Developing a web-based research app to support practice-based enquiry in teacher education

Phil Taylor & Dario Faniglione

Background

• Builds on the Literacies for Employability (L4E) project and App, supported by the HEA.

• Underpinned by long-standing notions of teaching as research; links to lesson/learning study.

• A web-based research app ( ) to facilitate collaborative practice-based enquiry (we decided not to call it

the Collaborative Research App!).

• Initially intended for educational practice, but could be used for practitioner research in other disciplines.

• To be made available as ‘open source’.

Tools for thinking and the creation of three kinds of knowledge about the social world

Poulson and Wallace (2004, p.17)

‘Research that produces nothing but books will not suffice.’ (Lewin, 1946, p.35)

‘Research is the servant of professional judgement, not its master.’ (Pring, 2000, p.141)

Tools for thinking and the creation of three kinds of knowledge about the social world

Poulson and Wallace (2004, p.17)

‘When someone reflects-in-action, he [sic] becomes a researcher in the practice context. He is not dependent on the categories of established theory and technique, but constructs a new theory of the unique case.’ (Schön , 1983, p.68)

Tools for thinking and the creation of three kinds of knowledge about the social world

Poulson and Wallace (2004, p.17)

‘...there is in the research field of education little theory that could be relied upon without teachers testing it. ... Using research means doing research.’ (Stenhouse, 1981, p.110)

Supporting action research

• Action research ‘provides a vehicle for researcher and co-researchers (the participants in the research) to seek and to share meanings constructed from shared experience’.

Phelps and Hase (2002, p.514)

• Inherent in action research is conversation as ‘an emergent form, one whose outcome is never pre-specified and one that is sensitive to contingencies’.

Davis and Sumara (2005, p.462)

Aims of the project

• To further enhance outcomes for student teachers and their professional skills by strengthening their research enquiry projects.

• To enable student teachers to make greater links between theory and practice, through the development of research skills.

• To support the process of analysis and sharing of classroom practice evidence and student teachers’ reflection on their professional development.

Objectives of the WRApp

• To provide conceptual frameworks for student teachers to support the collection of practice evidence, mainly through observation.

• To enable student teachers to capture rich evidence of classroom practice in text, picture, audio and video forms, within a pre-planned and/or co-constructed conceptual framework.

• To facilitate analysis of the evidence captured using the conceptual framework.

• To encourage sharing and presentation of evidence captured and the ensuing analysis.

Use of the WRApp

1. Identify a group of collaborative practitioner researchers – set up a user group.

2. Agree and design a framework for gathering evidence (e.g. a lesson structure).

3. Use the framework to collect evidence in practice, through observation and reflection, in various forms (text, picture, audio, video) using portable devices.

4. Post and share evidence to user group website.

5. Analyse, synthesise and compare evidence.

Classroom Workplace Context 1

Classroom Workplace Context 2

Classroom Workplace Context 3…

Agreed Framework

Text

Picture

Audio

Video

Web Server – User Group

Admin Researcher Participant

List (a simple list)

Grid (a simple table)

Matrix (a table with headings)

Web (nodes and connections)

Cyclical (process model)

Spiral (change process)

Framework templates

• ……. • ……. • …….

Piloting the WRApp

• The L4E project provided an initial piloting opportunity.

• Four PGCE Secondary students have explored the WRApp and provided feedback in a technical pilot.

• We are planning to trial and use it more extensively next academic year.

• If you are interested in piloting the WRApp, please contact phil.taylor@bcu.ac.uk.

Example templates

• The following four slides show some examples of WRApp templates, for illustrative purposes only, designed as frameworks for student teachers to collect placement evidence.

• They are also available and can be viewed in the WRApp itself.

• Our intention is to develop a bank of such templates, as starting points for cloning and editing.

Continuum of Teaching Styles From Mosston & Ashworth (2002) in Capel, Leask & Turner 5th Ed. (2009, p.295).

Command

Practice

Reciprocal

Self-check

Inclusion

Guided Discovery

Convergent Discovery

Divergent Discovery

Learner designed individual

Learner-initiated

Self-teaching

List template

Lesson Study Model

Based on DCSF (2009); Dudley (2014).

Case Learner A Case Learner B Case Learner C

Expected/hoped for response

Actual/ observed response

Expected/hoped for response

Actual/ observed response

Expected/hoped for response

Actual/ observed response

Stag

e o

f Le

sso

n S

eq

ue

nce

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Post-lesson interview Matrix template

Key strategies of formative

assessment Based on Wiliam

(2011, p.12).

Clarifying learning intentions and sharing and criteria for success

Engineering effective discussions, activities, and tasks that elicit evidence of learning

Feedback that moves learning forward

Understanding and sharing learning intentions and criteria for success

Activating students as learning resources for one another

Activating students as learning resources for one another

Understanding learning intentions and criteria for success

Activating students as owners of their own learning

Activating students as owners of their own learning

Where the learner is going

Where the learner is right now

How to get there

Teacher

Peer

Student

Grid or matrix template

Revised Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

From Krathwohl (2002, p. 216).

Cognitive Process Dimension

Rem

emb

er

Un

der

stan

d

Ap

ply

An

alys

e Ev

alu

ate

Cre

ate

Kn

ow

led

ge D

ime

nsi

on

Factual Knowledge

Conceptual Knowledge

Procedural Knowledge

Metacognitive Knowledge Matrix template

Demonstration

• http://wrapp.bcu.ac.uk/

References:

Capel, S., Leask M. & Turner T. (Eds.) (2009) Learning to Teach in the Secondary School (5th edition). London: Routledge.

Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2005) Complexity science and educational action research: toward a pragmatics of transformation. Educational Action Research, 13(3).

DCSF (2009) Improving Subject Pedagogy Through Lesson Study. Crown.

Dudley, P. (2014) Lesson Study – A Handbook. LSUK. Available from: http://lessonstudy.co.uk/lesson-study-a-handbook/ [Accessed 25.4.14].

Lewin, K. (1946). Action Research and Minority Problems. Journal of Social Issues, 2(4), 34–46.

Krathwohl, D. R. (2002) A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy - An Overview. Theory Into Practice Special Issue: Revising Bloom’s Taxonomy, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 212-218.

Phelps, R., & Hase, S. (2005) Complexity and action research: exploring the theoretical and methodological connections. Educational Action Research, 10(3), 507–524.

Pring, R. (2000) Philosophy of educational research. London; New York: Continuum.

Schön, D. A. (1983) The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.

Stenhouse, L. (1981) What counts as research? British Journal of Educational Studies, 29(2), 103–114.

Wiliam, D. (2011) What is assessment for learning? Studies in Educational Evaluation, 37 (2011). 3–14.