Action Research Mentoring Scheme (ARMS)

Action or classroom-based research begins with the teacher and a question or set of questions they might have about classroom experiences, issues, successes or challenges. It is a highly reflective process that encourages teachers to examine their own practice and discover what will and will not work for their students in their classrooms.

Mentors can play a key role in helping teachers grow, learn and transform. Having a mentor work with teachers on their research projects ensures they will have the necessary support and guidance they need as they navigate the process of classroom based research. Through the project, mentors...

• receive extensive feedback, mentoring and support from ELT classroom research specialists from India 
• strengthen their existing mentoring and research skills
• establish a network of professional relationships
• gain experience in project management.

Teachers worked with their mentor and identified classroom challenges and potential solutions related to:

• Assessment
• Multilingual education
• Innovation and ICT
• Inclusive education
• Developing 21st century skills.

The scheme granted awards for teacher educators and academics that had:

• identified a group maximum of six teachers per mentor to support over a 12 month period
• some experience of mentoring or leading groups of teachers 
• an interest and some experience in classroom-based research
• a clear picture of group members, their various roles, and what the group aimed to achieve
• a clear plan, with a schedule of activity clearly explaining what group members would do on a month-by-month basis
• a proposed budget that showed how the money awarded would be spent for research-related purposes.

Awardees for 2017-18

Anirudha Rout, Tamara Philip, Vivek Joshi, Chandeep Marwah, Suman Chawla, Usha Malhan, Sonika Gupta, Esther Gloria Sahu, Kuheli Mukherjee, Kalyan Chattopadhyay, Santosh Mahapatre, Raminder Mac, Krishna Dixit and Milind Mane.

Between them, these 14 mentors worked with over 80 teachers across the country. The coordinators, Dr Amol Padwad and Dr Richard Smith, worked closely with the awardees over the duration of the scheme.

Project activities 

Induction workshop 

On the 20-21 February 2017 we held our induction for 13 out of the 14 mentors in Delhi. The induction was hosted by the facilitators: Amol Padwad and Richard Smith. Over the course of a day and a half Amol and Richard introduced the main principles and practices of action research, which prompted plenty of rich and lively discussions around the mentors’ hopes and expectations for their mentees. Time was also spent exploring the role of a mentor and what qualities and skills they would need to exhibit to effectively support their mentees. 

Mid-year seminar 

On 16 September 2017 we held our mid-point seminar for all mentors in Nagpur. The seminar was hosted by our two co-ordinators or, as they’re also known, Super Mentors: Dr Amol Padwad and Dr Richard Smith. This time our seminar had a distinct international flavour as three mentors from Nepal joined us for the day. The event was a fantastic opportunity for our mentors to get together and share their successes, lessons learnt and challenges to date on the scheme. This resulted in some fruitful discussions and demonstrated how much the mentors have developed and honed their skills in the last six months. The focus then shifted from their work with their mentees to them as mentors. Supported by Amol and Richard, they questioned each other on what aspects of their role they would like to explore further; this would then be used a basis to form their own research question into mentoring teacher researchers.

Dissemination event

A face to face classroom-based research mela was organised on 11 March 2018 at Ambedkar University New Delhi.  This mela was an opportunity for us to share the journey our Aptis Action Research Mentoring Scheme (AARMS) participants have been on. The event began with a plenary session where a group of mentors provided an overview of what has happened since the scheme began in March 2017. They shared information about the participants and activities, summarised the main challenges and achievements as reported by the mentees and mentors. The participants got to explore our interactive marketplace and visited the different stalls that each mentor and their mentees have set up to showcase their research findings and learnings. The key highlight of this event was the workshop on ‘Getting started: What do you need to do to start your own exploratory classroom-based research project?’, delivered by  the ‘super mentors’: Dr Amol Padwad and Dr Richard Smith. This event was attended by a total of 115 people across the city which included teachers, teacher educators, school heads, principals, research scholars and university professors.

Awardees for 2018-19

Xavier Pradheep Singh, Sudipta Singha Roy, Rachna Yadav, Diptiben Trivedi, Shoba K.N., Vanita Chopra, Ipshita Hajra Sasmal, Jenie Christbol Alex, Ekta Goel, Renu Dhotre, Monishita Hajra Pande and Smita Pore. Between them, these 17 mentors worked with over 75 teachers across the country. The coordinators, Professor Rama Mathew and Dr Ravinarayan Chakrakodi worked closely with the awardees over the duration of the scheme.

Project activities  

Induction workshop

On 5-6 May 2018 we held an induction workshop for 13 out of the 14 newly appointed mentors in Delhi. The induction was hosted by the facilitators: Prof Rama Mathew and Dr Ravinarayan Chakrakodi. The mentors were introduced to the main principles and practices of action research, prompting rich and lively discussions around the mentors’ hopes and expectations for their mentees and their projects, the role of a mentor and the types of qualities and skills they would need to effectively support their mentees. Five mentors from our first cohort shared their experience; this proved to be a productive session where our new cohort got to hear first-hand their predecessors’ successes, challenges and lessons learned. 

Mid-year seminar

The mid-year seminar was held on 22 September 2018 at Ambedkar University, New Delhi. This event was open to educational professionals and pre-service teacher trainees and received an overwhelming response of over 110 participants. This exciting seminar provided an opportunity to explore, learn and share thinking around the role of a mentor and what this means when supporting teacher researchers. During this seminar, the audience experienced plenary sessions hosted by Dr Rama Mathew, Jemima Hughes, Dr Amol Padwad and Dr Krishna Dixit that focused on two key areas that underpin this event: mentoring and classroom-based research. The event was followed by a panel discussion chaired by Dr Ravinarayan Chakrakodi comprising of experienced mentors who shared their experiences and learning from mentoring teachers; granting the audience the insights into the dynamics that can be found in the mentor-mentee professional relationship. The last element of the seminar was the presentation from the current cohort of mentors. The mentors articulated four archetypal situations that have emerged when mentoring first time teacher researchers navigating the initial stages of their classroom-based research projects.

Dissemination event

On March 9, 2019, we hosted a classroom-based research festival at Loyola College, Chennai. This event on classroom-based research allowed us to showcase to the Indian educational community the research teachers and mentors had been conducting. This day-long event saw the ARMS mentors host a plenary where they reflected on their learnings and challenges and supporting teachers as they undertake small-scale classroom-based research for the first time. Each mentor and their teachers hosted a stall to present their research projects and findings. A workshop was also held at the event ‘Teachers as researchers: Can everyone do it?’ facilitated by Dr Rama Mathew and Ravinarayan Chakrakodi. This event was attended by a total of 155 people which included teachers, teacher educators, school heads, principals, research scholars and university professors.

Awardees for 2019-20

Ashok Chavan, Dr Asharani Anto, Dr Mithun Khandwala, Dr. Revathi Viswanathan, Harish Patodkar, Lakshmana Rao Pinninti, Lingala Raju, Monish Panda, Ms Pradnya Gokhale, Nazeer Hundekar, Nisar Shaikh, Shikha, Shimona Tyagi, Sutapa Mukherjee, Tanya Gulati, Tanya Kapoor, Vinayadhar Raju Prathikantam

Between them, these 17 mentors worked with over 80 teachers across the country. Two coordinators, Dr Ravinarayan Chakrakodi and Mr. Santosh Mahapatra worked closely with the awardees over the duration of the scheme.

Project activities 

Induction workshop

On 11 - 12 May 2019, we held an induction workshop for the newly appointed mentors in Hyderabad. The mentors were introduced to the main principles and practices of action research, prompting rich and lively discussions around the mentors’ hopes and expectations for their mentees and their projects. Time was also spent exploring the role of a mentor and the types of qualities and skills they would need to effectively support their mentees. Four mentors from a previous cohort shared their experience; this proved a productive session where our new cohort got to hear first-hand their predecessors' successes, challenges and lessons learned. 

Mid-year seminar

The mid-year seminar was held on 7 September 2019 at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad. This event was open to both education professionals and post-graduate students receiving an overwhelming response of over 140 participants. Starting with a plenary by Jason Anderson and Dr Rama Matthew, the audience was treated to a series of sessions by experts, mentors, authors and even storytellers! The audience thoroughly enjoyed the various sessions and explored the differences between academic and teacher research, and exploratory and action research. Multiple elements that play an important role in making teacher research successful were examined and discussed from various perspectives. Participants looked at the importance of teacher-motivation in conducting research of this kind, and also discussed ways to maintain the level of motivation and overcome challenges along the way. The complete cycle of teacher-research was analysed and the different methods of documenting it, were discussed.

An important takeaway for the participants was that the success of teacher-research does not lie in finding a solution to the problem that they are researching, but rather in documenting their journey and sharing their learning. Mentors from the 2019-20 cohort of ARMS also shared their journey with the participants via presentations and Q&A sessions. They highlighted the importance of building a relationship of trust with their mentees, creating a shared purpose, working as a team and sharing experiences with fellow practitioners. At the end of the seminar, Dr Santosh Mahapatra, one of the super-mentors of ARMS, conducted a poll with participants and a sizeable majority showed their willingness to take up classroom-based teacher research in their context – an evidence of the positive impact of the day’s sessions and input!

Dissemination events

In a series of online events from 4 to 8 May 2020, 14 mentors provided an overview of their individual research projects and related findings. For every event 300 people tuned in to find out more about a variety of themes and topics.  We had participants from as far east as the Philippines and Japan and as far west as Ecuador and Mexico: a truly global dissemination event that would not have been possible without online conferencing tools.