Developing Children as Researchers

A Practical Guide to Help Children Conduct Social Research

Chae-Young Kim, Kieron Sheehy, Lucinda Kerawalla

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781317210245
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Encouraging young children to create and carry out their own social research projects can have significant social and educational benefits. In addition, their research may help them to influence local and national policies and practices on issues that matter to them. To support this, Developing Children as Researchers acts as a practical guide to give teachers – and other adults who work with children – a set of structured, easy-to-follow session plans that will help children to become researchers in their own right.

Comprising of ten session plans that have already been tried and tested in schools, this guide will assist you in supporting child researchers while helping you to develop the techniques for teaching research skills effectively. The session plans also ensure that children's views are heard and reflected by encouraging their active curiosity and investigation of issues that they may be concerned about. Forming a step-by-step guide, the ten sessions cover themes such as:

• starting the research process and identifying a research topic;
• the three key principles of research: be sceptical, systematic and ethical;
• choosing research participants and drawing up a research plan;
• the range of data collection and analysis methods;
• reporting the results of, and reflecting upon, a research project.

Children's research has often depended upon the support of academic researchers to provide resources and training. By making the research training and facilitation process more widely accessible, this guide will help remove the psychological and practical hurdles that teachers and others who regularly work with children might feel about helping children's research themselves.

Session 1
What is social research?

■ Session objectives

• ● Start to develop an understanding of what social research is
• ● Understand the kinds of evidence that are used in social research
• ● Start to develop an understanding of the research process

■ Key vocabulary

Social research, research topic, research question, evidence, data, analyse (analysis)

■ Resources

• ● Copies of Activity Sheet 1.1, and Information Sheets 1.1 and 1.2
• ● A large sheet of paper
• ● A whiteboard or some sticky notes
• ● Folders in which the children can store their activity and information sheets throughout their research process

■ Warm-up activity: who is in our group?

If the children in the group are new to one another, this activity is suggested to give them an opportunity to get to know each other. Otherwise, proceed to the next activity.

Group the children into pairs and, for a few minutes, ask them to find out the following information about each other: their names, what they like, what they dislike, what they are good at, what they might be expecting from the research sessions and so on. Then, each pair introduce their partners to the other children in turn.

■ Deciding the ground rules: how will we work together?

This activity is to agree on some rules that will help the children to work alongside one another throughout the research sessions. Instead of doing this activity now, the adult facilitator may decide to do it at the end if, having done the one full session, the children are better able to form ideas about what kinds of behaviours would be helpful. However, if this activity is deemed unnecessary for the relevant group of children, proceed to the next activity.

1. Suggest that they decide on some rules that everybody in the group should observe throughout the sessions. Then ask what they would like to include in these rules and write down their suggestions on sticky notes or the whiteboard (see some examples in Box 1.1).
   The adult facilitator may also make some suggestions. When there are too many suggestions, choose the most important rules by majority voting.
   Box 1.1 The ground rules might include:

   • ● Listen carefully when other people speak
   • ● Respect other people's ideas
   • ● Give reasons when speaking about an idea
   • ● Give reasons when disagreeing with an idea
   • ● Help each other out when needed
2. Put the chosen rules on a large sheet of paper and display it on one side of the room throughout the remaining sessions. When needed, draw the children's attention to these ground rules.

■ What is research?

• 1. Ask the children what they think ‘research’ is. Put examples of their thoughts on sticky notes and display them on a board or write them down on the whiteboard.

Some children may say that research is looking in books or on the Internet to find information or an answer to a question. Strictly speaking, simply locating what other people have made available is not research. However, the adult facilitator may decide to let the children call such activity ‘everyday research’ to differentiate it from ‘research’.

• 2. When the children have run out of answers, explain the definition in Box 1.2. Then discuss with the children how this definition is different from what they initially thought research was.

Box 1.2 Research is a process by which a person:

Finds facts about a topic that no one knows much about, or (an) answer(s) to a question that no one yet knows; or (when the existing facts or answers are not convincing), investigates them anew to see whether different facts or answers can be found.

A ‘process’ involves a series of stages of activities to complete a task.

• 3. Help the children to build an understanding of what research is by asking them the following three questions and discussing their responses.

In discussing these questions, the children may give examples of natural science research instead of social research. The subsequent activities will help them to understand the differences between them.

• ● Can you find all the information that you would like to know in books or on the Internet?
• ● Can you think of a question that no one yet knows the answer to (something that you cannot find in a book or on the Internet)?
  If the children struggle to think of any examples, suggest the following questions and ask what they think about them: ‘what do children in my school think about school assembly?’, ‘do children in my neighbourhood want to go to university, and why or why not?’ and ‘are boys in my school more likely than girls to enjoy reading for fun?’
• ● Can you think of a topic or question about which some people have suggested answers but not all people agree on them?
  If the children struggle to think of any examples, suggest the examples in Box 1.3 and discuss what they think about them.

Box 1.3 Some issues of ongoing debates

Are rich people happier than those who are not rich?

Some research has found that the rich tend to be happier with their lives than those who are less well-off. However, there are continuing debates on the answer to this question.

Why do some children in poor countries go to work instead of going to school?

A number of studies have been carried out on this topic. While many of them suggest that the main reason is because their families are poor, others suggest that children of some poor families still go to school. Studies are still going on regarding possible causes of child labour and also its consequences in different local and country contexts.

■ A possible further discussion topic

Researchers sometimes raise questions over the findings of other researchers or about what we have commonly taken for granted. In many parts of the world, people once thought women were not able to think as rationally as men, so they were not given the right to vote or the right to own property, but now not many people think this is true. Research contributes to humankind's continuous exploration to find ‘what may be true’.

■ Research looks for evidence: understanding evidence in social research in comparison to evidence in natural science research

1. Explain to the children that there are differ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Suggestions for using the session plans: inclusive and exploratory practice
• Session 1 What is social research?
• Session 2 Starting the research process: identifying a research topic
• Session 3 Three key principles: be sceptical, be systematic and be ethical
• Session 4 Data collection method one: questionnaires
• Session 5 Data collection method two: interviews
• Session 6 Further data collection methods: observations and using visual materials
• Session 7 Choosing research participants and drawing up a research plan
• Session 8 Analysing data by counting up
• Session 9 Analysing data by noticing meanings
• Session 10 Reporting and reflecting on social research
• Suggested reading
• Index