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IOE Research and Development Network
Engaging with and in research in order to make a difference for pupils
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Four criteria for a self-improving system (drawn from The Importance of Teaching and Goldacre report)
1. Teachers and schools are responsible for their own improvement 2. Teachers and schools learn from each other and from research so that effective practice spreads 3. The best schools and leaders extend their reach across other schools so that all schools improve 4. Government intervention and support is minimised
‌the kind of education needed today requires teachers to be high-level knowledge workers who constantly advance their own professional knowledge as well as that of their profession.
Istance and Vincent-Lancrin with Van Damme, Schleicher and Weatherby (OECD, 2012)
“In a contact sport such as ice hockey or rugby, the interaction between a number of different elements determines the nature of the game, the spirit in which it is played, and the ultimate outcome – win or lose. The same could be said of getting evidence into practice: it is the interaction of various ingredients that determines the success of the outcome”. Jo Rycroft-Malone, ‘Evidence-based practice: from individual to context’ 2005 7
“Tensions arise (in school-university partnerships) where there is a lack of common purpose and where questions of who has power, who gains and who loses are left unanswered or even unasked� Baumfield and Butterworth, 2007 8
Building capacity to engage with and in research in order to make a difference for pupils
Middle leaders as catalysts for improving teacher practice: developing a knowledge exchange and impact network for Challenge Partner Schools An R&D partnership project between Challenge Partners, the Institute of Education (IOE), University of London and CP middle leaders Louise Stoll, Chris Brown, Karen Spence Thomas and Carol Taylor
Project goals To share research and practice-based knowledge effectively across schools about excellent middle leadership practice and professional development To develop evidence-based tools and processes to track ways in which middle leaders change and enhance their practice as a result of knowledge sharing To have mechanisms to track the impact of middle leaders’ knowledge sharing and changed professional practice on changed teacher practice To be able to share the outcomes of applied project work more widely to benefit a broader range of educators
Project questions 1. What do we know about effective middle leadership within and across schools that changes teachers’ practice? 2. What are powerful ways to share knowledge about excellent middle leadership practice within and across schools? 3. What evidence-based tools can be designed collaboratively between Challenge Partners middle leaders and academic partners to track changes in teachers’ practice as a result of middle leaders’ interventions? 4. What leadership conditions in schools help develop and embed cultures of shared outstanding practice?
Leadership culture
Pupil engagement and learning
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M
Changed teacher practice
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A
Changed middle leader attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and skills
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CP hubs middle leaders’ knowledge
CP national middle leaders’ knowledge
IOE research knowledge Core CP middle leaders’ knowledge
CP partner’s practice and policy knowledge
KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE PROCESSES
How would you answer your question? Agree on up to seven key principles Looking at the summaries from our project, are there any common areas, surprises, implications for your middle leaders?
National College Research Themes From February 2012 to Autumn 2014 oSupporting teaching schools to engage in research and development activities within and across alliances. oProviding opportunities for sharing expertise and wider dissemination of ‘what works’ oProviding a forum for networking between teaching school leaders and teachers so that they can learn from each other.
Three Themes What makes great pedagogy?
What makes great professional development which leads to consistently great pedagogy? How can leaders lead successful teaching school alliances which enable the development of consistently great pedagogy?
C2L A Collaborative Methodology Designed to support the collaborative processes within individual schools and across networks of schools. Provides guidance for those facilitating team-based collaboration either within or across schools. It therefore places an emphasis on: • collaborative activity / enquiry • making a difference to pupil outcomes •demonstrating and evidencing impact Source: Harris, A. and Jones, M. (2012) Connecting Professional Learning, NCSL
What does the research say? What makes great pedagogy? Chris Husbands and Jo Pearce What makes great professional development which leads to consistently great pedagogy? Louise Stoll, Alma Harris & Graham Handscomb
On tables Which of the claims would you consider to be the most productive areas for enquiry in your setting? What might some of the challenges and opportunities be in working with other schools on this?
Challenges and solutions Challenges Time: allocating and creating sufficient time for R&D activities including observations, visits and planning / review meetings.
Solutions Ensure projects are manageable in scale and tightly organised. Create organisational structures which support learning focused collaboration. Distribute resources across partners. Increase capacity and expertise by utilising effective external consultants and/or HEI partners. Develop a VLE to share resources and outcomes. Use digital technology to support observations and overcome practical challenges.
Leadership: capacity building and sustainability.
Spend time developing R&D knowledge and expertise: develop R&D lead practitioners skilled in facilitation of professional learning. Ensure strategic oversight of CPD encompasses R&D. Distribute the leadership of R&D so there is reciprocal responsibility for it.
Teacher understanding of and anxiety about engaging in R&D.
Build a team of teachers who are confident and motivated to engage in R&D, identifying and evaluating impact and in working with others. Teachers seem to prefer the term ‘enquiry’ to ‘research’.
Maintaining buy-in and momentum around collaborative activity.
Ensure facilitation is effective so teachers are involved in determining the precise foci of enquiries and these relate to their children in their classrooms. Also ensure responsibility for aspects of R&D design and reporting are shared. Devote time to relationship building and encourage ‘infectious enthusiasm’ for R&D. Celebrate success!
Origins of the project • National College R&D themes project • Louise Stoll’s extensive work on Professional Learning Communities • ESRC and Challenge Partners funded work on Middle Leaders as Catalysts for Change • 8 x London Schools Excellence Fund Studies • Work with Teaching School Alliances up and down the country • Research centred lesson study work for Camden schools and early years centres
Cycles of enquiry
Set Vision
Adjust action plan
Evaluate success
Assess current reality
Establish evidence informed action plan
Expertise
Learning conversations
Who to involve
Social network analysis
Other indicators of potential success
• A similar project we ran employed a cross-setting RLC of 36 early-years. The project’s evaluation indicates that 100% of participants found the RLC approach effective in communicating evidence and 94% found it helped them understand findings better than other approaches to communicating evidence. In addition, 75% the participants agree/strongly agree that they now regularly use some of the research findings engaged with as part of their day to day practice. • Our RLC approach draws on PLC literature : Vescio et al. (2006) identify eight studies providing a positive link between PLCs and improved student outcomes. Louis states that PLCs also provide effective environments within which to share evidence (2010, 2012) linking this sharing to positive improvements in teacher practice.
5 strongish claims for how to mobilise knowledge within and across schools 1.Developing evidence-informed practice within and across schools requires strategic leadership that can shape and implement a shared vision, with clarity on what success looks like whilst welcoming complexity and unanticipated outcomes. 2.This requires distributed approaches to harnessing knowledge and promoting change. For example tapping in to social networks (informal leadership) within schools, or finding more formal ways to bring experts and practitioners (or practitioners and others) together.
3.In larger schools or across partnerships, middle leaders can also be vital catalysts for animating evidence in practice, but they need capacity and support from senior leaders if they are to succeed in this role. 4.Professional learning must be collaborative, focussed, inclusive and trusting. It must also be sustained and supported. Importantly, when it comes to evidence use, professional learning must also involve co-creation – bringing together knowledge from practice and knowledge from research to create knowledge that is new to everyone in the room. This is true learning. 5.School-university partnerships can support much of the above, but most are weak due to issues of culture and capacity. Successful partnerships depend on local leaders who can create a ‘third space’ which gets the best from research and practice.
IOE School Partnership Awards Specialist Partner Awards •Initial Teacher Education (ITE) •Professional and Leadership Development
•Research and Development
Principal Partner Depth, duration and quality
Proposed core operating principles: • a focus on equity and impact, recognising that evidence can be challenging as well as useful • starting with the issues that schools face, but seeking shared strategic themes • a partnership and capacity building model, based on a deep and developmental two-way relationship • a focus on knowledge mobilisation, so that the new learning is shared to make a difference • an explicit focus on strengthening peer evaluation and challenge within and between networks of schools
IOE Library membership Reference Membership free for all Network member schools and staff
External Borrowing Membership for a designated number of staff in member schools Online library resource centre
R&D networking and events Blog spaces Brokering relationships between schools with shared research interests Research ‘hot topics’, for example, Peter Blatchford on Maximising the impact of Teaching Assistants School-based network events - sharing examples and outcomes of R&D activity
How can the network support us in developing...?
Capacity
Culture Leadership
Communication
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R&D in practice Wandle Alliance:
joint practice development in action
Teach East London:
supporting literacy cross-phase – what works?
NELTA:
what does effective school-based ITT look like?
Seven Kings:
engaging Y3 teachers in collaborative investigations
City Excellence:
leadership of place
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Partnership link and R&D network lead Karen Spence-Thomas k.spence-thomas@ioe.ac.uk R&D network administrator Margaret Turner londoncentre@ioe.ac.uk
londoncentre@ioe.ac.uk