The self-improving school and evidence-based teaching: the value of researching practitioners

Val Poultney

Critical issues

• Understanding the value of evidence-based approaches to teaching and learning;

• Opportunities for everyone engaging with evidence-based teaching approaches;

• Building research capacity and creating a third space;

• Challenges for researching primary schools.

Introduction

Back in 2015, I (Val, HEI academic) spent an uncomfortable afternoon with a group of primary teachers and their headteacher (Jon) trying to convince them of the worth of evidence-based teaching (EBT). They were clearly feeling uncomfortable too because I failed to find common ground with them for at least the first hour. I had hoped a quick introduction with the likes of Lawrence Stenhouse and David Hargreaves would have done the trick (after all they must have known about these two academics and their writing from their own university days), but alas, it was all to no avail and the silence in the room was deafening. Eventually I was saved from further embarrassment when one teacher tentatively asked me what it was I was trying to explain; what exactly was it I was asking her to do differently? What changes could I offer her to her already 'good' practice as she saw it? It struck me at that point how far removed the group was from their own initial teacher training; after all they had in all probability been challenged to undertake research for their final dissertations while at university, yet here they were, patently not seeing the link between research and school improvement. I learnt a few lessons from that afternoon: mainly that teachers have a distrust of university academics and especially one that was not a primary specialist (I was a secondary teacher before becoming an academic). So how did I recover from this initial bruising experience? Well, I have a motto of 'keeping the faith' (I just keep going). Fortunately for me, Jon was keen to understand how some of his newly introduced initiatives were working, and it was clear that he could already see some value in EBT. Based on that flimsy agreement, we began to make plans for the next stage in what was to become a two-year journey, culminating in this book. We have all written about our experiences; how a group of practising teachers and their headteacher from a Derby City Community Primary School (supported by an academic from the local university) re-engaged with their own professional practice and gave EBT 'a go'.

Context for EBT

The value of teachers undertaking research into their own practice (also referred to as teacher inquiry or EBT) has been well documented over the course of many years, and much of this work has demonstrated how effective the outcomes of EBT can be on improving teaching and learning. This chapter provides an academic perspective to explain why primary schools should be more research-engaged in their work – not only with the 'raising standards' agenda in mind but also in providing the opportunity for teachers to engage with (and take responsibility for) their own professional development. It provides a fresh perspective on how staff in primary schools can begin to build their knowledge capacity that is specific to their own context and considers how building research knowledge can provide a foundation for change that is real, lasting and sustainable. It considers some of the key drivers needed for implementing an EBT culture and how the whole process can be sustained over a period of time. This type of work is not without its challenges, but there are many opportunities for real growth and development for teachers and teacher-leaders as well as the children themselves. Finally, the chapter outlines some of the opportunities for practitioners to disseminate their work within the wider local, regional, national and international context.

School-based research

There is much recent evidence to support the notion that self-improving schools should be researched-engaged and research-active (Goldacre, 2013; Greany, 2015; Stoll, 2015), but the real question is how can that be achieved. Many primary schools lack the architecture to support teachers who wish to research into their own practice, both from an organisational and a leadership perspective. There is, in such schools, a lack of capacity to support this type of work and – taking into account that there is no agreed knowledge base for teachers (Hargreaves, 1996) – a near 'perfect storm' for research in action. This is a troubling situation given that newly qualified teachers are urged to engage with research as part of their training. The Carter Review of Initial Teacher Training (2015) has made recommendations that EBT should form a substantial component of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programmes and suggested that the teacher standards should be more explicit with regard to the importance of this type of work in teaching. However, the gathering of empirical data in classroom contexts is clearly not the way forward preferred by many teachers who often regard 'tips for teaching' and 'quick fixes' preferable to the systematic collection and analysis of research evidence. At a systems level, changes to the inspection regime give rise to uncertainties about how exactly to evidence school improvement beyond statistical data. There is no agreed body of knowledge akin to those in law or medicine that teachers may draw upon in their defence; Sheard and Sharples (2016) refer to this as the so-called 'knowledge-doing gap'.

Proponents of the EBT approach argue that there should be equal collaboration between educational practitioners, policymakers and researchers and a link established between research outcomes that are seen to be effective in education and how such outcomes could be used in the real-world context of school practice. What might constitute effective school improvement is, arguably, fashionable, context-specific and based on small-scale samples which possibly have little impact on raising standards nationally. In today's context of fast-paced schooling, heads and teachers need to be able to plan and respond rapidly to change agendas imposed externally, without the time or space to fully evaluate the worth of the proposed change as it might impact on their school. EBT...