LDC FUNDING FOR RESEARCH ACTIVE STAFF (RAS) NETWORKS
APPLICATION FORM 2015-2016
PART A
Details:
Name:
John Thornby
Job Title:
Senior Teaching Fellow
Staff No:
0870105
Department/Centre/Unit/Faculty:
Centre for Professional Education (CPE)
Departmental Administrator (name): Jayne Lawrence
Purpose / Objective of the Research Staff Network:
The principle objective of this network is to bring teaching-only staff from CPE more in touch with
educational research. CPE has a remit to deliver research-informed teaching on its postgraduate
education programmes, but its staff are currently somewhat detached from the research process. It
is hoped that this network will help to foster closer ties with the Centre for Education Studies (CES),
CLL and IATL, as well as with research-active practitioners within the partnership of schools that CPE
works with.
Details of the Skills/ Development Activity(ies) (Max 500 words):
The main activities for this network will be:
1. Establish a CPE journal club, in order to connect teaching staff to academic research and foster
appropriate critical discussion.
2. Initiate a seminar series, in order to invite speakers from CES and other institutions to share their
research and best practice.
3. Create an online presence for the network in order to advertise events above, as well as share the
limited research that is being done by CPE staff via PGA TEL, PCAPP and MA and EdD projects.
4. Launch a partnership journal, in order for students and school partners to publish their evidencebased innovations in teaching and learning. This is a larger piece of work that is the subject of a bid
for strategic project funding from IATL, but falls within the remit of the CPE research-informed
practice working group.
Overall, this project is centred around staff development by helping them to become more researchinformed. It is imperative that Teaching Fellows are able to keep their knowledge up to date with the
Sandy Sparks, LDC
Research Active Staff Network Funding
October 2015
latest advances and innovations in education. Without this opportunity for development the content
of the PGCE course will rapidly become dated.
Additionally, CPE teaching staff are delivering a Master’s level course, but many have limited
experience studying at that level themselves and, indeed, some are many years removed from
academia and scholarly study. This project will, therefore, also help staff to develop the critical and
analytical thinking skills necessary for Master’s level work, which should improve their ability to
assess students’ work and build additional capacity within the teaching team.
Date of your activity/event(s), if known:
Unknown, hoping to launch in February 2016.
If you have a website, please give the URL:
None as yet, but the CPE research-informed practice working group will establish an online presence
in order to advertise and market these events. This would be linked to from the staff interest group
pages (HR) and university CPD training pages.
Please state which events will be open to other University of Warwick Research Active staff or if
relevant to a specific facility or department.
CPE will operate an open door policy. Journal club and research seminars will be accessible to all
appropriate colleagues from other departments, including CES, CLL, CEDAR, LDC, IATL and Academic
Technology, as well as external school staff from CPE’s partner schools.
Is this a new network or existing network?
New / Existing
Scope/ Evaluation / Impact of activity(ies) proposed
(Please give us an estimate of the numbers of staff who will be involved and an indication of how you will measure the impact of the
activity/activities. If you intend to follow up the activity by disseminating information, or using the outcomes to support other staff
development activities, please also let us know this)
The CPE PGCE Secondary team intends to make the journal club and seminar series a
compulsory CPD activity for its Teaching Fellows (12 in total). The Primary and Professional
Development teams have opted to allow their staff to attend at their own discretion, but it is
hoped that some of them will find the series interesting enough to find the time to commit.
It is difficult to quantify the impact of the activities, although level of voluntary engagement
from other colleagues would be the primary indicator for success, along with visitors from
other departments. Qualitatively, the depth and criticality of staff responses to
articles/seminars will be a strong clue to the extent with which colleagues have engaged
with the material. Longer term, it is hoped that CPE staff will be inclined to undertake
Sandy Sparks, LDC
Research Active Staff Network Funding
October 2015
further academic study in the form of an MA or EdD. Although this network project could
not claim to be the sole cause of such decisions, it is certainly the case that these network
activities will give staff a taste of what academic study is like, which might help them decide.
How do you plan to let Research Active Staff know about your events/meetings (LDC RAS website
or RAS e-newsletter can be used)?
The research-informed practice working group will create an online space to advertise events and
disseminate departmental research. The RAS website and e-newsletter can be utilised, but it might
also be appropriate for these activities to be marketed via analogous sites/lists for teaching staff.
Seminars could also be advertised via the digital screens that exist around the university (targeted to
education and related departments).
How do you plan to share the learning / best practice with other University of Warwick Research
Staff Networks?
The primary vehicle for this will be the web presence that the research-informed working group will
establish. It is not decided yet whether this will take the form of a traditional webpage, a blog, a
group Mahara collection or some combination. There is also some appetite within CPE to use Twitter,
as this is a medium that is frequently utilised by the teaching community and would have significant
reach.
What is the benefit of your activity/activities to:

The University
CPE’s teacher training courses are accredited by NCTL and periodically reviewed by Ofsted. A
successful Ofsted inspection and outstanding rating brings with it significant reputation for the
university which helps it to compete with other universities for new business in the developing
world. Indirectly, therefore, anything which enhances the provision of teacher training at Warwick is
good for the university’s reputation overseas.
Additionally, this project will strengthen ties with school partners, which helps to open doors for
public engagement and widening participation projects in the future.

Your department/organisation
Staff development is essential in order to keep CPE’s teacher training offer innovative, up to date and
relevant. This is difficult to achieve with a workforce that are no longer at the chalk face in schools
and is not currently actively engaged in research. That is the primary motivation for establishing this
Sandy Sparks, LDC
Research Active Staff Network Funding
October 2015
network. Additionally, the quality and consistency of marking should improve as staff become more
confident with academic work and critical thinking. This will build capacity within CPE as the
department will, eventually, be able to reduce the level of second-marking and moderation
necessary for each round of assignments.
Secondary benefits are to become more institutionally engaged by forging closer ties with other
departments, including CES and IATL.

Research agenda
CPE does not currently have a research agenda as it is an academic service department, which is part
of the problem this network seeks to mitigate. However, CPE is currently developing its teaching and
learning strategy for academic year 16/17 and beyond and research will feature more prominently
via engagement with WIHEA, as well as the IATL bid to launch a best practice journal for the school
partnership.
Total amount of funding requested:
£ 400
Breakdown of funding requested (approximate):
£ 200 – travel expenses for visiting seminar speakers
£ 200 – catering costs for networking event(s)
*Signature of Applicant:
Date: 10 / 01 / 16
Head of Department’s signature:
Head of Department:
**Signed:
………
Kate Ireland
(please print)
……………………………………Date: 11 / 01 /16
Please send your completed form either in hard copy or electronically to Sandy Sparks
(Sandy.Sparks@warwick.ac.uk) in the Learning and Development Centre, University House.
If you have any queries, please contact Sandy to discuss (either via email at the above address or on
extn 74121).
*You can either sign a hardcopy, scan in your signature or email the application which will be taken as your signature.
Sandy Sparks, LDC
Research Active Staff Network Funding
October 2015
**Your HOD can either sign a hardcopy, scan in their signature or send an email to Sandy Sparks stating they support your
application.
For LDC use
Approved by: ……………………………………………………..……..….
Date: …………………………….
Amount approved: £………………………………………….……………
Budget Code: ……………………..
Sandy Sparks, LDC
Research Active Staff Network Funding
October 2015
PART B (sent post event)
Report:
Funding awards are conditional upon a report being produced after the event or activity which
reflects on the value and impact of the activity in order to share best practice. We ask you to do this
by completing Part B of this form within 2 weeks of the event or by 31 July 2015 for a series of
events. (Please note that funding may be retracted where reports are not produced).
Please tell us:
How you felt the event/activity went:
How many research staff were involved in
a) the organisational process:
and
b) presenting at the event itself:
How it has contributed to the Department/ University/ Research Agenda:
What has been learnt:
What would be done differently next time:
Impact/results/benefits:
Budget (provide breakdown of amounts spent):
£
£
£
*Signature of Applicant: ………………………………………………………
Date: ……………………………………….
Please send your completed report either in hard copy or electronically to Sandy Sparks
(Sandy.Sparks@warwick.ac.uk) in the Learning and Development Centre, University House.
*You can either sign a hardcopy, scan in your signature or email the report which will be taken as your signature.
For LDC use
Report received (date): ………………………………..
Sandy Sparks, LDC
Amount spent: £ ……………………………………
Research Active Staff Network Funding
October 2015