Educational Research Seminar

Objectives

1. To use research as a way of better understanding and improving professional practice and the organizational functioning of the school

2. To carry out research in a competent and rigorous way

3. To adequately ensure that the ethical aspects of research are taken into consideration

4. To report one’s research process in a well-documented and well-structured way

Program

1. Research as a specific form of knowledge
2. The teacher as researcher
3. Ethical aspects of teachers’ research on their own practices
4. Doing research: from the research problem to data analysis
5. The organization of the final report

Teaching Methodologies

This curricular unit has a fundamentally applied nature. The main goal is to have students learn perspectives, models, strategies and techniques that they can apply to concrete aspects of their internship experience (or of some other experience, if they’re not interns). The aspects on which this application is focused are chosen by the students themselves, according to their needs and interests. Each student formulates a research question that he/she wants to explore, and he/she explores it on the basis of the resources that are worked on in class. The results of this research are presented and discussed with the teacher and class peers.

Bibliography

Alarcão, I. (2001) Professor-investigador: Que sentido? Que formaçã̃o? Cadernos de Formação de Professores, 1, 21-30.

Anderson, G., Herr, K., & Nihlen, A. S. (1994). Studying your own school. Thousand Oalks, CA: Corwin Press.

Campbell, A., McNamara, O., & Gilroy, P. (2004). Practitioner research and professional development in education. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.

Ghiglione, R., & Matalon, B. (1993). O inquérito: teoria e prática. Oeiras: Celta Editora.

Hubbard, R. S., & Power, B. M. (2003). The art of classroom inquiry: a handbook for teacher-researchers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Lima, J. Á., & Pacheco, J. A. (2006). Fazer investigação: contributos para a elaboração de dissertações e teses. Porto: Porto Editora.

Ponte, J. P. (2004). Pesquisar para compreender e transformar a nossa própria prática. Educar em Revista, 24, 37- 66.

Rust, F. O. (2009). Teacher research and the problem of practice. Teachers College Record, 111(8),1882–1893.