"Once you have learned how to ask relevant and appropriate questions, you have learned how to learnand no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know."
When looking at the skills behind the research process, we chose to ignore methodology in favor of skills. What do you need to know in order to conduct efficient, thorough, and relevant research? What are those skills you will need as you move out of school and onto college or the workplace? Our summary produced these six skills:
Inquiry:We recognize the need to ask more of students today because of the ease with which information is transferred between sources. Digital technology has changed how students can obtain answers to knowledge-based questions. We'll ask that you formulate research questions before beginning and throughout research process to sustain a productive search for information.
Information Retrieval: It is essential that students understand how to search for information efficiently and effectively, and to sort that information into comprehensible categories.
Evaluation of Validity:Can our students interrogate their sources? They should be alble to evaluate the sources of information for reliability and validity.
Synthesis of Information:Information will come in many forms and from many sources; can students synthesize information from these multiple sources into a meaningful work that answers their essential questions behind the research?
Attribution of Sources:As stated in prior versions of this guide: "the research paper may contain some information from the writer's own knowledge...but...the information will come from a wide variety of sources." Students will need to prove the the world at large how they obtained their information so that the public, too, can deem it credible.
Publication: Most of what students write in school has a limited audience. What if that were changed? What if they were writing for a larger audience? One of the most important skills our students will leave school with is the ability to write in multiple styles and for multiple audiences.
Additionally, the staging of these skills across both skill and grade levels is important; students need to demonstrate mastery of these skills as they mature. We will be looking at the research project in four stages:
Controlled: teacher chooses the topic and identifies materials the students will use to address the questions. The outcome is also predetermined by the teacher.
Guided: students have more flexibility in choosing their resources and activities but are expected to hand in a product that is prescribed by the teacher (i.e. paper, presentation, report)
Modeled: students have flexibility in terms of topic selection, process, and product. Teachers and students work side-by-side in creating an engaging product.
Free: students work independently to answer questions they deem essential, look at global issues, and choose their own methods for research and presentation (Callison, 2006).
To meet these needs, we've adopted an approach that builds on our rich history within the English department and adds elements of digital literacy, organization, and publication. To encompass all that we would like you to understand. This is known as The Research Cycle. It consists of the following elements:
Questioning: We will emphasize the process of generating questions at teach stage of the Cycle. Questions and inquiry are what drive student research; you must be able to understand the problem you are trying to solve, brainstorm, and think laterally.
Planning: At this stage, students will prioritize their searching strategies and identify the key words they will use to search for information surrounding their initial questions. They will determine where the best place to find information is and what skills they will need to find it.
Gathering: Students will begin pulling information from resources as outlined in the planning stage. Skills associated with this step in the process are those of information storage. Methods for teaching that will vary from the traditional notecard system to use of electronic means to track information.
Sorting and Sifting: Once information is gathered, students must deal with how to determine relevance and validity. In the sorting and sifting stage, students will be asked to "cull the harvest" from the resources they have gathered and select the most pertinent for the assorted sections of their research.
Synthesizing: At this stage the students will show how they converted research from various sources and modalities into a complete product. If we think of the process of research as solving a problem or completing a puzzle, it is at this stage that the students should truly begin seeing the pieces form a coherent picture.
Evaluating: What more research is needed at this stage? The students can think of this as the editing and proofreading stage of research, only they are not only looking at the mechanics of the project, but also at how well they were able to answer the driving questions behind their research.
Reporting and Publishing: The final product of the research must match either teacher recommendation (depending on modality) and be representative of both student learning and sound research. At this stage the students will have internalized new learnings regarding both the topic at hand, and their ability to conduct research efficiently.
Postman, Neil, & Weingartner, Charles (1969). Teaching as a Subversive Activity. Delacorte Press.
Callison, Daniel and Preddy, Leslie, (2006). The Blue Book. Libraries Unlimited.
The InfoSavvy Group. (2002). Becoming NetSavvy and InfoSavvy in an Information Age Ian Jukes, Bruce MacDonald.
McKenzie, J (1999, December). The Research Cycle 2000. From Now On, 9, Retrieved September 4, 2008, from http://questioning.org/rcycle.html
A General Overview of the Research Cycle
"Once you have learned how to ask relevant and appropriate questions, you have learned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know."
-Neil Postman and Charles WeingartnerWhen looking at the skills behind the research process, we chose to ignore methodology in favor of skills. What do you need to know in order to conduct efficient, thorough, and relevant research? What are those skills you will need as you move out of school and onto college or the workplace? Our summary produced these six skills:
Additionally, the staging of these skills across both skill and grade levels is important; students need to demonstrate mastery of these skills as they mature. We will be looking at the research project in four stages:
To meet these needs, we've adopted an approach that builds on our rich history within the English department and adds elements of digital literacy, organization, and publication. To encompass all that we would like you to understand. This is known as The Research Cycle. It consists of the following elements: