Learning to Apply Book Four

By Quince Duncan

APPLYING RESEARCH BOOK FOUR is designed to help students to enhance their capacity to detect a problem or doubt that can be tackled with research techniques; to be able to choose and limit a topic; to formulate hypothesis or to define objectives properly and to be able to apply the best criteria when choosing research techniques according to the subject.
Communication techniques are underlined to encourage students to express themselves coherently in diverse situations, both in study and social environments. Students are expected to complete the research cycle, with sufficient practical experience to be able to carry out a bibliographical research independently with minor tutoring, being thus able to collect information, process it systematically and prepare and deliver a correct oral or written report.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palibrio
• Release date: Dec 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781463345792

Quince Duncan

Quince Duncan, Costa Rican writer. “Aquileo Echeverría” National Literature Award Author of more than 30 books, including novels, short stories, essays, and textbooks and essays on people of African descent and racism, with emphasis on the “Continental Caribbean.”

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Quince Duncan.

Text revision Cynthia Delgado

West College and Institute of Education

Ilustrations Mariela Pérez and Quince Duncan

Special thanks to Magaly, Debbie and Ileana Villalobos

Library of Congress Control Number:                   2012923061

ISBN:                    Softcover                        978-1-4633-4580-8

                              Ebook                              978-1-4633-4579-2

All rights reserved. Excepting brief quotes, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or any other form, without the prior written permission.

San José, Costa Rica

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

PART ONE: SUCCESS THROUGH COMMUNICATION

What to Expect

UNIT I Discovering Research.

Lesson 1 ¿What is a Research Project?

How to Design a Research Project Using the WH WH Questions as Tools.

Lesson 2 Discussing a Research Project

Lesson 3 Recalling the National Science Fair Modalities 1.

Lesson 4 Recalling the National Science Fair Modalities 2: Demonstration of a Scientific Process or Principle.

Illustration (1) Egg experiment.

Lesson 5 Recalling the National Science Fair 3: Scientific Research.

Illustration 2 Present day sources of information

Lesson 6 Recalling the National Science Fair Modalities 4: Technological Project.

Lesson 7 On the Way towards the Fair

Lesson 8 Carry a Logbook

Lesson 9 Designing your Research Project 2. Your Research Problem.

Lesson 10 Designing your research project 3: foreseeing your end result.

Lesson 11 Designing your Research Project 4: Organizing Your Project.

Lesson 12 Designing your Research Project 5: Explaining How.

Lesson 13 Designing your Research Project 6: Distributing your Time.

Lesson 14 Designing your Research Project 7: Listing what You Need.

Lesson 15 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER.

UNIT II Collecting data

Lesson 1 Working cards 1

Design a set of cards to collect your data. The most common are index cards and reading cards.

Lesson 2 Working cards 2

Lesson 3 Working Cards 3

Lesson 4 Working with Your Advisor.

UNIT III: Communicating results.

Lesson 1 Oral report.

Illustration 3 Oral report

Lesson 2 Holding a Formal Conversation.

Illustration 4 Conversations

Lessson 3 The Reactive Mind.

Illustration 5 The reactive mind in action

Illustration 6 Overcome conversational barriers

Lesson 4 Tips for the speaker.

Good conversational rules.

Recommendations for the speaker.

Lesson 5 Private speeches.

Definition

General Suggestions.

PART TWO: HERE IS MY VOICE

UNIT I Your Research Plan.

Lesson 1 Refreshing Your Knowledge.

Lesson 2: Designing Your Science Fair Project.

Lessson 3: Working With Your Advisor.

Illustration 7 West College

UNIT II Your Research Report.

Lesson 1 Composing the Body of Your Report.

Lesson 2 Writing Conclusions.

Lesson 3 Writing Introductions.

Lesson 4 Your Oral Report.

Illustration 8 Reporting at the Limon Public Library

UNIT III: The Communication Process.

Lesson 1: THEORETICAL BASES

Illustration 9 Confrontation

Illustration 10 Social media

Lesson 2 Giving a Public Lecture 1.

PUBLIC LECTURE FOR ENTERTAINMENT.

Illustration 11 Volcanoe

A LECTURE TO INFORM OR EDUCATE.

Lesson 3 Giving a Public Lecture 2.

A LECTURE FOR REFLECTION.

Illustration 12 Bright sun

Lesson 4 General Recommendations.

Protocol.

Structure.

Be careful with your tone.

Illustration 13 Hostility

Illustration 14 Fear

Illustration 15 Low tone

Preparing your speech.

UNIT IV Analizing Speaches.

Illustration 16 Sojourner Truth

Lesson 2 Ain’t I A Woman? 2.

Lesson 3 "Chief Seattle’s 1854 Oration 1.

Illustration 17 Chief Seattle

Lesson 4"Chief Seattle’s 1854 Oration 2.

Illustration 18 Presidente Kennedy

Lesson 6 Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You 2. READING.

Lesson 7 Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You 2. POST READING.

Lesson 9 I Have a Dream 2. READING.

Illustration 19 Martin Luther King

Lesson 10 I Have a Dream 3. POST READING.

Lesson 11 Don’t fight against. Fight for. 1. PREREADING.

Lesson 12 Don’t fight against. Fight for. 2. READING

Lesson 13 Don’t fight against. Fight for. 3. POST READING.

PART THREE: COMMUNICATION THROUGH WRITING

UNIT I Evaluating a Research Project.

Lesson 1 Criteria for evaluating a research plan.

Lesson 2 Sample research plan: Banana Exportation to Europe

Illustration 20 Bananas

Lesson 3: Presenting a Research Paper.

Lesson 4 Guidelines for collecting data.

Illustration 21 Remember to use the library

UNIT II Your final report

Lesson 1 Tips on writing a good report 1

Lesson 2 Tips on writing a good report 2

UNIT III Evaluating a Final Report

UNIT IV Creative writing

Lesson 1 Writing Essays.

Illustration 22 Landscape

Illustration 23 Rural home

Illustration 24 A shanty township.

Lesson 2 Writing Narratives.

Lesson 3 Multiple Intelligence Workstations on a Story.

Illustration 25 The Vegetable Arm

Choose a Workstation

Illustration 26 verbal workstation

Illustration 27 Logical Math workstation

Illustration 28 Viseo-spacial workstation

Illustration 29 Musical workstation

Illustration 30 Kinesthetic workstation

Illustration 31 Social studies workstation

Illustration 32 Naturalistic workstation

Lesson 4 Form a group and negotiate the station that you would like to organize.

Chose a location for your station

Set up a calendar for Workstation activities.

Prepare Workstation events and evaluation

Execute Workstation activities

Evaluate Workstation activities

Lesson 5 Studying The Vegetable Arm

Illustration 33 The vegetable arm

Language Workstation

Math Workstation

Visual Workstation

Rhythm and Music Workstation.

Kinesthetic Workstation.

Social Workstation.

Nature Workstation.

Lesson 5 Write Your Own Story.

UNIT V Business writing

Commercial Letters.

UNIT VI Communicating Results.

A Panel Debate or Discussion.

Organize a Workstation to debate a point of interest to the class.

Review Section

REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH PLAN

REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH PAPER

FORMAT

REFERENCES

RECOMMENDATION TO THE READER

When reading this Manual, consult your dictionary.

Almost all difficulties with studies are a direct result of the reader not having a full comprehension of the words he reads.

Furthermore, one of the objectives of this Manual is to widen the vocabulary of the reader.

Readers should never ignore or bypass a word that they do not fully understand.

PREFACE

Traditional educational systems tend to promote a very abstract concept of learning, with almost no links to the social dynamics of the society as perceived by the student. Even when paying lip service to construction theories, the focus continue to be on chalk or marker, black or white board, with a professor in front of the class, delivering something that is like a speech but not exactly a speech.

In this traditional setting, teachers normally would not even try to help students construct their own knowledge; they are working hard to pass knowledge to the next generation, without any regard to the fact that by the time they make their way into textbooks, a large portion of the knowledge has already become obsolete.

The students, finding such a curricula and approach not useful, soon learn the rules of the game: memorize what the teacher says you should learn, so that you may be able to write it down on your test sheets and get a grade and then forget about the whole transaction.

In such a system, education has become a form of non productive activity that leads to the acquisition of a certificate.

In addition to this, modern educational research has made it clear that not all students learn in the same way. Some, for example, need a certain degree of affinity with the teacher and the subject matter; others demand good communication and some only need the subject to be presented in such a way that it seems real. Traditional pedagogy prefer to ignore this reality and continue treating everybody the same way in an almost obsessive standing on equality, while ignoring equity—to treat each person as an individual, with his own needs, emotions, reasoning, and resulting learning style.

In recent years, scholars has questioned these traditional focus, proposing the idea of a multiple intelligence (Gardner 1983) and the theory of learning styles (Kolb 1984).

West College High School, has designed this program with a holistic approach, termed SIPEIN (Duncan, 1980)¹. The principles supporting this approach are as follows:

1.   Comprehension of the parts of a subject requires the analysis of the whole.

2.   Effective learning implies changing student roles. Activity and passivity are part of the process.

3.   Team work is basic. The whole is superior to the sum of its parts.

4.   To achieve effective learning, each individual must construct his own knowledge. The teacher cannot learn for the student.

5.   Although all students possess multiple intelligences, these are not equally balanced. Those intelligence that are better developed in the individual, determines his or her learning style.

6.   Every action produces a reaction. A full understanding of these principles enhances a person’s ability to influence his environment.

On the bases of the above principles, West College High School proposes a system that guides the student toward self teaching. The aim is that the student learns how to learn, learns how to comprehend whatever he studies and learns how to apply his knowledge when faced with today’s challenging and changing reality.

The strategy designed to achieve the above aims is an investigative pedagogy. Leaning to do research is the best way to become capable to teach oneself. With the capacity to seek information, process it and apply it accordingly, the person has the basic tool he needs to be able to keep up front on cultural and technological changes as they occur. This amounts to having a lead when procuring better family and social relations, and an enhancement of his or her cultural competence.

The series Learning to Apply is designed to support West school professors and students to achieve these aims.

Part One: Success through Communication

What to Expect

Level seven is designed on the premise that day by day research becomes more and more important the world over, and that it is of great value when applied systematically in the field of education. To compete successfully in a global world, students and scholars need to have full command of research techniques and develop an investigative attitude. Activities are provided to help students to enhance their capacity to detect a problem or doubt that can be tackled with research techniques, to be able to choose and limit a topic, to formulate hypothesis or to define objectives properly; and to be able to apply the best criteria when choosing research techniques according to the subject. Those are indispensable and basic tools in an expanding global culture. In that context, students are required to exercise initiative when designing and developing Science Fair project.

Level eight is a way a recollection of contents studied in former courses. On the one hand, research techniques and the other the subject of communication. Contents and activities are designed and programmed to encourage students to acquire a command of techniques to express themselves coherently in diverse situations, both in study and social environments. Being able to deliver a short speech and to do a formal class presentation are extremely useful abilities in present day global culture. The other important goal is to intensify exposure of the students to research techniques, recognizing it as the best strategy helping students to develop the ability to teach themselves. The scientific routine—capacity to seek information, process it and apply it accordingly, are basic tools to keep up front on cultural and technological changes as they occur. Better research and better Science Fair projects are only part of the wins. This strategy amounts to having a lead when procuring better family and social relations, and an enhancement of his or her cultural competence.

Level nine completes the bibliographic research cycle. At this level a sound understanding of the topic should be achieved, along with sufficient practical experience to be able to carry out a bibliographical research independently with minor tutoring. Students will collect information, process it systematically and prepare and deliver a correct oral or written report.

UNIT I Discovering Research.

Lesson 1 ¿What is a Research Project?

Research is another word for investigation, which was taken from Latin , meaning to follow the trace of something.

There are many definitions, but essentially it can be understood as a process by which a person, parting from an idea, a project, a problem, uses different instruments and resources to find out or explain an event, phenomenon or satisfy personal curiosity. In other words, all research processes stems from the need for knowledge, be it subjective or objective.

Research process are rigorous, reflexive, systematic, controlled and critical, and the correct applications of its methods leads to the discovery of new data, events, relations and scientific laws in different areas of human knowledge, and constitutes the base of technological processes.

Hurtado de Barrera (2000: pp. 41-42) considers research as an organized process in constant evolution by which the researcher strives to understand something new, using knowledge that he already has.

Every day research becomes more and more important the world over. And it is now systematically applied in the field of education. To compete successfully in a global world, students and scholars need to have a full command of research techniques and develop an investigative attitude.

Traditional bench education, by which students would passively learn by heart information given to them and then be able to repeat from memory many times without a clear comprehension of the subject is in crisis.

The capacity to detect a problem or doubt that can be tackled with research techniques, to be able to choose and limit your topic to the point to which you can handle it; the capacity to formulate an hypothesis or to define objectives properly; the skill to choose the right method according to the subject—those are indispensable and basic tools in our growingly global culture.

How to Design a Research Project Using the WH WH Questions as Tools.

No matter what your methodological approach may be, the research process is always rigorous and systematic. A very useful guide to formulate your research project is the use the Wh questions words.

1.   The first question to ask yourself is WHAT?

What type of research will this be? Is it to explore, to describe something; is it to analyze, confirm, to predict, to project or to evaluate an event or phenomenon?

2.   The second question is Who?

This question includes four aspects. First, it