Teaching as an evidencebased profession
Is this optional or achieveable?
Your views?
Prof. Marilyn Leask University of Bedfordshire, UK
For the Ed. Futures Collaboration (EFC): universities, companies
and school based organisations
www.MESHGuides.org
© Ovenden-Hope and LaVelle
Speaker background
Professional background
 Teacher, teacher researcher,
assistant head (secondary),
supply teacher
 University teacher educator
 Researcher – teacher
knowledge, digital technologies
 Government roles
 Author: Text books
Roles on external bodies
 OECD, EU and UK govt.
advisory roles
 UK Research Assessment 2008
 Professional associations
UCET, ITTE, BERA, ICET
 Editor: Mapping Educational
Specialist knowHow (MESH)
www.MESHguides.org
Definitions
 Research/evidence+ professional judgment = researchinformed practice
 Knowledge management: a form of practices, well known in
other sectors with specified strategies for: Sharing, Finding,
Using, Creating, Managing knowledge relevant to the
particular industry.
 Translational research: in medicine, from ‘benchtop to
bedside’, in education ‘concept to classroom’. Same research
methods but different forms of publication and different foci.
An OECD challenge – from 23 country
TALLIS survey
The OECD calls for the:
“creation of ‘knowledge-rich’, evidence-based
education systems…”
“in many countries, education is still far from
being a knowledge industry in the sense that
its own practices are not yet being
transformed by knowledge about the efficacy
of those practices.” (OECD, 2009, p.3)
,
Context: moving from 19th to 21st C practice
LEASK, M. (2011) Improving the Professional Knowledge Base for Education: using knowledge management
and Web 2.0 tools, Policy Futures in Education, 9(5), 644-660. ackn Ralph Tabberer prev. CEO, UK TDA. 2004
electronic networks/internet
informal networking
and electronic sharing
19th C
historic oral
tradition
rapid dissemination, globalism
low cost updating, ease of knowledge
building through online communities
‘extended professionalism’
research informed
policy & practice
better coherence in R&D
Increased codification of knowledge
isolated practice, localism
restricted professionalism’
slow print dissemination
limited publishing opportunities
pre-electronic networking
How does our English system score for supporting the 5
main knowledge management behaviours
(Leask, M (2011) Improving the Professional Knowledge Base for Education: using knowledge management and Web 2.0 tools.
Journal for Policy Futures 9 (5) 2011, 644-660)
Imagine…
Imagine…personalised prof. dev.
-teachers could easily access at the touch of a button
 research based pedagogic knowledge including about barriers
to learning threshold and troublesome concepts at a finegrained level
 pedagogical tools such as diagnosis and intervention
strategies, explanations, demonstrations, modelling,
questioning used by successful teachers – in every subject, for
every type of learner at key stages
- teachers demonstrating achievement of standards could show
how they drew on and contributed to the evidence base
- educators collaborated to develop such a quality assured
Wikipedia type resource…
Imagine…if
Researchers, research funding bodies, teachers undertaking research
could easily
 see gaps in the research base
 see what topics are well researched
 find questions teachers want researched
 cost effectively collaborate across regions to scale up and test out
emerging practice in different settings
 Easily find out what was best practice in other countries.
Our evidence base for effective practice was based on cumulative
research over years, across settings
 rather than being small scale, diverse and rarely useful in providing a
foundation for practice or policy making
Why work differently?
Poorly organised knowledge base
 Can a teacher access research-based advice easily?
 Plethora of small scale ed. research /systematic reviews
 web repositories  out of date
 limited access to relevant research by users
 costs/challenge of teacher/teacher educator professional
development
Digital technologies  new opportunities
5 standard behaviours expected in
organisations which value acumulated
knowledge
finding
managing
sharing
using
creating
A need for national infrastructure and
co-ordination –via maybe the College
of Teaching?
 National repository: Access to research summaries written in
a form relevant to teachers but updated through feedback
loops from teachers using and developing work in the area
 A shared understanding of tools teachers can use within the
time available to produce reliable research findings which can
be built upon
 Online communities environment to support likeminded
people finding each other and to provide a focal point for
work in particular areas.
 A system for state of the nation online surveys allowing the
education sector to pool knowledge.
Working differently: who will lead?




Will there ever be enough additional money – no
Could we do more with the slivers of time we have now – ??
Do we need to work differently – yes
Can we take control of our professional knowledge base and
professionalise teaching worldwide? Hmmm….requires
collaboration….
 What are some options?
The MESHGuides system – a response
to access and relevance issues
Translational research and the
mobilisation of knowledge
MESH guides propose the use of translational research,
more often associated with medicine, but here refer to
evidence-based resources for educational practitioners
enabling knowledge mobilisation.
Smith and Helfenbein (2009) identified that translational
research
‘creates a space for collaborative, co-constructed
inquiry that values and utilizes the expertise of all
stakeholders involved’.
MESH Guides provides that ‘space’ for co-created, peer
reviewed, evidence-based, internationally sourced
educational resources.
MESH guides:
 underpin professional judgement/s with research based and peer
reviewed evidence
 raise learner attainment through informed professional teaching
MESH is a system, sustainable within current resources, supporting
educators to:
 pool, build, test and publish knowledge in new ways through world
wide collaborations
 access to research based advice to improve teaching and so
improve learning outcomes
 to work cost-effectively to revisit, update research and republish
research in ways previously not possible.
Learning from others
Campbell collaboration
Map of Medicine: evidence based care maps
Cochrane Collaboration: systematic reviews (medicine)
National Institute for Clinical and Health Excellence
(NICE)
Social Care Institute of Excellence
Local government association Knowledge Hub
NHS direct
Find this by googling ‘Map
This was developed by doc
Hospital who were trainin
edited book. Each pathwa
national subscription to ke
to use.
Clicking on any of these
items leads to a flow char
as shown on the next slid
with each bubble clickabl
for further information
Map of Medicine Healthguides
MESH Guide example
Verification is
through peer
review of all
pathways and is
transparent
MESH is set up to:
• underpin professional judgement with evidence
• raise learner attainment through professionalising teaching
MESH is a system, sustainable within current resources,
supporting educators to
• pool, build, test and publish knowledge in new ways through
world wide collaborations
• access to research based advice to improve teaching and so
improve learning outcomes
• to work cost-effectively to revisit, update research and
republish research in ways previously not possible.
MESH – accessed in 123 countries
Could we, as a sector, agree on a
standard set of tools?
Tool 3
Synthesis/lit.
reviews.
Tool 4: Action
research –
testing
kn./creating
Tool 1:
TACTICS
framework
Tool 2 Mini
RCTs
Tool 6: online
communities
Tool 7
National
surveys.
Tool 5
Publishing
differently eg
MESHGuides.
Tool 5: Pyramid model of connected
outputs from research publications (BERA,
2000, p.3)
Press
release
Existing
Journals
Brit. Library
Ethos + ??
Professional
report
Academic paper accredited by
referee
Full report giving sufficient detail for
replication and audit
Examples
MESHGuides
(research
summaries written
for users)
Professional
association journals
SSAT TEEP materials
BERA Insights and
Curriculum
Foundation
materials
Forms of professional knowledge
• 1(Subject) Content knowledge, i.e. the subject material – gained through university degree and
ongoing professional development
• 2. General Pedagogic knowledge, i.e. the broad principles and strategies of classroom
management and organisation that apply irrespective of the subject – gained from initial and
continuing professional development
• 3. Curriculum Knowledge, i.e. the materials and programmes eg school and national curricula
and materials – gained from initial and continuing professional development and employing
school
• 4. Pedagogical content knowledge, i.e. how to teach specific concepts effectively so all learners
progress - – gained from initial and continuing professional development
• 5. Knowledge of learners and their characteristics: learning sciences i.e. neuroscience, sociology
and psychology -– gained from initial and continuing professional development
• 6. Knowledge of educational contexts – local school, community and family values and
backgrounds – gained from initial and continuing professional development and from employing
school
• 7. Knowledge of educational ends (aims), purposes, values and philosophical and historical
influences: both short and long term goals of education and of a subject.
from Capel, Leask and Turner (2009:14) adapted from Shulman, 1987
Tools 1-4 Action Research Stenhouse,
Lawrence Prof of Ed.
1975 An introduction to curriculum research and development.
Heinemann p. 142 para 1 and 2, p.157 para 5,
Current action research practice is only half of Stenhouse’s vision.
Context for his work: evaluation of major national curriculum
project engaging teachers as researchers.
His vision: teachers’ case studies of classrooms would be
synthesised.
6,7
Stenhouse’s vision p.142
• “[Action research has] major implications for the
betterment of schools…curriculum research and
development ought to belong to the teacher…it will
require a generation of work…the teacher’s professional
self-image and conditions of work will have to
change…each classroom is a laboratory…each teacher a
member of a scientific community…[leading to] critical
testing rather than acceptance
• “The idea is that the curricular [research] should feed a
teacher’s personal research and development programme
through which he/she is progressively increasing his
understanding of his own work and hence bettering his
teaching” p.143
• He discusses methodological problems p.157. These have
been researched and solutions proposed see Leask (1988)
http://library.beds.ac.uk/record=b1468955~S20
• “Each classroom should not be an island…teachers working to
such a tradition should communicate with one another…they
should report their work…a common vocabulary of concepts
and a syntax of theory need to be developed…If teacher
reports their own work in such a tradition, case studies will
accumulate, just as they do in medicine. Professional research
workers will have to master this material and scrutinize it for
general trends. It is out of this synthetic task that general
propositional theory can be developed. “ Stenhouse 1975 p.
157
Where are we with Stenhouse’s
synthesis challenge?
UK Educational research – endless generation of case studies and
little synthesis
 e.g. 5000 case studies in primary MFL pedagogy proved impossible
to synthesise. Quality of reporting was variable so comparison was
difficult.
What would you like to do? 6 week
interventions around common topics?
Tool 1
Tactics
• Topic of your
choice
Tool 4 Action
research –a)
testing
b) creating
Tool 2
mini RCTs
• ?well being
• ??
• personalisation
Lit reviews/ • ?well being
synthesis • ??
• ?well being
• ??
Tool 5 write
a
MESHGuide
• ??
• ??
Tool 6 online
communities
• ??
• ??
Tool 3
MESH www.meshguides.org
- the education version of medicine’s
NICE?
 perhaps linked with the proposed College of Teaching?
Change: a call to innovators/early
adopters
Rogers’ Theory of the
diffusion of
innovations