Understanding The Council of All Beings In Climate Teaching

The Council of All Beings is a series of activities designed to connect us with the living Earth and the creatures with whom we share it.

Intellectually we can see that we are all a part of nature, but we behave as if we are apart from it. Even talking about ‘the environment’ seems to separate us from the natural world as if we were outside it. This activity is inspired from the Work That Reconnects (WTR) organisation. It is designed to help our children and young people grow a sense of their ecological selves and develop compassion for all living things on this planet in the face of human destruction.

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Creative Teaching & Learning

(Recording) Session Three: How to Teach Project-Based Learning In A Virtual Environment

23 Feb 2021

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      string(317) "successfully made a difference and the new setting. It is likely to replace problematic practice that needs improvement, rather than replacing something at random, which may actually be working well.One way of looking at the Toolkit is that it is like an encyclopaedia of solutions to educational challenges which ..."
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      string(4473) "successfully made a difference and the new setting. It is likely to replace problematic practice that needs improvement, rather than replacing something at random, which may actually be working well.One way of looking at the Toolkit is that it is like an encyclopaedia of solutions to educational challenges which others have found in the past. The extent of the impact and distribution of the effects gives you a probability of how likely it is to be useful in the future. The problem is that the actual questions to which we have all of these solutions are no longer attached as they are buried in the original research. It is therefore important to consider whether a particular research-based practice is appropriate as a solution to the challenges a particular school or teacher faces.The final practice dimension is how acceptable the findings are. At one level, they have to be educationally acceptable. Some kinds of behavioural change may be very efficiently achieved with pain or discomfort, but they would not be educationally or ethically acceptable. The next level is more difficult to address. To stand a chance of being successful in supporting change, research findings have to be acceptable to the teachers involved. If the findings conflict with deeply held beliefs about effective practice then they may either be rejected and not attempted, or even adopted resentfully and set up to fail. I have always argued that, as a classroom teacher, if you presented me with a robust and rigorously researched reading intervention which was consistently successful when evaluated, that I could guarantee to make it fail in my classroom. Teachers are the gatekeepers of their own practice.There is an irony here that I have experienced. The teachers who are to be more open to research-based approaches often seem to be the ones who are already highly effective. They actively seek to improve their practice and to increase the range of strategies they have to address teaching and learning challenges. They are eager to try out approaches backed by research. By contrast, I feel that sometimes those I thought might benefit most from trying out such strategies are perhaps the ones most likely to find them unacceptable or be unwilling to try something new. There is a clear role her for professional development here to explore and understand teachers’ beliefs when supporting changes in classroom practice.Shared responsibility built on professional expertise.We need to be clear about the limitations as well as the potential benefits of research-informed practice. Research can understand patterns of effects and help us identify ‘good bets’ based on the accumulation of findings across studies.The applicability of these findings is then problematic as we cannot be sure how these general findings apply to a specific context or a particular class of learners. The findings are likely to be helpful, on average, across a large number of classes and schools, but this may not help an individual teacher or a particular school to identify what will work for them.This suggests that research-informed practice should be a partnership between researchers and practitioners where each partner takes responsibility based on their professional expertise. The Toolkit aims to offer an overview of the relative benefits of different areas of education research. It does not, and cannot give precise recommendations for research-based practices to an individual teacher.Top TipsDo start with a problem or a challenge you want to solve. You are more likely to find a solution from research which will help improve learning outcomes for children and young people.Think about what you will stop doing. How will you create the space to do what you think will help?Identify a solution from research that is appropriate and applicable to your context.Remember Bananarama: it ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it! You will need to commit to the solution you have chosen and watch out as you develop it to make sure it is actually helping.Steve Higgins is Professor of Education at Durham University. A former primary school teacher he is passionate about the use of evidence from research to support decision-making in schools. He is the lead author of the EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit and is interested in understanding how best to engage with policy-makers and education practitioners to use research to support effective learning in classrooms."
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21 Feb 2021

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21 Feb 2021

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      string(5537) "Thody’s ‘gurus’ to Decroly and his ‘disciples’. Giving excessive influence to individuals, both within a school and beyond undermines the purpose of research engagement. To associate ideas or principles of teaching to individuals means that there is a danger that teachers will accept or reject ideas based on their personal feelings towards school leaders or personalities rather than critically evaluating the ideas themselves. The goal of research engagement should be to empower teachers in developing their own classroom practice for the benefit of their students. Research engagement must be valued by the teaching profession as a personal journey and process of finding new knowledge rather than a system where we follow the advice of educational gurus.The general consensus regarding the role of the research lead is supporting teachers engaging with educational research, guiding them in resourcing information that can help them find their own solutions to their areas of inquiry. Another interesting and more difficult aspect of the role is to consider the way in which research engagement highlights questions surrounding power. This means calling-out senior leaders who start using ‘the research suggests’ when introducing new school policies when no real academic engagement has taken place. As part of their role, research leads and school leaders aim to remove barriers to research engagement. Part of this process is complexity reduction: linking actions to consequences in a streamlined way. This can lead to the deskilling the very professionals that research engagement should be empowering. I have found myself in a position where I have had to tell school leaders that I do not think their course of action is a true representation of the literature, or that it might not be a good idea to change an entire school policy based on one piece of data. Whilst this is not easy, is it is essential for research leads to do just that to avoid the totalitarianism Biesta warns us against.A final reflection – be self-awareTeachers are under a great deal of pressure to perform well and have acclimatised to a culture that implements changes to teachers rather than with them. Listening to teachers’ concerns about engaging with research should therefore be at the heart of decision making for school leaders and policy makers. Overall, my key guidance is that school leaders and research leads need to be aware of their own biases and limitations in knowledge. Teachers’ various reservations about engaging with educational research all need to be acknowledged as legitimate and addressed. These views must be factored into any further steps towards developing research cultures in schools.Top Tips…for School Leaders:Foster a culture of dialogue. Listen to teachers’ concerns about engaging with research informed practice. This should be part of the dialogue surrounding research informed practice in schools as it creates respectful working relationships.Provide support for research engagement. It is unreasonable to expect busy teachers to engage with research unless there are resources in place to support them with this, such as time and easily accessible resources.Be self-aware and welcome challenge. School leaders must be aware of their own biases and limitations. Research is a positive force for teacher autonomy and school leaders must be open to challenges to the current status quo that may arise from this work.… for Research Leads:Encourage a sceptical stance. Welcome a little healthy cynicism as part of the process of embedding research in practice. Listening to the concerns that teachers have about the introduction of new policies or practices will ensure that decisions are made collectively and having taken into account the context of your school.Don’t be the research know it all! Being the ‘guru’ of educational research in your school may feel satisfying, but it is ultimately misguided and ineffective. Even as a leader of research within your organisation, giving the impression that you know the answers to all your colleague’s questions can lead to unrealistic pressures for you and the danger of linking policy ideas to how they perceive you as a person.… for Teachers:Remember your views matter. You know your class(es) better than anyone and usually hold subject or key stage expertise that your senior leaders and research leads may not have. As such, you are qualified and entitled to ask questions.Use research as a lever for change. Research engagement is an excellent way in which to implement change at school level. If you would like to support change within your school, consider framing your arguments around why the research supports your ideas and how this will benefit the school as a whole.Remember the source and context of research. When engaging with educational research make sure you consider the source of the information you’re reading. Is it a blog or a journal article? Is this from the perspective of an academic or a practitioner? Finally, and most importantly, when reading about ‘what works’, consider that this actually means ‘this worked for them’ Contemplate the answer to the question, ‘will this work in your context?’Claire is a history teacher and Head of Department in a secondary school. In a previous role she worked as Research Lead and Senior Leader responsible for teaching, learning and innovation. Her EdD research explores teachers’ and leaders’ perceptions of research-informed practice."
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21 Feb 2021

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      string(782) "benefits to both policy and practice.We need trusted conduits to do this job (trusted to do it without fear or favour). Research leads in schools are one possibility. Toolkits are another. But both models need rapid improvment, especially in terms of assessing and calibrating studies on the basis of their trustworthiness. Another area for improvement is initial teacher development courses. Each of these would help teachers to retain an appropriate level of autonomy, while not being part of the traditional, and largely ineffective, CPD model.Teachers need to overcome resistance to using and learning about research, so that they do not simply have research-led approaches imposed upon them.Stephen GorardDurham University Evidence Centre for Educations.a.c.gorard@durham.ac.uk"
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Professional Development

How Can We Help Teachers To Promote Evidence-Led Teaching?

21 Feb 2021