Dear David
Thank you for responding to my recent call to the ICTRN list. I have just been
enjoying (and learning from) your website - I used to be a teacher of Spainish
and French to A level and I have a feeling I have read your thoughtful and
helpful postings on the CiLT list too? May I pass your site details to my MFL
colleagues now? Though I no longer teach MFL as my hearing is deteriorating I
have colleagues 'in the field' who I know will value your writings I am doing.
re. I'm also very concerned with the applicability and
> relevance of educational research to classroom practice.
Me too, especially when I read some of the postings on this practitioner list.
re. I plead with the
> teacher to post their classroom experiences with the child so that the
> whole teaching profession can benefit. Almost nobody answers my plea and
> teachers (and therefore learners) are the losers.
May I offer space on my own website if any teachers you know wish to write in?
re. The problem isn't with validity or rigour. It's getting people started in
> the first place with down-to-earth teacher-led classroom-based action
> research that's going to inform our practice. It's also about finding a
> medium where such research might be published.
Though I think there is an issue of rigour and validity if a project is to be
termed 'research' to be addressed right from the outset, I completely agree in
classroom teaching the main challenge is to getting people started as you say.
Two days ago I was invited to go the Isle of Wight by a Creative Partnerships
coordinator who came to my 1st action research session at Bitterne Park School
(creative-partnerships.com fund me to go to Bitterne - details on my website)
She said there is school who wants to start action research but they don't yet
know what it is and they are fightened they'll do it wrong ... what have we
done as a practitioner research community to allay fears and enable the horse
to drive the carriage? I see research mentoring as a way of giving assistance
and I see an insistence that living theory focuses on philosophy as offputting
After all we don't expect a medical scientist to offer insights in philosophy
of science as s/he shares eg insights into curing ocular melanomas - do we..?
Kind regards
Sarah
--
Sarah Fletcher
SL Mentoring and Induction, BSUC
http://www.TeacherResearch.net
Tel. 01225 875875
Quoting David Wilson <[log in to unmask]>:
> >Please do write with your down to earth practical thoughts ........<
>
> I've just joined the forum, having answered the call made in messages on
> the BECTa ICT research forum. I teach French, German and students with
> special educational needs in a mainstream secondary school in the North
> East of England. I've done my share of educational research over the years,
> earning a couple of Masters degrees, presenting at international
> conferences and writing articles in the process, mostly about languages,
> technology and special needs. If you want to know more about "where I'm
> coming from", please visit my website at:
>
> http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/
>
> I'm a teacher who is also an action researcher. I have to be in the special
> educational needs world, which is all about problem-solving, diagnosing
> learning difficulties and experimenting with different approaches to
> include individual learners at risk. I do recognise the importance of
> validity, replicability, rigour and so forth. My academic training has
> drilled such matters into me to the extent that they're virtually second
> nature. However, I'm also very concerned with the applicability and
> relevance of educational research to classroom practice. Every week or so,
> teachers ask for help on special needs forums about new pupils with medical
> conditions. They want to know what impact such difficulties will have on
> the child's educational progress. I search the Web, finding lots of medical
> literature and research explaining the condition and offering prognoses in
> layman's language. I search in vain for educational information and report
> back to the teacher who asked the original question. I plead with the
> teacher to post their classroom experiences with the child so that the
> whole teaching profession can benefit. Almost nobody answers my plea and
> teachers (and therefore learners) are the losers.
>
> The problem isn't with validity or rigour. It's getting people started in
> the first place with down-to-earth teacher-led classroom-based action
> research that's going to inform our practice. It's also about finding a
> medium where such research might be published. Sadly, that's not the kind
> of research I see in the journals I peruse when I pop into my local
> university library. That kind I can admire because it's rigorous,
> evidence-based and statistics-supported. The authors have read the
> literature and are able to quote from the different schools of opinion.
> Sadly, though, such articles are a far cry from the raw, untutored report
> of a teacher who has managed, say, to get through to an autistic child
> after months of patient relationship-building.
>
> Just my two cents' worth.
>
> David Wilson
> Harton Technology College, South Shields
> http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/
>
|