Scientific research (in the broader sense) is an activity to create knowledge. Is research an activity for scientists (working in the ivory tower) only? Why should we believe that scientific research (as a form of knowledge creation) is unsuitable and/or useless for anyone else? Why could not an ordinary person create knowledge himself for himself or for others? The methods of scientific research are often very simple. It is argued here that the image of scientific research as an activity suitable for the privileged few only is a belief taken for granted and it is totally unjustified.

At the dawn of mankind when language was not available for communication knowledge creation about the environment was almost entirely experiential and the resulting knowledge was personal. There was a direct link between individuals’ knowledge and their environment via their experiences.

For better chance of survival knowledge needed to become transmittable, in other words, mobile in space and in time. The development of language as a mediating tool between people has made this possible. But it has resulted in something more: it has created an increasingly impersonalised, and publicly more and more available form of explicit knowledge which has gradually become a more and more prominent mediating interface inserted between people and their material and social environment. Public explicit knowledge creation has become a social role of the privileged few, and other people were given the opportunity to access and learn that formalised, explicit ready-for-digestion knowledge by education in a rather passive way. This has led to the development of scientific research and education (formal teaching and learning) as separate and distinct activities in their own right. Do these activities have to be so separate as they are now? If one accepts the positivist paradigm that science discovers truth and justifies it then making publicly available formal explicit knowledge a predominant source which people can use to gain and absorb information from is a sensible model to be followed, as it makes people’s knowledge closer to that truth and it also saves a lot of time to find that truth.

What is the problem then with this, nowadays predominant way of learning as accumulating pre-digested and well presented information? It is not argued at all that mediation as such is wrong but arguably there is a danger of intellectual poverty if not only tools that mediate knowledge (such as language as it is considered in Vygotskyan theory [1]) are socially pre-constructed but also people's personal knowledge itself is largely pre-constructed into a digestible, clean form and thereby almost entirely mediated by some knowledgeable experts. Indeed, if we want changes we need to create appropriate mediating tools for learners that enable them to interact with their material and social environment in a manner akin to professional researchers.

Empowering people to do scientific research offers them:

Therefore this resurrected direct, interactive, cognitively guided contact between people and the world around them is not a return to the past but it is an enrichment of the present with an additional form of gaining information and learning by personal knowledge creation. This personal knowledge does not necessarily mean something novel for the society, but knowledge novel for the person who creates it or for the social group which he is part of.

There are some philosophical movements (which indirectly form public knowledge) that question the validity of scientifically created knowledge, and paradoxically they help introduction of research in schools because they suggest that explicit public knowledge which is largely a product of the sciences should not be taken for granted. These are:

In the area of education all movements that attack the notion of learning as absorbing ready-made knowledge are potential allies in introducing scientific research into school experiences, such as

In addition to the theoretical “push” towards research activities in education provided by these movements, there are also economical demands that “pull” education to that direction:

There are some factors that act as barriers for introducing research activities in schools.

One can classify child researcher experiments in the literature into two categories according to their major purpose: educational or non-educational. There are many examples of the latter group, in which social researchers involve children in research actively as co-researchers in order to use them to gain an insight into children's life or into the social environment in which targeted children live [14]. Although it is possible to derive some useful methodological principles (e.g. the recognised need for regular review sessions) from them, they are less relevant in the educational context.

What is the point of children doing such activities as a part of their education? The reasons can be classified into two categories: advantages from the child’s point of view (progressivist reasons) and advantages from the society’s point of view (instrumentalist reasons).

Two branches of progressivism can be distinguished: the nurturing one, aiming to provide adequate environment for the child’s natural development, and the Vygotskian social interventionist one that tries to achieve the maximum amount of development possible with the child. Whichever branch one belongs to, research activities undoubtedly have developmental potential in all the following aspects:

Instrumentalist reasons are no less convincing either, and include all the following:

Of course the idea of child research activities in education is not new but that is not a surprise given the amount of potential theoretical and paradigmatic support to it mentioned above. Indeed, child research activity has become a well known educational method in primary schools over the last five decades [19]. It is an especially frequently used method in gifted education. Nevertheless, findings do not always indicate that pupils' learning by research is necessarily efficient if adequate ongoing support is not provided [20]. One possible explanation is that the cognitive load concomitant to research activities might be unmanageable by some pupils working on their own [19,20]. As a remedy to that problem structuring those research activities has been found to be useful [19] and it seems that pupils need many forms of guidance and intervention during their research process to make it successful [20]. It is less frequent, however, to provide preliminary formal research training for pupils, but there are some successful examples of that [21,18].

Prof. Zsolnai is a widely known educational innovator of Hungary, whose educational theory could be crudely characterised as the “pedagogy of hope” because he believes that every pupil can be formed and should be formed. His recommended approach to fulfil that hope can be characterised by the expression “enforced progressivism” as it concentrates on forming the child as an individual by developing his/her of needs (need for acceptance, status, appraisal, self-expression), emotions, abilities, behaviour, self-control, willingness, character, attitudes, creativity, self-awareness and desire for justice and democracy by appropriately chosen demanding activities and individualised education [22]. Children doing research is a kind of creative activity that fits very well into his pedagogy, since it seems to have a potential to develop all these aspects of the child simultaneously, and it is an activity that can be easily individualised. In fact, he and his followers believe that creative activities (such as research) should be made available not only to high achievers and talented ones but to all the pupils [17].

Moreover, Prof. Zsolnai has been arguing for a faithful representation of not only outcomes but also processes of sciences in schools since the 1970s [22], which he believes to be made possible by adapting our already existing metaknowledge about the sciences to school context appropriately [15].

Because child research activities harmonise with Prof. Zsolnai's approach to education, it is no wonder that it occurred in one of the primary schools following his principles (in a village called Zalabér). In 1997/98 90% of 6-14 year old pupils of that school did creative projects (including research projects) of their own choice and exhibited its product (research report or art work) to others (children and teachers). The best ones were given the opportunity to compete for prizes by presenting their work for an audience (children, teachers and parents) on "creator days" [16,17].

Experiences with the "creator days" have led to the idea that a proper scientific research training (preceding scientific research executed by the more talented pupils) could be useful for them because it seemed likely to enhance the quality of their research processes, thereby enriching their learning. This idea seemed bold at the time and it was vulnerable to many kinds of criticism [15].

There were too many variables to control for them in the practical experiment ahead. Therefore an action research approach [23] with one year long cycles was chosen. Experiences from a given year was used to prepare and execute the next years' phase of the experiment. Of course the experiment could be called entirely successful if all the following hypotheses (worded by the researchers involved) proved to be right:

As a Pilot Study 17 talented 10-14 year old pupils of the school in Zalabér were offered research training which involved:

Pupils were given opportunities to choose their topic of research in 3 broad areas: ecological problems, economical problems, tragic events of mankind. They were required to submit a 15-30 pages long research report [15]. Pupils were allowed to miss 20 regular school lessons provided that they work according to the schedule. At the end of the term they made a 10 minute long presentation of their research projects for a small audience of professional researchers who asked them questions and gave them feedback [16].

The Pilot Study was repeated (including its training phase) in this year using a larger sample. 10-14 year old pupils of schools of Zala County were offered the opportunity to participate in the talented education programme by then named as "Pupils' Scientific Circles" (PSC) the same way as its then already existing counterpart in secondary schooling [24], and 58 of them volunteered from 6 schools, 31 of which completed the project by submitting a research report and giving a 10 minute long presentation for an audience. Pupils were given oral and written feedback by the assessors who had read their reports and listened to their presentation. This time pupils were allowed to choose any topic from natural or social sciences or arts. 83% of pupils followed the taught algorithm of research in their research reports, and almost half of them could classify their topic in the taxonomy of sciences. [16]

In this school year the number of talented pupils (aged 10-14) participating in the " Pupils' Scientific Circles" have grown to 68 from several counties of Hungary, 48 of which completed their projects. By the end of the third school year experiences collected were judged sufficient to make steps for a considerable expansion.

In the 2001/02 school year the "Pupils' Scientific Circles" competition became countrywide with more than 150 volunteer pupils from 25 schools. To cope with their increased number 3 regional and a national final round were arranged. To improve the quality of pupils' research training (as new feature) 13 school teachers were trained on a short course on how to teach pupils research skills and how to supervise them, and a handbook for the participating teachers was also produced by the researchers for the same purpose. The best 16 pupils of the 38 in the final round were invited for a viva-like examination in front of a committee which consisted of professional researchers who had prepared for the presentation by reading pupils' research reports and after the presentation they disputed children's research methods and results and researcher pupils had to defend their ideas, models, methods and conclusions; and (according to the committee) 6 of them did astonishingly well in that. Another important experience was that pupils of teachers trained for research training did remarkably better than those whose supervisor teacher was untrained.

Another 11 teachers were trained for teaching and supervising research in this school year, and more than 200 pupils participated in the competition. This time pupils were required to do self-evaluation in their research report as well as in their presentation. In addition, the handbook for teachers was updated according to the experiences and another handbook was produced for researcher pupils.

More than 300 pupils participated, and accordingly the number of regions were increased to 5 instead of 3. Pupils were asked to present a synopsis of their work in German or in English both orally and in a written form (which they did well). Performance of all 44 pupils in the national final round were criticised orally after their presentations by professional researchers and PhD students. Both handbooks were updated.

The handbook for pupils is now 43 pages long and it covers the following:

The handbook for teachers is now 89 pages long and it provides an introduction into:

Results strongly confirm all 3 hypotheses of the action research project:

In addition to the positive outcomes, one has to notice that the quality some pupils' work is far beyond what most people would expect from even a talented child between 9 and 14. Without exaggeration, some research reports would have a good chance to be published in scientific research journals. Here are some examples from last years' national final:

Andrea Berekszászi (10 years old): Being and remaining Hungarian in Ukraine. [An empirical research using questionnaires and interviews with Hungarians (children and adults) on both sides of the border, attempting to find reasons for the fact that many Hungarians and their descendants could retain their Hungarian identity after their homeland was annexed by other countries, and for the high importance of that identity to them. Findings point toward the essential role strong family relations play in keeping community folk traditions (connected to religious festivities) alive, thereby helping to retain identity and strengthen its importance.]

Kitti Varga: (11 years old): Children in foster care. [An interview-based research seeking to find answers to the following questions: 1. To what extent people differentiate between children growing up in foster care and others? 2. How much chance do abandoned children have to return to their real parents? Findings indicate a negative discrimination against these children by members of the society especially if they are native Gypsies and a mere one percent chance for abandoned children to return to their real parents partially due to their parents' poverty.]

Tamás Horváth (12 years old): Examination of heart functioning in relation to physical effort. [An empirical research of 143 pupils aged between 11 and 18 based on numerical data of their (systolic and diastolic) blood pressure and pulse in repose, immediately after physical effort, and after some rest following physical effort. Using statistical analysis (t-test) and diagrams data from different groups of the sample (boys and girls, those who do sports regularly and those who do not) are compared. Conclusions about differences detected are discussed and possible physiological explanations for those differences are offered.]

Máté Aczél (13 years old): Bows of the migrant Hungarian tribes. [A partly literature-based, partly experimental research questioning both stereotypical agreement in the literature that 10th century Hungarian tribes had far more effective bows than Western European nations (helping them to win battles) and experimental research methods applied by historians using replicas of ancient Hungarian bows on the basis of their authenticity. Conclusions include that Hungarian reflex bows were probably not better than other contemporary bows and therefore Hungarians' success are more attributable to an auspicious harmonisation of battle tactics, strategy, weapons and logistics; and that the low number and quality of findings from excavations make current replicas largely dependant on unreliable speculative methods applied by their makers.]

János Orsós (8^th year): Gypsies' housing conditions and consumer behaviour in Osztopán. [An empirical (observation- and questionnaire-based) study of Gypsies' housing conditions, consumer behaviour, their expectations about their own and about their children's futures. It is put into a theoretical (social, economical, cultural) context citing depressing findings of earlier research (high Gypsy unemployment rate, incomes of families insufficient for bare living, lost Gypsy identities, diminishing folk customs) and contemplating about possible reasons for the growing gap and barrier between the Gypsy underclass and other layers of the society. Empirical findings include that their homes usually lack certain amenities; that they regularly buy only the most basic goods, but they also purchase fashionable but unnecessary goods such as mobile phones. The author (who is a Gypsy himself) points to education as the only chance for them to find jobs and get out of poverty.]

There are at least three lessons we can learn from the experiences of the action research described above that lead us beyond its original purposes:

I believe that in a not too distant future all jobs will demand a researcher-like attitude to the environment and research-like activities from its workers. This is not a new idea; for example Stenhouse [3] advocated the idea of teachers as researchers almost 3 decades ago. Our experiment shows that educating for research can be started at a very early age and this might be one of the first cornet steps that contribute to the process that leads to a different society in which all people become active and creative researchers; and then "researcher-based society" will be a more adequate slogan than the current knowledge-

based society".