image source: http://faculty.engineering.ucdavis.edu/loh/research/
School students’ involvement in research projects is a
new demand of the twenty first century due to some factors such as globalization,
development of human capital, implementation of the reform on the support and
development of schools for gifted students in Kazakhstan and the poor results
of Kazakhstani students in PISA. Therefore, this post is dedicated to point out
some of the essential reasons to emphasize the need in educating young
researchers.
It
was all started with...
The
historical roots of the concept of children as researchers started being
popular because of the change of children’s status in society (Hallet &
Prout, 2003). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC,
1989) designated children as social actors in their own rights. Specifically,
children should be enlightened and engaged about all solutions that influence
their lives (as cited in Kellett, 2005, p.4). Since that time the growth of
children as participants and co-researchers is apparently seen (Johnson et al.,
1998).
Young
researchers in Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan, the situation is different in
terms of perceptions of research conducted by children. As a matter of fact, the concepts of
research projects and giftedness are inextricable ones, which intimate the idea
that research can be done by gifted
students. The identification-led
approach was chosen to gifted education within the network of Daryn and NIS,
KTL where selected students are able to take advantage of good quality of
knowledge and participate in various subject-based competitions and do research
projects (Yakavets, 2013, p.517).
Globalization
matters...
One of
the major factors influencing almost all the spheres of life to date is still a
globalization process. Changes, that are constantly taking place around the
world, are due to the demand of time. The era of ICT and new innovations brought
the need of conducting researches and studies. Nowadays, technology has become
something that people cannot live without; they are widely used in medicine,
engineering, education, economy, transportation etc. Taking into consideration
other countries` achievements in creating breakthrough discoveries, at present
days it is vital to teach our young generation the ways of creating new
innovation through promoting motivation to dealing with the research
projects.
Kazakhstan
and PISA results...
As one of the
major reasons for paying a close attention to students` involvement in research
projects in secondary school level was the results of Kazakhstani 15-year-old
students in PISA. According to PISA (2009), Kazakhstan showed a below-average
performance by taking 59th place out of 65 countries. Specifically,
our students didn`t manage to work with multiple texts, find and use
information from different sources along with tasks on Natural Science
research, in consequence, the results indicated that our secondary education
does not relate to realities of life (Yakavets
& Dzhadrina, 2014, p. 44-45). That was a call to take an action in the
educational reform of Kazakhstan on the whole, which was later embodied in the
National Action plan for 2012-2016 in order to develop students` functional
literacy. Certainly, it enables the students to be able to obtain new skills
like critical thinking, problem solving and research skills within the updated curriculum. But, it can be deduced
that the evaluation of the effectiveness and successfulness of the given
program is still a matter of time.
To sum up, it is essential to delineate
that children’s involvement in research projects is a new global trend and should be considered
to be a hallmark in their academic activities.
References
Hallett, C. & Prout, A.
(2003) (Ed.). Hearing the Voices of
Children: Social Policy for a New
Century London and New York: Routledge Falmer.
Century London and New York: Routledge Falmer.
Johnson, V., Ivan-Smith, E.,
Gordon, G., Pridmore, P. and Scott, P. (Eds.), (1998) Stepping Forward:
Children and young people; participation in the development process, London:
Intermediate Technology Publication.
Kellett, Mary (2005). Children as active
researchers: a new research paradigm for the 21st century? ESRC, UK.
United Nations (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child, United
Nations, Geneva.
Yakavets N., Dzhadrina M. (2014). Educational reform in
Kazakhstan:entering the World Arena. In
D. Bridges, Educational Reform and Internationalization. The case of School
reform in Kazakhstan (pp. 44-45). Cambridge,United Kingdom: Cambridge
University Press.
Yakavets, N. (2013).
Reforming society through education for gifted children: the case of
Kazakhstan, Research Papers in Education, 29(5), 513-533,
DOI:10.1080/02671522.2013.825311
If the student from early ages could participate in various research projects then it would be great! This could resolve the issue of memorization in secondary schools, students will start to understand how their theoretical knowledge can be applied practically, then they would value the education itself and the status of teacher would be raised and teachers would become more respectful by students and the society. From my practice, students who were involved in research projects at school in advance determined their future profession and were more prepared for the higher education. This could resolve the issue of job-mismatch in our country. Also, the skills that students can acquire from the participation in research would help them to be more competent and be more flexible in terms of future career. Unfortunately, only gifted students in our country have an access to be involved in research projects which is a huge limitation of our education system. I think the authorities could introduce Inquiry Methods course in high schools and students could conduct small-scale researches. Then they would be more intrinsically motivated to continue their study and become a professional.
ReplyDeleteDear assel_d, I think government already have started to work in this direction, there is a plan to introduce new subjects that will help to acquire basic scientific skills. Starting from 2015 Physics, Biology and Chemistry will be studied in the fifth form, subjects like Global Perspectives and Project Activities are going to be appeared in school curriculum. You can read more information here:http://www.nur.kz/734505.html
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