Methods of Studying Children and Adolescents

About this chapter

Methods of Studying Children and Adolescents teaches the primary teacher how to investigate her own classroom — why a Class III child like Priya stops attempting questions, why Navin in a rural school behaves differently, why some children become inattentive. The chapter moves through six ideas: (a) the need for classroom research as a learner-centred, teacher-directed, context-specific, practical inquiry; (b) Action Research — coined by Kurt Lewin in 1946, a 'learning by doing' cycle of eight steps from identifying the problem to review; (c) Case Study — an in-depth study of one child covering family background, health, educational, psychological and social data; (d) seven Tools of Research — Observation (controlled / natural / participant), Self-Reports (questionnaire and three types of interview), Interaction with Children, Children's Diaries, Cumulative Record Card, Anecdotal Record, Reflective Journals; (e) effective teacher-student interaction (emotional support, classroom organisation, instructional support); and (f) common classroom problems and their implications. CTET Paper 1 CDP tests this through definition recall, tool-identification scenarios, action-research step ordering, and pedagogy items on which method suits which problem. The four tests — Practice 15, Quiz 15, Hard 15, Mastery 30 — cover all six ideas at CTET depth.