Educational research has a significant place in continuously improving educational practice. Field Research‑1 and Field Research‑2 aim to enable students to identify relevant and researchable problems in educational practice, and to conduct rigorous and systematic investigations. These courses will also equip students to be informed consumers of research. The courses aim at helping students develop knowledge, attitudes and skills to engage in research that is oriented towards understanding and improving educational practice.

The first course, Field Research‑1, will familiarise students with the basic principles and forms of research, as well as steps for conducting a good research study (including ethical considerations). This course will help students identify research questions that they will explore during their 12-week field practice. These questions could be related to various aspects of educational practice including understanding children, understanding classrooms and communities, the pedagogy of specific subjects, school systems and structures. The course will introduce appropriate methodologies and methods for collecting evidence pertinent to their questions. Put together, the identification of research questions and the selection of appropriate methodologies could guide them to take up data collection/​field work to answer research questions raised during the field practice in the third semester.

The second course on field research, Field Research‑2, focuses on enabling students to make sense of data in research. This will include studying different techniques and approaches to handling data, and the analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data. The empirical data collected during field practice in the 3^rd semester, will be used as the basis for this analysis. The course will also help students to critically reflect on the conceptual framework and research design adopted while planning their fieldwork. Students will be introduced to reporting research findings for different kinds of stakeholders, as well as undertake critical review of research papers. The analytical tools and methods of report writing introduced in the course will help students develop a consolidated report as part of their field practice engagement in Semester 3.