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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
TERN
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
TERN
NWUEFRegional Strategy
2007 - 2012
Regional Strategy for the Education and Training for all involved in the whole
school and children’s workforce
TERN
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
TERN
(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
TERN
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
TERN
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
TERN
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
TERN
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
TERN
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
TERN
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
TERN
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)
TERN
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)
TERN
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?
The TERN Project
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
The TERN Project
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
The TERN Project
TERN project participants:Central activities
Extended activities for research colleagues
The TERN Project
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
The TERN Project
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.
The TERN Project
Workshops and VREs
The TERN Project
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)
The TERN Project
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
The TERN Project
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
The TERN Project
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.
The TERN Project
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?
The TERN Project
TLRP Virtual Research Environment
Richard Procter
Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies
University of Cambridge
TERN
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
TERN
Thank you
• Email: [email protected]
• 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
TERN
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
TERN
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
TERN
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
TERN
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
TERN
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’
TERN
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.
TERN
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
TERN
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
TERN
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
TERN
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
TERN
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
TERN
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