I recently began undertaking a research project at an Australian university while working in Japan. The project itself is fairly simple and has been designed to be reflective of something that we could all be doing in our regular practice as teachers. The research itself is a form of action research known as practitioner inquiry. This involves the researcher becoming an active participant in the research and an integral part of the process, which differs from traditional methods, with the researcher simply being an observer. This is perfect for teachers as it allows us to enact research in our classrooms without causing significant disruptions to curriculums or school scheduling. It is a very reflective process and has allowed me to assess my teaching methodology and whether the goals and outcomes of my classes are being met.
Practitioner inquiry begins with identifying a problem or issue in the classroom. This could be a challenging area for students, an activity with unsatisfactory results, or behavioural issues. In my case, I focused on helping students with pronunciation and listening, specifically the English /r/ and /l/ sounds. While my research project had a narrow focus, practitioner inquiry is highly adaptable. You could easily expand the topic to address a wide range of issues.
Next, a plan of action needs to be devised to tackle the issue. The action itself involves an intervention into the current practices used in the classroom to improve the situation. In this case, I felt that the current pronunciation and listening practices I was employing were not really tackling the issue. So I wanted to assess whether incorporating songs that target problematic sounds could help. The current curriculum already uses songs as part of warm-ups and vocabulary practice for each new unit of the textbook. Hence, the students are already familiar with their use, and it will not be an intrusive intervention or require large amounts of time to be diverted. Over two months, I plan to incorporate songs that target the usage of English /r/ and /l/ to assess whether any effects can be detected at all.
This leads into the observation phase, which involves observing the results through the data collected during the action phase above and analysing them. Lastly, and most importantly, is the reflection phase. This involves reflecting on the entire process, the results, final interpretations, and whether you will incorporate any new ideas into your teaching or whether you have thought of new ideas or areas that you can further research going forward. This process of reflection is something we are all familiar with as teachers, but I must admit that personally, I was fairly haphazard with this in the past. Going through the entire process systematically will allow me to be reflective in my practice far more easily in the future and is something I intend to keep doing for my professional development, regardless of whether it is tied to external study.
By doing research in our classrooms, we can enact research that actually leads to tangible outcomes for not just ourselves but our students. Improvements can made in real time, not simply published in a journal or a university textbook. I understand that for all of us, time is an issue, but if you ever find yourself with some free time at work or you think you may have noticed a recurring problem area that isn't being addressed by current practices, then I would urge you to give practitioner inquiry a try. It doesn't need to be as formal as a university project or a publication. It can be something as simple as keeping detailed notes on what things worked well regarding problem areas and what didn't, something I’m sure many of you are already doing. But if, like me, that is something that you haven't done much of in the past, then I would encourage you to take the time to give it a go. The feeling when you can see ideas working for your student's benefit in real-time is one that we can all enjoy as teachers.