Introduction
One of my major concerns is helping my students improve at research: facile as it seems, they need to be able to not only find and copy/paste information: they need to be able to filter and apply information to synthesise their own work.
I have tried to engage students with research work in various ways:
- I gave a list of assessment criteria: although these were very widely-defined, I think they helped students guage the level of work needed.
- I gave some links to start them off: This may get the more reluctant students to start working. Besides, some students tend to associate research with ‘difficult text to read’ and youtube links for instance tended to make the task more approachable.
- I encouraged work in groups
- I allowed to choose the medium they want to present their work in: students got creative some even simulating a radio program within which to present their views. This approach also allowed less academic students to workn to their strengths and worked enthusiastically in class – unfortunately this enthusiasm did not extend to the home and they did not continue their good work after the lesson.
- I asked students to relate their research directly to their own life: when I phrased research questions like “Look at the smart cars currently being produced and briefly outline the level of ‘smart’ you will likely get in your first car?” there was greater interest in the research question but not necessarily better work.
Moving Forward
Far too many students simply did not do this work as it tended to be assigned for homework. When this was assigned as classwork, students made an effort, especially when they were provided with links. However this tended to get students to limit themselves to the provided links. Noticeably students preferred video links to text.
The work that was handed in was generally of good to extremely good level but I need to aim at a higher uptake…
I think that providing assessment criteria is key but I need to further formalise and foreground these in order to help students direct their work and to encourage good practice (e.g. quoting of sources)
[processing ideas]
class4d21st.school.blog 