This presentation was given by Philippa Cordingley from the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education (CUREE) at the CERI Conference on Innovation, Governance and Reform in Education on 3 November 2014 during session 3.a: Knowledge-intensive Governance, Innovation and Change.

1. How is knowledge in and about
education effectively created,
mediated and used? How effective
are our systems for making use of it?
Philippa Cordingley
The Centre for the Use of Research
and Evidence in Education (CUREE)

2. How is knowledge in and about education
created? Pivotal levers and obstacles
• E- searching, research reviews /meta analysis solve big
challenges in distilling evidence for real world issues
• Big data initiatives eg PISA and TALIS accompanied by
increasing focus on / expectations about impact
• Emerging clarity re quality, methods and purposes eg
need for different types of evidence for mandating
approaches and for supporting practice/ensactment –
changing research practice – more mixed methods
• Research funding and QA systems – do they address
both the quality of knowledge and its use or impact?
• Are contributions of both producers and users valued?

3. Knowledge creation and use
Two worlds?

4. How is knowledge created used
and mediated?

5. How is knowledge mediated?
• Changing knowledge-in-action is challenging - few
successes in getting even excellent large scale findings
fully embedded – E.G Assessment for Learning
• But some dubious research “sticks” eg learning styles:
• It addressed a “wicked” issue for teachers
• It was easy to implement
• The marketing might of publishers
• Hard to embed new knowledge if findings challenge
current practices or are complex
• A learning not (just) a communication challenge
• .

6. How did teachers engage in/with research
effectively? Review evidence
• The teachers who used research effectively:
• Experimented with new approaches with sustained
support from experts, for example in:
• selecting appropriate high leverage approaches
• Identifying ways of collecting evidence to link staff and pupil
learning in contextualising new approaches
• working out why things did- and didn’t – work
• Identified goals in relation to student outcomes
• Reviewed and refined results with support from peers
and in light of evidence from their classrooms
• http://bit.ly/1wNBBye

7. The nature of the support for supporting
research into practice
Range of Support was crucial & provided through:
- Training – including instruction in key components
and understanding the rationale for new approaches
- Modelling – demonstrating strategies & enquiry
throughout the support
- Sustained, critical friendship, mentoring or coaching
support for research and evidence and enquiry based
learning ( whatever it is labelled)
- Provision of tools and resources such as observation
frameworks, questionnaires, analysis grids and a
rationale for them
7

8. Barriers to success included
• Time e.g. for induction in new strategies &
• Speed - elapsed time needed to interpret/adapt for context
• Diverse foci – teachers struggled to engage in or with others’
research if developing on too many fronts
• Inadequate facilitation and/or external support – eg
– Too little support
– Lack of expertise in content to challenge orthodoxies or
engage teachers with theory/ underpinning rationale;
– Poor processes (e.g. poor scaffolding for working with
evidence, weak organisation e.g. re: time management
or practicalities of enquiry)
8

9. CUREE’s approach to knowledge mediation and use
• Supported move from closet engagement with or in
research in 1996 to 40+% in 2010 via
• strategies and partnerships developing
and aligning:
CPDL
Tools and
Resources
Research

10. This means:
• Supply - create access and appetite, multiple points/
levels of entry – for engaging with research
• Demand
• Teacher champions eg National Teacher Research Panel,
recognising excellence and skills involved in using research
• Relevance – analysis of teachers’ own questions to frame
agenda http://bit.ly/1wNjjMC ; development of a teachign
and learning research programme
• Depth
• Quality – of supply, support and demand
• Developing effective professional learning environments for
both pupils and staff in schools
• Researching take up!
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11. The range of functions/ stages
• Ensuring research addresses issues relevant to teachers
• Raising awareness re what research can offer
• Securing understanding of core facts and issues
• Helping teachers relate findings to their experiences
• Developing understanding of theory alongside practice
• Scaffolding experiments and evidence collection to
inform refinement for context
• AND, if possible, contextualising this for the school
context, see http://bit.ly/1q8mPwh or http://bit.ly/107UGyF

12. An example of a contextualised approach
http://www.curee.co.uk/block-content/route-maps-sample

13. One way of addressing key questions
• OECD questions centre around how to improve
• Embedding knowledge in policy and practice?
• systems for producing educational knowledge?
• Some countries create structures E.G knowledge
centres (Norway, Denmark, Belgium) agencies to
develop and embed research informed practice in
standards (AITSL), long term programmes (Ontario)
• In England, after a period of intense central support ,
government is trying to position schools as leaders of
R&D..

14. Practicalities -The 2 year Test and Learn R&D Project
• Government funded ( £5k per partnership + testing analysis &
logistics), designed by CUREE, managed by delivery partners
• 67 interventions identified, filtered to 17 design team for
researchability at scale, 7 selected by TS panel after broad
consultation with teachers and schools
• Initiated March 2013, Runs September 2013 - December 2015
• Teaching Schools (TS), responsible for supporting R&D, sparsely
funded volunteers, work with an Alliance and HE partners
• 170+ (TS) act as mini trial managers across the schools they
support, helping them cope with testing, identify sample
students, select interventions, motivate control schools
• Approx. 740 schools participating ( within 6 weeks)
• http://www.curee.co.uk/ctg/overview

15. Pluses, surprises, risks and implications
• TS and consultation secured high levels of recruitment,
ownership and relevance and high rate of retention,
• On line assessments provided powerful diagnostic
evidence and were seen as intrinsically useful - schools
really did like the rigour or pre - post testing
• Separating trainers from the trial solved logistical
challenges – but made it hard to know about fidelity
• Once there is capacity to lead R&D – modelling it via
practices of leading schools and embedding it within
major policy initiatives may be more powerful / have
more reach than establishing formal structures

16. Contact Details
philippa.cordingley@curee.co.uk
www.curee.co.uk
Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education
8th Floor
Eaton House
1 Eaton Road
Coventry
CV1 2FJ
024 7652 4036
Twitter
@PhilippaCcuree
@curee_official