“That's it! That's how I'll prove to my mom that I can listen to the radio while I do my homework!” The excitement in Sasha's voice was as clear as the confusion on her teacher's face. The 6th grade class had just finished an experiment using visualization to remember lists of words, and Sasha had seen how to use this method to support a theory of personal interest.
In conducting her experiment, Sasha demonstrated many of the qualities of authentic researchers: working on a problem of personal interest for which there is no known answer, gathering and analyzing raw data, and reporting results to have an impact on a real-world audience. How different this is from the usual classroom view of research!
Mention research in a typical classroom, and after the groans subside the questions begin: “How long does the paper have to be?” “How many sources do we need?” “Do we have to do an outline first?” Written reports on teacher-determined topics using secondary sources not only generate negative attitudes from students but also present an unrealistic view of research in the real world. While this kind of research has a place, to present it as the only form of research does students a disservice.
People in many walks of life do research. In addition to the familiar scientists and medical researchers, business people study potential markets, writers research characters and settings, mental health professionals construct case studies, teachers try different curricular and instructional approaches to help students learn ... the list is endless!
Students as Authentic Researchers
One day, 11-year-old Amy entered my classroom and said that her mom was acting silly. When I asked why, she replied that her mom had put gelatin and water on the house plants. When I asked how the plants looked, she said fine. I wondered aloud if maybe her mom had stumbled onto something. One option was designing an experiment.
On her own, Amy had found a problem of interest to her: the first step in research. What she needed was skill in the methods to pursue it. Together we expressed her interest in the form of a researchable question: Do rye seeds grow better with plain water, sugar water, salt water, gelatin and water, or no water? Then we decided on experimental research as the most appropriate design.
Subsequently, Amy learned about treatment and control groups, how to mix solutions and measure using a graduated cylinder, and how to decide on outcome variables and a method for recording data. She also enlisted a “research assistant” to help her measure and record information twice weekly. After analyzing and interpreting her data, she shared her results with the real-world audience she intended to persuade—her mom—via an informal oral report.
While the particular problem on which Amy worked may not be terribly significant, the process she went through and the feelings she gained about herself and the research process are. Amy came to see herself as someone who could find out about things she was interested in and make a difference in the world.
Students of all ages have shared this process. A group of 6th graders wrote letters to upper elementary teachers seeking information from incoming students about the transition to middle school. They then designed and analyzed a survey of current 6th grade students to see whether prospective students' fears were justified. They presented their results to new students in newsletter format, including interviews with teachers and the principal.
Younger students have observed peers to gather information on use of playground equipment. Older students have conducted surveys about fears of nuclear war among children in their community, studies to document pollution in a neighboring stream, and interviews to determine conditions under which classmates would cheat.
Identifying a Topic
How can you help your students do authentic research? Most students don't spontaneously come up with well-articulated research questions. But many, like Amy, make offhand comments that have research possibilities. If teachers can make students aware of those possibilities, it is more likely that investigations will take place.
Other ways to help students “find” problems is to brainstorm potential research ideas connected to interests they already have. For example, students interested in juggling could invent and field-test juggling objects that would be easy for beginners to handle. In addition, teachers could discuss research possibilities connected with field trips, speakers, or other curriculum and enrichment activities. Would using the strategies of lobbyists enhance students' success in influencing the principal's decisions? What are the favorite books read by 7th grade students?
Teaching students about research methods can also lead to interesting ideas. Sasha saw that the strategy of experimental design taught in her class could be used to address the conflict with her mother about homework. Other students may need help seeing connections between research methods and their own interests. After teaching students about interview techniques, teachers should brainstorm possible research questions related to known student interests. Concerns about “no pass, no play” policies, for example, could lead to interviews with students and coaches about the impact of such policies on classmates' study habits and team participation. An interest in a musical career could be investigated through interviews with local musicians as well as published interviews with celebrities.
Once students have identified a topic, teachers need to assist with problem focusing. In this step, researchers word their interests in the form of a question without a preset answer, one that can be answered by gathering data. Webbing is a useful way to identify subtopics and variables, and interesting questions may be generated by considering the relationships among variables in the web.
The question needs to be phrased precisely enough that it is clear what data need to be gathered. Starting with “Are boys better than girls?”, my 6th graders refined the question to, “Are 6th grade boys in our middle school better in social studies, as measured by teacher opinion, than 6th grade girls?” Following this step, students generate an hypothesis about the results of the research.
Gathering and Interpreting Data
At this point, researchers decide which type of design would best answer their question. Familiarity with several approaches is important not only to carry out the chosen design, but also to identify a wider variety of research possibilities. Students of all ages can do descriptive, historical, experimental, correlational, and developmental research, while case, field, causal, and comparative research might be more successful with older students.
In contrast to traditional library research using secondary sources (note-taking, outlining, and bibliography skills), authentic research is more likely to use data-gathering techniques of primary research: observation, surveys, interviews, and document analysis. Students also need to learn a variety of ways to select samples, since they often can't gather data from all people referred to in the research question. While it is much less disruptive to send students to survey the class of the teacher down the hall, that sample is likely to be unrepresentative of the larger population of interest.
Once the data have been gathered, it's time for analysis and interpretation. Quantitative methods (involving data that are counted and measured) can span a wide range of complexity, from simple descriptive analysis using graphs and charts through inferential statistics such as t-tests and correlations. While the latter may appear overwhelming to some adults, students in upper elementary and middle grades have successfully used these methods of analysis. Qualitative analysis (involving discovery of themes within data) is probably best saved for older students.
Sharing Research Findings
The final step involves sharing results with authentic audiences using appropriate communication vehicles. In the real world, much of the motivation for researchers comes from having a desired impact on an authentic audience. Medical researchers want to assist health professionals, legislators want to make better decisions, coaches want to improve athletes' performance, and so on. This excitement and power is missing for students if their only audience is the teacher or fellow classmates.
When sharing results with an authentic audience who will benefit from the results, it is also important to communicate in an effective form. Students analyzing pollution in the local stream would be well advised to have charts with precise data to present to a pollution control agency, while they might be more effective influencing neighbors with photographs. This means we need to go beyond the formal written report, teaching students to communicate through written, oral, and visual means: slide shows, oral presentations, graphics, skits, photographs, videos, filmstrips, debates, and others.
Finally, authentic research teaches students, first, that their questions and interests matter. Second, it demonstrates that they have the skill and ability to pursue those interests in a high-quality way. Third, conducting real research shows young people that their work has value in the real world.
By the way, Sasha, whom you met earlier, did indeed design and carry out an experiment in which her classmates worked math problems in silence, with quiet music, and with loud music. To her dismay, the students had better results doing math when it was quiet.
