ARMS induction workshop day 2

Day 2.. 

Date: 12 May 2019

The session started sharply at 9.30..

Highlights of the day

1. Reflections and  Q & A

The class was devided into groups and was given a task of reflection.

Mentors from each group discussed and reflected about yesterday's session. One mentor from each group presented in front of the class.

2. Exploratory classroom based action research 

In this session Ravi sir explained many key concepts regarding research using ppt.

This was really helpful for us to understand concepts like research, ELT research, teacher research, action research, exploratory action research. Many doubts were cleared. This was really productive session.

My learning from this session: ( Many points are taken from the ppt used by Ravi sir)

Research: 

Original investigation undertaken in order to gain knowledge and understanding

ELT research: any research whose data or findings relate directly to teaching, learning or assessment of English as foreign, second or additional language

Teacher research: 

Research initiated and carried out by teachers into issues of importance to them in their own work, addressing questions that arise from their practice by gathering data, analysing it, and sharing what they find

Research is something that is ../includes/requires

• It's time consuming work.
• It needs formal training.
• It is knowing and understanding theory.
• It improves own teaching and learning.
• It requires reading lot of books and journals.
• It's writing thesis/desertion.
• It includes collecting data.
• It is knowing how to use statistics and data.
• It's producing results that are relevant to large number of people.

Some key definitions of 'research': 

Research is a process of inquiry which consists 

1.Question, problem or hypothesis

2.Data

3.Data analysis and interpretation of data (Nunan 1992)

Research is the organized systematic search for answers to the questions we ask (Hatch and Lazaraton,1991)

Research is a systematic enquiry made public (Stenhouse,1975)

Types of teacher research

1. Action research
2. Exploratory research/ exploratory practice
3. Exploratory research

Action research

PAOR strategy

• Plan(a change) : plan to explore essues, decide a problem, find solutions
• Act: (implement a change) -Try new ideas, see the change or impact, keep notes

• Observe (Evaluate the change, see the effects with evidences)
• Reflect: interpret on the effects, reflect on the ideas, changes occured during and after the implementation

Why to explore 

Research is always done to explore some specific area where one need to find concrete solution. Investigation or exploration  is the key part of action research.

Before trying new idea or taking some specific action, we need to explore for evidence to understand a problem or to solve a problem

Need to clarify, probe, view alternative before plunging into action.

We should explore to understand baseline situation which can be compared after endline situation.

So knowing status before and after, exploring is very important.

Exploratory research
1. Plan to explore: explore an issue
2. Explore: Gather information as evidence
3. Evaluate: Evaluate or reflect over the data

Exploratory action research:

Use both the strategies ,PAOR and PEE

1. Plan to explore
2. Explore
3. Evaluate

A. Plan 

B. Act

C. Observe 

D. Reflect

What to research/ what to explore

1. Something that worked very well in your classroom and  want to explore more for further (success)
2. Something that didn't work and you would like to explore more about it to improve (problem)
3. Something that you are unsure about in students learning or in your teaching (puzzle)

Effective reflective practitioner:

Be an effective reflective practitioner.

 You must learn  as a teacher researcher to recognise;

1. what works in your classroom,
2. What doesn't work in your classroom
3. And it is very important that learning what does not work is as important as what does work in your classroom.

Key stages in TR (Teacher research)

• Identifying an issue,puzzle or concern
• Planning ways to explore it
• Carrying out the study-think of tools, collect data
• Evaluating/reflecting on the study, gaining insights
• Sharing with others
• Modifying practices as a result
• Observing what other issues/concerns/questions emerge

If you have many concers, use MUSE strategy.

M- manageable

U-urgent

S- significant

E- Engaging

Reflective practice

Developing reflective practice of TRs is one of the main goal of ARMS project.

What is RP ?

• To know how you teach, it makes you an effective teacher
• It provides a record of progress
• It clarifies thinking
• Helps to think what went well, and what didn't go well
• Allows you to participate in your development
• We become conscious 
• We make use of available knowledge
• Avoid past mistakes
• Maximize our own learning opportunities

Evidence

In teacher research evidences play vital role. TRs should keep evidence in order to gain authenticity. Anyone can understand/notice the change or impact with the help of evidences.

Here are some examples of evidences.

1. Reflective writing by students	2. Your own written reflections or notes	3. A critical friend’s notes about your lesson	4. Notes or recording of a focus group interview/discussion	5. Notes or recordings of interviews with individuals
6. Responses to a questionnaire	7. Student’s work or performance on tasks (written or recorded, test scores)	8. Lesson plans, materials and reports	9. Pictures of my class	10.     Recordings of a lesson

(You can find ppt here )

2. Webinar with last year's mentors

Mentors from last year shared their views through zoom meeting.

Renu Dhotre , Sankpal ma'am and others reflected on last year's experience. It was confidence building experience to hear the people on zoom. I got confidence that I can do this!
Some key points to be done over a period of 12 months while mentoring TRs:

Keep time management: 

Plan the activities and follow the timeline, keep documents

Provide support: 

Give support to teacher researchers, though they are not students. Clear their doubts because they have some certain assumptions, certain wrong concepts, need to remove such negative thoughts and ideas.

We should clarify them key concepts.

We have to improve ourselves as a researcher as well as a mentor.

Learn to be patient: 

Doing action research is a lengthy process where one has to plan, explore, act upon issues, observe and evaluate or reflect on the findings.

So we as a mentor need to keep patience. Being patient is also great learning for us.

E-mentoring:

 It's not always possible to meet your teacher researchers face to face. You may talk with them over phone calls or conference calls, conduct zoom webinars, use digital platforms like whatsapp, facebook, twitter, padlet, google doc, blog etc. This is a kind of e-mentoring.

Reflective journal: 

Encourage your TRs to keep reflective journal. Mentors should also note down each and everything.They should keep online reflective journal. They may write notes or reflect in blogs. Keep documents.

No need to visit schools: 

We asked few questions to them like,

Should mentors visit classes of TRs ?

Should mentors observe TRs classrooms?

We got answers that no need to visit classrooms and don't observe lessons or talk to children or give feedback to TRs.

Actually it might create some issues.

Jemima ma'am  also confirmed it.

It was really fruitful meeting with experienced  mentors.

My action points:

1. Keep online reflective journal
2. Reflect regularly and keep notes
3. Keep documents
4. Encourage TRs to reflect and motivate them to keep reflective journal
5. Be patient and follow timeline of each activity
6. Don't visit classrooms
7. Support the teacher researchers through digital platforms like zoom, whatsapp, phonecalls, email,etc.
8. Build rapport with TRs 
9. Read more about action research and exploratory research to strengthen as a mentor 
10. Prepare,plan,execute,follow up, observe and reflect
11. Respect teacher researchers

Exploring classroom issues:

 One classroom video was shown and asked us to find problems.

A teacher was very fluent in English. She started a lesson by introducing aims of the lesson.
I noted down following things:

• Not organised class
• TTT was high
• Tr herself was providing answers
• Sometime, fun in the class
• Tr was very proficient and fluent in English
• Student tried to reflect well
• Lastly, responses taken from students

We sat in group and came up with one issue after a lot of discussion.
Shared our ideas with others.

At the end of the workshop, Jemima ma'am talked about project management. She said,"Good research is a good project management. It is a practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work as a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at a specific time."

Mirrian ma'am dealt with ARMS reporting.
Everybody shared their mentoring plan. Nisar and I prepared a gannt chart and put all the activities monthwise in that chart. Here you can see our plan.

The induction workshop ended with group photo. Really knowledgeable experience for me.
Thanks to Jemima, Mirrian, Santosh, and Ravi for giving us this golden opportunity.