Presentation given to the Research ED Research Leads conference at Brighton University - Saturday 18th April 2015 - by James Mannion

1. James Mannion
Lead Professional for Science, Varndean School, Brighton
PhD student, University of Cambridge
Director, Praxis Education CIC
@pedagog_machine
@praxisED

PRAXIS: Professional Development
through Research Inquiry

2. 1. Introduce myself
2. Introduce PRAXIS
3. Discuss / feedback / Q&A d
PRAXIS: Professional Development
through Research Inquiry

3. #thisisme
• Science teacher of 10 y
• Teacher/researcher for the last 6 y
– MA in Person-centred Education
• Self-esteem and ability grouping
• Philosophy for Children (P4C) in PSHE
– PhD
• Learning to learn  closing the gap @ KS3
 Self-regulation / metacognition
 Speaking and listening
 Evidence-based pedagogy
 Evidence-based curriculum
design
 Knowledge vs skills Research
Practice

4. McIntyre’s knowledge gap
Teachers’
everyday
practice
knowledge
McIntyre, D. (2005) Bridging the gap between research and practice. Cam J Ed 35(3), 357-382.
Codified
research
knowledge

5. (Wilson, E. (2013). In School Based Research, E. Wilson (Ed), SAGE, p2-3)
…
In short:
This is
central
to 

6.  The Problem of Professional Development
From Rivkin, Hanushek & Kain (2005)
How do the researchers measure impact?

7. • Ted Wragg – teachers make >1000 evaluative decisions on any given day.
• Many consequences across a range of student outcomes – overwhelming!
• Tempting to defer to ‘professional judgment’. And yet, a number of Q’s
arise:
1. What are the consequences of these decisions on student outcomes?
How can we even find out?
2. Is this even true? 1000+? What are all these decisions? (V. Lien)
3. How can we get better at making these decisions? (CPD in a nutshell)
4. How do we know if / when we’re getting better?
5. How can we know which aspects of our practice are most useful, and
which might most usefully be jettisoned?
 The Problem of Professional Development

8. #1: How do we bridge the gap between research and practice?
Ans: Practitioner-led research
#2: How can we get better at our jobs?
Ans: Practitioner-led research
#3: How can we work toward a system which optimizes educational
outcomes for all young people, while being sensitive to context?
Ans: Practitioner-led research
This leads to a bold-sounding conclusion:
I believe that all teachers should engage in systematic research inquiry, as a
fundamental tenet of their initial and continuing professional development.
To recap – 3 tricky questions:

9. To return to McIntyre’s Gap…
Teachers’
everyday
practice
knowledge
Codified
research
knowledge

10. To return to McIntyre’s Gap…
Teachers’
everyday
practice
knowledge
Codified
research
knowledge
Teacher-
researchers
d
“All teachers should engage in systematic research inquiry, as a fundamental
tenet of their initial and continuing professional development.”
Do you agree? If so – why? If not – why not?

11. Others are saying similar things…
Wiliam, D. (2014) Final slide from keynote presentation at researchED conference

12. • Practitioner-led research is not a new idea
– Lots of good practice (variable, as might be expected – spectrum effect)
– Lots of people already on board with it
• However - many obstacles to system-wide implementation:
– Current picture = patchwork, not network
– Good practice not commonly shared or widely available
– Many initiatives limited by £ or distance from HE provider  fold / archives
– Access to paywalls (Vincent Lien’s petition - @fratribus)
– Accessibility of language used / format of journal articles
– Resistance among teachers – workload, endless change – latest fad?
– Research is almost always messy and complex – limitations of methods,
impenetrable statistical analyses, plethora of cognitive biases, values,
ideological battles between methodological purists, tendency toward
abstraction…
Can we make it system-wide? If so, how?

13. • None of this is insurmountable!
• But first:
What do you notice about this language…?
• Practitioner-led research
• Disciplined inquiry
• Teachers as researchers
• Action research cycles
• School-based research
• Systematic inquiry
• Lesson study
• Coaching triads
Can we make it system-wide? If so, how?
d

14. PraxisAristotle (384 – 322 BC)
3 categories of human activity:
• Theoria (end goal is truth)
• Poiesis (end goal is production)
• Praxis (end goal is action/social change)
Hannah Arendt – The Human Condition (1958)
• Western philosophy has been too focused on the contemplative (vita
contemplativa) and has neglected the active (vita activa).
• Arendt calls praxis ‘the highest and most important level of the active life’
Paulo Freire – Pedagogy of the oppressed (1970)
"One of the gravest obstacles to the achievement of liberation is that oppressive
reality absorbs those within it and thereby acts to submerge men's consciousness.
Functionally, oppression is domesticating. To no longer be prey to its force, one
must emerge from it and turn upon it. This can be done only by means of the
praxis: reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it.”

15. It’s not only language that’s the problem:

16. The 5-point cycle

17. “the praxis:
reflection and action upon the world,
in order to transform it”
(Freire, 1970)

18. P Is Praxis - as a concept - a useful way of helping teachers
understand / want to engage in research inquiry as CPD?
To simplify it even further…

19. • Professional development platform for teachers
– Current strapline: ‘Professional development through research inquiry‘
What does it do?
• Guides teachers through the process of carrying
out a research inquiry (can upload existing also)
• There’s an inquiry planner 
• The teacher/researcher hits publish
– Goes to their profile page (customisable)
– Published to a searchable database
(choice of levels – e.g. school, alliance, public)
 Ever-increasing database of tried and tested
ideas – implemented, evaluated and written up
by teachers, for teachers (and other school
based practitioners )
 Different levels – Bronze (~1K), Silver (~3K),
Gold (~5K), Platinum (~10K) – Gold & Platinum
can be submitted for M-level credits with local
HE provider (long-term aim!)
What is the Praxis platform?
The PRAXIS inquiry planner
1. Title
2. Context
3. Research question(s)
4. Brief literature review
• Support – chat window *
5. Avenue of inquiry
• Intervention / area of focus
• Step by step method
6. Research methods
7. Findings / analysis
8. Conclusions
9. Evaluation
* not yet available

20. praxis-education.com

21. Example inquiry

22. • Had the idea around 18 months ago, gathered dust
• Was reminded of it through tweeting with Tom & Helene in Oct
• Blogged about it – huge response
– NFER, TDT/NTEN, HE providers (IoE – Chris Brown)
– A number of schools
• Primary + secondary
• UK based + international
• State schools + independent
– Lots of support on social media – Twitter, Blogs, Staffrm 
• Last 6 months – set up Praxis Education CIC, developed pilot site
• Launched at researchED Camb in March
• So far 53 people have signed up - inquiries are yet to start rolling in (!)
• However these things take time, and “timing is everything” – exam season etc
• Need to ascertain whether there’s an appetite / demand for it, beyond
general expressions of support
Praxis-The story so far…

23. Mid-term:
• Secure funding to build a proper site
• Need to demonstrate demand
Short-term:
• Seek peoples’ feedback
• Try to get people uploading inquiries
• Build a community – Staffrm style!
Few promising leads:
• researchED research leads?!
• TDT / NTEN network
• SUPER_network (Camb)
• Sussex research network
• Various academy chains, teaching alliances
• Australia(?!)
• Staffrm supertags for after May half-term: #summerinquiry, #500wordresearch
Next steps…

24. To recap: “Why do we need praxis-education.com?”
Problem
• How to bridge the research-practice gap?
• Professional development – how do we
get better at our jobs? How do we know?
• Good practice not being shared –
‘patchwork not network’ / geography
• £paywalls
• Academics overcomplicating the research
process
• Workload
• Resistance to the ‘latest fad’
• Top-down accountability
Solution
 The teacher/researcher
 Small-scale practitioner-led
research inquiry
 Shared online platform
 HE support – chat window
 ∞ - read, reflect, do, reflect
 Schools do Praxis as CPD
 Research = the ‘anti-fad’
 Bottom-up counterpoint
d
What do you think? Is this something that could be useful in
your setting? What potential barriers, issues, pitfalls etc…?

25. PRAXIS: Professional Development
through Research Inquiry
James Mannion
Lead Professional for Science, Varndean School, Brighton
PhD student, University of Cambridge
Director, Praxis Education CIC
@pedagog_machine
@praxisED
