LESSONS FROM THE RESEARCH PROJECT Marie Davis

“Students have the opportunity to study an area of interest in depth. They use their creativity and initiative, while developing the research and presentation skills they will need in further study or work”. SACE website

“Students have the opportunity to study an area of interest in depth. They (ESL students) use their creativity and initiative, while developing the research and presentation skills they will need in further study or work”. WOW! Is this all?!

What is the Research Project?  “An opportunity to:  research something you are interested in  decide how you carry out your research  decide on the way you produce your findings  make judgements about how successful you’ve been  Throughout the project, you are in control of your own learning.” SACE website

Components of Research Project  Proposal (included in folio)  Journal (can make up part of folio)  Folio: evidence of research development(max 10 pgs of research, notes)  Discussion (15 min recorded, included in folio)  Outcome  Product  Evaluation Green denotes items for assessment 40% 30% 40%

Issues: reading, writing, thinking and presenting  Getting started  Concept map  Maintaining a journal  Selecting appropriate texts  Devising useful open ended questions for questionnaires/surveys  Annotating texts  Synthesising information for the outcome  Reflecting on the processes  Time management

What to do? In 10 ESL have an investigative task that:  covers one topic where components are explicitly taught through - o teacher modelling o joint construction using a Smartboard, PowerPoint, etc

Getting started/concept map Why an issue?  Setting a focus question  Change of topics: from one subject focus to completely different subject  Cost  Availability of resources

Using the Teaching & Learning Cycle:  Examine completed investigative tasks  What needed to happen along the way for these to be completed? List  What skills and strategies are involved? List  What will we be doing as a class?  how, when, where and why – about the topic  Teacher ‘thinks aloud’ the 4Ws & H  Draw up concept map

Journal Why an issue?  Keeping it going – not leaving it for days (weeks?) at a time  What to include – so that it can be used in folio, outcome, product and evaluation

Using the Teaching & Learning Cycle:  Write journal each session– construct together  After a few modelled sessions, students write their own  Language of appraisal: affect, judgement, appreciation  Focus on writing what is learned: what was useful new learning

Selecting texts Why an issue?  Too much to read in a limited time. What is useful?  Many technical/subject specific single words and phrases  Reliable source?

Using the Teaching & Learning Cycle:  Teacher selects texts  Teach scanning and skimming techniques to whole group  jointly construct lists of key words: technical/subject specific  Choosing reliable sources – URLs finishing with org.au, edu.au… et al –but not dismissing other websites either

Skimming strategies Skimming is used to quickly identify the main ideas of a text.  Read first and last paragraphs using headings, summaries and other organizers moving down the page or screen.  Read title, subtitles, subheading, and illustrations.  Read first sentence of each paragraph. Skimming works well to find dates, names, and places and review graphs, tables, and charts.

Scanning strategies Scanning is a technique for searching for key words or ideas. In most cases, you know what you're looking for, so you're concentrating on finding a particular answer.  Determine whether the source will answer questions.  Move eyes quickly down the page or screen seeking specific words and phrases.  Once document is scanned, go back and skim it.  When scanning, look for the author's use of organisers such as numbers, letters, steps, or the words, first, second, or next. Look for words that are bold faced, italics, or in a different font size, style, or colour. Reading off a computer screen has become a growing concern. Research shows that people have more difficulty reading off a computer screen than off paper.

Devising useful open ended questions Why an issue?  First attempts are mainly closed questions  Sometimes do not elicit the information required  Sometimes questions not ethical or safe

Using the Teaching & Learning Cycle:  What are all the aspects of this topic we need to investigate?  Who could help provide this information?  What do these people need to know about me and the purpose of the project to be comfortable in participating (ethical issues)?  Together, construct 6 to 8 questions for an interview (interviewees are usually very busy people!) that will provide as much information as possible.  Repeat for survey.  Devise a variety of question types – written answers, ordinal, likert scale, etc.  Conduct interview with at least 1 person and survey with 10 people.  Collate information in small groups – then whole class.

Annotating texts Why an issue? (less of an issue when text selection is good)  Does not relate to focus question

Using the Teaching & Learning Cycle:  ‘Translating’ the information to suit the focus question  Teacher highlights a piece of relevant information or keywords on text while ‘thinking aloud’.  Work through text, highlighting and writing comments or questions in the margin. Have I read this somewhere else? Is this the opposite to what I’ve heard or read before?  Circle unknown words – infer or find meanings.

Synthesising information Why an issue?  Higher order thinking skill  Little or no experience in synthesising information  Need thinking time

Using the Teaching & Learning Cycle:  Binding conjunctions/connectives joining sentences (cause/effect, time, order, etc  Organising the information from blended primary and secondary sources/data. Which are the bits that say it the best.  Theme/rheme  Active and passive voice  Direct and reported speech, quoting and referencing: said, claimed, scientists believe…, according to scientists, ….

Reflecting on the process  Why an issue?  Need to reflect on how the outcome is reached – not just repeat what has been learnt of the topic.  Investigating the processes involved in the project: the activities undertaken to carry out the research.

Using the Teaching & Learning Cycle:  Discuss how the information was located, collected, analysed and selected – refer to primary and secondary sources and journal entries.  Revisit the language of appraisal  Which sources were the most appropriate to the topic? Why?  Include information from journal.  Were there any ethical or safety considerations? If explicit teaching and scaffolding has occurred throughout the project, the process of reflection is easier.

Time management Why an issue?  Have the whole semester – a long way off

Using the Teaching & Learning Cycle:  By working through the components, students can follow the process when doing the ‘real’ thing.  They will have an understanding of all the bits that make up the whole.  Regular drafting is happening – so constant feedback.