How to … plan your research project

Often people realise too late that more time spent at the planning stage of their research activity would have been a good idea. Thinking time before you embark on a project can be crucial to its eventual success. In this helpful guide Mark Rickinson asks what research is, what it involves and how you can plan research so that it is effective.

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      string(3634) "specialises in research and evaluation,research reviews and research training (www.markrickinson.co.uk). He is also a Research Fellow atOxford University Department of Education and thePolicy Studies Institute, London.Dr Mark RickinsonEducational Research ConsultantIsis Innovation CentreHowbery ParkWallingfordOX10 8BA.■■■■■■■20How to… plan your research project……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………➜How to…References: Bell, A.J. (1993). Doing Your Research Project. Buckingham: Open University Press. ■ Gillham, B. (2007). Developing a Questionnaire.London: Continuum. 2nd edition. ■ Gillham, B. (2000). The Research Interview. London: Continuum. ■ Handscomb, G. and MacBeath, J. (2003). TheResearch Engaged School. Essex: Forum for Learning and Research Enquiry (FLARE), Essex County Council. ■ Morris, A. (2004). From Idea to Impact: aGuide to the Research Process. London: Learning and Skills Research Centre. ■ MacBeath, J., Demetriou, H., Rudduck, J. and Myers, K. (2003). ConsultingPupils: a Toolkit for Teachers. Cambridge: Pearson. ■ Robson, C. (2002). Real World Research: a Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner–Researchers. Oxford: Blackwell. ■ Morris, A. and Norman, L. (2004). Collaborative Research in Practice. London: Learning and Skills ResearchCentre. ■ Morris, M. and Twitchin, R. (1990). Evaluating Flexible Learning: a Users’ Guide. Slough: NFER. ■ Nutley, S., Solesbury, W. and Percy-Smith, J. (2003). Models of Research Impact: A Cross-sectoral Review of Literature and Research. London: Learning and Skills Research Centre.■ Stenhouse, L. (1975). An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development. London: Heinemann. ■ Wagner, J. (1993). Ignorance ineducational research: or how can you ‘not’ know that?, Educational Researcher, 22, 5, 15–23. ■ Wellington, J. (2000). Educational Research.Contemporary Issues and Practical Approaches. London: Continuum ■ www.gtce.org.uk/teachers/rft/ The General Teaching Council forEngland’s research page for teachers, formerly called ‘Research of the Month’. ■ www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/research The DCSF’s ResearchInformed Practice site with searchable digests of research for practitioners. ■ www.ttrb.ac.uk The Teacher Training Resource Bank (TTRB)with resources for teacher educators, practitioners and student teachers. ■ www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/ntrp The website of the NationalTeacher Research Panel, an advisory body of teacher researchers. ■ www.eep.ac.uk The Educational Evidence Portal (eep), which bringstogether educational evidence from a range of reputable UK sources using a single search. ■ www.essexflare.org The Forum for Learningand Research Enquiry (FLARE) website is dedicated to promoting practitioner and student enquiry and research, and includes guidancerelating to the research engaged school. ■ www.pre-online.co.uk/ Practical Research for Education (pre), NFER’s online summaries ofresearch for schools and education professionals."
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Professional Development

How to plan your research project

22 Sep 2009

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      string(5761) "knowledge and social developments. This recognition of the potency of local knowledge is longstanding and spans the ages. In the 18th century Giambattista Vico (1725) captured its significance in the following description: “This is a sort of knowing which participants in an activity claim… the knowledge of the actors as against the audience, the ‘inside story’ as opposed to the ‘outside’ vantage point; knowledge by ‘direct acquaintance’ …or by sympathetic insight into those of others.” It also features centrally in contemporary thinking and practice. Powerful examples are the work of Bryk, Gomez, and Grunow (2011) exploring practitioner engagement in local problem solving through Networked Improvement Communities, and the proposals around design-based research partnerships which take a solutions approach and focus on long-term, in-depth work within a local district (Coburn, Penuel and Geil, 2013).In all of this, recognition of the importance of the insider’s knowledge, coupled with and empowered by an inquiry state of mind, is about acknowledging a different outlook and the improvement leverage that such knowledge can bring:“Inquiry as stance is neither a top-down nor a bottom-up theory of action, but an organic and democratic one that positions practitioners’ knowledge, practitioners, and their interactions with students and other stakeholders at the center of educational transformation.” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009)Case study examplesThe following case studies provide examples of how schools have successfully harnessed the benefits of enquiry as an integral feature of professional learning.  The first case study (Box2) shows how a group of primary schools collaborated to establish a consortium wide approach. The second example (Box 3) outlines how a secondary school made school-based enquiry the foundation of its learning community and improvement in student learning. All reflect the dynamic between research engagement, professional learning and school improvement which is at the heart of this chapter. Above all, they demonstrate that it is teachers who will change the world of the classroom by understanding it (Stenhouse, 1985).Box 2: Case Study 1: Collaborative professional learning and research engagement – Rural primary schools consortium:Four small rural schools within a Primary Schools Consortium in Essex worked in partnership with the University of Cambridge Department for Education on a school improvement research initiative. The group of schools had established themselves into a consortium for some time. The success of the consortium was reflected in the investment each school made in terms of:Consortium management – regular management meetings attended by all headteachers; robust consortium management proceduresDevelopment planning – all schools committed to specific actions to implement in the consortium development planFinance – each school investing £1 per pupil into the consortium financesProfessional development – common non-pupil days and common weekly staff meetings agreed across the consortium to enable joint professional development linked to the consortium development plan.This research project arose out of several years experience of working together for professional development purposes, including work with Cambridge University.  At consortium management meetings the schools’ headteachers consider the individual needs of schools and identify areas for shared INSET provision and school improvement projects.The project focused on school based enquiry. It was decided that three non-pupil days involving all (40) teaching staff at the above schools would be devoted to this project and two twilight sessions per term for staff.  An accreditation outcome was the award of the Cambridge Certificate of Further Professional Study.  Teachers would pursue some school-based enquiry using research methods to study aspects of Teaching and Learning linked to monitoring and evaluation.  Theoretical aspects of teaching and learning and monitoring and evaluation linked to management (subject leader roles) and school based enquiry were introduced on the two non-pupil days.   Following practice in research techniques – carrying out interviews, questionnaires, observations – each school chose to focus on enquiries which were relevant to their own school development. These were:How effective is the ICT suite in supporting children’s learning.Improving writing. Linking writing to motor skills at KS 1 and strategies to improve spelling at KS2. Investigating ways to improve children’s ability to read and write for information.Investigating the development of Listening Skills.Developing thinking skills.  Whilst each school pursued its own lines of enquiry it used schools in the consortium to help with planning and test out ideas and development.  Assistance from the university staff with theory and research methodology enabled some rigour to the investigations.The project involved staff from all schools engaging in research based improvement. Originally a select range of staff from each school participated. However, as the popularity of the project grew many more took part and in some schools all the staff, including support staff, conducted a research project.  This meant that there was a critical mass of research development in each school. “Both children and staff in each school have benefited from the research and progress has been made in the development of our schools as"
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Professional Development

Professional Learning Through Enquiry!

13 Feb 2019

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      string(5786) "now say that they wish to pursue further active research, 98.5% believe that it will have a positive impact on their teaching, and 100% of staff have asked to repeat the ‘research day’ experience in future INSET days. This is how we did it.Modelling research in practiceTo start the process, we emphasised the ways in which teachers are all researchers already. Someone who goes away to read about a new text or topic before teaching is engaging in research.  Being a reflective practitioner, teaching a lesson and then revising it to deliver it to a different group, is research. Trying out a strategy you read about on Twitter is a form of research, albeit not one which may be written up in a journal. In order to model for staff how research could be brought into practice, we focused an INSET session in the first year upon the issue of boys’ achievement, which was a school priority. The session commenced with a presentation of the facts and research about how boys and girls achieve in different areas. We asked staff to consider whether they thought there was an inherent difference in the ways that boys and girls learn, and introduced them to some of the research that addressed the issue, including a spot of “mythbusting” which raised some of the different ways of thinking about the topic.By sitting staff in cross-curricular groups, facilitated by a member of staff who was not a middle or senior leader (though all staff participated in the groups), we encouraged them to discuss the input with people not in their own subject area. We kept them in these groups to compare books across subjects, encouraging discussion about how learning looked in our school, in our  context–a key aspect of teacher-led research. Each group had in it at least one person whom we knew would have the potential to act as a catalyst for others, and the topic provoked lively debate.Each group of staff was then asked to commit to a plan working with the people in their group over the following term. Various possibilities were suggested: to visit each other’s lessons and focus on a specific area of practice; to track a particular student or group of students; to explore a hypothesis about learning in your different subject areas; to do a joint learning walk or even to plan a small research project. Staff were encouraged to try strategies that took little time. One popular suggestion was a ‘plenary swap’, where teachers visit the last fifteen minutes of each other’s lessons. Another was a ‘marking locum’ where staff swap and mark a set of books. Colleagues were given freedom as to the project, but a focus on boys’ achievement as a whole-school priority was encouraged.The training got positive feedback; people were excited and interested by the idea of looking closely at a whole-school issue, and happy to go and watch others teach. Teachers reported on what they’d done on our next INSET day, and we had some wonderful outcomes, including musicians and scientists comparing how they dealt with practical work, and humanities teachers watching PE staff to find out about how to develop more effective questioning. As the year went on, people further developed their projects, and we started to see real impact. Interest grew. Boys’ achievement became something that people talked about, and argued about, and discussed when they were looking at teaching and learning. It might be a coincidence that in that summer’s GCSEs, with all results improved, boys nonetheless achieved higher than girls in both progress and attainment, but it felt like a consequence.Trying new thingsWith a lot of positive comments from staff about the research projects that they had commenced, it was the negative comments that were the most helpful in planning our next steps. Although many  were ready to become research active, a smaller number did not really want to get involved, seeing it as a distraction from their main work. Having started the research conversation, we felt that the next stage was to enquire in more depth about what people wanted and expected from their training. In other words, the conversation had been started, but there was still a lot to do.‘Google forms’ was invaluable for this part of the research: it produces instant charts and diagrams to display results, and allowed us to combine multiple-choice questioning with longer and more reflective written answers. We quickly found that there was a demand from staff for input and expertise from outside, but also a new hunger to work independently and start their own research.One of the positive outcomes from the research focus was that a number of people wanted to start working parties in different areas. One group specifically didn’t want to be involved with any school-based projects, but nonetheless determined to meet at regular intervals to discuss different pieces of research. One Head of Department started a new feature of department meetings where colleagues were given an article or book section to look at and reflect on, and then tell people about at the next meeting–it was a huge success, and led to lots of new strategies being trialled.One of the things that we noticed coming up again and again in the feedback was how much people enjoyed having more autonomy about what they did in INSET time. We therefore trialled some ‘carousel’ sessions, based on the priorities which we had identified through questionnaires, on the next INSET day. People were able to spend some time attending sessions which were specifically tailored to"
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Professional Development

Why Research Often Has Zero Impact On Teaching - And How INSET Can Make The Difference

8 Apr 2021