Learning to Apply: Book Five

By Quince Duncan

Book Five of the Learning to Apply Series, is a consolidated version of two former manuals, titled Fieldworks (Duncan, 2010) and Applying Research (Duncan, 2010), used in 10th and llth grades at West College High School. This reform, at the suggestion of Director Cynthia Delgado, is consistent with the fact that the undergraduate paper that Wests students prepare is developed precisely over these two academic years as a single project.
During level ten-eleven, students consolidate their capacity for self-education learning how to learn, learning how to comprehend the subjects studied, and learning how to apply the knowledge acquired when faced with todays challenging and changing reality, thereby achieving the final aim of the Series. Students will design and develop an undergraduate report, (tesina in Spanish) which is the final research-report that they are expected to present as part of their graduation process. The tesina is basically an individual study that each student carries out to demonstrate his capacity to formulate a problem, confront it with a basic theoretical framework, using proper methodology and adequate techniques required to close this stage of his academic experience. The course is divided in two parts: Fieldworks, designed to recap formerly acquired knowledge, to set up a professionally oriented research plan and to complete preliminary investigation. The second part, Applying Research, guides students to the completion of their investigation and to the delivery of a competent report.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palibrio
• Release date: Feb 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781463350505

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 © 2013 by Quince Duncan.

Text revision Cynthia Delgado

West College and Institute of Education

Illustrations Mariela Pérez and Quince Duncan

Special thanks to Kimberly Gutiérrez, Carolina Martínez, Federico Araya,

Ileana, Magaly and Beatriz Villalobos and West College High School professors and students.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2013901733

ISBN:

   Softcover   978-1-4633-5051-2

Ebook       978-1-4633-5050-5

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.

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

A NOTE OF RECOMMENDATION

FIRST PART: PREPARING FIELDWORKS

Introduction to Book Five

What to Expect

THEME 1 WEST COLLEGE PEDAGOGIC FOCUS.

THEME 2 SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH: THE SUPPORTING THEORY

Illustration 1. Working as a team.

Paradigms

Positivism

Structuralism

Pragmatism

Holism

THEME 3 WORKING WITH YOUR ADVISOR

THEME 4 PREPARING TO DESIGN YOUR TESINA PLAN

Choose a topic of your interest.

Illustration 2.1: You may want to probe on social concerns.

Illustration 2.2: You may choose nature.

Define the research problem.

Do a preliminary research

Illustration 3: A preliminary research is indispensable

Choose a title for your work

THEME 5 YOUR PROJECT DESIGN

Decide on the scope of your study

Research can be exploratory

Research can be descriptive

Research can be analytical and comparative

Research can have a theoretical approach

Research can adopt a predictive approach

Illustration 4: Planet Gozvi

Research can be confirmatory

Research can be evaluative

Use your preliminary research as background information

Set up your research objectives

Formulate your hypothesis

Variables

Fieldworks Techniques

Considering Ethics

Quantitative and qualitative research designs

Illustration 5.1: What sort of ads would catch female student’s attention during elections?

Illustration 5.2: How many students participate in student body election process, according to sex, age and academic level?

Experimental research

Illustration 6: Lab research is also fieldwork

Pre-testing-Post-testing

Control group

Repeated measuring

Double-Blind Experiments

Random Sampling

Illustration 7: Procure a distented environment to do your interviews

Using key informants

Interviews

Surveys

Focus groups

Illustration 8: Fieldworks are a group effort

Recommendations:

Citations (in text)

APA style

MLA Style

References

COMPLEMENTARY SECTION

SECOND PART: APPLYING RESEARCH

THEME 6 A Quick Overview Of Your Project

Who and for whom?

What are the expected results?

The next question is: how are you going to do your research?

Next very important question is: where and when (or about what place and time) are you doing your research?

With what means will you do your research?

What if?

THEME 7 Collecting Data

Observations

Illustration 9: Careful observations will render better results

Illustration 10: Minimize reactive thinking

Tables

Content Analysis

THEME 8 GENERAL CONTENT OUTLINE FOR YOUR TESINA

Formalities:

Structure:

Introduction

Body of the paper

Transition words and phrases

Using analogy

Avoid using fallacy

Facts and opinions

Careful Analysis

Conclusion: Discussion of the results

THEME 9 A Sample Research Paper

THEME 10: References

APA Style

MLA Style

THEME 11 Sample Tesina

THEME 12 Defense of Your Tesina

Illustration 11: Remember, when presenting your tesina, you are the expert.

INFORMATION FOR EXPERTS

A Panel Presentation

Illustration 12: A panel presentation

Writing Essays

Describing Scenes

Illustration 13: Look at this scene. Imagine what is going on.

Narration

Illustration 14: Write a story about this police

A Humoristic Text

Poetic Prose

EXAMPLE OF A FORMAL LECTURE

REFERENCES

A NOTE OF RECOMMENDATION

When reading this Manual, use 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 our students.

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

FIRST PART:

PREPARING FIELDWORKS

INTRODUCTION TO BOOK FIVE

Book Five of the Learning to Apply Series, is a consolidated version of two former manuals, titled Fieldworks (Duncan, 2010) and Applying Research (Duncan, 2010), used in 10th and llth grades at West College High School. This reform, at the suggestion of Director Cynthia Delgado, is consistent with the fact that the undergraduate paper that West’s students prepare is developed precisely over these two academic years as a single project.

During level ten-eleven, students consolidate their capacity for self-education—learning how to learn, learning how to comprehend the subjects studied, and learning how to apply the knowledge acquired when faced with today’s challenging and changing reality, thereby achieving the final aim of the Series. Students will design and develop an undergraduate report, (tesina in Spanish) which is the final research-report that they are expected to present as part of their graduation process. The tesina is basically an individual study that each student carries out to demonstrate his capacity to formulate a problem, confront it with a basic theoretical framework, using proper methodology and adequate techniques required to close this stage of his academic experience. The course is divided in two parts: Fieldworks, designed to recap formerly acquired knowledge, to set up a professionally oriented research plan and to complete preliminary investigation. The second part, Applying Research, guides students to the completion of their investigation and to the delivery of a competent report.

What to Expect

West College High School students, to graduate from 11th grade, have to present their undergraduate report of a field research (tesina). In 10th grade, you must present your project and get it approved by the advisor and Integrated Projects Coordinator, and start working on your project throughout the year.

It has been highlighted during this Learning to Apply Series that West High School has adopted a holistic pedagogic strategy called SIPEIN that emphasizes the capacity of its students to do research. The system gears the student toward self-teaching. The aim is that each student learns how to learn, learns how to comprehend whatever he studies, learns how to apply his knowledge when faced with today’s challenging and changing reality and learns how to be a person, a successful person.

These aims include developing an investigative attitude, to promote the student´s ability to formulate a problem; setup his or her own objectives, propose a hypothesis based on a research problem, choose an adequate method and its corresponding techniques; collect information in an orderly way to support the hypothesis or to accomplish objectives, and finally, to present their reports attractively and according to research standards—such is the profile of a student graduating out of the system.

Tutoring plays a very important role in this process. Your advisor is there to give a lending hand. His mayor responsibility is not to give you a grade, but to assist you in your task. But, success depends on your own efforts.

Throughout this course, you will be given an overview of the basic characteristics of a field research. You will be prepared to set up your undergraduate project. This year, you will do the planning and advance in the bibliographic research. At the end of the course, you will be required to give a partial report on your subject. Next year, according to school calendar, you will do your field works, prepare and defend your tesina publicly.

So, hear you go, on your way to the final adventure at West.

THEME 1 WEST COLLEGE PEDAGOGIC FOCUS.

The learning theory underlying this manual of applied research in the field of education is a holistic vision and in this regard it is framed in the systemic educational philosophy exposed and practiced under different names in various institutions. It is a systemic applied pedagogy; stemming from a perspective of totality. Research is just one of the resources used in the realization of this vision.

The idea of this first theme is that you become aware of the School’s perspective. There are five basic postulates supporting SIPEIN. The first premise is that the approximation to an object of study from a holistic perspective facilitates better comprehension. That is to say, when studying reality one should take a look at the forest, not limiting one’s perspective to the individual trees. In other words, it is necessary to take into account the context.

From this viewpoint you are expected to see and understand the natural and social phenomena from a global perspective. As correctly stated by Maria Candida de Moraes, everything that exists, coexists (t.m.). This is the holistic view, implying that there is interdependence and interaction between living organisms and the world of nature and is so with all beings (Candida de Moraes. 1999: 73).

Another related opinion comes from Hurtado de Barrera (2000: 19) This Author rightly underlined human inability to exhaust the understanding of the reality with a single approach. Description of any phenomenon will always be more satisfactory and complete and coherent with the whole, if such a description stems out of the inputs from different areas, philosophies, methods and disciplines.

It is therefore necessary