Date: July 7, 2021 Research is a reflective process which frequently begins with a sense of anxiety and uncertainty. When guided and supported, students gain confidence and independence throughout the process leading them to a sense of pride and accomplishment. This was the experience of teachers of Manthan International School who participated in the recent workshop: “Sm@rter than Google: Enriching Learning Through Research” by Margaret Richardson. Learning through experience, participants used visible thinking routines to explore the concept of “Guided Inquiry” and reflected on how these visible thinking routines may be used to guide inquiry at each stage of the research process. Teachers used this experience of “walking in the students’ shoes” to collaboratively plan a unit of work to teach independent research skills and enrich the learning of their own students.

This is what the participants said,

“The workshop was engaging and immersive. The beginning was with a little apprehension but after support and encouragement from the workshop leader and group work, it quickly became interesting. I learned a lot about developing my research skills. Asynchronous and synchronous both sessions were well planned taking us from feeling of anxiety in beginning to feeling of accomplishment in the end.”

“Well planned, executed with involved participation from each member which makes it better”

“It is a great workshop which helps the teachers to understand the details of the research and how to effectively take it forward.”

“The idea of such workshop was very new to me. I myself being a research oriented university students have often undermined the ability of school students to do research. This workshop in some sense opened up my mind not just at the level of thinking but by providing us with concrete methodology about how should one plan for research training at school level.”