Читать книгу What and How to Do Everything Related to Presenting at International Conferences (A guide for secondary school teachers with a plan for MS Teams workshops) - Stojan Jovan Rendevski - Страница 2

Participation of teachers from secondary schools and colleges at international conferences can be for the purpose of presenting or just attending.

The purpose of only attending is to get acquainted with the new trends in teaching and learning, classroom and educational processes management, newest changes in education, and getting new knowledge and skills needed for their use in the future or for the purpose of personal growth. Also, attending an international conference brings knowing other teachers and professionals throughout the world that enlarges one’s own network of people that help and support.

While attending is simple and requires only registration, payment of fees and possible travel to the conference venue site, presenting on the other hand, for many teachers, looks like hard work to do that requires thorough preparation and developed skills, own research conducted already, solid English knowledge to write the abstract, having ready conference paper and presentation slides, as well as to decide which conference to register to. The aim of this guide is to treat these issues and help teachers to present research at an international conference. This guide should not be considered as a formula, a receipt, or words-of-completeness instructional material that one can use it as given, but rather to be viewed as an attempt for clearing the fog from the view on what and how to do everything if one wants to present on an international conference.

Let’s start.

“Innovation and best practices can be sown throughout an organization –

but only when they fall on fertile ground.”Marcus Buckingham

1.Schools and the culture of learning organization

OECD states: Today’s schools must equip students with the knowledge and skills they’ll need to succeed in an uncertain, constantly changing tomorrow. But many schools look much the same today as they did a generation ago, and too many teachers are not developing the pedagogies and practices required to meet the diverse needs of 21st-century learners. In response, a growing body of scholars, educators and policy makers is making the case that schools should be reconceptualised as “learning organisations” that can react more quickly to changing external environments, embrace innovations in internal organisation, and ultimately improve student outcomes. The concept of the learning organisation began to gain popularity in the late 1980s. While the literature is disparate, it is generally agreed that the learning organisation is a necessity, is suitable for any organisation and that an organisation’s learning capability will be the only sustainable competitive advantage in the future. Most scholars see the learning organisation as a multi-level concept involving individual behaviour, teamwork, and organisation-wide practices and culture. A learning organisation is a place where the beliefs, values and norms of employees are brought to bear in support of sustained learning; where a “learning atmosphere”, “learning culture” or “learning climate” is nurtured; and where “learning to learn” is essential for everyone involved.

The so-called “teacher research” contributes to recognizing the school as a learning organization. Teacher research stems from questioning and seeking theoretical or practical solutions to issues in the teacher’s professional life. Teacher research is intentional and systematic inquiry conducted by the teachers with the goals of learning, gaining insights, coping with the changes, and gaining improvements in the lives of children. Teacher research is a higher form of professional development, maybe the highest. Why teacher research is needed?

Scholarly research in education, conducted by university researchers or independent scholars, can have a limited impact on the educational practice. On many occasions, scholars investigate problems that teachers in schools perceive as irrelevant. Teachers see scholar work only for the purpose of publishing in peer-reviewed journals instead of disseminating their findings in schools. Teachers see scholars as impractical, that they only generalize things rather than improving school practices. And the teachers are right.

Teachers who cannot, or do not share their knowledge and transfer skills to other colleagues, limit the development of the school’s culture of learning. One form of sharing knowledge is doing teacher research and presenting at international conferences.

Teacher research needs help from other experienced teachers (mentors) and their work is based on teamwork. Students are always in focus of teacher research.

1.1.Students’ participation in research

“Give participation in the inquiry the highest priority.” Andy Card

In the research you would conduct for the purpose of a conference presentation, students’ participation is necessary, except if you are doing a review of a theory. We are teachers and our work is centered on the students. There lays your target population. Shoot gently and don’t hurt them.

Students should be well informed about what has been planned for them to do – filling a questionnaire, do some new lab, give anonymous feedback on the use of new methods or technologies in teaching and learning, etc. Put the most crucial information on a paper or e-mail and share it with them. Honesty, dedication and being focused is all that you need from them. Explain how much extra time their involvement will take and how to respond to tasks given by the teacher. Whatever you share with the students, you must get approval from the Head of Department because students can get easily upset from some questions or might feel unconformable participating at all. Show the questions from the questionnaire or the plan for work to the Head. Give some time to the Head of Department for his/her review and reflections.

1.2. Mentoring

“Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.” John Crosby

Having a mentor while working on research and preparing a presentation for an international conference in English, is a crucial partner for success. The mentoring experiences teachers have got it since the beginning of university studies and teacher-in-training period. They are giving it also to the current students in the school. That is why we will not explain what mentorship is but will talk about how you may find the good mentor you need. It is crucial to have a mentor, especially when it is your first or second conference, and it is in English.

Mentors could be found in many places and in many ways:

–a colleague from the school who have been presenting on a conference;

–a friend who is a teacher in another school and you know that he/she has the experience;

–a professor from the university where you have been studying;

–a teacher you never met but you may send an invitation to become your conference mentor for the benefit of being a co-author of your presentation;

–a researcher from abroad that you met at some event (training workshop, competition, lecture, etc.) and to whom you may send an invitation for mentoring; and many more.

One interesting concept that has been introduced since the beginning of the year 2000 is the virtual mentor by using internet blogs, forums, and online collaboration platforms like MS Teams. You don’t have to collaborate directly during face-to-face meetings. You just put a question, an idea, or an issue you are confronting, and the virtual world will give feedback, opinion, or directions to follow. Amazing progress has been made since the beginning of the century and many teachers are using these platforms. Even you can create a blog or a forum and invite, for example, all secondary school teachers in your subject in the region and around to participate, if willing. You may be surprised how well it can work!

By having a mentor, you have just started collaborating in a team.

1.3. Teamwork

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress,

and working together is success.”Henry Ford

Don’t forget that your research and presentation requires English proofing and editing, maybe statistical data analysis, validation of your research findings by other teachers relaying on trusted literature and references, maybe video presentation design, the school’s management to give you access to some administrative or students’ personal data, looking for finances to cover small costs of the research and conference registration, or could be some fieldwork at other premises different from your school, and many other prerequisites. What is the solution to all of that? Yes, you are right – teamwork. One teacher has said: “Teamwork is in the essence of being a teacher. I am managing one hundred students in six different teams. I can put in a team my Principle, Head of Department, Head of a funding body, two of my colleagues, and the librarian. Piece of cake!” Nonetheless, she screamed after: “But, why I should do research and present at a conference?”

“To be or not to be, that is the question.”

in “Hamlet”, William Shakespeare, 1603

2. Why to present on a conference?

The so-called Shakespearean dilemma on “to do it or not to do it for a conference” is very congruent with teacher’s self-asking a question – “Should I work and prepare a presentation for an international conference?” The answer is – yes, teachers should, because the benefits are manifolds and that pursuit in which one would be investing time and efforts repays in many ways soon or later. Let’s clear-out the Shakespearian dilemma about to do a conference presentation or not.

Presenting on an international conference has many benefits. Most common can be listed without giving the primary position to any.

a)Your personal affirmation and career progress.

Having a line in your Curriculum Vitae or your personal portfolio in the school about presentation given at an international conference always brings positive evaluation from the management. Knowing that a teacher participated in a conference means that the career is on a solid route to progress. Greetings from the school colleagues, as well as foreign participants on your work and presentation, means social affirmation to which we aim for our well-being.

b)Your professional development and of others.

Teachers know many programs for professional growth. One of such is when a teacher presents on an international conference and gives a seminar to the colleagues in the school on what he/she has presented and also, what was interesting from some of the other presentations you have visited – new trends, new methodologies, new technologies, and many other topics.

c)Financial reward.

It is always good to talk about money. Many schools have financial incentives for rewarding teachers that present at international conferences. A ten percent increase of your salary in the next six months sounds good, doesn’t it? Or maybe, a bonus at the end of the year, or paid small vacation as part of some training program. Even if there is no direct salary increase seen on the teacher’s payslip, it is enough school to cover the costs of the research and conference registration. That is how your career progress and personal development can be supported financially.

d)Widening your personal professional network.

Imagine you become a friend and you are collegiate to 75 % of the teachers in your region and wider, you have the Principle and the Head of Department giving you on-time feedback on your work and progress, and you want to use for the very first time some new technology in the classroom. The benefit of having a wide personal professional network is huge. Contact the people from the network and some will serve you. It requires only a call or a post in the network and nothing else. During conferences you meet a lot of people and depending on your social and interpersonal skills you may attract them into your personal network.

e)Constant improving and striving for quality in teaching.

Aristotle said: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”. Excellence in teaching can be achieved only by constant self-improving and striving for quality. One form how to do this, except everyday good teaching we give in the classrooms, is to do educational research and present at a conference and this to become a habit. End of story.

f)Giving a positive public presentation of your school.

A school that has staff presenting on conferences, by definition, should be a good school. It is always striving for quality and is bringing to the school the never-ending changes in ociety and education. Would you like to send your kid to such a school?

g)Showing to the students how the research work. Today’s economies are evidence-based and are grounded in getting and sharing knowledge. Getting knowledge means to do research. Evidence need to be verified by research. Our students are our future workforce and management power. Showing them at the early age of their development the importance of research and how it works, can reflect later in life.

Clarifying why teachers should present at an international conference, leads us to the question “What to present?” Many teachers think it is very difficult to prepare a good presentation that summarizes some research they must conduct. They are right to a certain extent. However, life is saying the following. First, you don’t have to be a scientist with a Ph.D. degree in order to be able to plan and conduct research. Second, an idea for conference research can be so small to work on that for someone might look ridiculous and insignificant, which is not. For example, the theme of “The influence of the class time schedule on the overall students’ performance in physics lab work”. The research is not supposed to look like a Ph.D. thesis! Yes, it must have the structure of a research work consisted of: i) a problem noticed; ii) research aims and objectives; iii) justification of the theme; iv) research methods and instruments (questionnaires, case study reports, etc.); v) data (information obtained), analysis and conclusions; v) literature review; v) references. This concept is not difficult for the teacher to implement. Every day we ask our students to do the same when they work in a lab or write an essay. The only difference is that the teacher’s conference research is more specific and usually never done before in the same way by others. Pablo Picasso had said: “I have the idea in my head, but I am still afraid of the blank canvas I am looking at. Once I put the first brush, it goes after like an unstoppable river”. Here, we talk about the research transformation from the plan in the teacher’s head to reality. Once you start realizing it, will come to the end and that is for sure. One teacher has said: “I just put the title of the research on paper while sitting in my cabinet at the school and I already see myself standing and presenting on an international conference in front of 150 people. Awesome”. These guidelines you are reading can help you with how to do a research and present after at an international conference.

Maybe you know how simple teacher research works, but what to present on the conference? How to get the idea? Here comes our next question.

“Nobody’s perfect.”

final scene, “Some Like It Hot”, directed by Billy Wilder, 1959

3. What to present?

First, take that nobody is perfect, including you and hundreds of participants at the conference you want to present. Take that again – Nobody is perfect.

How one can come to the research mentioned in the previous chapter entitled as: “The influence of the class time schedule on the overall students’ performance in physics lab work”. We will see below how this research idea can be generated, research developed very easy and relatively fast, and results presented on a conference.

Thursday, 05.12.xx, 3:15pm. The teacher is going through current students’ grades on labs and suddenly she realizes that when her classes are first at the morning at 8am and students are doing labs, they always get a little bit lower grades than expected. She remembers that students were not focused well, their required motoring skills weren’t in good use, their teamwork was slow and disoriented. She went to the records of the recent past generation, also. The time schedule said – all had labs at morning 8:00am. Boom! She observed and formulated an idea for research with a working title: “The influence of the class time schedule on the overall students’ performance in physics lab work”.

Friday, 12.12.2019, 10:45am. The teacher is meeting her friend, another Psychology teacher in the school, and asking her about a questionnaire instrument that can be used to investigate the students’ opinions on why they perform in the labs as they have performed. The psychology teacher says that there is a ready and well-known instrument and she will modify it if needed and share after. A research team has been established and started with two.

Wednesday, 17.12.2019, 1:00pm. The teacher is meeting the teacher of Math and Statistics and discusses the research and possible use of statistical analysis of the research data. Another member of the team has been added.

Monday, 22.12.2019, 1:30pm – 3:30pm. The teacher is writing the research plan and research methodologies, including literature and references search. The team agreed upon it.

Thursday, 04.01.2019, 4:00pm. The teacher is reviewing the questionnaire instrument with her team and the Head of Department. Approval to survey the students, as well as school records of grades from other generations, has been given.

Monday, 14.01.2019, 11:30am – 12:00pm. A group of 100 students is completing the questionnaire.

Thursday, 24.01.2019, 4:15pm. The teacher finished gathering and classifying the data from past generations (three different).

Tuesday, 04.02.2019, 1:30 – 1:50pm. Math and Statistics teacher is reporting (on-line) his results on statistical analysis to the team.

Friday, 07.02.2019, 2:30pm. The Leading Researcher – the teacher, reviewed the data and made the conclusion: Lab work better to be conducted in class schedule that shows 10am or later.

15.03 – 04.04.2019. The teacher started working on the preparation of the abstract of the research and the presentation in Power Point. Help is provided from one member of the team.

21.04 – 03.05.2019. The teacher is searching for an appropriate conference and has registered the abstract and the co-authors (the team) to one most suitable.

14.05.2019, 8:30pm. A letter of acceptance of the abstract has been received from the organizing committee of the conference. The next day, school paid 100 dollars to the organizer as registration fees for the online presentation.

03.07 – 05.07.2019. The teacher and the team are reviewing the final version of the presentation and the teacher is practicing the online speech.

12.07.2019, 10:15 – 10:30am. Delivering the online presentation to the conference.

* * *

Does it now look clearer how research ideas can be developed? Do you see the time span of the research that ends with a conference presentation? Do you think you can do it? “Yes” is the right answer. No “but”. These guidelines have a purpose to kill all “but”.

The most common types of research that the teacher may be involved, or conduct, are briefly described below.

3.1.Past or present research

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

Lesley Hartly

Maybe the most easy to conduct is the so-called past-to-present research. There are many type of research conducted in the past by other authors that were dealing with themes that can be articulated again but in the current circumstances. All these research works can be found searching in the library or on the internet. The methodology of the research and analysis of the results are already given and described. The purpose, problem, objectives, target group, questionnaire instruments if used, statistical calculations if performed – all these are explained. The objective of new research that one can take can be to check how one variable in the research, or new technology, or something typical for contemporary education, are influencing the outcome of the new research – the results. It is important to mention that the primary obligation in the new research is to cite the authors of the past research works when preparing the presentation for your conference and discuss what is new in your research and why it has been important to conduct it in a way you have done.

3.2.Reviewing of a theory or a practice

“The common facts of today are the products of yesterday’s research.”

Duncan MacDonald

The review type of research is based on reading, reading, and reading. The purpose of this type of research is to present some theme and to give critical reflections. The theme can involve review of some theories and how they fit a particular problem in education. For example, how different theories explain the problem of free-time and hobbies, and their influence on student’s learning styles. Review research can be on a theme that is typically practical, for example, what are the characteristics of the best summer school programs in the world dealing with astronomy and danger from space. Review type of research cannot be short, but on a contrary – needs thorough investigation of literature, citing properly, critical analyzing and giving your point of view on every crucial aspect examined. Review research is highly valued by all teachers and researchers because gives systematic view on a problem and how others were treating it. It is like a booklet, a small textbook on who did what, when, and why. A review is like a crown among all the different research types. Those who give reviews on a conference, we say they are experts in their field. Why not one day you to be an expert from our school? Usually, young Ph.D. researchers are pushed to present a review because they were systematically investigated some problem and they have all the possible up-to-date literature. You don’t need to be a Ph.D. researcher to do review research. The only prerequisite is to have enough years of work experience, literature accessible, and time dedicated to working on. Start today, work three hours per week and finish it after two years. It is possible for a teacher to do it. Many have proved it already.

3.3.Surveys and Questionnaires

“Everyone takes surveys. Whoever makes a statement about human behavior has engaged in a survey of some sort