Teachers Doing Research

Teachers doing research
In the last years an increasing discussion about the traditional educational research and the ineffective application of its results to classroom practice had take place. Forthat reason, many teachers and researchers have found extremely difficult to apply their findings to solve the daily situations that take place in classrooms, and to consider the most appropriate wayto solve such problems is that teachers undertake their own research on teaching. In this paper we pretend to summarize the reasons given by Anne Burns and David Hopkins about why teachers shouldcarry out research in their classrooms. Also, we will state the benefits of teacher research they mentioned.

At the time of teaching, professors tend to face many and different situations in theirclassrooms, with all their pupils and it is very important that they act rapidly in order to intercede in them; for example, looking for the solution to students learning problems, or to improve theteaching methods they are applying, etc.; as a result, this is one of the most important reasons why teachers should do research (Hopkins, D. 1993: 34). If they do it, is for sure that they will developtheir teaching skills obtaining with this a better learning in the students and also the whished results.

As Lawrence Stenhouse (1984:69) says “Good teachers are necessarily autonomous inprofessional judgment. They do not be told what to do” If teachers face a problem in their classroom they cannot expect that another person interferes and solve the situation because it is not professional tobe dependent. On the other hand, Stenhouse stay that even if teachers should do his own research, he or she can also be advised looking for extra information and consulting different points of view.But teachers have to be aware that those ideas are not so useful unless they modify them and apply them according to the real situation of their classroom because nothing can get so close to the...