PROFESSIONAL PRACTITIONER USE OF RESEARCH REVIEWPractitioner engagement in and/or with researchPhilippa Cordingley

Background: policy and practice• Practitioner engagement in and with research increasing• Multiple local, regional and national examples in England• GTC 2010 survey 33% teachers (12m)engaged in research• OECD examples of Nationally funded knowledge brokers:

EPPI Centre, Knowledge Chamber, Netherlands, New Zealand BESS Programme, Danish Knowledge Clearinghouse, Canadian Council on Learning

• Engaging in research (teacher-as-researcher) and with research (using the public knowledge base to inform practice) now get considerable investment across OECD

• Some underpinning debate and research to which this review contributes

Systematic Review Methodology• Comprehensive electronic literature search- huge

numbers – eg 80,000 + for health alone;• Screened titles & abstracts against the published criteria;• Retrieved full studies applied 3 levels of filtering;• Completed a map of the literature;• Double blind data extraction - 50% (98) of initial

selection; 100% ( 25) for synthesis;• Explicit assessment for weight of evidence for synthesis;• Synthesised evidence for review questions;• Commissioned anonymous peer review;• Implications explored with policy makers, practitioners

and researchers.

Review of studies of professional practitioners’ engagement in and/or with

research in education and of its impact on learning

Map of the literature

Synthesis of findings

Review of research reviews into engagement in and/or with

research in health and social care – and, where possible, its

impact on client outcomes

Summary of reviews (no point in mapping, just a summary of the

reviews and their terrain will suffice

Synthesis of findings

Comparison of related fields of evidence

Technical report

Three user reports

Findings: outcomes in education

• Practitioner engagement in and with research is linked to positive outcomes for themselves and for pupils.

• Impacts spread fairly evenly among improvements in:– knowledge and skills; – behaviour for learning; and – attitudes/motivation for learning.

FINDINGS: A Spectrum of Engagement

Engagement with

Research Engagement in Research

The Engagement Spectrum - education

• At one end of the spectrum, where there were positive benefits for pupils- practitioners engaging with research in education involved:– research planned, analysed and reported by

researchers– active involvement of practitioners in

implementation, data collection and review– teachers introduced to research findings and

underpinning rationale/ theory, by researchers– support to help teachers interpret findings and

adapt them for their contexts• But not identifying questions, analysis, interpretation

or reporting

The Engagement Spectrum - education

• At the other end, benefits were linked with, practitioner engagement in research when:– activities were wholly planned,

implemented, analysed and reported by practitioners

– teachers drew on support from (e.g.) HEIs, Local Authorities and specialist organisations

– teachers involved in data collection, review, observation and refinement of questions and evidence, analysis and reporting

– Teachers used published research of others

• Engaging with others’ research represents a change in England

In health (and social care) reviews:

• When filtered for patient/ client outcomes data, health and social care reviews highlight a different spectrum ranging from:– reading briefings and guidelines – responding to compliance monitoring – less commonly, participating in workshops which

enabled enquiry-oriented interpretation and contextualisation.

• In H&SC engagement with was much more common. In education engagement in nearly always involved engagement with.

Examples of the research foci - education

• Practitioners were engaging in and with varied research, including:– assessment for learning;– using the web as a learning tool;– improving social skills via co-operative learning;– making group work effective;– increasing student motivation;– professional development for behaviour management;– teaching literacy, mathematics, and social sciences;– inquiry based learning in science; and– creativity in the curriculum.

Findings: important processes

• Identifying goals in relation to pupil outcomes• Selecting and experimenting with new approaches

with support from specialists• Reviewing and refining results with support from

peers and in light of evidence from classrooms• A settled picture – processes and outcomes pretty

consistent in education

Education: obstacles and Support• Approaches homogenous for engaging both with and in• Time was often an obstacle including:

– Time to undertake research– Rush to meet deadlines/ rhythms of academic year

• Problem of in-depth focus v multiple competing demands• Peer collaboration and critical friendship – essential across all

studies and fields as support and motivator• Form and content of specialist support important for:

– Selecting the most effective/appropriate approaches– Initial training/modeling of new approaches– Designing research tools, analysis and reporting

Health education comparison• Approaches and outcomes more diverse in health • Less evidence about outcomes of practitioner use of

research in health• Approaches seem to be more about communication

and transmission of evidence• Knowledge base viewed as more certain – effort

focussed on whether rather than how things work• Contextualisation less well revealed and

problematised

Knowledge base in health and education different

In health research tends to focus on high quality impact data in clinical settings. Education research focuses more on how things work in context but weaker re: impact data• In health obstacles reported as take up and compliance• In education they involve interpreting evidence, adapting for

context whilst still securing fidelity to principles• In further education students are perceived as an obstacle to

engaging in or with research• Teachers had greater professional autonomy with more scope

for managed risk taking than did nurses or social care professionals

• Are schools were more conducive practitioner research environments than colleges or clinical settings?

Contact Detailsphilippa.cordingley@curee.co.uk

www.curee.co.ukCentre for the Use of Research and Evidence in

Education4 Copthall House

Station SquareCoventry CV1 2FL

024 7652 4036