Phase 3: Presenting and Sharing

Creating a Phase 3 Plan

The final stretch of the project is now about wrapping up the research work, synthesising the results and looking to how the children will be taking action or simply presenting the results. Over a 12 session plan, the suggestion is that this Phase 3 would involve sessions 10-12.

As with the earlier Phases, these are estimates. If in Phase 1, the debate and discussion is really stimulating the whole class and some of the quieter children are starting to get more involved, there is no problem in extending this timeframe. If the research work is leading to more breakthroughs, again the time line can be re-focused.

However, it is very important that Phase 3 is given adequate time to ensure that the Action element of the CEPNET approach is realised.

As we will be explaining to the children from the outset- that their research is not being designed to sit on a shelf, it must lead to something new, different and impactful.

They need to take full ownership of this key principle or we will not have been successful.

Therefore this Phase is very important in allowing the children to plan how they will take their new learning and share it within their world.

This may involve organising a specific school event to include the parents of their classes as well as the teachers and wider school community.  The presentation of the findings can also be fed back to any relevant stakeholders that had been involved in Phase 1 or Phase 2.

Lesson plans in this Phase are more structured at the initial stage and then will revert to the provision of invisible support.

Introducing presentation skills

The initial session for Phase 3 will focus on the nature of presentation and the wide range of approaches. The children will need to consider potential audiences, presentation styles and roles within their groups.

Again, if useful, videos are available in the Resources Section from previous projects of children presenting their research findings in school or peer-to-peer settings.

The children who have worked on more traditional research approaches, such as surveys, may well have important findings to report about their primary research. They may decide to use a presentation with figures, charts and quotes. Other research teams may seek to use more creative means to present their results. This may involve a role play, song or rap, where they have written or developed an original response to the research results. Other groups may use a podcast approach, where a series of interviews have been carried out and they would like to make the results available online.

These final sessions are now focused on the students taking a lead again in how they would like to disseminate their findings.

The key function of the teachers and researchers during this Phase is to support the ambitions of the students as much as is possible. A speech to the UN General Assembly may not be a realistic possibility, but what is the next best option?

Bringing in school and wider community

Each school community and their local partners represent a important resource and potential for a multiplier effect, when it comes to the presentation phase. It is worth considering some of these questions:

• Are there parents or friends of the school with contacts when it comes to getting the student message out?
• Are the opportunities to use local media channels to increase the visibility of the children and the messages that they would like to disseminate?
• Are there local politicians or community organisations that would like to be able to share their findings?

Through making use of any local “multipliers”, the children may find a number of different means of sharing their presentations.

Organising events

The ideal scenario for the sharing of all the student work is through a single school-based event.

During such an event, all achievements can be equally recognised, valued and validated. The students can present their results to an audience and the parents and guardians can see their children in a different light. Feedback from previous project presentations indicated that many students excelled in this new role and many parents were dumbfounded to see their child on a stage confidently presenting their work.

If such a larger face to face event proves more challenging, it may be an option that a series of group based presentations are organised with selected audiences in mind. For example a project on examining the sourcing of materials for a football jersey may involve a presentation to members of a local football club or a project that focuses on a specific environmental project may present to political or NGO representatives.

Dissemination of research results

While the students will take the initiative in the local presentation of their results, the wider dissemination of the results will be carried out through the project website.

Within the CEPNET online presence, the key messages and learnings collected across all schools can be collected, collated and shared as widely as possible through all partner networks and policy making spaces.

Connecting with other schools

As the children start to put a final shape on their presentations, they will be encouraged to practise and hone their new skills in sharing their results with their peers in the other schools. They can seek feedback on their presentation styles, content and manner. This will allow for a further level of ownership of the results both within the schools and across the schools.

It will also be useful for the teachers to share their approaches through this Phase to get new ideas about how best to promote the student results.

Documenting Phase 3

As with previous Phases, the importance of review and reflection will be increasingly important through this Phase. While the students may have already much experience of debate and discussion and also to a more limited degree of carrying out research projects, it is unlikely that the students will have significant experience of presenting to an audience. Therefore this Phase will require that the teachers and the students move outside a possible comfort zone and that there is extra effort required to capture how this has worked.

From the perspective of the children, we want to make sure that by now they are fully aware of the key CEPNET values and that they are able to address how they have learned new approaches and skills. We will be asking the students as we move through these final sessions to try to articulate these new attributes in creative ways. We may return to the original posters and ask them to name anything that they have learned under each of the 5 headings (voice, debate, analysis, worldview, action).

Similarly we will aim to work as a full team to review the process as a whole. We will engage in transnational settings to reflect on the achievements and the learnings. We will collect this feedback and use it to update the methodology and ensure that the resource sections are being regularly updated with new learning from all participants.