Understanding Development

UNIT 6 METHODS TO STUDY CHILDREN

Structure
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Objectives
6.3 Researching Classrooms for understanding children
6.4 Meaning and process of classroom research
6.5 Tools of research
6.5.1 Observing learner engagement and experience: Observation as a tool
6.5.2 Interaction and conversations with children
6.5.3 Children’s writing
6.5.4 Child-Profile/ Cumulative Record
6.6 Let us Sum-up
6.6.1 Common ways of understanding children: Naturalistic inquiry
6.6.2 Some Common Problems in Classrooms and implication for research
6.7 Unit-End Exercises
6.8 Answers to Check Your Progress
6.9 Suggested Readings

6.1 INTRODUCTION
In the preceding Unit, we have learnt about why is it important for a teacher to
understand children, how this understanding is inseparable from teacher’s work, and
that children develop at different paces and come from diverse socio-cultural contexts.
In this Unit we would try to make sense of the methods and tools that a teacher may
use as instruments in understanding the learners better. As we progress through this
Unit, it will be worthwhile to actually try to use some of the tools presented herein. It
will also be important to note that every teacher may develop own tools and ways of
understanding her classroom and learners better.

6.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this Unit, we shall be able to:
● Understand the meaning of research in classroom
● Understand relevance of research in relation to teacher’s work and understanding
children
● Understand role of teacher as a researcher
● Familiarize ourselves with some tools for research
● Apply some of the tools for understanding children in classroom

18
 Methods to
6.3 RESEARCHING CLASSROOMS FOR Study Children
UNDERSTANDING CHILDREN
Let us begin by an example:

Vinod Kumar has recently been appointed as a teacher in a government school in village
Lakhipur. He has been assigned to teach in class 3; this is his first day at school. He enters
the classroom and finds that there are about 50 children in the classroom. The first sight of
the classroom reveals that there is a lot of chaos. Some boys, who at first glance appear to
be older are creating a lot of noise in the farther end of the classroom. Few girls who again
appear somewhat older are sitting huddled in a corner talking amongst themselves in
whispers, some of them even have sindoor in their hair. There are some extremely frail
looking, younger children who have made a ball out paper which they are throwing at each
other. And there are some more children who are looking totally lost and bewildered.
He also noticed some were dressed in clean clothes while others were not, some of them had
barely any clothes on. Some faces were happy and bright while some appeared dull and
listless, some were with friends and some alone.
Vinod Kumar is equally bewildered as he had expected a class where children more or less
looked alike in terms of height and behavior and who were all seating quietly for their
teacher!

If you were Vinod Kumar, what would you do? In long-run how do you think you
would be able to develop a classroom where all children can learn together? A logical
answer would be that as a teacher one would have to know the learners for being able
to relate to them and learn from them. However, it is difficult to think about what
should one know, and how to go about knowing it? These are the questions that
research enables you to answer.
It is usually very difficult to imagine research as a part of teachers work. Traditionally,
in schools and classrooms teachers assume the responsibility of only transacting their
teaching subject and evaluating the learners, along with other administrative work that
supports these processes. However, despite rarely being given adequate space in
regular work of teacher, research offers a lot of potential in enabling a teacher to
work better. Research could enable a teacher to understand learners better, to
comprehensively think about classrooms as social spaces, to identify issues in teaching-
learning, address these issues, and in dealing with many daily or peculiar classroom
problems and situations. Much more than anything research helps in strengthening a
teacher’s relationship with her learners and in thinking of ways that would meet the
learning needs, issues, challenges and opportunities in a classroom context better.
Most of the theories you know and read about in your texts are developed through
research. It is worth noting that when someone says that something (an idea, a statement,
a finding, etc.) is based on research we tend to find it more reliable – may be because
we believe that it would be more ‘scientific’ and well examined.
In general, research can be defined as a systematic process of making an inquiry
about an issue that may lead to new findings, solve problems, prove new ideas, or
develop new theories.
It is called systematic because it follows a method which can be justified, validated
and repeated. It is called inquiry because it begins with a central question in mind. For
example, Jean Piaget (whose theory you would study in next Units) developed his
theory of cognitive development with a question in mind – How does thinking develop
as we grow from child to adult? He made an inquiry into this question using the
method of talking to children which he called ‘probing’. Based on the findings of his
inquiry he developed a theory of cognitive development. All researches follow a similar
process, yet there are several types of researches like – experimental research,
ethnographic research, case-study, etc. 19
Understanding Development In this Unit, we will explore how research and some tools of could help in understanding
children in classroom. We will also try to imagine the role of a teacher as a researcher
in the classroom. It would be interesting to note that many thinkers have visualized
research as a central component of teachers’ work. It is even more intriguing to note
that there is a special name for classroom research – Action Research.

6.4 MEANING AND PROCESS OF CLASSROOM

RESEARCH
Recall the case of Vinod Kumar’s first glimpse of the class. The first appearance of
the class has revealed some details that didn’t match his expectations. He is a little
confused about his class it seems. Surely, as we discussed above, that a good way to
learn about the situation would be to begin a process of knowing the children more. As
Vinod Kumar what would you want to know more about these 50 children? Would
there be some information that you would need to plan your teaching more strategically
and effectively?

Check Your Progress

1. Let us try to develop a table that would help us systematize our approach to
getting some useful information. In column 1 list 5 kind of information about
children that would help Vinod Kumar teach and manage his class better. In
column 2 give reasons on how the specific information would help Vinod Kumar
and in column 3 note down how and from where or whom you would get that
information. An example has been given to help you with the process below:
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
Information Reason (Rationale) for Source and Method of
wanting the information collecting Information
Age To know the age variation in School Register, Parents
the group

Would you also want to know about the interests of children, the language they
speak, the subjects they like and dislike, abilities and potentialities? How would you
know about them? Would talking to children, teachers and parents be one good
source of knowing more about these?

The above exercise must have helped you understand that there are a number of
things that you want to know about the children in your class, so that you can help
understand the children better and structure your everyday interactions according to
their learning needs. You also realized there are a number of ways in which you can
get information about children; it seems you already know some of the methods!
What you have read above resembles a beginning of a research; a research which is
very contextual to the classroom that could be called Action research. Classroom
research, or Action research, is also one form of research. As the name suggests, it is
specific to the classroom. It is called action research because it usually denote research
in action, that is, research by the teacher while performing her work. More often than
not, it is conducted by teachers in order to reflect upon and bring improvement in her/
his classroom or school, and is thus also called teacher research. As all other forms of
research it is a systematic, documented inquiry into one aspect related to teaching,
learning or other classroom processes in a specific learning space. The purpose of
such research is to gain understanding of one particular aspect better and to use that
knowledge to make classrooms/school better. Let us try to further see an example of
a problem and begin to think about this form of research.
20
Points to Ponder Methods to
Study Children
After collecting information from different sources Vinod Kumar now understands children
in the class on some aspects. His class now looks something like this: Total number of
children: 50
Age Group (years) Boys Girls Observations
12 plus 5 6 The 6 girls and 5 boys had
dropped out and have now
re-enrolled.
10-11 10 8 Many of children in this group
had been enrolled later then
the age 6.
8-9 15 6
Vinod Kumar has a difficult task on hand, there are a three activities for which he has to make
groups of these 50 children. These three activities include the following :
1) A sports event that is going to have a running race and a series of kabbadi matches
in three levels young players, junior players and senior players
2) A musical drama
3) For teaching the concept of fractions.
Help Vinod Kumar make the three groups, give reasons for making groups. Do you think this
could be a beginning point of a classroom research? How do you think this research can be
designed?

As we have read that research is a systematic process, it is obvious that it follows a

sequential process or a design. Like any other research, action research also follows
the following sequence of steps:

I. Formulating a research question:

A research question is a specific issue that the teacher wants to inquire into. As
teachers all of us generally have questions in our minds that emerge from what we
observe in the classroom/school. For example a teacher may have following questions
in mind:
● Why do learners absent from my classroom?
● Why is it that learners appear to be less responsive in my classroom? Why are
they silent despite encouragement to speak?
● Why is there a stark difference between girls and boys performance in my subject?
● Which method of teaching-learning – story telling or activity – would make
classroom experience more enjoyable for learners while I teach history to children?
● How should I plan seating arrangement in the classroom such that my algebra
activity works best and children learn and enjoy the most?
● Why don’t children do the homework I give?
The central question can be further broken-up into sub-questions that make inquiry
easy. For example the last question can be broken-up as follows: Do all children don’t
do homework? Those who do it, why do they do it? In what subject areas is the
problem more severe? Why is it so? Do children do not do all kind of homework or is
it some special kind of problems that they do not attempt? How is it related to with the
way I teach? etc.

21
Understanding Development
Check Your Progress
2.a. What is Vinod’s research question? Formulate the sub-questions that could
help him find answers to his major question.
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
If we carefully analyse the above questions, it would be realized not only do these
questions have a close connection with everyday classroom issues and teaching
and learning, they are also an attempt to understand children in the classroom. The
objective is to make classrooms better place for children.
b. Like the case of Vinod Kumar, can you think of a research problem that you
would want to make sense of in your own classroom?
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
c. Why do you think it is important to inquire into this question?
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
d. Would an inquiry into this question will help you understand children in your
classroom better? How?
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................

If you don’t have a question in mind, it would be good to think of a problem that you
usually or peculiarly face in your classroom and formulate a question around it. As you
choose a question, be sure that it is not too general or too big to be answered given
your resources. It should be specific, answerable, and lead to significant information
on an aspect of the classroom/school.

II. Data collection

The second step is deciding what information is needed in order to answer the question
and how it can be collected. Data can be collected in a number of ways: by keeping a
teacher journal, observations, interviews, conversations and dialogues with children,
construction of story and many more. These are all called tools or instruments for
research. We will learn about some of these in the next section. A combination of tools
may be used or a teacher may need to develop her own instruments also. Like for
example to study the problem of difference in girls and boys performance in his subject
a teacher may develop a questionnaire specific to his classroom practices. Take another
example, in a case where teacher is comparing two teaching methods (say story-
telling and activity), s/he will have to actually plan a story and an activity and teach a
topic with these two different approaches. S/he may use observations as an instrument
– observing students interest, response, initiative; or use questions and discussions –
to make sense of how clear students were conceptually; or take feedback from children
– asking which way did you enjoy the most; or ask a colleague to observe her classroom
and make observations. S/he may also use all of them.
22
 Methods to
Check Your Progress Study Children
3. a. Identify the information you need for your research question.
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
b. Who would be the source of this information?
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
c. What do you think could be the possible ways in which you could gather this
information?
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
d. What other resources do you think you would need?
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................

Case Three:
Vinod Kumar is extremely excited about the upcoming musical drama, he wants his
class to put up a good drama. He is not too worried about winning the competition
but he sees this as a great learning opportunity for his children. There is immense
scope for learning – children will read stories and select a story for the drama,
there is script would be written, masks and props would be designed, music and
singing would be worked out, costumes would be made …… It is hard work but
very exciting. He has also worked out some basic principles for himself, like:
1) He believes that ‘all’ the children in his class should get an opportunity to
participate and do something for the musical drama.
2) He wants to use this opportunity to discover talents and skills that children
have learnt at their home.
3) He wants to involve parents (both mothers and fathers) in developing this
musical drama as he knows that some of them have great skills and this would
be a perfect opportunity for children in the school to learn about the skills that
some of the community members have.
Vinod Kumar knows that the children come from a village where people from
diverse communities, with diverse vocations stay. To do the above Vinod Kumar
plans to first understand the children and their families. As a teacher suggest ways
in which Vinod Kumar can understand his children and their families better, what
information he will gain and how he will use it for the musical drama. You may use
the two matrices below to guide you in the process. An example is given to help you
begin the work.

23
Understanding Development
Understanding Children:
Information you want Method of getting the Possible use in for the
information musical drama
Children who can sing Giving a singing task to Use these children to train
children and observing others
them.
Talking to children and Use them to sing at the
understanding what drama
they can do

Understanding Parents:

Information you want Method of getting the Possible use for the
information musical drama

III. Analysis
This stage helps you to make sense of the data you have collected in your research. It
is a process of reflecting on, organizing and reviewing your data to help you answer
your research question. What have you found out? What insights have you gained
from the research? What does your research show you? If the data collected is
numerical then statistical tools may be applied. However, if the data collected is in the
form of student responses, narratives, observations, story collection, dialogues etc.,
the teacher can interpret the data as per the needs of the question. An example of the
interpretation of such data is presented in Box 1 in the next section. However, it is
important to note that there can be varied ways of analysing data, and every individual
teacher may interpret data in her own way depending on the context in which she
works.

IV. Organizing data and writing

The next step is to organize and write up the research and results. Usually teachers
keep the research results for their own use only, or share with colleagues at schools
who may want to know about it. However, it is possible to publish these results by
writing articles or research papers. It is also possible to make presentations based on
such research at various forums which include – university forums, conferences and
seminars, teachers’ forums, special lectures and the like. It is interesting to note that
University departments of education are taking keen interest in classroom researches
and some departments also provide funding/grants for such researches.

V. Incorporating the results

The final step is for to incorporate the results of the research into classroom practice.
It usually follows the question - what changes will you make? This research will give
you a basis for deciding to retain successful instructional practices, modify those that
are less successful, or introduce new practices to address problem areas. Even if your
24
research doesn’t provide such data which can be incorporated in the classroom, it will
enhance your understanding of children around you and of the classroom situations. Methods to
For example, after the research you may be able to understand why do children absent Study Children
from your classroom, how do they enjoy the most, why don’t they interact, how each
child’s learning interests vary, in which peer group will children learn most, and the
like.

VI. Review
When you have implemented changes, the next stage is to review. The questions
asked include: How successful were the changes? Do you need to take any follow-up
action? Has your research indicated other areas you could explore?
It is important to note that a classroom research is very contextual to the teacher, to
children and the classroom situation. It is very specific to the classroom situation. That
is, even if it is duplicated in another classroom, the results may vary a little, or may be
completely different. Like for example, a teacher comparing story-telling and activity
method in teaching of a History lesson, may find that story-telling method worked
much better than the latter in her classroom, whereas, another teacher (or the same
teacher in a different classroom) may find activity method to work-out better than the
former.
With this plan of research in mind, it will be worthwhile to read a basic book on
research (given in the suggested readings), which would help in expanding the
understanding of classroom research and research in general. The next section would
introduce some tools that would help in collecting the data, step 2 for research. This
section will also throw some light on how to analyse the data thus gathered.

Check Your Progress

4. The table that was developed for Vinod in what ways was the data collected?
Could there be more ways in which the data could be gathered?
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................

6.5 TOOLS FOR RESEARCH

Research tools are basically instruments that help a researcher in collecting data which
is of relevance to him/her. The tools could be standard tools – that is tools which are
pre-designed and tested rigorously – which can be used as it is without modification
by researchers. Intelligence tests are one such tools; such tools can be easily found in
psychology laboratories and also in some libraries. However, these are not which we
would discuss here. We would focus in this section on another form of tools – teacher
made tools – that can be designed by any teacher based on the specific needs of her
classroom. These tools are as follows:
1. Observation: Teacher’s journal/diary, Observation schedule, Anecdotal record
2. Interaction and conversations with children: Dialogues and discussions, interviews
and questionnaires
3. Children’s work and writing
All these tools are not only instruments for researching as a special activity. They can
be used by teachers every day in classrooms to understand learners and to assess
teaching-learning process. It will be worthwhile to note that as a teacher each one of
us would be soon using all these tools for assessing children under the Continuous and
Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) approach that has now become a part of teacher’s
25
Understanding Development responsibility and Children’s right under the Right to Education Act, passed by the
Indian Parliament in 2010. CCE is envisioned as an integral part of teaching-learning
that helps a teacher to understand her/his learners, their learning and development
better. In this sense it is not much diverged from researching to understand children,
and thus uses similar tools.

6.5.1 Observing Learner Engagement and Experience:

Observation as a tool
As teachers we notice many things in our classrooms, about children and in general
every day. We also think about these things. Would you qualify this exercise as
observation? How do you think observation is different from seeing? Can all that we
see feed into our research? Observation, as a tool for research, is qualitatively different
from just seeing something by chance or in natural course of everyday life. A planning
and a focus make observation a tool for research. When a researcher based on the
central research question, plans to record some specific events for a somewhat
specified period of time, s/he is using observation as a tool for research. The observations
may be made in categories or categories may be identified after recording the
observations. There could be several ways of recording observation, or several tools
that enable a teacher to observe systematically and conveniently. Three of these are
as follows:
a. Teacher’s diary or journal: A teacher who is studying a research problem may
not be able to plan observations initially or to record them in a systematic way.
This usually happens when one is beginning to research. In such cases, teacher
researchers maintain a diary or a journal in which they take note of all events
that appear relevant to the issue they are studying.
A teacher studying difference in boys and girls performance in the term exams, takes
note of the differences in boys and girls responsiveness in particular subject and in
particular activities. She takes notes of events where she finds greater gender parity
or distinction. She takes notes of all such observations that she feels would help her
assimilate the gender segregation in performance in examinations. After a specific
period of time, say after a fortnight, she would revisit her diary and identify major
categories that would give her insight into the problem. Like for example she finds that
girls appear to be more responsive in language and in science classes, whereas boys
are better in mathematics classes. In EVS classes both are equally bored. Following
this she may now in a focussed way make observations in the three subject classes.
The teacher will see that gradually she evolves her own pattern and sequence of
recording which will suit her question well.
Teacher journals or diaries are tools that should ideally be maintained by all teachers in
general, where they take note of things they observe in everyday life or things that
matter to them. These diaries should be analysed periodically. This not only enhances
writing and reflective abilities of teacher, but also helps her in identifying issues that
demand inquiry and research.
b. Observation Based Anecdotal Record: An anecdote literally means brief
account of an interesting event. Thus, anecdotal records are short narrations or
factual descriptions of certain incidents and events that a teacher observes in
context of her research interest. Each incident is written shortly after it takes
place. It is also relevant to note that anecdotal records are usually beginning
points of research; they help in identifying an issue of research and formulating a
question. An example of the record is given below.

26
 Methods to
Box 1: Study Children
Observation Based Anecdotal Record
Child’sName: Shabnam Class: V - B
Date: 12 March 2011 Place and time: Classroom, Lunch break
Incident:
During the break when other children were queuing for the mid-day meal Shabnam was
standing near the classroom door and playing with her pen. She was not having the meal.
When I asked her she says, “I have not brought my plate today”. I offered her my box but
she refused to take it. Other peers also came and offered to lend her the cap of their lunch
box. On insisting she agreed to take Neha’s box and ran to take the mid-day meal. However,
the meal was finished by that time. When she returned other children in the class shared
their meal with her.
Teacher’s interpretation:
It seems Shabnam was unable to articulate her problem as she did not try to seek a solution
on her own. She did not express her problem on her own to the teacher or to the peer. In
response to teachers query she informed about the reason for not having lunch, but still did
not try to seek help. She was not very confident about taking help from others. I think I will
have to discuss with her to understand this better. It appeared that when peer group took
initiative to help her, she felt that the issue can be addressed. The sharing of lunch was an
important aspect of solving the problem by the peer group. It shows that the group
understood the problem not as Shabnam’s individual problem, but as an issue of the whole
group.
Teacher: Gunjan
Source: Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation: Improvements in quality through
rational Assessments and evaluation of students in Elementary School. TSG (SSA) 2011.

On carefully reading the interpretation, the questions with which the teacher is analysing
the problem will become evident. These are as follows:
- How Shabnam articulated the problem?
- How did she approach the problem?
- How did she express it?
- Whose help did she take?
- How did she respond to others’ suggestion?
- How was the problem resolved?
- What will the teacher do to understand the situation better?
- What understanding does the teacher draw from the situation about Shabnam?
And about peer group dynamics?
A teacher who takes note of this event may think of a research question relating to
peer-dynamics and children’s social relationships in the classroom. Over a period of
time she can then observe how children in her classroom develop in these aspects.
c. Observation Schedule: Observation schedule is another device that facilitates
observations. It is usually designed by the teacher after initial observations in the
class and having derived specific categories of observations. A sample observation
schedule developed by a teacher to understand children’s engagement in an activity
is given below. With this format a teacher would try to work out a monthly
schedule where during different activities she would observe some selected
children in the beginning, middle, and towards the end of activity. A teacher may
also study each child depending on the class-size and the nature of question
formulated by her.

27
Understanding Development
A Sample Format for Observation Schedule
Observation domain-selected areas
Topic:
Method of facilitating:
When the activity was introduced, the learner:
Expressed excitement
Asked question about the activity
Expressed discontent and requested for an alternative activity
Was quiet
Any Other
Learner tried to understand the activity (before or during it) by:
Asking questions to the teacher
Consulting peers
Reformulating the task in different words and sought confirmation from others
Suggesting ways of working
Comparing with earlier activity
Quietly observing how others ask/suggest
Saying that s/he understood the activity
Was quiet
Any other
What did s/he do after understanding the activity?
Immediately asked for material and begins working
Waited for the material to be distributed
First observed how peers are working
Discussed with peers about how to do it
Worked on prompting by teacher/peers
Did not work and moved around to observe peers
Wanted to quit the activity
Sat quietly
Any other
During the process what questions did s/he ask?
About method of solving
About problem encountered
Informational uncertainties (like clarification of rules, time, steps, etc.)
About usage of material
Content area related
About the solution to the problem
About group dynamics (if it’s a group activity)
Any other
Nature of problem s/he encountered:
Same as that experienced by others
Experienced by a few
Experienced by her only
What was the problem?
How did s/he approach the activity?
Broke the problem into steps
Arranged all material and tried to use it differently (trial and error)
Helped others (sharing material, showing work, responding to others’ queries, etc.)
Took help from others
28
 Methods to
Worked alone
Study Children
Did not help others
Any other
After the activity was completed s/he:
Immediately told the teacher
Examined the solution
Tried-out different ways
Moved around to see peers’ work
Showed the work to peers
Sought suggestions from others
Sat quietly
Any other
(Source: Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation: Improvements in quality through
rational Assessments and Evaluation of Students in Elementary School. TSG (SSA) 2011)
This is only a sample format and teachers usually devise separate formats for varied
kinds of questions they study.

Check Your Progress

5. Do you think that an observation schedule would help you understand children
in your class better? How?
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................

6.5.2 Interactions and conversations with children:

Planned and unplanned conversations with children could be another set of tools that
may be used by a teacher to make an inquiry into her research question. It is relevant
to note that using interaction as a tool with children requires teacher to develop a good
rapport with children, and establish a classroom culture which is democratic,
participatory, and non-threatening. This set of tools may comprise of the following:

Fig. 6.1: An Interactive Teaching-Learning Situation 29

Understanding Development a. Dialogues and discussions: As the name suggests dialogue usually involves
two participants (a teacher and a child or two children), who interact over a
particular issue usually without a plan in mind. Discussions usually involve more
participants who interact with each other around an issue. As teachers we dialogue
and discuss with children every day; these are spontaneous parts of the classroom.
While a teacher plans her research s/he can plan a discussion with a small group
of children around a problem or an issue. S/he may organize it in a way that it is
integrated in her classroom lessons. A teacher may select a topic of dialogue and
situate it in her lesson plan. It involves conversation with a child over an issue in
a participatory and democratic ethos. Usually, dialogue suits a situation when a
teacher is studying an individual child, or when she wants to know about an
individual’s thinking on a particular issue.
A discussion usually involves teacher formulating a case which could trigger and
stimulate a discussion among children. The teacher only acts as a moderator and
gives cues in between when needed. However, a teacher cannot (and ideally should
not) completely control the direction of discussions (or dialogue) with children; the
main purpose is to take note of freer expressions of children on an issue. There are
also situations, where the teacher during the regular course of her classroom comes
across a situation of dialogue and discussion among children which could be of interest
in her research question.

Check Your Progress

6. For the research question that you have formulated, think of one discussion or
dialogue that you can plan.
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
In your classroom, try to organise a discussion or dialogue you have planned.
Describe it either as it is or in your own words.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................

b) Interview and questionnaire

Interview is different from a dialogue and a general conversation as it is usually designed
prior to the event – most of the questions or at least a thematic direction of the questions
is planned in advance. An interview is a face to face conversation between two people
(the interviewer and the interviewee) where research relevant questions asked by the
interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee. Interviews may be formal
(like the one given for a job) or may be informal (like the one you would have seen on
television where an actor is interviewed by a correspondent). Interviews can also be
designed by a teacher-researcher to collect information relevant to the subject of
study. It is usually advisable to conduct an informal interview with a child where s/he
can be free to express in the way s/he wants – otherwise children tend to give responses
that teacher expects them to, or feel being tested. However, in a school situation it is
difficult to conduct an interview, because it requires a longer time to interact with only
one child. Also, even if an interview is planned in an informal mode, it may become
more formal because of the tradition of authority relationship between teacher and
children.

30
A questionnaire is different from the interview in the sense that it is written. It is a Methods to
schedule of questions given to the respondents and they write answers to the questions Study Children
asked. The questions may be of varied kinds – multiple choice questions, one word
questions, and open-ended descriptive questions. A questionnaire is not a preferable
tool in case of elementary school children because of the nature of effort it may
involve. It also creates a ‘test-like’ environment in the class, where children may feel
burdened. However, a careful questionnaire that children enjoy working on may be
designed by the teacher – say, a questionnaire around children’s interests, the games
they play, about their family and friends. The questionnaire must not be long.
A questionnaire may also be used as a feedback tool on an activity or a lesson by a
teacher for data collection after the activity. This can be very useful when a teacher
is testing an activity in her research. An example is given below.

A sample questionnaire to evaluate an activity

Did you enjoy the activity today?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
What did you enjoy the most?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
Do you think it could have been better?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
Would you want to do the activity again?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
Did you enjoy it more than the blackboard lesson? Why?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
How would have you enjoyed even more?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
Whose work did you feel was best in class today?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
31
Understanding Development
What did you like about this work?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
Is there anything about the activity that you want to tell to your teacher? You can
write it below.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................

Check Your Progress

7. You must have seen interviews on television and filled-up questionnaires of
some kind. Can you describe what an interview or questionnaire involve?
Attempt it by doing so in your own words.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................

6.5.3 Children’s writings

Just like observations, children’s written work of varied forms can also become tools
for research by a teacher for understanding children and learning better. In order to
use them in research, the teacher must plan for what written work s/he would use as
a tool. It is very exciting to note that the same written tool can be used for research as
well as assessing children. However, it is important to be careful while using this tool
because of the tradition associated with it. If one talks of ‘written work’ in context of
a traditional classroom one would immediately interpret it as ‘classwork-homework’
where a child reproduces answers to questions, which is corrected by teacher and
given back for preparing for examinations. Similarly, a written assessment is thought
of as a ‘pen-paper test’ used to judge the performance of a student on a particular
content area. Both, the pen and paper test and classwork-homework, are seen as
devices to ‘test’ students or to examine them. Testing and written assessment has
become synonymous to an extent that while talking about the latter as a tool for
research and to understand children it becomes necessary to clarify certain myths.

Myths about written assessment

- It is for testing children
- Questions are to be asked and answers are to be given
- It is to be corrected and marks or grades or ‘good or poor’ have to be given
- It tests content knowledge
- It is prepared by ‘authority’
- It is confidential, students shouldn’t be told about questions in advance
- No ‘cheating’ is allowed, each child works in isolation
- It is time bound
- Every child takes the same questions
- The ‘result’ is to be expressed in terms of pass or fail
32
If one does away with such an image of a written assessment, then written assessment Methods to
can potentially be used as a significant and sensitive tool for research by the teacher. Study Children
Without deviating from her every day classroom teaching-learning, written work of
children as tools can be integrated in lessons and classroom work. Written work of
children can help a teacher collect data about many research questions, like:
- How does a child use language for expression?
- How does a child break a task into smaller steps and attempts it?
- What argument and logic does a child apply?
- How does the child comprehend the problem?
- Where does the child encounter a problem?
- Is there a gap between oral and written expression?
- How does every child vary from another?
For a child learning to write is a challenging task in initial years of schooling as it
requires development of certain complex cognitive and motor skills. Looking at children’s
written work also helps in facilitating this development by understanding areas where
a child is encountering difficulty. It is also worth noting that children can use writing as
a powerful medium of understanding oneself as it helps focus, make sense of what
one was thinking and reformulate it. Some children may enjoy writing more than other
ways of expressing. It will not be wrong to say that if designed keeping the idea of an
active learning environment all children may have a joyful writing experience.
Depending on the research concern, written work that teachers may think of using as
a tool for data collection or understanding children might include:
- Every child choosing what s/he would want to write
- Giving feedback to teacher, peers, and the school
- Writing which activity did s/he enjoy the most
- Completing an unknown story
- Writing a story in a group
- Writing about appealing experiences
- Formulating questions s/he wants to ask someone
- Playing games, solving puzzles, recording
- Diary writing
- Any other ways that teacher feels would give her more insight
Teacher can also design a set of questions where a child can:
- Consult peers
- Refer to books
- Consult teachers
- Observe and write
- Try-out and write
- Take the task home and seek help from community
- Take own time to write
- Choose to express by drawing, writing a poem, pasting pictures etc.
In using these forms of writings a wide array of issues may be researched – including
individual aspects of child’s learning, the group processes, as well as many other
cognitive processes. If the teacher uses children’s writing as a tool for assessment,
instead of correcting the written assessment and returning, the teacher should guide
the child in understanding her own writing, and essentially provide an opportunity to 33
Understanding Development improve it. This process of improving may continue till a time when a child feels happy
with her own writing. Writing is an essential part of learning at school and is a critical
devise for communication. Enabling an environment where a child can enjoy writing
will not only enhance child’s expression but would also introduce a child to this style of
communication. Overall children’s own work can provide a teacher a very useful
insight into children’s work.

Check Your Progress

8. For the research question that you have formulated, enumerate the written
activities which would help you gather relevant data?
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................

The tools discussed above are only indicative of the possible tools that a teacher may
use in classroom. There are several other tools that may also be used, and a teacher
may also develop several other kinds of tools that would suit her/his research. However,
a teacher must consider researching as a regular activity in her work.

6.5.4 Child-Profiles/ Cumulative Record

In order to understand every child comprehensively, a teacher can also consistently
and regularly maintain a file in which she can record and put together various kinds of
information about the child. It is very similar to what is called as child cumulative
record in CCE. Read the following:

Child Cumulative Record

(Source: Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation: Improvements in quality through
rational Assessments and Evaluation of Students in Elementary School. TSG (SSA) 2011)
A child cumulative record is usually a portfolio for every child, comprising of records that
may help in understanding how a child grows over a period of time. As its name suggests,
it spans over more than a single school year providing information about a child’s growth as
s/he moves from one grade to another1. The records that it essentially contains (in both
scholastic/co-scholastic areas) are:
- Basic information about child’s family and other socio-cultural information
- child’s health record and should be update each year
- child’s selected works2, or, teacher’s note on selected works (in case the child does not
want to part with the work done by her)
- a written account by teacher - description of child’s work on an activity (especially how
s/he was working),
- observation based occasional anecdotal records by teacher,
- child’s own evaluation of her work,
- selected dialogues of teacher with the child,
- selected real-life problems the child encountered,
- selected responses that a child gave to peers’/teachers’/others’ questions,
- selected examples that the child cited,
- feedback by peers, parents, and SMC.

[Link], R. L. and Miller, D. M. (2005). Measurement and Assessment in Teaching (9th ed.). Delhi:
Pearson
[Link] could be drawings, story, a problem solved, a written answer, etc.
34
 Methods to
It is a flexible record and context specific. And so it may contain other variety of records. Study Children
However, the child cumulative record centrally comprises of teachers’ commentaries on
these records. The teacher is expected to write an interpretive account on each of the
selected entries comprising of a narrative (at least one para) of how the child approached the
work, the problems s/he encountered how s/he solved it, and the like.
The purpose of cumulative record is to maintain a comprehensive record of a child’s
experience in the classroom so as to understand how the child is learning and growing. This
will help not only in understanding the child better but will also highlight areas in which the
child enjoys to learn, has an interest and a potential to excel, and also helps in identifying
areas where s/he needs guidance and support by teacher. Since it has space for child to
express her/his own view about the work s/he has done it also develops self-evaluation and
reflective abilities. Along with this, the record also helps in communicating among all teachers,
with parents and the community – giving concrete examples of work – and seeking their
feedback time to time. This exercise in turn provides a direction to pedagogy.
It is to be noted that this record does not contain all the work that happens in class. It is a
record with a particular purpose .i.e. documenting child’s growth. And therefore it only
contains those records that can lead to this. Therefore, a teacher has to carefully select
records that can best help in this purpose.

6.6 LET US SUM-UP

2.6.1 Common ways of understanding children:

Naturalistic inquiry
If you carefully analyse the discussions in this Unit, you will realize that at all places
the research involved understanding children in their context and also in an
unobtrusive manner. That is, the tools of research and the approach to research
involved understanding children in their everyday life situations. What else did we
learn from the above exercise? We learnt that every child brings something to the
school and that we need to take the trouble to understand what that is! We also learnt
that there are a number of ways in which we can understand children and their families
– some of the simple and most natural ways were – observing children, observing
their work, talking to them, talking to their parents, talking to others in the school and
community. We did not need a ‘test’ for the above, did we? All we needed to do was
to become a little systematic by identifying the information we wanted, methods of
getting the information and thinking about how we want to use this information.
The ability to observe children and interpret their behaviour is a basic teaching skill.
You are looking for information which will help you to group children sensibly, finding
out interests of the children and the way they work. You also need to identify children
who have problems as well as the ones who understand and complete their work.
Observing children is an on-going exercise as children grow, learn and develop
constantly. As a teacher you need to spend time observing and finding about them
constantly so you can teach them effectively. A teacher over years, develops skill
in observing children at work. She comes to know signs of under functioning
and of learning problems of various kinds and what can be reasonably expected
of any individual or group ( Dean J., 1983). Observing things like the way the
children settle down to work, their comments and replies to questions, their work all
give clues to identify learning level, response and work pattern as well as problems.
As said earlier some of the other commonly used methods for understanding children
also include interactions with children, studying previous work and records of children,
talking to parents and teachers who know the child. It is essential that teachers note
the broad alerts that this method give to further understanding and investigate the
problem in a more systematic way.
35
Understanding Development Any group of children, however homogeneous is a collection of different individuals.
If the teacher is to help individuals learn and to meet individuals’ needs, she must find
and create enough common strands to enable some work to take place in groups or
the class. This would help her get started with the group and then she works around
the individuals.

6.6.2 Some Common Problems in Classrooms and implication for

Research
a. Variation in Learning Levels: Learning does not happen uniformly amongst all
children, you will realize that there are variations amongst children with some
children learning very quickly, some at a steady space while some lag and are
unable to master the concept along with others. A teacher needs to understand
who these children are; a teacher can build this understanding only if she has
observed children in a variety of learning situations across different subjects and
concepts. The teacher has to observe children closely to understand their learning
patterns.
b. Social/Behavioural Problems: The most common problem that a teacher comes
across is holding attention of all children in the classroom. Being inattentive,
distracted or listless is something that the teacher learns to address on a daily
basis. Because of their age and developmental stage some of these are natural
behaviours, however, it is when the behaviour persists and appears deviant from
the group is when it assumes the nature of a problem. Some of the commonly
found problems include, aggression, extreme shyness, inability to make friends or
get along with others, compulsive lying, and the like. These behaviours affect
children’s adjustments in school as well as the ability to interact meaningfully
with peers or teachers. It is essential to understand the reasons for some of
these problems and address them in a comprehensive way. Research can help
in understanding these issues and can suggest ways of relating to children who
are experiencing such situations. However, a teacher must also consult parents
and school counsellors while engaging in such situations.
c. Children with Special Need: Children with special needs is a broad umbrella
which subsumes a number of categories, ranging from children with mild learning
disabilities to children who are severely mentally challenged. It includes children
who are physically challenged with visual or auditory impairment, children who
are affected by polio or accidents, as also children who have health problems like
severe asthama or heart problems. The nomenclature also includes children
with behavioural problem like autism as children with learning difficulties like
dyslexia. Although not often cite particularly in the Indian context it also includes
children with psychological problems like depression. The teacher may have to
deal with children with special needs in her career. Some of these problems are
evident and therefore the teacher is aware of it and can include their needs in her
teaching and classroom plan. However, sometimes the problems are not as evident
and manifest themselves as a learning or behavioural problem. The teacher has
to be vigilant in her observations and learn to identify the real problem which may
be more deeper than just delayed development. A teacher may have to seek help
of other professionals like doctors, counselors or special education teachers while
so that she understands children with special needs better and is able to plan a
responsive teaching learning program for them and work out a truly inclusive
program for them.
While we have already learnt why is it important to understand children, some theories
that may help in understanding children, and processes and contexts which influence
childhood, in this Unit we discussed the various tools that a teacher may use for
understanding children. All these research tools enable a teacher to understand children
36 in her classroom better and to organize her classrooms in a way which is more sensitive
to children. In this Unit, we also discussed research as an essential part of teachers Methods to
practice. As it has been said in the beginning of Unit, there are several prominent Study Children
thinkers in education like Paulo Friere, Ira Shor, Michael Apple and Henry Giroux,
who conceptualize teacher as a classroom researcher, who integrates research with
her/his everyday teaching. Even the changes that NCF 2005 and RTE seek to bring
about in schools view research as an essential component of teachers work. As teachers
it is important for us to reflect over the issues that we encounter every day and work
towards understanding them better. This will not only enhance our practice but will
also enhance the learning environments we share with children.

6.7 UNIT-END EXERCISES

1. Think of an issue that you would want to research upon and design any three
tools for studying the question.
2. Plan a new classroom activity and design tools to evaluate it. Use these tools in
your classroom.

6.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1) Marks To know the achievement level of learners Progress Report
list this list 3 more.
2) How can I manage the classroom and make it disciplined?
Sub-questions
a) Why are children disturbed in the classroom?
b) How can I make the class as a homogeneous group?
3) (a) (i) Ages of children
(ii) Socio-cultural Background of children
(iii) Progress Report
(b) (i) Children
(ii) Teachers who taught other subject in the same class.
(iii) Parents
(c) (i) Observation
(ii) Feedback
(iii) Anecdotal Record
(d) (i) Interaction with parents and teacher
(ii) Observation of the class by another colleague
4. Case-Study
Interview
Observation Schedule
Dialogue with parents
5. Yes. In each stage it provides to get an effective feedback about children

6.9 SUGGESTED READINGS

Best, John W. (1999). Research in Education. New Delhi: Prentice Hall India.
Cohen, L. and Manion, L. (1980). Research Methods in Education. London:
Routledge.
37