these ideas as questions.
3. Arrange the list in order from the first thing you will do to the last thing you will do. Make a brief
note about how, where, and when you will do each oh the things on your list. Don’t forget that
different members of your group can be working on different parts of the problem at the same
time.
4. Decide which members of the group will be responsible for each item on your list.
5. Decide how you will help each member of your team learn about the issues that other team
members are investigating. And how you will help each team member achieve the learning
outcomes.
6. Decide how you will present the results of your research.
7. Start gathering the information you need to answer the question.
8. Share the information that you gather with other members of your group so that everyone’s
satisfied that the information you have gathered is what the group needs.
9. Keep a simple record to show the progress your group has made.
10. Organize and for analyze the information you gather so that you can answer the research
question.
11. Prepare a report of the results of your research.
12. Evaluate the research efforts of your group by considering how well you were able to answer
the research question and how well the group worked as a team. Make a list of the things that
you would do differently next time you are working on a research project.

I. Sample lesson plan

Topic : forces that affect changes on the earth surface

a. Earthquakes
b. Volcanic eruption
Grade level: Grade 6
Learning Competencies
The learning should be able to:
1. Describe the changes on the earth surface as a result of earthquake and volcanic eruption and
2. Enumerate what to do before, during and after earthquake and volcanic eruption
Engage
Give trivia ( e,g the Big one ) research updates or news about recent earthquake or volcanic eruption in
the country.
Explore
Discuss the entire chosen research article about an earthquake or volcanic eruption, explain the parts of
the research and their contents. Ask for the students views and comments.
Explain
Provide more example and explanation of interesting and significant research articles especially in
physics. Motivate and encourage them that they can also do research and they can contribute to the
scientific community. Remind them that their age level is not a hindrance for research, but they can also
prepare simple research that can be significant and used as future reference of other researchers.
Elaborate
Divide the class in group of three or four. Using the guidelines presented previously. Let each group
develop a simple research related to their previous lessons in physics or any topic of their internet. Remind
them that their research questions should be original and relevant to the society.
Evaluate
Devote one or two meetings for the presentation of research output. Invite panel members to help you
judge their research. Use a rubric to evaluate their presentation skills.