Growing research capital for school improvement

Chris Brown explores how “research capital” can be used as the basis for school and school system improvement, modelled on an evaluative case study of a federation of schools.

What can be done to foster positive attitudes towards, and engagement in, research by teachers so that this increased “research capital” can in turn result in improvement dividends? This ambition is explored in this article and illustrated through a case study of three schools working together within the Chestnut Learning Federation.

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      string(451) "... literacy-campaignReferencesBrown, C. (2017). ‘Growing research capital for school improvement’, Professional Development Today, 19, 1, 52-58.Brown, C., and Zhang, D. (2016). ‘How can school leaders establish evidence-informed schools: an analysis of the effectiveness of potential school policy levers’, Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 45, 3, 382-401 ..."
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      string(6002) "is research used in practice? We were able to ascertain whether or not teachers said they used research evidence to inform or change classroom practice, but we were unable to explore how the evidence was implemented, adapted and evaluated.What is the role of school culture, trust and relationships in supporting research use?What is the relationship between teacher research and academic research? How do, and can, these different forms of research evidence interact?We also need better understanding about how teachers ‘blend’ research evidence with other sources of information to create an evidence-informed approach. Our survey considers how teachers’ use of research evidence compares with use of other sources (such as CPD information or colleagues’ expertise), but in an evidence-informed school we would expect these sources of information to complement and support each other. This is an explicit objective of EEF-funded scale-up activities; hence, ongoing evaluations should provide useful insights on the interplay between these different forms of evidence.Finally, our research suggests that many teachers have a natural interest in, and inclination to use, research evidence, although this interest is not necessarily translating to their decision-making processes or knowledge of research. This relationship needs investigating in more detail; nevertheless, this study suggests a number of avenues are worth exploring in terms of integrating research into the day-to-day work of schools:Research producers can build on teachers’ natural tendency to draw on their colleagues and other schools for support, by working through ‘practice partners’ – educators with good understanding of research and practice, who can both ‘translate’ research for school improvement and classroom practice and act as ‘advocates’ for the evidence. They should also ensure that research findings are presented clearly and accessibly, with linked guidelines for implementation.Training and professional-development providers can help teachers develop a working level of ‘research literacy’, enabling them to understand and critique research literature so that they can successfully expand their knowledge base. CPD providers should be explicit in identifying where research evidence has informed the development of resources and training.School senior leaders can model their tendency towards higher levels of research engagement with their colleagues, creating opportunities for the wider staff in their schools to develop their understanding and use of research evidence, and matching this with necessary resources. This is particularly important in the primary phase.Prof. Jonathan Sharples, Education Endowment Foundation and EPPI-Centre, University College London.Dr. Julie Nelson, National Foundation for Educational Research.NOTES1. http://www.workingoutwhatworks.com/2.  https://researchschool.org.uk3.  https://www.collegeofteaching.ac.uk/4.   http://www.ntrp.org.uk/5.  http://www.esri.mmu.ac.uk/carnnew/6. The full findings are available at https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/our-work/resources-centre/research-use-survey/ 7.  https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/eef-launches-1.5-million-fund-to-improve-use-of-research-in-schools/8. 	This measure of uncertainty applies to a random sample of schools; and of teachers within schools. With bias in the sampling, the true population percentage could lie outside this range.9.  https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/resources/teaching-learning-toolkit10. See the work of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Centre for Educational Research and Innovation on this topic: http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/neuromyths.htm11. See Pedagogy and Practice: Teaching and Learning in Secondary’ Schools from the Department for Education and Skills, 2004 : http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/5706/7/DfES%200442-2004G%20PDF_Redacted.pdf12. Statistical significance was set to p<0.05. This means there is a less than five per cent possibility that a reported difference could have arisen by chance if there was really no true difference.13. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/north-east-literacy-campaignReferencesBrown, C. (2017). ‘Growing research capital for school improvement’, Professional Development Today, 19, 1, 52-58.Brown, C., and Zhang, D. (2016). ‘How can school leaders establish evidence-informed schools: an analysis of the effectiveness of potential school policy levers’, Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 45, 3, 382-401. ■ Brown C. (Ed) (2015). Leading the Use of Research and Evidence in Schools. London: IOE Press. ■ Centre for the Use of Research & Evidence in Education (2011). Report of Professional Practitioner Use of Research Review: Practitioner Engagement in and/or with Research. Coventry: CUREE [online]. Available: http://www.curee.co.uk/files/publication/[site-timestamp]/Practitioner%20Use%20of%20Research%20Review%20-%20FINAL%2011_02_11.pdf [29 June, 2015]. ■ Greany, T. (2015). ‘How can evidence inform teaching and decision making across 21,000 autonomous schools? Learning from the journey in England.’ In Brown, C. (Ed) Leading the use of Research & Evidence in schools. London: Institute of Education Press. ■ Handscomb and MacBeath (2003) The Research Engaged School. FLARE Essex County Council. ■ Hargreaves, D. (1996). ‘Teaching as a research-based profession: possibilities and prospects.’ Paper presented at the Teacher Training Agency Annual Lecture,"
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Leadership

Teacher research engagement: what do we know and what can we learn?

20 Jun 2017

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      string(357) "... research and practice: a case of back to the future? In: Chapman, C., Armstrong, P., Harris, A., Muijs, D., Reynolds, D. and Sammons, P. (eds) School Effectiveness and Improvement Research, Policy and Practice: Challenging the Orthodoxy. New York, NY, USA: Routledge ■ Chapman, C., Lowden, K Chestnutt, H.R Hall ..."
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      string(4201) "real value may lie in their leverage for handing greater responsibility, decision-making, ownership and, perhaps most crucially, power over to teachers. Lawrence Stenhouse’s words on this issue are just as relevant now as they were over a third of a century ago:Only the pursuit of research directly applied to the curriculum and teaching puts the teacher in the power position; for he [sic] is in possession of the only valid laboratory, the classroom. (Stenhouse, 1980, p. 44)Put simply, Stenhouse reminds us that it is teachers who change classrooms not policies or protocols. These types of initiatives provide a positive context that place teachers at the centre of educational change and empower them to lead the change at a time when so many policies place them at the margins, with little power or control. If schools are to play their full role in tackling educational inequities in an authentic way we must place teachers and teacher leadership at the centre of reforms and provide the power and resources to undertake the task in hand within their own schools, in collaboration with other schools and in partnership with the communities and families they serve. In this sense the move to further empower teachers within Scotland provides us with a significant opportunity to both raise the bar and close the gap in educational outcomes for all of Scotland’s children.This article is based on a paper prepared for Scottish Government.Professor Christopher Chapman and Kevin LowdenRobert Owen Centre for Educational Change. University of Glasgow.ReferencesAinscow, M., Dyson, A., Goldrick, S., and West, M. (2012) Making schools effective for all: rethinking the task. School Leadership & Management, 32 (3), pp.197-213. ■ Bryk, A.S., Gomez, L.M., Grunow, A. and LeMahieu, P.G. (2015) Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better, Harvard University Press, Boston, MA. ■ Chapman, C., and Hadfield, M. (2010) Supporting the middle tier to engage with school-based networks: change strategies for influencing and cohering. Journal of Educational Change, 11(3), pp. 221-240. (doi:10.1007/s10833-009-9125-y) ■ Chapman, C. (2012) School improvement research and practice: a case of back to the future? In: Chapman, C., Armstrong, P., Harris, A., Muijs, D., Reynolds, D. and Sammons, P. (eds) School Effectiveness and Improvement Research, Policy and Practice: Challenging the Orthodoxy. New York, NY, USA: Routledge ■ Chapman, C., Lowden, K Chestnutt, H.R Hall, S McKinney, S Hulme, M and Friel, N (2014) “The School Improvement Partnership programme: Using collaboration and inquiry to tackle educational inequity,” Report to Education Scotland. Livingston. Education Scotland. ■ Chapman, C., Lowden, K., Chestnutt, H.R., Hall, S., McKinney, S., Hulme, M. and Friel, N. (2015) “The School Improvement Partnership programme: using collaboration and inquiry to tackle educational inequity”, Report to Education Scotland, Education Scotland, Livingston. ■ Chapman, C., Chestnutt, H., Friel, N., Hall, S. and Lowden, K. (2016),”Professional capital and collaborative inquiry networks for educational equity and improvement?”, Journal of Professional Capital and Community, Vol. 1, No. 3 pp. 178 – 197 ■ Cochran-Smith, M., and Lytle, S.L. (2009) Inquiry as stance: Practitioner research for the next generation. New York: Teachers College Press ■ Earl, E. and Katz, S. (2006) Leading Schools in a Data-Rich World: Harnessing Data for School Improvement. Corwin. ISBN-10: 1412906466 ■ Hargreaves, D (2012) A self-improving school system: Towards maturity, Nottingham: NCSL ■ Hadfield, M and Chapman, C (2009) Leading school-based networks. Oxon: Routledge ■ Kerr, D., Aiston, S., White, K., Holland, M. and Grayson, H. (2003) Literature Review of Networked Learning Communities, NFER, NCSL commissioned research. ■ Stenhouse, L (1980) Curriculum Research and the Art of the Teacher Curriculum, 1 (1) Spring"
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Executive Leadership

Growing teacher leadership

13 Mar 2017

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      string(350) "... leadership teams and governing bodies of the country’s schools. This research offers a fascinating consideration of the schools’ landscape and clearly highlights how it has evolved over the 10 years since the first review of school leadership in England in 2002. By the National College for School Leadership - 2012"
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      string(455) "... schools that ‘accept responsibility for self-improvement of the cluster as a whole’ (Hargreaves,2010:5) and work together to co-construct effective new practice. School clusters, Hargreaves argues, shoulddevelop social capital (trust and reciprocity), collaborative capital ( joint analysis, investigation, innovation,evaluation), professional development and distributed system leadership (Hargreaves, 2011 ..."
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      string(562) "The English education system is experiencing an era of unprecedented change, at least as significant as the move to Local Management of Schools after 1988. Nowhere are these changes more keenly felt than amongst the leadership teams and governing bodies of the country’s schools. This research offers a fascinating consideration of the schools’ landscape and clearly highlights how it has evolved over the 10 years since the first review of school leadership in England in 2002. By the National College for School Leadership - 2012"
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      string(5809) "schools focused on school improvement can increasestudent attainment after between two and four years. Hill and Matthews (2010) argue that NLEs can rapidlyincrease student achievement in previously low-attaining schools. Ofsted (2010) reports that school-to-school collaboration for improvement has benefits for outstanding schools as well as the schools theysupport. Hill et al (2012) argue that academy chains can raise attainment in deprived areas, but thatthe performance of weaker chains needs to be addressed. Curtis et al (2008) also note that admissions,exclusions and the power of sponsors in respect of local representation across chains will need to bemonitored.There is also an association between widening system leadership roles and the extension of distributedleadership. In part this is operational. Schools in which the headteacher and other staff engage in substantiveexternal roles need to build new internal leadership capacity. But it can also be strategic. Matthews et al(2011) found that ‘outstanding’ schools involved in multiple school partnerships worked purposefully toidentify and develop new leaders, including by constructing their partnerships to provide a range of hands-onexperiences, acting roles and mentoring opportunities for future leaders. Working alone, the schools wouldhave found these opportunities hard to provide.Government commitment to formal system leadership roles has been renewed in recent policy. TheDepartment for Education (HM Government, 2010), via the National College, plans to increase the number ofNLEs from about 400 in 2010 to 1,000 by 2014, and the number of LLEs from 1,400 in 2010 to around 2,000by 2014. A specialist leader in education (SLE) role will enable outstanding teachers to share knowledgeand practice with colleagues in other schools. A teaching school designation has also been created withthe aspiration that outstanding schools will lead local school alliances to co-ordinate the training anddevelopment of teachers and provide school-to-school support for improvement. The National Collegeplans to designate 500 teaching school alliances by 2014/15 and announced the first 100 in July 2011. InNovember 2012, there were 217 designated teaching schools.The government is also committed to rapidly increasing the number of schools that are academies, boththrough intervening in low-attaining schools to create more sponsored academies and by enabling schools toapply for academy status as converter academies. All schools can now apply (following an initial restrictionby Ofsted grading). Academies are independent from local authority governance and management. Theygain directly the funding their local authority received to support them as a locally maintained school. Theybecome their own admissions authority and also gain freedoms including those related to the nationalcurriculum and staff pay and conditions.29 © National College for School LeadershipIn October 2012, the Department for Education reported that there were 2,373 academies open in England,up from only 203 in September 2010, meaning 2,170 schools had become academies in 2 years. Overthat period the number of sponsored academies has risen from 203 to 512 and the number of converteracademies from 0 to 1,861. In October 2012, academies accounted for 45 per cent of all secondary schoolsand 5 per cent of all primaries in England. Academy-sponsored chains are a growing, if still small, part of theleadership landscape (see Hill et al, 2012).Hargreaves (2010) has proposed a conceptual model of how schools might draw upon autonomy and systemleadership to establish a ‘self-improving school system’. At its centre is a ‘local solutions approach’ withinclusters of schools that ‘accept responsibility for self-improvement of the cluster as a whole’ (Hargreaves,2010:5) and work together to co-construct effective new practice. School clusters, Hargreaves argues, shoulddevelop social capital (trust and reciprocity), collaborative capital ( joint analysis, investigation, innovation,evaluation), professional development and distributed system leadership (Hargreaves, 2011). The modelhas real strengths, not least in that schools are encouraged to conceive of autonomy collaboratively. Theyare also assumed to lead the process of change, rather than being driven by external compulsion, whichhas been shown to be an unsustainable substitute for professional leadership, ownership and participation(Bryk et al, 2010; Elmore, 2004; Fullan, 2004, 2010; Fullan & Boyle, 2011; Katz & Earl, 2010; Muijs, 2010;Leithwood, 2010; and Thomson et al, 2011).There are, however, several potential constraints to the realisation of Hargreaves’s model in practice. First,the workings of accountability, lingering competition and uncertainty may undermine a system organisedaround local clusters. Second, new autonomies for schools and a reduced role for many local authorities arealso intended to stimulate a new school improvement market. Teaching school alliances and schools willincreasingly compete with chains, consultants, companies and indeed local authorities to sell services toschools. Access to a wider pool of advice, including from other schools, may be welcome, but reconciling amarket with social and collaborative capital may prove difficult, especially where knowledge is to be sold aswell as shared.There may also, in practice, be a segmentation of capacity and willingness to engage with and shape aself-improving system. The National College’s 2012 annual survey indicated that a majority of schools werebroadly"
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Leadership

Review of the school leadership landscape

6 Jul 2017

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      string(5662) "Does the notion of Outdoor Learning immediately conjure up for you Forest Schools? Minibeast safaris? or food growing?  All these activities are very worthwhile of course, but this article looks at another aspect of learning outside the classroom.The school grounds are a huge and often underused learning resource and ‘classroom’ space, where there is open air and opportunity for practical activities, louder, bigger, wetter and messier learning. This is generally accompanied by fun and laughter too.  So, my working life as a landscape architect has revolved around helping children and teachers to make the best use of this space, for everyday core curriculum delivery and enrichment. I also believe that engagement in the process of change, during implementing school ground developments large or small, is a valuable learning opportunity. This article explores this in more detail.Learning through design and buildLandscape architects and teachers could make a lot more of the possibilities of engaging children in the process of design and build, whether on the scale of a major development, a small extension project that impacts the grounds, or modest playground modifications. Budgets are always tight, and funding children’s engagement might be considered a luxury, however, the learning benefits can add weight to the argument to allocate a percentage of the capital budget for specialist support to do this. Some schools use their pupil premium funding to support this enriching learning opportunity.  Many schools have valued the opportunity to engage children meaningfully in their grounds projects and feel it is important to do so. Even small projects benefit from the overview and experience of a landscape architect who really understands schools and can work effectively with children and staff. We can ask the right questions, to be sure that budgets are spent carefully and that real needs are met, to enhance outdoor learning and play from early years to secondary. Remember that this is not always the same as perceived needs! Skillful observation of the grounds in use, together with insights from the children themselves is the starting point.Engagement in the process of changeKeeping the learner at the heart of design is key, and children are often consulted, but are they engaged? Adults who are pressured by time frames and other imperatives take the decisions.  I would argue that children should also have the opportunity to begin to understand the process of change, and the complexity of these decisions.  How better to do this, than to have them involved in school grounds development projects. Depending on scale, this can either be shadowing a larger scheme and developing a part of it, or for smaller tasks undertaking the whole project themselves, with support.  Children are often asked what they ‘want’ when planning playground changes, but they need experiences and reference points to answer this question effectively.  Instead, we may take children and staff on research visits (for larger scale projects) and on-site problem identification ‘audits’ to make sure that the right questions are asked. Children are the best guides for tours of their grounds and always give us excellent insight into issues that need resolution and, just as importantly, what works really well already and why! (so you don’t change something inadvertently  that supports creative play or important learning opportunities!) Feeling pride in achievementThe Building Schools for the Future program and Primary Capital Program in the 2000s used laudable involvement programs for children, but there was lack of clarity about how the outcomes and opinions expressed by the children actually informed or influenced the resulting design outcomes. There was very little to show the children whether their work made any difference.  Did this turn out to be tokenistic? I believe in many cases it was. This article advocates a different approach, scalable to any sized project.  Also, when the inevitable value engineering takes place, the children should be involved in these decision too, in an age appropriate way.  If not, Heads can expect protest letters asking for explanations! A group of Yr10 students did just this after their Quad designs had been ‘simplified’ by staff not involved in the project, who did not consider other options for cost reductions that would still have met the brief and, most significantly, without any reference back to the students  or staff who were involved in the design.  However, when they are involved, and even if plans change, children report feeling a great sense of pride in their achievements when they can see how their work made a difference. Colwall Primary School – Case studyThis was a low budget project to support positive behaviour at breaktimes. Children and staff looked at playtime activities to identify the issues and missing experiences (upper body activity and imaginative play) Yr6 children then made scaled models of ideas for fixed and modular resources which formed the brief for contractors. 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Leadership

Outdoor Learning… In The Playground

16 Jan 2018

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