Research and Practice Summary

This reading will help you understand some of the theory behind this week’s topic. We will start by introducing some of the key concepts (these are in bold). You will also see some suggestions of how to put these concepts into practice. When using these concepts in your own practice you will need to take account of your pupils’ characteristics, the context of your classroom and the nature of the material that you are teaching.

Engaging with research evidence

Stephen and Becky are both interested in research evidence in education. They agree that engaging critically with research can help them to become more effective teachers, but they disagree about the types of research that are useful.

Becky values case studies that explore an issue in depth, while Stephen says that only randomised controlled trials – where ideas can be tested to see if they work the way we think do – are really worth engaging with critically.

Who do you think is right? What kinds of research evidence do you think are valuable?

Research evidence can be a very useful tool for helping you to improve. However, it is important to avoid starting with a solution and then looking for a problem. For instance, when it comes to using digital technology, like tablet computers, teachers often ask ‘how can I use this to improve learning?’

Instead, it is more appropriate to begin by a careful examination of what your priorities are for improvement and then to see how the ‘tool’ (in this case, the tablet) can help you focus on these priorities. Three factors that can inform this prioritisation include:

• Personal reflection – reflecting on your progress as a teacher, and recognising strengths and weaknesses in your practice, is an important first step. Ideally, you will supplement this with other sources of information
• Colleagues – can provide invaluable insights through constructive challenge and feedback. For this to be constructive, it is important that it happens within an open and trusting working environment where the emphasis is simply on getting better
• Networks – collaborating with wider networks of colleagues can help to inform your priorities as well as wider professional development. These networks may focus on different topics, but subject networks beyond your own school may be particularly beneficial to help develop your subject and pedagogical knowledge

Reflecting on your experiences as a teacher is an important way of improving. However, it is critical to recognise the limitations in our own assessment of situations – especially those in which we are personally engaged. For instance, a surprising finding from many tests of approaches to teaching – where the impact of an approach is compared to similar schools continuing as normal – is that there is often a mismatch between teachers’ perceptions of interventions and the overall findings of the research. Teachers are typically much more positive about interventions than the test results are.

Therefore, it is important to draw on a range of sources of information to inform your reflections on practice. These sources may include feedback from and observation of experienced colleagues, professional debate and research evidence. Using a combination of these sources of information is likely to be more powerful than any one source alone.

To make the most of research evidence, it can help to address two questions:

• How credible is the research?
• How applicable is the research to your context?

To determine how credible research is, consider the following:

• was the type of research suitable to the research question? It is important that the design of the study generated data that properly addresses the question being answered
• how large was the study? Typically, larger studies are more credible than smaller studies
• were there threats to the study? For instance, if lots of people withdrew from the research, this is a significant threat
• how trustworthy were the outcomes on which claims were based? Standardised assessments tend to be more credible than in house assessments, for example
• who funded and undertook the research? If they have potential conflicts of interest this reduces the credibility of the research

To determine how applicable research is, consider the following:

• where was the research undertaken and how similar is it your own context? The more similar, the more likely that the research will be applicable
• does the evidence address a problem or issue that you have? If a study found that mentoring was effective for teachers struggling with behaviour management, the findings are probably not applicable to teachers who have few difficulties managing behaviour
• is the approach likely to be suitable and feasible for your own context? If an approach does not fit with the culture of your own school, it is unlikely to be applicable

Using the right evidence to answer the right questions

High quality research evidence is becoming increasingly available and can be a powerful complement to your professional judgement. Professional debate in education, as you saw with Becky and Stephen, often focuses on the merits of particular types of research.

Unfortunately, it is not particularly useful to try to answer the question ‘what is the best type of research?’ Instead, it is more useful to ask, ‘what kinds of research can answer what types of questions?’

The table below summarises some common questions that you might want to answer alongside some of the types of research that can answer those questions. Notably, Stephen was wrong: randomised controlled trials are not suitable for every research question. They are very good at answering questions about the effectiveness of different approaches to teaching, but they are less suitable to answering other questions. Equally, case studies can provide rich insights, but – alone – they have limited use for answering questions related to impact.

Research question	Randomised controlled trial	Case study	Survey	Interview	Systematic review
Is this approach likely to improve pupils’ learning?	✓				✓
Is this approach right for our school?		✓	✓	✓
How does this approach improve learning?		✓		✓	✓
What do pupils think about the new approach?		✓	✓	✓

Bringing it all together

After careful thought, Becky and Stephen realised that they had more in more in common than they first thought, and they could both see how different types of research answered different kinds of questions.

Becky then thought carefully about how she wanted to improve as a teacher. She knew from observing colleagues, and reflecting on her own practice, that it might help if she were to improve her questioning. Becky gathered more evidence to determine if this was the right focus for her professional development. She sought feedback from Stephen, who came to observe some of her questioning. Stephen agreed that there were specific things that could improve her questions such as allowing more thinking time and avoiding questioning the same students all the time.

Before committing to a professional focus on questioning, Becky reviewed the evidence about the topic. She reviewed the evidence about formative assessment, including a recent large scale and rigorous study undertaken in England. Given the characteristics of the study Becky thought that the evidence was credible. Further, the evidence also seemed very applicable to her teaching because the context was similar to her own and she was confident that it was an area that she could meaningfully improve.

By going through this process, Becky has identified a specific area that she would like to improve, which she thinks is likely to lead to improved pupil outcomes. The next step is ensuring that she engages in effective professional development. You have already seen some of the characteristics of effective professional development and you will return to these later in this module.