How Can Schools Use Evidence To Improve Teaching?

Steve Higgins sets out how the Education Endowment Foundation’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit can help make evidence school friendly so that it can be readily used to improve practice.

Making evidence accessible, accurate and actionable

This article provides an overview of the Toolkit the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) Teaching and Learning Toolkit and summarises what I see as the potential contribution it makes to research-informed teaching and to professional development and learning in schools. It focuses on the challenges of making evidence both accessible and accurate as well as in a way that is sufficiently actionable to ensure improvement. Publishing summaries of evidence doesn’t automatically translate into schools improving their teaching practices. Sometimes people misinterpret what you intended.

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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(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. 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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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Professional Development

Teacher Research Engagement - Overcoming Barriers

21 Feb 2021

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Professional Development

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

21 Feb 2021