Thursday, 22 October 2015
Today was the first day of research on the Holocaust and World War II. I once loathed the idea of teaching research. I grew from loathing the idea to fearing the process. Now I proceed with caution and great reflection. There is no easy way to explain to students that they must do ALL of the work. Research assumes there is no direct answer to a question one may have; that is why one has to engage in research. Depending on student's intellectual maturity, it is difficult for them to grasp the notion that they are creating their own learning objectives and lessons and, in fact, are teaching themselves. What they learn from their research must then be demonstrated in structured written form.
Wow! This is exactly why research once frightened me. The above notions are daunting. Yet I think a better posture to take is one of acceptance of uncertainty. Research has the potential to travel in a plethora of different directions depending on the researchers' questions and path of inquiry. There is no clear way to harness this; there is, however, a way to guide the researcher on her journey. The young researcher can learn from the process of research itself. Here's a bit of what they can learn from the process.
- Summarizing in my own words is a lot harder than just copying directly what I've read
- There exists lots of information on stuff that I don't need and in which I am not interested
- Google does not have an answer for everything
- Wikipedia is demonic and must be avoided at all costs, unless you're absolutely stuck
- School databases SUCK!
- MLA formatting can never be mastered
In addition to these pearls of wisdom, the researcher, hopefully, will learn about their topic.
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