Question 6
What are the immediate, practical problems that other teacher users of research come across - and what are the answers?
What do we know about making use of research efficient - making it a way of working smarter not harder?
It's important to make sure that practitioner research questions address an issue that the teachers involved and the school care about deeply or have to tackle anyway. Effective use of research is about tackling very practical problems
It's important too to make sure the evidence you collect is useful in enhancing teaching and learning in its own right, as well as in answering research questions. For example, collecting learning logs from pupils about how they feel about new approaches to teaching and learning not only points to new approaches to teaching and learning, it provides a way of triangulating or checking the teachers' own perceptions – and gives teachers insights that can help to shape the next lesson.
It is possible and helpful to take the bureaucracy out of enquiry by providing efficient back up. For example, having support in identifying the work of other relevant studies, analysing and coding observation records or videos, or transcribing tape recordings can take the slog out of enquiry. Collaboration with HEIs and LEAs and partnerships between schools, for example via Leadership Improvement Grants (LIG) and Network Learning Communities, can all create extra capacity, perhaps through the purchasing of a research assistant who can provide back up, or information on access to research articles or lists of freelance tape transcribers and their daily rates.
What about time? Are there examples of teachers finding creative solutions to the problems of cover?
Here are some examples of how teachers have used effective support mechanisms
Teachers in the North East and Manchester and Salford School Based Research Consortia found that setting up video recordings of particular groups of students or lessons where new activities were being trialled, not only saved teachers from having to leave their classes, they also served as a great stimulus for building a shared language about teaching and learning. Some teachers succeed in setting up a video recording on their own - but where a research or learning assistant operated the video, the activities recorded were more closely targeted on the teachers particular learning goals
In the Leeds Consortium teachers developed an observation schedule or framework that enabled them to drill down deep into a specific aspect of a lesson, in regular but very short sessions (often only 10 minutes long). This meant that headteachers and other colleagues were able to provide cover easily. The observation schedule, however, still provided food for one or two hours of analysis at the end of the school day.
Other schools are developing the role of cover assistants to support CPD.
In NUT-sponsored peer coaching programmes, teachers learn how to observe each other and provide feedback in ways that are specifically targeted at providing information closely targeted at teachers individual learning needs in non threatening, non judgemental, yet probing ways.
In Networked Learning Communities teachers are using "Learning Walks" for pairs of teachers to explore and dig under the surface of the working cultures of each others schools. They are also using "Action Learning Sets" to support collaborative problem solving by teachers.
Where might we go for examples of effective practitioner enquiry?
A range of web sites have been developed to provide examples of effective practitioner engagement in and with research. You can find summaries of practitioner enquiries that teachers have found effective on a number of web sites:
TTA
Best Practice Research Scholarships
NCSL
Where might we go for advice, support and information?
Building a partnership with a local HEI is something that has paid dividends for many schools. It is possible, if you have lots of colleagues who are interested, for a modular Masters programme to be developed, so that there is both financial support and accreditation for a number of teacher enquirers working together. A longer-term relationship also helps you to build a network of contacts with a range of specialists in an HEI. Particularly helpful HEIs are also willing to put you or your colleagues in touch with specialists in other institutions, so that you can work with colleagues at the leading edge of a particular issue.
If you don't have a local HEI or knowledge of where different specialists are to be found, the websites that have published examples of teacher enquiries should illustrate for you examples of what you are looking for and provide the name of the institution and tutor who supported that work.
If you would like to explore the range of web sites aiming to inform teachers about academic research or provide information about other resources and find opportunities, click here to connect to National Teacher Research Panel web links page.
How do we access information on what's already known about a specific topic from different studies?
The DfES has commissioned the University of London Institute of Education to establish a centre (known as the EPPI Centre) for supporting and encouraging groups of researchers and/or practitioners to undertake systematic reviews of the research evidence about a number of topics relevant to teachers, parents, governors and students. These reviews not only identify all of the studies capable of addressing a specific question they also weigh the evidence involved in all the studies that relate closely to the question and make available on-line an electronic, searchable summary of that data (the REEL database). The review groups registered to date are:
Assessment and Learning Research Synthesis Group (ALRSG)
English Review Group
Inclusive Education Review Group
School Leadership Review Group
Continuing Professional Development Review Group
Early Years Review Group
Modern Languages Review Group
Thinking Skills Review Group
Art and Design Education Review Group
Citizenship Review Group
Science Review Group
Transitions Review Group
Non-DfES:
Post-compulsory Review Group
Learning and Teaching Skills Network (LTSN) Review conducted in-house
You can find out more at http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk
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