This document outlines an education and training foundation project at the University of Derby. The project aims to create a culture of continuous career-long learning for teachers by embedding research into practice. Participants will undertake action research projects on topics of their choice. The project involves workshops, partnership meetings, and support for participants as they conduct their research and prepare findings for dissemination through a conference and publication. The goal is for teachers to improve practice through studying their own work and becoming "inquiring teachers" who use research to solve problems.

1. Education and Training Foundation Project
University of Derby
Siobhan Neary
Pete Scales
Jo Hutchinson
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

2. Programme

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Introductions and overview of project
Professionalism
Research practitioner
 Benefits to self and organisation
Action research
Focus for day 2
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

3. “As tutors we need to model the production of
new knowledge. Teaching and research
should be entwined, just as we support
students on their learning journeys it is
important to recognise and celebrate the fact
that we are on our own”
Solvason and Elliott, 2013
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

4. Education and Training Foundation
 Formed in August 2013 to improve professionalisation
and standards in the further education and training sector
 4 priority areas
 Professional standards and qualifications; teaching,
learning and assessment
 Vocational education and training (VET)
 Leadership, management and governance
 Research and innovation
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

5. Professionalism





Professionalism identified as a primary issue by Ofsted in developing the
quality of the workforce
We have a vision of the ‘enquiring teacher’ – this project provides the building
blocks to embedding this more effectively within ITE
Information – acquiring, generating and accumulating specialist knowledge to
enhance learning and teaching
Autonomy – research and develop own practice relating to their specialist
area and the needs of their learners
Responsibility – CPD is a responsibility for all professionals. This should
support the development and evolution of practice
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

6. Overall Aim of Project
 To create a culture of Continuous Career Long Learning
that starts with ITE and embeds an influence on the
profession in influencing others towards professionalism
through the utilisation of networks of learning relationships
to transfer and create new professional practice

7. Project approach and methodology



Collaborative partnership with providers to generate and disseminate
outcomes of the action research based projects
Projects will be responsive to needs, problem based, accumulative and
shared with the wider sector
Review of the literature
 Identify interesting practice both UK and overseas to developing
researcher practice within learning and skills sector
 Map ofsted

Social media - Project blog
http://developingtheresearcherpractitioner.wordpress.com/

Develop a community of practice focusing on the researcher practitioner
within FE
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

8. Project approach and methodology (2)




Development Programme
 4 workshops support the development of knowledge and skills to embed
within own practice and others
 The researcher practitioner, Introduction to research methods, developing
the evaluation strategy, preparing for dissemination
Partnership meetings
 Agreeing timelines, discussion of topic areas, partners contributions,
evaluation strategy ( project and individual partners)
Supporting the project
 Consultancy, mentoring and support
Sharing the learning – June/July 2014
 Conference
 Publication
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

9. Evaluation and dissemination



Evaluation undertaken by the project team – led by Jo Hutchinson. This will
assess project impact, achievement of goals, common and specific impacts
through analysis of partner evaluation strategies. This will be informed by the
impact assessment framework
Evaluation for partners - each partner will develop their own evaluation
strategy which will be supported by the impact assessment framework
Dissemination
 Promotion through social media i.e. blog, twitter,
 The project conference and publication
 National conferences
 Learning and skills research network events
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

10. The underlying principle of this bid is
professionalism, in particular the promotion
and development of teachers’ professional
identities and attitudes as the key to the
enhancement of student learning. Above all,
we have a vision of the ‘enquiring teacher’.

11. Professionalism
 Information
 Autonomy
 Responsibility

12. The ‘delivery’ metaphor
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

13. Best Practice
Handle with care!

14. www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

15. High
Value
High
Autonomy
Typology of CPD
Formal CPD
Formal CPD
Accredited activities,
Accredited activities,
conferences, external
conferences, external
to the organisation
to the organisation
Experiential CPD
Experiential CPD
Development of tacit knowledge, skills and expertise
Development of tacit knowledge, skills and expertise
within
within
daily practice
daily practice
Operational CPD
Operational CPD
Mandated by employers for contract
Mandated by employers for contract
compliance, legislation and
compliance, legislation and
organisational policy
organisational policy
Low
Value
Low
Autonomy
Neary, 2014

16. What is research?
It’s what
academics do
It’s really
clever!

17. “It’s not enough that teachers’
work should be studied; they
need to study it themselves”
Stenhouse (1975:143)
Stenhouse, L. (1975) An Introduction to Curriculum
Research and Development.
London:Heinemann

18. “Every teacher needs to become his or her
own theory-builder, but a builder of theory that
grows out of practice, and has as its aim to
improve the quality of practice.”
“For too long ‘experts’ from outside the
classroom have told teachers what to think
and what to do.”
Wells, G. (1986) The Meaning Makers London: Hodder and Stoughton
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

19. “Action research is a form of enquiry that enables
practitioners everywhere to investigate and evaluate
their work. They ask, ‘What am I doing? What do I need
to improve? How do I improve it?’ Their accounts of
practice show how they are trying to improve their own
learning and influence the learning of others.”
(McNiff and Whitehead 2006:7)
McNiff, J. and Whitehead, J. (2006) All you need to know about action
research London: Sage
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

20. Inquiring

21. Independent enquirers
Effective participants
Reflective learners
Team workers
Self managers
Creative thinkers

22. Problem-based learning
“Most learning begins with learning something
particular (knowledge and skills) and then,
hopefully, using it to solve problems. PBL works
the other way round. It begins with the problem
and asks learners to identify what knowledge and
skills they already have but also what additional
learning they need in order to solve the problem.”
Scales, P. (2013) Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector (2nd Ed.)
Maidenhead: Open University Press

23. Problem-based CPD
Kathryn Ecclestone (2010)
proposes a ‘problem-based
methodology’ for CPD in which
teachers formulate their own
problems and questions in their
own settings and undertake ‘trial
and error’ approaches to solving
them.
Ecclestone, K. (2010) Transforming Formative Assessment in
Lifelong Learning Maidenhead: Open University Press

24. The role of research in supporting practice

Research helped practitioners to improve their practice, reinforced their
identity as a professional and improved their organisation’s professional
practice (Neary and Hutchinson, 2009).

Most importantly, as the need for evidence-based practice and the trend for
governmental organisations, communities and individuals to use research to
bring about change become more prevalent, we believe that our community
of practice has the potential to make an impact upon the character and
organisation of educational research in our institution and beyond. (Solvason
and Elliott, 2013).
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

25. What’s
your
problem?

26. Choosing an area to research

Consider an issue affecting your work/workplace
 What could the objective of your study?
 What research question are you trying to answer?
 What type of research approach is best suited to your questions?
 What research methods will be appropriate to collect data?
 Who will you select to be part of your study?
 What constraints of ethical issues could your study raise?
(Scales, Pickering, Senior, Headley, Garner and Boulton, 2011).
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

27. Action research
Jo Hutchinson
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

28. Activities for next session
The blog
• Make at least one entry (more are welcomed)
• Outline an area you wish to focus your research on
• What are the ethical issues you need to consider
Prepare an outline for your research which addresses the following:
 Topic of proposed study
 Aims and objectives
 Rationale for the study (What has prompted this topic area)
 Appropriate literature
 Outline of methods
 Resources you might need
 Ethical considerations- consent, deception, withdrawal, confidentiality, data
protection
( I will draft a proforma to guide you and upload it to the blog)
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs

29. Contact details
Pete Scales
 P.R.Scales@derby.ac.uk
 01332 591595
Siobhan Neary
 S.Neary@derby.ac.uk
 01332 591580
Jo Hutchinson
 J.Hutchinson@derby.ac.uk
 01332 591367
www.derby.ac.uk/ehs