This is a draft of the presentation that will be given at the HEA Social Sciences annual conference - Teaching forward: the future of the Social Sciences. For further details of the conference: http://bit.ly/1cRDx0p Bookings open until 14 May 2014 http://bit.ly/1hzCMLR or external.events@heacademy.ac.uk ABSTRACT This paper sets out the development and early use of a web-based research app (WRApp) designed to support collaborative practice-based enquiry in teacher education at both pre-service and in-service stages. The purpose of the WRApp is to facilitate collaboration among teachers in researching chosen aspects of their own practices, classrooms and schools. Conceptual frameworks for data collection and analysis can be co-designed and used to gather and share workplace evidence. This data can be combined and analysed online to enable the study of cases across different contexts, aimed at enriching and developing professional knowledge. In short, the WRApp helps teachers to connect, with published research, with effective practices, with each other in professional learning communities.

1. Developing a web-based research
app to support practice-based
enquiry in teacher education
Phil Taylor, Amanda French & Dario Faniglione

2. Background
• Builds on the Literacies for Employability (L4E)
project and App, supported by the HEA.
• Underpinned by long-standing notions of teaching as
research; links to lesson/learning study.
• A web-based research app ( ) to facilitate
collaborative practice-based enquiry (we decided not to call it
the Collaborative Research App!).
• Initially intended for educational practice, but could
be used for practitioner research in other disciplines.
• To be made available as ‘open source’.

3. Aims of the project
• To further enhance outcomes for student teachers
and their professional skills by strengthening their
research enquiry projects.
• To enable student teachers to make greater links
between theory and practice, through the
development of research skills.
• To support the process of analysis and sharing of
classroom practice evidence and student teachers’
reflection on their professional development.

4. Objectives of the WRApp
• To provide a conceptual framework for student
teachers to support the collection of practice
evidence, mainly through observation.
• To enable student teachers to capture rich evidence
of classroom practice in text, picture, audio and
video forms, within a pre-planned and/or co-
constructed conceptual framework.
• To facilitate analysis of the evidence captured using
the conceptual framework.
• To encourage sharing and presentation of evidence
captured and the ensuing analysis.

5. Use of the WRApp
1. Identify a group of collaborative practitioner
researchers – set up a user group.
2. Agree and design a framework for gathering
evidence (e.g. a lesson structure).
3. Use the framework to collect evidence in
practice, through observation and reflection, in
various forms (text, picture, audio, video) using
portable devices.
4. Post and share evidence to user group website.
5. Analyse, synthesise and compare evidence.

6. Classroom
Workplace
Context 1
Classroom
Workplace
Context 2
Classroom
Workplace
Context 3…
Agreed Framework
   
Web Server – User Group

7. Framework templates
Initially:
• List (a simple list)
• Grid (a simple table)
• Matrix (a table with headings)
Possibly:
• Web (nodes & connections)
• Cyclical (process model)
• Sprial (change process)
• …….
• …….
• …….

8. Example templates
• The following four slides show some examples
of WRApp templates, designed as a
framework for student teachers to collect
placement evidence.
• At the conference, these will be shown and
available to view in the WRApp itself.

9. Continuum of
Teaching Styles
From Mosston & Ashworth
(2002) in Capel, Leask &
Turner 5th Ed. (2009, p.295).
Command
Practice
Reciprocal
Self-check
Inclusion
Guided Discovery
Convergent Discovery
Divergent Discovery
Learner designed individual
Learner-initiated
Self-teaching
List template

10. Key strategies of
formative
assessment
Based on Wiliam
(2011, p.12).
Clarifying learning
intentions and sharing
and criteria for
success
Engineering effective
discussions, activities,
and tasks that elicit
evidence of learning
Feedback that moves
learning forward
Understanding and
sharing learning
intentions and criteria
for success
Activating students as
learning resources for
one another
Activating students as
learning resources for
one another
Understanding
learning intentions
and criteria for
success
Activating students as
owners of their own
learning
Activating students as
owners of their own
learning
Where the
learner is going
Where the
learner is
right now
How to get
there
Teacher
Peer
Student
Matrix template

11. Lesson Study
Model
Based on DCSF (2009);
Dudley (2014).
Case Learner A Case Learner B Case Learner C
Expected/
hoped for
response
Actual/
observed
response
Expected/
hoped for
response
Actual/
observed
response
Expected/
hoped for
response
Actual/
observed
response
StageofLessonSequence
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Post-lesson
interview Matrix template

12. Revised
Taxonomy of
Educational
Objectives
From Krathwohl
(2002, p. 216).
Cognitive Process Dimension
Remember
Understand
Apply
Analyse
Evaluate
Create
KnowledgeDimension
Factual
Knowledge
Conceptual
Knowledge
Procedural
Knowledge
Metacognitive
Knowledge Matrix template

13. Demonstration
• At the HEA conference, the WRApp will be
demonstrated and available for delegates to
try out.

14. Early findings
• By the time of the HEA conference some initial
findings from the early student pilot of the
WRApp will be available and shared.

15. References:
Capel, S., Leask M. & Turner T. (Eds.) (2009) Learning to Teach in
the Secondary School (5th edition). London: Routledge.
DCSF (2009) Improving Subject Pedagogy Through Lesson Study.
Crown.
Dudley, P. (2014) Lesson Study – A Handbook. LSUK. Available
from: http://lessonstudy.co.uk/lesson-study-a-handbook/
[Accessed 25.4.14].
Krathwohl, D. R. (2002) A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy - An
Overview. Theory Into Practice Special Issue: Revising Bloom’s
Taxonomy, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 212-218.
Wiliam, D. (2011) What is assessment for learning? Studies in
Educational Evaluation, 37 (2011) 3–14.