To identify a focus worthy of enquiry
Aim
To identify a focus worthy of enquiry.
Evidence and reflection
The key to this process is to create a focus and to consider what evidence is required in order to make judgements about how to proceed. For example, you may be considering the progress of a particular student in a specific curriculum area, or analysing the effectiveness of a method for encouraging group dialogue. Whatever your focus, the stages you’ll consider are:
1. Which facet of classroom life should be investigated and why?
2. What evidence to collect, and how?
3. How can we analyse, interpret and apply the findings?
This may seem rather formal, but these are all things you’ll be thinking about in any situation where you are evaluating your classroom.
To start with, pick a small issue or dilemma that you might describe as a ‘stone in your shoe’ (Baumfield et al., 2013), that is, something that’s been bothering or challenging you in your practice. See if you can construct a plan for gathering evidence, on which you can then base subsequent action.
Extension
Generally, teachers focus their first classroom-based research and development activity on an individual student or group of students. Is there a whole-class intervention that you would like to trial? How will the evidence base change for such work?
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