Developing Teacher Education Research Capacity in the North West of England

LaunchLiverpool John Moores University

5th November 2008

TERN Project Team:Marion Jones, Pat Mahony, Olwen McNamara, Ian Menter, Jean Murray, Grant

Stanley

Teacher Education Research Network

WELCOME

Professor Diana BurtonPro Vice Chancellor

Liverpool John Moores University

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North West Universities’ Education Federation

(NWUEF)

• Federation of H E teacher education • Promotes mutually beneficial partnerships in HE• In existence for 15 years• Formalised as a federation with mission statement in 2007

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NWUEFRegional Strategy

2007 - 2012

Regional Strategy for the Education and Training for all involved in the whole

school and children’s workforce

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Purpose

• To develop the profile and presence of the North West Higher Education providers

• To ensure that their contribution to the national scene in the education and training of the whole school and children’s workforce is recognised, encouraged and nurtured

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Vision

• Education is critical to the future economic success and social stability of the region

• Our responsibility is to work collaboratively to provide cutting edge education and training for the school and children’s workforce

• We will ensure that a full contribution is made to the national context for education through continued dialogue with policy makers in education

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Strategic Objectives• (i)NWUEF will develop a federation across providers of

education and training for the school and children’s workforce in the region

• (ii)NWUEF will make a major and proactive contribution to the national agenda in all aspects of the education and training of the whole school and children’s workforce

• (iii)NWUEF will contribute to the development of a high quality learning environment for all learners within the North West, whether these are within schools, HEIs or other contexts

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(iv)NWUEF will nurture links between all professional communities involved in the education and training of the whole school and children’s workforce within the region

(v)NWUEF will identify some elements of a common curriculum within initial teacher education and continuing professional development

(vi)NWUEF will facilitate a debate relating to applying the best aspects of the change management and remodelling agenda with HEIs

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NWUEF Partnership Research Strategy

• Relationships are fundamental to ITE partnerships (trainees, mentors, tutors, schools, HEIs)

• Models of professional learning and teacher development have grown up organically and differentially partly as a consequence of these relationships

• An advantage of ITE partnerships is their fertile ground for research

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Regional Teacher Education Research Examples

• NWUEF has attempted to launch regional research projects investigating ITE but funding is a problem

• OU/MU/LJMU project looked at ITE impact, producing published papers

• Liverpool City of Learning (Edge Hill, LJMU, Hope, UoL) conducted nearly £500k of research into learning networks and professional issues

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Aims of TERN

• To pilot a strong and sustainable model for research capacity-building in teacher education

• Across a collaborative network of seven regional universities

• To test the potential of this model for building a coherent research infrastructure on a larger scale across England

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The separation of research and teaching is no more keenly in evidence than in the NW where only two HEIs receive QR funding

NWUEF considers TERN to be fundamental to:

• Raising the profile of the quality of teacher education in the NW

• Strengthening NW research partnerships and creating a springboard for grant applications

• Involving school-based colleagues in collaborative, ground-breaking projects

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The National Context

for Research in and on Teacher Education

Professor Olwen McNamara

University of Manchester

Capacity building in education

Challenges facing the sector:

• politicisation of professional learning

• bureaucratisation of professional learning

• increase of research selectivity

• bifurcation of research and teaching in education

departments

• sustaining the teacher education workforce

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Increasing Research SelectivityTERN

5/5* 4 3a 3b 2 1 total

1992(1s not funded)

12 15 24 (3) 19 7 77

1996(1/ 2 not funded)

13 17 17 20 24 13 104

2001(1-3 not funded)

14 19 19 22 8 1 83

Education Departments in 2001 RAETERN

No core QR funding

(1, 2, 3b, 3a)

Core QR funding

(4 , 5, 5*)

% Research active in 2001

50% 50%

% staff entered in education department

35% 70%

% education research grant income

20% 80%

focus Schools curriculum, assessment, policy and inclusion

audience teachers researchers and policy makers

Education and the social sciencesTERN

Education ‘Other’ Social sciences

Size 5000 2000

Research active in 2001 RAE

42% 60%

PhDs 25% 64%

(psychology)

Sustaining a research active workforceSustaining a research active workforce

Challenges include:• Age demographics Age demographics

• Staff need QTS & pay differentials between HEI and school are sizeable

• Making the transition between cultures is challenging: Making the transition between cultures is challenging: • Vast new range of knowledge and skills • Research and scholarly activityResearch and scholarly activity• Heavy workload and long teaching year

• Drive for increased research selectivityDrive for increased research selectivity

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Initiatives to increase research Initiatives to increase research quality and capabilityquality and capability

• BERA has introduced:BERA has introduced:- Teacher Education SIG- Teacher Education SIG- bursaries for teachers to attend conference- bursaries for teachers to attend conference- refereeing of abstracts to increase qualityrefereeing of abstracts to increase quality

• HEFCE’s ‘Research Informed Teaching’HEFCE’s ‘Research Informed Teaching’

• TLRP’s ‘Meeting of Minds’ TLRP’s ‘Meeting of Minds’

• Scottish Applied Educational Research Scheme (AERS) Scottish Applied Educational Research Scheme (AERS)

• Welsh Educational Research Network (WERN)Welsh Educational Research Network (WERN)

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Initiatives to increase research Initiatives to increase research quality and capabilityquality and capability

If

Capacity = expertise x motivation x opportunities (Desforges)Capacity = expertise x motivation x opportunities (Desforges)

Then

WERN’s activities… have given researchers in Wales the WERN’s activities… have given researchers in Wales the ““motivationmotivation to engage in research by providing an to engage in research by providing an opportunityopportunity to develop to develop expertiseexpertise in a supportive co-learning in a supportive co-learning environment” environment”

(Davies and Salisbury, 2008: 9)(Davies and Salisbury, 2008: 9)

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TERN Project

Overview

Professor Jean Murray

University of East London

What were the origins of the TERN project in the North West?

• Research capacity building nationally and regionally

• TLRP capacity building resources and Teacher Education Group work

• Why the North West?

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Objectives of TERN

• to foster institutional networking in the North West, ensuring collaboration between research-intensive and teaching-intensive universities

• to contribute to building the institutional research capacity of the participating universities

• to provide a research development programme to enhance existing regional provision and institutional and individual research capacity

• in so doing, to develop a) a network sustainable beyond the life of the project and b) an effective model for capacity-building which can potentially be applied more broadly across England

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The TERN Project

Research & teacher education

Argument that the TERN project is building research capacity in and on teacher education

in teacher education through working with the education staff in the participating universities

on teacher education because the final proposals will have a substantive focus on research about the education / professional learning of teachers and related professionals

The TERN Project

• Funded by the ESRC (with additional

funding from ESCalate) – use of funding• ESRC & Teaching & Learning Research

Programme (TLRP) associated project• Dates: September 08 – August 09• Limitations around funding & timescales –

continuation beyond 2009

Funding and timescales

Who benefits from the project and how?

The TERN Project

•Broader: all education staff in the participating universities

TERN project participants:Research Colleagues,

Research Mentors, Institutional Research Leads,

Steering Group

All education staff in the participating universities

Elements of TERN

• Governance and ethics• Initial mapping / baseline for project• Planned research development programme,

with face-to-face and virtual elements (42+ research colleagues + mentors)

• Broader research enhancement (colloquia and communal seminar / events programme)

• Mediation / communication of previous research resources

• External and internal evaluation

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TERN project participants:Central activities

Extended activities for research colleagues

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Central benefits for TERN Research Colleagues

• Professional learning and career enhancement from participation in research development programme

• Working with research team and with senior colleague as mentor to develop research bids

• Access to the expertise of other senior researchers / research support staff in developing expertise

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The Research Development programme

• Five workshops: • Indicative foci for each workshop - fine tuned by results

of Mapping Exercise • Workshop 5 disseminating work to date and receiving

feedback• Virtual Research Environments (VREs) for further

collaboration between each face-to-face meeting. • Teaching & Learning Research Programme / BERA

Virtual Research Environments in use already• Use of existing resources for research development,

including the Teacher Education Group mapping.

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Workshops and VREs

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Workshop 1 Group VRE 1

Workshop 2 Group VRE 2

Workshop 3 Group VRE 3

Workshop 4 Group VRE 4

Workshop 5

Work to date…

Group VRE 5

Further work in VRE

Fine tune proposal between early July and end of August

Extended possibilities for Research Colleagues

• Further opportunities for supported participation in conference presentations, nationally and internationally

• Publication opportunities in international, peer reviewed journals (planned Special Issues etc.)

• Publication in professional journals etc.• Involvement in other aspects of research

capacity building nationally (e.g. other ESRC project)

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Research Mentors

• Modelled on TLRP Meeting of Minds mentoring

programmes • Adapted to small groups and ‘blended learning’

through the workshops and on-line activities• Extended benefits and opportunities for institutional

research capacity building & research leadership• Key roles in facilitating and guiding the activities of

the Research Groups

The TERN Project

Broader opportunities for all education staff in participating universities

• Participation in communal seminar / events programme

• ESCalate colloquia and planned BERA SIG events• Internal dissemination of TERN. Benefits from RCB

focus within university and from resulting strengths in research culture

• Further exploration of issues around research in and on teacher education

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Working definitions of teacher education research

Teacher education research is taken to include: • Initial Teacher Education and continuing professional learning / development of teachers and the broader education workforce in the primary & secondary sectors. • Research on both policy and practice • The challenges of working as an academic / teacher educator

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The negotiated research themes

The broad themes will need to have: • a clear focus on research about professional learning and /

or teacher education • relevance for professional learning and / or teacher

education• relevance for research capacity building in the region and

nationally • significance and interest for the individuals in the Research

Groups• and the work will clearly need to draw on individual and

communal expertise.

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Working groups 11. Key issues in research on teacher education and professional learning

• What do you think are the key issues about research in and on teacher education and professional learning nationally?

• Are there are particular regional (NW) issues about these areas of research?

• Are there particular institutional issues about these areas of research?

2. Under-researched areas in research in and on teacher education

• What significant issues for Teacher Education do you consider to be under-researched nationally?

• Do these have regional significance? If so, how would you like to see these being addressed in the region?

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TLRP Virtual Research Environment

Richard Procter

Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies

University of Cambridge

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VRE Basics

• Online collaboration tools, announcements, schedule, email lists, discussion, chat, file store, wiki, rss news

• Works in a browser, nothing to download• Access controlled space (username, password)• Public and Private sites• My Workspace (your private online space)• Roles

– Access

– Contribute

– Maintain

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Summary

• Not hard to use. But will take some getting used to.• Remember your username and password.• Try to agree how your worksite is structured, File store.• This will not replace email and other tools you use.• If you download something and edit it you need to

upload it again.• Wiki is the most powerful collaborative tool but need to

learn to drive it.• Don’t be afraid

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Thank you

• Email: richardp@caret.cam.ac.uk

• Further Reading– Laterza, V., Carmichael, P., and Procter, R. (2007) The Doubtful

Guest? A Virtual Research Environment for Education, Technology, Pedagogy and Education 16(3) pp.249-267. Online at http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/14759390701614363

The Teacher Education Group(TEG) Annotated Bibliography

TEG Steering Group:

Anne Campbell, Ian Hextall, Moira Hulme, Marion Jones, Pat Mahony, Ian Menter, Jean Murray,

Richard Procter and Karl Wall, in collaboration with

Steve Baron, Mary James and Andrew Pollard

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Objectives of the initial research activities set within a broad framework (TLRP initiative)

• To construct a literature mapping

• To draw on this mapping to analyse what it revealed about existing research activities in the field

• To develop a series of ‘walkthroughs’ to be placed on the TLRP website and to serve as a pedagogical tool for new researchers

• Funded by BERA, ESCalate and UCET

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Selection of articles

• Each issue of 49 journals checked for articles relevant to the objectives of TEG

• Retrieval of full text copies (PDF files) via Athens for each item where abstract appeared to fulfill the inclusion criteria

• Initial screening of 8,000 articles

• Exclusion criteria:- Studies not conducted within the UK and Republic of Ireland- Articles published before 2000 and after 2006 (Update 2007 and

2008 in progress)- Articles with a specific curriculum or pedagogic focus • Production of ‘short list’ of approximately 300 articles

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The Teacher Education Bibliography page:

http://www.tlrp.org/capacity/rm/wt/teg/

The on-line resource

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The TEG database

• Currently consists of 278 citations • Citations have been classified by the TEG group in various ways.

• To search these citations various filters can be applied to the list of citations

• The list of citations is organised alphabetically by author name

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Live weblink to journal sourceTotal number of resources

being displayed

Full reference

Full Abstract

Extended Core methods

Extended Core Topics

What is in a reference?TERN

The online resource - available at: www.trlp.org/teg

The search menus available include the following filters:• Author• Year• Core Topics• Core Methods• Journal

The abstracts have been classified by:• ‘Themes’ (extended topics)• ‘Categories’ (extended methods)

A word search is also available

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Thematic and methodological categories for coding of articles (filtering mechanism)

Core topics

• Professional learning• Partnership• Regulatory frameworks/policy• Curriculum and assessment• TE professional development• National context• Equity issues• Ethical issues

Core methods

• Qualitative / Quantitative / Mixed• Practice-based• Interviews / Questionnaire• Longitudinal• Survey• Small-scale / Large-scale• Reflection• Political economy• Case study• Action research• Literature review• Content analysis• Quasi-experimental

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Ways of filtering results (sorting)

Search by a specific author name e.g. Avis

The grey number (5) shows the number of citations featuring ‘Avis’ as an author

Search by year of publication e.g. 2004

The grey number (28) shows the number of citations in the database for ‘2004’

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More ways of filtering results (sorting)

Search by a ‘Core Topic’

e.g. Equity issues

The grey number (39) shows the number of citations identified as relating to ‘Equity issues’.

Search by ‘Core Method’

e.g. Case Study

The grey number (53) shows the number of citations identified as using a ‘Case Study’ approach.

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Search by Journal name

e.g. British Journal of Educational Studies

The grey number (5) shows the number of citations in the database taken from the journal in the period 2000 - 2006’.

Further ways of filtering results (sorting)TERN

A multiple filter - name and year: e.g. Davies and 2005

Produces 1

result

The numbers in grey confirm that

there is only 1 identified citation

The tick in the box shows you which filter you have used

Here ‘Davies’ is the second author in the citation

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A multiple filter – core topic and core method e.g. ‘Equity issues’ and ‘case study’

(1) Click on Equity issues: citation list changes to show filtered results

(2) Click on Case Study: citation list changes to show filtered results

39 citations related to ‘Ethical issues’

7 citations related to ‘Ethical issues’ and ‘Case study’

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A multiple filter – core topic and core method e.g. ‘Equity issues’ and ‘case study’ : Results

Seven citations result sorted by topic and method

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Use a ‘Walk-through’ – another way into the database!

Offers an introductory ‘overview’ and a way into the issue

Gives ‘Starter links’ to key resources

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The Walkthrough

• Purpose: To facilitate a journey of exploration which may result in the acquisition of knowledge and skills in research

• Aims: - to provide a stimulus for those wishing to find out about or study or research a particular topic by identifying and briefly mapping the chosen field or topic and by selecting key ideas and issues that introduce the reader to the topic or field

- to provide connections to a selection of relevant key literature, web resources and examples of policy, projects and practice through ‘jump out’ links, including the TEG resource itself and the TLRP resources and capacity building materials.

A pedagogical tool for building capacity in research

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Future developments

• Expanding and updating• Development of further walkthroughs • Variation in policy across the UK• Capacity building in education research,

especially teacher education• New pilot schemes in England• Auditing teacher education research in the UK

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Working groups 2

• What research themes do you think it might be important for the TERN project to address and why? (What would be the regional / national significance of these themes?)

• Do these research themes relate toa) institutional agendas andb) individual / small group expertise that you know about in the region?

• If so, how?

The TERN Project