A key concern for those supporting practitioner research is to try to find ways of facilitating teacher learning that are as time-efficient and close to practice as possible. The key points are, firstly, that the teacher is always already involved and, far from being a hindrance, their personal commitments are a positive, generative and crucial aspect of the research they want to do.
Secondly, teacher thinking and action are central to the research. How we think — feel — perceive — evaluate decides to a significant degree what the professional world can be for us, and will shape the kinds of knowledge we find useful in the fields of pedagogy, curriculum and assessment.
The words we choose to characterise something that happened cannot be neutral. They will belong to a value system or paradigm that will frame what happened as an object of knowledge in particular ways. For instance, if a teacher struggles to convey an idea in class, how should they explain what happened? One approach would be to look at pedagogy — their approach to presenting the difficult idea. Each approach implies a very different way of getting to grips with the situation and will proffer alternative kinds of hypothesis, formulation and solution.
Looking outside the school, a media image, government message or policy document might stimulate our thinking and provide new insights.
Even a throwaway conversation with friends can trigger thinking in new ways. This can enable us to unpick the complexities of our experience and find alternative ways of talking about who we are, how we learn and what we aspire to be as professionals.
Guiding principles for the project were:. The model adopted for this project involved a lead at a university, where one academic previously a primary school teacher worked in partnership with six primary schools.
Recent Education Endowment Foundation EEF research on the role and significance of teachers being engaged in research points to the need for teachers to be systemically supported in the research process, and not just left with translations of existing research Education Endowment Foundation, This project was specifically designed across six schools with two teachers undertaking research in each school, so that each researching teacher had support from a colleague.
In discussion with their head teachers, each teacher selected their own focus for research, and attended four twilight sessions on research methods at the university. These sessions were designed to guide the teachers into establishing a starting point for their research idea linked to any existing evidence, framing research questions, designing appropriate research methods, analysing, interpreting data from particular perspectives, drawing conclusions and disseminating their findings.
They were each funded to have a day released from teaching to enable them to collect data within their school. The teachers were visited and supported in school as they carried out their school-based research. There was also agreement that the research would be disseminated within each school at the end of the year, and that the teachers would present their research at a university conference.
Eleven of the 12 projects related to aspects of curriculum, pedagogy or assessment, often with a focus on target ages or pupil groupings. Each of the teachers also reported how their own teaching was developed through their engagement in the research project. They all had ideas for scaling up their projects and developing more research in their schools beyond their enquiry.
It is a tale deeply rooted in its context, illustrating how using research evidence, engagement with research and research principles can lie at the heart of self-sustaining transformation. In , Ash Grove Primary School was a challenging school on the point of closure. In a medium-sized town, in the North West, the school served a community facing high social and economic disadvantage, and it was evident that standard school improvement strategies had not been effective.
The arrival of a new head teacher and a new deputy head teacher initiated a change in direction. Rather than relying on previous experience or advice from others, it was decided to put high-quality research and research evidence at the heart of every action and decision made. All teaching and learning was stripped back to the basics and redeveloped to reflect the evidence. Over time, a systematic five-stage cycle Sharratt and Fullen, was adopted to structure the process explicitly:.
He dedicated his career to teaching at different levels and to the study and investigation of curriculum during the seventies. To better understand the curriculum model that Lawrence Stenhouse proposes, we should first define the term curriculum.
The term curriculum has several meanings or definitions. The first has to do with a curriculum vitae. This is the conglomeration of knowledge as well as academic and work experience that an individual possesses.
The second definition of curriculum refers to the plan or study program that an educational institution follows. This includes both schools and universities. The word curriculum in Latin means career. Therefore, curriculum serves to provide structure and foundation to the course content, techniques and methodologies used during the teaching process.
According to Stenhouse, curriculum is far from being a simple list of content or a mere outline of methods and objectives. For this British educational thinker, curriculum is an entire educational project.
A good text-book would need to be written by someone who was able to combine practical experience of research and development in curriculum and teaching with an extensive knowledge both of the literature and of research and development projects in which he or she had not participated.
I am not equipped for this task in the extent of my reading or my knowledge of the work of the many projects carried out in recent years. But it may be that no one is. This attempt falls short in that if offers a highly personal view.
I believe that a text-book should present a thesis about the field it covers; but one which takes account of a wider range of work and experience than I have been able to master. This book looks outwards from the work of my colleagues and myself consequently its over- representation tends to over-estimate its importance, by implication if not by intention.
Nevertheless, it has, I hope, to a greater or lesser extent, three attributes which are necessary in a text-book. It has a reasonably extensive coverage of issues and problems. It has a reasonably adequate initial bibliography to guide reading. And it demands additional reading and teaching if it is to be adequately understood.
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