Bring life to learning and learning to life

 written by Sadia Wali

Children are naturally inventive so they do not have to be taught to be creative. Perhaps they need guidance; motivation and inspiration to boost up their creativity .Hence Research, design, and evaluation provide the opportunity to young children to enhance their intellectual learning. The concept of research development as fundamental to educational change is not yet accepted by our educational institutions as many schools still believe in traditional teaching methodologies. Let us first understand what educational research is? Education research is a field of inquiry, the systematic generation of new knowledge, development of new ideas and experiment with new techniques. Clear open-minded questions calls for real research and thinking and gives way of evaluating answers. It aims at advancing knowledge of education and learning processes and development to others.

 Teachers’ learning and professional development is not valued very highly in Pakistan. They are merely trained as classroom teachers. The research- based teacher training culture is hardly seen in Pakistani schools.  Research culture has made its way into higher educational institutes, but not in schools. School heads and Principals just expect teachers to teach their students not to lead them. Teachers are required to teach the syllabus prescribed by school. They are not encouraged to experiment with new innovative approaches of teaching. If anyone who shares a new idea from a book or design creative activities for students he is criticized. In such schools, positive views of professional learning are countercultural. Due to negative and unsupportive attitude of the school management, teachers do not bother to take interest in research and are compelled to use traditional teaching methods.  Thus, negative teaching culture has seriously impaired learning skills of teachers.

To respond to these challenges, many educationists have confusion and constraints in their minds how can they make school research oriented?  What goals and strategies to be adopted to create research learning environment in the schools?

Today, mostly schools are using research culture in their schools however they are not aware that their teaching methodologies are based on research. The teaching strategy used in classrooms is action research strategy. Action research involves three forms of research, Exploratory research, Evaluative and Experimental research. The teacher uses research element in developing the curriculum, content and activities. To make the classroom climate interactive, teacher uses teaching methods include group discussion, individual presentation, searching information from library and internet and creative writing tasks. The research projects introduced in classroom helps to explore student learning strategy and also strengthen student-teacher relationship.

 To promote teacher as a researcher and a proactive learner, work place learning i.e. school is considered as essential element in enhancing the professional development of teachers. The work place must create continuous learning opportunities for teachers and encourage them to reflect and experiment with the new ideas or new skills in classroom practice. Many teachers believe that they learn most effectively from the judgment and perception of their students in the classroom. The important source of learning for teachers is co-operative learning in which teachers collaborate their new ideas and modern teaching methods with their colleagues.

 Some schools are following Observation and assessment approach which is also beneficial for enhancing teacher professional development. This includes peer coaching and teacher evaluation which encourage teachers to improve their professional competencies. The teacher as a person and learner has to develop skills, qualities and attitudes such as commitment, confidence and flexibility, passion for learning, analytic and conceptual thinking to enhance his professional skills.

The unifying purpose of stimulating education research in children is to give them an inspiring vision. The curriculum, modes of instruction, assessments and learning opportunities should be clearly linked with natural environment, and developed to cater the needs and interests of the students. The first hand experience in a child’s education comes from nature. Dienes (1969) suggests that children need to build or construct their own concepts from within rather than having those concepts imposed upon them. This means that children at very young age are inquisitive about their surroundings and have a desire to explore them. It is the responsibility of teachers to let children explore, think and question. The questions formed in mind enhance learning and intellectual capabilities of young children.

 The present scenario implies that change of culture in schools empowers teachers, students and communities to collectively work for a change. Research and development has great significance in shaping learning communities. The first step to raise awareness among teachers and parents regarding bringing a meaningful change in our education system is the collective acceptance of rethinking schooling. Workshops, seminar and other training sessions provide a platform to teachers and educationists to collectively think about redefining their goals and objectives. Having same vision in mind, an educational institution organized   a seminar which focused on enhancing research culture in schools. The guest speakers in the seminar talked about the significance of research in teaching and learning and ponder over various reasons which are causing hindrance in increasing research skills among teachers and students.

 The focal point of the seminar was to emphasize a radical change in education system. The change has been centered on the need for schools to create an environment which is conducive to promoting research skills in teachers and students. We need to provide the learners with a fundamental precept of Islamic education integrated with Islamic tarbiyah. An eminent Muslim political thinker Al-Mauwardi in his book entitled “ The leadership and Politics” writes that the essential characteristic  for a Muslim educator is to have knowledge, Perception, Intellect, Intuition and Revelation which enhances research skills in teachers and students. Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah  said: "To gain knowledge and research in children an educator should encourage children to be creative and inquisitive and ask questions. Children should remain quiet and listen attentively and understand well. And lastly act upon the knowledge being gained.

The seminar outlined the fact there is a general consensus that schools need to adopt research teaching approaches but this process of change is still a big challenge for various schools who still believe in unreflective and conventional teaching methods. Radical change in education is impossible unless education leaders critically analyses and understand the goals and objectives of research in educational development. Research element reveals that transmission-of-knowledge, values and beliefs into classroom practices offers multiple opportunities for students and teachers to improve their effectiveness and efficiency.

The writer is a research fellow at ERDC.