Evidence-based teaching is now being encouraged by numerous educational factions and Hattie's meta-analyses have really helped. However, it appears that many K-12 teachers focus on teaching (nor surprisingly) and rarely find the time or are motivated or have access to educational research. Furthermore, research articles, in general, tend to be dry and excessively detailed. So how do we motivate teachers/educators to be consumers? Perhaps different formats are needed like short-video clips summaries or info-graphics, or social media summaries. Maybe my question should be, “How do we get K-12 teachers to read our research?”
I believe that teachers want to be kept abreast of research and how it applies to their teaching. The truth is that much of educational research does not have practical value in the classroom, even some of the best. Although the ideas behind the research may be motivating to teachers, often it is not translated into a form that allows them to apply it faithfully to practice. Nor does it consider the contexts in which new ideas will need to be implemented or the range of abilities and skills that students have at given stages of development. I propose four concrete strategies we might apply to help bridge the research to practice gap:
1. Conduct all professional development with a 5-minute overview of the research on which the ideas to be presented are based. This would also eliminate the most egregious presentations of educational nonsense.
2. Provide a section in every professional journal in education, showing how the research published may be applied to classrooms or explaining why it may not be appllicable to classroom practice.
3. Ask all researchers to translate their findings for practitioners and publish in practitioner journals. In this way, the barriers of language and length, often found in research journals, might allow more practitioners to understand and apply the findings.
4. By the same token, practitioners need to hold study groups in their schools and districts, focused on research findings to discuss the applicability to their work.
Faithful implementation of research in classrooms remains one of our biggest problems in education.
The trouble with getting teachers to read research is, as you imply, time. Because they are time poor, they are (to my mind) excessively goal oriented and so want to find research that is action oriented, ie 'how can I use this now'. IMO, Research is best treated like a smorgasbord. Dip in, cogitate and go back for more until replete, then digest. After some reasonable time repeat process. Slowly the research adds together to help you determine the best action to try, so you do then cogitate some more. Try a new idea and repeat whole process. So! Where does this lead? I think it is more about mindset in schools and easy access to well tagged research than it is about format. The better the tags, the more accessible to someone who is goal oriented, the mindset point is about valuing teacher's successes now so they aren't so frantic about impoving, allowing their motivation to be more tiwards the inrinsic end of the spectrum.
My work on teacher professional development would suggest:
- create time and space for teachers to engage with research (as you note, they are unlikely to 'squeeze it in' otherwise)
- create opportunities for them to actively engage with research, in collaboration with colleagues
- look for teachable moments / 'just-in-time' learning opportunities where research can be offered or found to relate to a need / problem the teacher has identified themselves (this increases their sense of the research's relevance)
- identify journals which are deliberately aimed at practitioners and so have a more accessible writing style (shorter, less jargon etc) - there are journals out there that are high-quality but not just dry / academic - a leading one is Phi Delta Kappan
- recognise that 'getting them to read it' doesn't go far enough for the research principles to become integrated and embedded into practice. Look instead for opportunities to work alongside teachers or facilitate teacher collaboration to address a problem with the support of literature (i.e. teacher inquiry project over time)
Great question and good luck!
@Mark - Yes - I do believe it is a partially a problem of culture and mindset. I'm not clear on your tagging solution. Do you mean keywords for a paper. Not sure that would fixe the problem. I think their has to be a more user friendly approach. In addition, the HUGE problem is the nonsense that is picked up in the name of research - SAMR model, drinking water to keep your mind working, Bloom's Taxonomy - Totally unquestioned, but that will be my next question.
@Katrina - Great suggestions - Thank you so much. Are you aware of any research that supports this approach or suggest it works. It sounds reasonable for sure. I was wondering if you had any thoughts about changing the format of research, say into an infographic, to help make the results more accessible and time friendly.
@Robin, it's really difficult to break some of the beliefs that are so strongly held! For instance, I've had so many "flame wars" with teacher friends on Facebook over the years who seem to take it personally when I post (yet another) piece on the fantasy of "learning styles". I think that the concept of "cultural cognition" plays into this (or, in more modern terms, "truthiness"!). Nuthall had theories about this, but no solution (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bav4RkHsbys)
Robin you are right about the problem of unsubstatiated ideas that are taken up. Thie is part of the culture issue. Teachers accept that someone in authority will choose PD for them. And those higher up the food chain are more likely to want a 'quick' and obvious solution, something that can be readily named and referred to in reports, such as Blooms or learning styles.
True, the tagging idea is a small issue. One that I would welcome as I gather research magpie fashion. (Not sure if magpie fashion translates widely beyond Australia). It would make my life a little easier. Actually, I find RG useful in this way as there is a tagging prcess that help me filer my research.
@Laura - Love the concept of cultural cognition and the video - although it goes a bit fast for me to digest - I have to pause a lot (smile). Well this is a major area that needs to be studied - How do you break into or alter the established "cultural cognition"? Certainly it is possible for some teachers but why not more? Goodness, if our teachers don't question knowledge, why will our students?
@MArk - Yes, that blind acceptance to authority - Milgram returns (smile). I suppose it is much easier and requires less cognitive effort than actually questioning authority/experts. My questions is, has anyone tried to bring research to teachers? I will have to look this up. I haven't been able to find much. Yet.
Hello Robin and all, I'm a K12 teacher who does research, reads the research of others, communicates my own research to others. Here we work many hours a day. For myself and many of my RG friends, I must say that we are intrinsically motivated educators, and we make the time for what is worthwhile.
This was my conclusion for a paper that I wrote: "In conclusion, I recommend that more CL research should be carried out on science education in Malaysian schools and colleges. Furthermore, CL should be practiced for both Practical/laboratory and non-laboratory or tutorial science classes. Our educators should then act upon research findings rather than by force of habit or inclinations."
Article Facilitating Cooperative Learning Among Matriculation Biology Students
@Miranda - So I think you are clearly the exception to the rule. What do you think sets you apart from the average teacher? I know when I was teaching in high school, the last thing I felt I had time for was reading research. That said, I would have accepted it, if it had come my way.
Thanks Robin. I have been communicating research in several places; in a polytechnic of this small town, Banting, when a national conference was held there, early this year. I attended and presented research at conferences in Penang, and Johor Baru a few years ago.
Then just yesterday, I was invited to the Knowledge sharing session at our Ministry of Education in Putrajaya. I was asked to share about my research on motivation. As I said, I'm intrinsically motivated to do all these academic sharing. But my students are mainly extrinsically motivated, and so too are most colleagues! I find more intrinsically motivated friends on RG than in my office. Let me share the pic and paper here, thanks.
Article Motivation and Achievement of Malaysian Students in Studying...
I believe two of the most important steps can be “making the connection”, and “researcher and teacher collaboration”. If research is well aligned with the current needs of students’ learning and teachers’ instruction, and curriculum requirement, there is a good chance that teachers will be likely interested in getting to know the research and integrate the research insight into their teaching practice. For example, Dr. Jim Cummins’ work in multilingual and bilingual education well reflect the needs of language and literacy education in North American urban cities has a profound influence on teaching practice, and many teachers are well informed and applies his research findings and approaches to teaching practice, particularly in second language education.
The other way to effectively encourage evidence-based teaching is by engaging teachers and school administration in the life cycle of research process. One of the great example is the initiative in US. “Strategic Educational Research Partnership” (SERP), which forms a strong collaboration between teachers and research and effectively and directly disseminates research in the school communities. For more information about SERP, please see http://serpinstitute.org/
@Miranda - Thanks for sharing the resources - So intrinsic motivation. Makes perfect sense. So we have to motivate teacher intrinsically to look for research. Of course they can teach without research. So why would they bother? I suppose we need to chat more with these folks about why research and evidence is not important to their practice?
@Jia - Good suggestions too. I would imagine if teachers are involved in research they would see the possible intrinsic value. Of course this approach is not scalable really. Too many teachers and too few professors. Maybe encouraging action research. How do we stimulate research consumption on mass? As a habit?
Great question, Robin. As I have said in various talks, I think this lies at the heart of what it takes to make the 21st century "The Education Century." Roughly a century ago, practicing physicians made this leap and look at what has been achieved in medicine since then!
The problem with saying "intrinsic motivation" lies in the very definition of "intrinsic." We cannot change intrinsic motivation. So, what extrinsic forces might apply?
I think many teacher education programs have begun to take steps in this direction--when we talk about praxis and reflection these days, many are talking about it in the context of understanding and applying research findings.
Moreover, in Ontario, the accreditation requirements for faculties of education explicitly require the a focus on research-based practice.
Likewise, education graduate programs have long emphasized both the production and the application of research--so there should be a leadership pool that is ready for the change.
We need to get the support and involvement of professional organizations, unions and school boards to insure that research-based practice is an expectation of the profession as a whole. I think that will come, but only as recent grads move into the positions of responsibility. The systems for hiring and evaluating teachers need to reflect those expectations and to enforce them.
One of our graduate students reminded me this term of the Flexner report:
Flexner, A. (1910). Medical Education in the United States and Canada (4th ed., pp. 3-28). Boston, MA: Merrymount Press.
Searching Flexner report yields lots of interesting results, including this one:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3178858/
which is a look back at the impact over the last 100 years. Interestingly, Flexner was not a doctor but an educator.
This is a different time and the lessons of Flexner do not apply directly (e.g., we are not mired in fly-by-night for-profit teacher education institutions), but his call for a science-based profession still rings true for education 100 years later. Just by raising the question, you may be helping to set the stage for change.
Bill
Came across this article about translating research. May be pertinent?
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-development/translating-research-into-practice/?utm_campaign=Faculty+Focus&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=25137390&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_bZ3Gvtcl3fIWDuhhjOqCSBWvka0Dn28xJGLqX09FULnJ2LuMUK7c92WLuZGWPcO2_q0hpy0MhwfhLoDXZdkYUE4JJqQ&_hsmi=25137390
Robin, you mentioned action research. For me this was the way into reading more research. I started by generating my own hypotheses and testing them (this is actually what most teachers do as a matter of course but aren't aware they are doing it) and as I progressed, I found I needed to do more reading to make sense of what I was doing. Action research puts the teacher in the central position and makes them the expert/researcher who finds it necessary to read others' research to help them in their development. the research is based on an intrinsic motivation. This is a fundamentally different from being required to read research as an extrinsically motivated event. Again mindset is the key. So the question for me is 'how can the conditions of teaching be manipulated so that teachers are encouraged to take on an action research mindset. All of the current understandings about motivation would apply. A sense of self efficacy is required. a sense of freedom and personal control is required. A sense of prrpose is required. At the same time, elements of coercion, demand, reward and sanction need to be removed.
@Mark - Excellent point regarding action research. I know certain boards near us in Ontario, Canada encourage this (as a board). And to be honest, I think it would increase what we know about teaching exponentially if this was a regular routine. It sets the stage for viewing teaching as a recursive activity. Love that idea. Thanks and I will take a look at the article.
I agree about the potentially beneficial effect of action research, especially the particular version now popular in Sweden called learning study, in which teachers are involved in researching and improving their own teaching practice together with academics.
Dear colleagues, I am heartened to read your responses to this question about a serious problem. From my perspective, I believe the problem germinates from the lack of emphasis on evidence-based practice in the early years of teacher education degrees. Please let me be clear: I do not reject the ancient art and craft of teaching. But, it is my experience that teachers and, moreover, teacher educators lack the literacies to understand (and thereby convey) the fundamental concepts of what constitutes "evidence" and the empirical practices that produce evidence with respect to quality research, both quantitative and qualitative. So, my contention is that we--teacher educators--must not only teach our future teachers how to generate quality evidence and consume quality evidence, but also we must ensure that teacher educators are not beguiled by invalid methods of knowing often associated with "reflective practice".
Social work wrestles with this challenge as well.
I think the role of coach or master teacher in US schools is a great place to focus as those individuals have reduced teaching loads and have direct teacher cultivation responsibility.
I would also suggespointing those coach type individuals to meta analysis and aggregeted collections of work that summarizes ul to one salient point to be impressed...
It's a rich certainly with broad application.
Lauri
@Peter - Love what your reply - Should have been obvious so thanks for bringing this to light. Changing or shifting the focus of pre-service teaching to embrace and encourage evidence would be a wonderful research study. This is quite similar to pushing technology at the pre-service teacher level. Countless studies have been done here but I am not aware of many looking at the impact of evidence-based practice. Interested in doing a study on this?
@Lauri - So how does the Master Teaching approach work - we don't have it here (Ontario, Canada). Love the connection with social work - that is also an obvious connection that I did not realize. And I think synthesizing studies is also a promising route because time is an issue. I wonder too, as Peter suggested, whether starting students from day one on an evidenced-based philosophy is a promising approach in your field?
In Sweden we also have Master teachers - so called First teachers - for various school subjects or groups of subjects. One of their tasks is to keep up with the latest research in their respective fields and also to disseminate to other teachers.
In my Math for Elementary Education Students, I have had these preservice teachers read selected math ed research articles (e.g., Erlwanger's "Benny" paper) and comment on them. For this, they get a small amount of credit.
@Jonas - How wonderful. That would be interesting to see the difference between North American and Swedish teachers with respect to consumption of and ability to digest educational research. T o your knowledge, Jonas, has the impact of this kind of program been assessed?
@Annie - This is a good start? What are their reactions to consuming research? I wonder if they do this for credit once and then they are done with "research"? Does it inspire them to seek more or discourage them?
@Bill - Thanks for this contribution. I was thinking the same thing about where medical education was at the turn of the century (maybe you told me a previous time?) AND that gives me hope for teachers. The same line of reasoning applies for education now. I think you can stimulate/encourage/prod intrinsic interest - otherwise how doe we get interested in new ideas/strategies/behaviors? What I worry about in Ontario is the pretense of a "research-based' approach but not coming through with the "goods". That said, it is worth investigating to see where exactly we are in terms of teachers digesting research. As sated early, dogmatic adherence to learning styles, Blooms Taxonomy, the SAMR model, multiple intelligences and the like seem just as prevalent. at least anecdotally.
Here's a link that discusses the idea of Teacher Leaders or Coaches
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept07/vol65/num01/Ten-Roles-for-Teacher-Leaders.aspx
It's a relatively common way of cultivating administrators/managers here.
I also agree with those who have talked about infusing the evidence/research/data driven approach into teacher education. That's how we are trying to do things (to a greater and lesser degree of success in social work). Evidence based practice is a huge movement in our field - akin to data driven decision making in other fields.. it's a hard road as student's are not necessarily coming to social work education to consume research or become producers of data first and foremost, as I assume most teachers are not either.
Like Selden, I believe that it can start with teacher preparation. Assignments that require potential teachers to read reports of research related to teaching strategies critically. Questions that lead the reader to look for specific information in the articles read can save time. The habit of seeking evidence that support the use of classroom strategies needs to be developed early and encouraged by experienced professionals.
Once teachers find themselves responsible for learning in their own classrooms, instructional leaders (e.g., principals, lead or master teachers, etc.) can use meeting times to share, and encourage others to share, research-based information, as Hallstrom suggested. Of course it would be helpful if school administrators acknowledged the importance of this practice by providing access to articles and other incentives.
As a full-time school teacher and part-time educational researcher (a mid-course EdD student), it seems to me that the key issue preventing teachers using research to inform our practice is getting access to the research in the first place.
The dominant source of peer-reviewed, and thus 'reliable', research is still the traditional academic journal. Pretty well every journal is confined behind a paywall, a fundamental obstacle which only those teachers lucky enough (like me) to be registered with a university can navigate. My colleagues in school, who have no university library rights, simply cannot access important and influential articles without paying exorbitant fees. It isn't surprising that none is willing to do so.
There is a growing amount of good work being published online under open access arrangements, and via blogs and other platforms. But it is still only a small fraction of what the academy and the teaching profession produce every year. And you need to know where to look for it.
To my mind, the single greatest contribution that any government could make to teacher professionalism would be to give us free and unfettered access to all that knowledge. In the UK at present, such a bold and innovatory step is not even on the political agenda. What is the situation in your country, I wonder?
Thank you for sharing your observation and insight. I found resources - time, and library excess to be crucial. I think the climate that the leader/administrator sets for the school is crucial. By nature teachers practice and need immediate solution and there is nothing wrong with that. However, the leader can lead the reading of current research, set a goal to explore or to vision potential solution, or writing grant to investigate issues. This might direct attention to conduct research.
Dowling makes an excellent point. There is very limited access to research that is published in academic journals for those who are not connected through universities and other educational venues. In addition, some that is available must be purchased or rented. This is a disturbing trend. Researchers may want to very intentional about making their work available through open access options.
Currently, because of an increase in socio-economic struggles, oral-generation is increasing in place of the reading generation. As such, many people do not want to read heavy texts. In order to motivate them, you can post the abstracts of your research findings into the pages of the social media (such as facebook, and twiter) or prepare a short video clips and post into you-tube. By so doing, people will be motivated to willingly spend their short time to read or listen to the findings. If this is succeeded, it will be a step in making practical use of such findings
In réponse to Simon Dowling's comment, I must, with great respect, disagree with your suggestion that teachers do not use research because it is inaccessible. Open access resources, such as ResearchGate and institutional repositories (e.g., eprints), allow researchers to share by uploading their "author versions" of manuscripts that ultimately appear in journals, and some are allowed to upload the final copy under open access regulations. I also have reservations about the suggestion that government should make all these resources freely accessible. As I've stated, many of the resources are already available free of charge, yet the research consumption behaviour of teachers seems not to have changed. The question in my mind is: How can we encourage the horse to drink? Thus, I take the view that teacher educators must start to solve this problem by changing pre-service teachers' attitudes and approach toward knowledge, evidence-based practice, and methods of research. The government may prove itself useful by demanding changes to teacher professional standards such that applied research skills (for evidence-based practice) become a mandatory dimension of teachers' competencies and the requisites for registration as a teacher.
Thank you for your comments, Peter. I do agree with you about initial teacher education, and what you suggest would certainly improve matters in the future. My concern is more with colleagues who qualified some time ago, and who may well see the benefit of reflective, evidence-based practice, but find themselves baulked at the first fence when trying to pursue it.
I take your point about recent improvements in open access (which I did mention in my first comment), but I have found that most classroom teachers are not aware of, or not willing to spend time searching, ResearchGate or the other online sources that have sprung up. It does help to have someone in the school who has undertaken a higher research degree and who has become familiar with the various ways in which research is published (in the manner of the 'Master' or 'Lead Teachers' that several comments on this thread have mentioned). I am fulfilling that function in my school, selecting and circulating what seems to me to be useful material, and I can report that more colleagues are 'research-aware' compared to a few years ago.
However, some stubborn horses will never drink, no matter how firmly you drag them towards the water!
@Robin - No, I don't think so since this reform is quite new, but I can check if the Swedish Schools Inspectorate has maybe evaluated the First teachers.
And yes, a comparison between North America and Sweden in this regard would be great!
This article on government-funded access to research for teachers is worth a look:
http://schoolsweek.co.uk/englands-teachers-miss-out-on-free-access-to-research/?utm_content=buffer24ef7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Wow! I am really grateful for all the contributions from my colleagues on this topic. Thank you!
Hard to keep up.
@Shirley and Simon– You make a really good point in your last sentence “Of course it would be helpful if school administrators acknowledged the importance of this practice by providing access to articles and other incentives” It is quite difficult for teachers to have firsthand access to research, at least in Canada and I suspect the US. Not something to spend money on I suppose.
Also I wonder if the teachers of pre-service teachers value research. Perhaps we are unique, but often we have to bring in very experience teachers to teach certain subject specialties. These are very good teachers BUT they are not necessarily wedded to research. In fact some would say the best guide is experience and that may be true to some extent, but it moves pre-service students away from research.
@Simon – I wonder if teacher should be made more aware of ResearchGate where many articles are available although it is a bit unwieldy to search. I also wonder whether access would spark interest – it is a good research question. Or does time and culture trump access in the end? That said, having access is obviously a huge barrier but not one that many educators seem to be complaining about.
@Linda – For sure a school leader sets the tone and searching for quick answers is problematic. But I wonder if this approach is scalable or like technology will vary from school to school. I actually wonder if there are school leaders who actually promote the consumption of research. Does anyone know of schools where this happens?
@Noel – That is what I was wondering too. I really want to investigate this because short, succinct, audio/visual formats might work really well and partially solve the problem of access. You are quite right that the time and skill to read some articles (not to mention the awkward writing style) is daunting and unrealistic.
@Peter – Nice summary – I was wondering that too – The research is more accessible now than ever, however, many teacher may not realize it. That said, my gut instinct is that the culture, desire and time is not there, for the most part.
I believe that teachers want to be kept abreast of research and how it applies to their teaching. The truth is that much of educational research does not have practical value in the classroom, even some of the best. Although the ideas behind the research may be motivating to teachers, often it is not translated into a form that allows them to apply it faithfully to practice. Nor does it consider the contexts in which new ideas will need to be implemented or the range of abilities and skills that students have at given stages of development. I propose four concrete strategies we might apply to help bridge the research to practice gap:
1. Conduct all professional development with a 5-minute overview of the research on which the ideas to be presented are based. This would also eliminate the most egregious presentations of educational nonsense.
2. Provide a section in every professional journal in education, showing how the research published may be applied to classrooms or explaining why it may not be appllicable to classroom practice.
3. Ask all researchers to translate their findings for practitioners and publish in practitioner journals. In this way, the barriers of language and length, often found in research journals, might allow more practitioners to understand and apply the findings.
4. By the same token, practitioners need to hold study groups in their schools and districts, focused on research findings to discuss the applicability to their work.
Faithful implementation of research in classrooms remains one of our biggest problems in education.
@Joyce - I agree with a lot of what you wrote here. I do wonder if there is a difference between wanting to keep up with the research and the willingness/ time to actually do this. I do believe there is a fait bit of research that has practical value in the classroom, but this research is not in the format of a recipe nor is it definitive. What I am concerned about is the blind willingness to follow so called experts and sleek visual representations in lieu of evidence (e.g., Blooms taxonomy or the SAMR model). Your suggestions are reasonable . Mind you, I'm quite not confident that the 5 minute intro would have much of an impact - I have seen this sort of thing. All you need parentheses, a name, and a date and that counts as evidence. I also wonder about the likelihood that educators would hold study groups. Has this happened anywhere? I would love to know where ;-)
Hi Robin-The study group idea has been employed in several districts, notably Fairfax county, VA and Wychoff, NJ, to name but two. I understand your concern about the PD approach and concur it can be circumvented rather easily. Safeguards might include a stipulation that the presenters translate the research evidence, not just mention that it has been done. This would also put school PD directors on notice that motivational speakers are not the way to go in improving practice--another topic worthy of discussing that actually has data to support it.
I like the study group idea. A research book club.While teachers are time poor they also are time rich in the summer. I used to select one area I wanted to strengthen and work on it over the summer ( still spending important personal time). This research could be encouraged (expected) by principals and shared in the new year at staff meetings. Then following upon the research is needed and how it is being employed in practise can also be an expectation.
I would like to see conferences encourage teacher participation by reducing the costs for teachers. Not all teachers receive any funding to attend conferences( often filled with academics) and for me it was a place to get excited about research.
In response to Gloria Latham: Yes, I agree, building a culture of research thinking is a good way to go. If one were to formulate this problem from a social learning perspective then teachers' self-efficacy for doing research is what leads to their interest in research, and efficacy can be developed through social learning activities such as group discussions. Yes, conferences are a place to learn and get excited about new ideas and evidence, and these are another form of social learning.
I challenge your points about reduced costs, however. Instead, I take the view that subsidies are not a solution to teachers' lack of interest and culture apropos research. Building a research culture via the professional standards for teachers and the curricula of pre-service degrees is the long-term solution. Moreover, an expectation that one should, in an ethical, deontological sense, engage in applied research and evidence-based practice as a minimum standard of professionalism should be regarded as a fundamental principle.
As for the costs per se, in Australia personal professional development costs can be tax deductible. Yet, all too often I am confronted by teachers' unwillingness to personally invest in their own professional development. In my experience there seems to be a culture of "someone else should pay": the school, the department, the government, the taxpayer. The "subsidise my professional learning" approach is not a culture of professional autonomy, of professionals deciding to act in their own needs and interests; it is a culture of disempowerment whereby the subsidies are directed at the payers' interests and needs. As long as teachers expect someone else to pay they will always be subject to the whim and fancy of the benefactor--"He who pays the piper calls the tune".
Other professions in the human services field do not expect someone else to pay for their professional development and those professions have a culture of autonomy.
I don't disagree with you Peter. We do need to change the culture of 'who pays.' I just want teachers to initially get excited enough about conferences to 'then want to pay.' There are so many ingrained practices that don't appear to alter.
Robin,
I am not sure if there are leaders who is encouraging teachers to conduct research. Further, school district now have Research Director serves like an IRB supervisor. This further hinders research. Is this just my observation or did you see that too?
I really am enjoying the creative ideas that are coming out. So thank you!
@Joyce - I like your idea about translating the research in PD. If only a little. And yes, motivational leaders have their place, but are not the most research savvy at times. And it would be interesting to study the impact of those groups
.@Gloria – Interesting book club idea – Probably for the very dedicated, but you are right about being time rich in the summer. I see social media groups as playing a role as well, even through the year
@Gloria & Peter – I wonder if there are differences among counties with respect to salary and attending conferences. As a professor, I get a stipend to go to conferences (So I don’t pay myself). Also, I get a conference presentation or two which helps my career. In addition, I am finding conference startlingly expensive - $600 US just to participate and then you start adding on travel and hotel. Well I agree that teacher should invest in their career, many (like me in the past) spent 1000’s on books and resources for the classroom. So I wonder if virtual conference and connections might be a better way to go.
@Linda – Yes, as soon as there is a director, life becomes very rule bound and can put a dark cloud around the idea of research altogether. So yes, I definitely see that too.
I am a certified teacher and dietitian. In the United States days in the school calendar are allocated to teacher workshops. Consultants from universities present current research and evidence-based pedagogy. School districts host doctoral students who need to interview teachers and students for their dissertation. Master teachers have a great sense of pride in contributing to the educational research base. They also sponsor student teachers, who are well-versed in evidence-based research techniques. The major textbook (digital and paper) publishers also sponsor web-based lectures on educational topics. This is changing the culture, albeit slowly.
An important aspect is to blend learning at all levels and to suit changing environments
@Patricia Correct me if I am wrong, but in the US, education is controlled mostly by the sate not at the federal level? Or do I have that wrong? So I am wondering hoe prevalent this is and whether the impact is being measured. Is there any way to determine or prevalent this activity is and exactly where it is occurring?
Just came across this article in NPR entitled iPads In Special Ed: What Does The Research Say? NPR is probably perceived as a reasonably reputable sources, the article is accessible. What about feeding research n this format to educators?
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/06/13/321058641/ipads-in-special-ed-what-does-the-research-say
I've been studying PLCs with regard to Professional Development in the US for my PhD Dissertation. In the US, teachers are very much "time-poor." One of the benefits of the PLC structure (at least in the school districts with which my study has engaged) has to do with providing teachers with research-based solutions. In the districts I've studied, they have SMEs (Reading and Math, particularly) at the District Level whose job it is to digest and analyze the relevant research and bring it to the community team meetings. Not only does it save the teachers from having to do the research themselves, it provides a context in which to discuss the research, applications of the research in THEIR context, and mediate the results of the enactment. Thereby providing support to the teachers as they attempt to improve their practice.
I appreciate Joyce's proposed strategies. My concerns are
1. Teachers need to know the purpose of their research.
2. It reads to me that those strategies need clear defined direction and strong leadership.
3. Collaboration. I do hope the teachers can have a study council with college professors to start with a study group to begin with the research initiative.
@Barb _That's interesting - the regional and country differences. So has anyone looked at the impact of this approach? Do most teacher naturally wait for these summaries? Finally, aren't all teacher time-poor? What sort of system do you have their?
You raise an interesting point. All teacher's 'should' be time-poor. I personally believe that one of the motivational factors promoting them to consume research and evidence is influenced by either their personal interests and/ or needs. For example, if a teacher is encountering a problem in their class (and are unable to solve it through other means) then they may be motivated enough look up current research. On the other hand, if a teacher has a certain interest in following current research, then they will. Then answer to your question about how to motivate, may lie in the two factors mentioned above.
@Farheen - That's an interesting point. Ideally, if there are problems, one could ask colleagues OR search up some research. I am guessing the former is more frequent than the latter, simply because of time
@Rita - One has to be a little careful simply looking up articles related to one's on beliefs - Confirmatory bias can be dangerous. For example, I was pretty much convinced about a constructivist approach to teaching for the most part and then I came across Kirschner & Sweller's article (see below) - It helped me grow and learn more although I was a little taken back when i read the title.
Article Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An An...
@Robin -- Professional Learning Communities and/or Data Teams are becoming more common in the US. There is quite a bit of data behind the effectiveness of the approach. Here's a website where they track test results (among other helpful information): http://www.allthingsplc.info/evidence/
I think US teachers are particularly time poor. In the past several years, much of their planning time has been taken away in favor of more instruction time. This really makes it difficult to spend time looking for research. They want it. They want to understand it, but honestly, there isn't time. Any non-teaching time they have (even their own time at home) is spent on grading and other class management activities.
I agree with you about the need to read research outside of our own bias. To that end, I have been participating in a conversation about the research neuroscience is doing with cognition! Nothing concretely applicable yet, but some promising discoveries on the horizon.
I am also a study partner with a woman in India who is doing a grounded study research about a partnership between teachers and university researchers with a goal to understanding how to connect the two. I'm looking forward to her results.
In the UK, the Nuffield Foundation funded the following website (and the work to produce the accompanying book) on "Key ideas in teaching mathematics"; see:
http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/key-ideas-teaching-mathematics
Book Key ideas in teaching mathematics: research-based guidance f...
Use a constructivist method of research in groups. Students are eager to listen to their mates and express in public their projects
I have been reasonably successful through my Web page: Math Education Digital Filing Cabinet. This is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_%28game%29. Iy has had over 59,000 hits. The basic idea is that each teacher can create their own Digital Filing Cabinet of materials that they might want to reread and share with others. This fosters a habit of looking for and collecting "good stuff" that one can easily refer to and/or share with others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_%28game%29
@David - That seems very promising - The link you sent seems to send me to a games site? I am assuming that is not the one you wanted to put in?
Hmm. I wonder how that could have happened
Try this one--the one I intended:
http://iae-pedia.org/Math_Education_Digital_Filing_Cabinet
And, here is the link for my latest book:
http://iae-pedia.org/Learning_Problem-solving_Strategies_by_Using_Games:_A_Guide_for_Educators_and_Parents
One of the most enjoyable ways that I was immersed in reading about science and breakthroughs during my teaching tenure was when I was given a class to teach called Technical Writing. The designer and teacher of the class before me focused on having students read popular science articles from magazines, like https://www.sciencenews.org/
or http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/
. They had to do at least ten of these per term. They could choose from an enormous smorgasbord material, topics, etc.
The skills they worked on--or honed--had to do with summarizing, which means breaking down articles and ideas in such a way as to be understandable to others who had not read the piece--yet making the summaries interesting and their own.
Years later, I was watching a program on Albert Einstein which explained that the time Einstein spent working at a patent office--before he published his articles and changed the world--involved similar skills. The skills (besides daydreaming) that he learnt in the patent office including breaking down big ideas or inventions into their basic parts, i.e. in order to evaluate whether something new, important, or substantial had been created by the person or team applying for a patent. He then had to write in summarily fashion about his findings and opinion on the product or idea to be patented.
Breaking down things this way proved very helpful in getting Einsteins' own ideas on paper and reviewed by experts in years to come.
@David - thanks for the references!!!
@Kevin - That's an interesting idea - Perhaps a new course in a pre-service teacher program. We tried a research-based course in the past for 3 years. The resistance of new teachers was persistent and intense. They truly did not want to learn about research and were focused on learning about teaching. Funny that they were seen as polar opposites. Then again, many were very nervous about going into the classroom and they want tips and recipes for success.
While visiting pre-service teachers on placement I would often ask them what they would like me to focus on. This got them to think about an area of personal need such as framing open ended questions, meaningful verbal feedback, who talked, who listened... After the lesson, ( the important part) if the pre service teacher claimed that a strategy or a lesson "worked." or conversely didn't work, I would ask, what does that mean, it worked? How do they know something did or didn't work? This question of what they deemed successful teaching and learning to be such as everyone was doing the task, I enjoyed it, everyone learned it, I liked the discussion...opened valuable dialogue for more evidence based appraisal of what it means to learn. John Hattie's opens visible learning saying that practising teachers' claim everything works. There have to be ongoing expectations that pre-service teachers provide evidence, however small, beyond their gut feeling and defend it with existing literature all through their teacher education program. The problem is the research required to be undertaken is not based on the identifiable needs of the novice teacher but rather imposed. .
@Gloria - Nice, really nice addition to the discussion. Just changing the way of thinking with a simple question based on Hattie's statement "Know thy impact" is a big step forward. I wonder if engagement seduces us into thinking that learning has occurred - more formal ways of examining impact in the classroom might be needed. Thanks
Yes! Thanks, Gloria. I suspect you are correct, Robin, that many of us (me included) would judge a lesson effective if we saw "engagement" of any sort -- probably because most of the time we are met with dull stares? ;)
One of the things I like so much about the PLC/Data team concept is that these decisions are based on good, actionable data. The teachers teach the same objectives at the same time (but are allowed to put their own flavor on it) and then assess the students with the same, formative assessment after an agreed-upon amount of time. The teachers have also written the assessment. They are assessing small chunks of learning on a regular basis. They use this data to understand which students have grasped the concepts and which ones haven't. If the assessment is written well, they can also determine which aspects of the concept haven't been grasped. They use this information to reconfigure the students for remediation (and the students who have grasped the concept get time for enrichment (or to do other work).
This is one of the places where your original question fits in -- if students continue to struggle, research is consulted via subject matter experts/coaches. It is teacher learning at its best as the learning is directly tied to the teacher's context.
Forgive my enthusiasm :) I went into my research ready to find fault with PLCs and I have come out a big fan. I think it's a concept that could translate to University Pre-Service environments as well. It works very much in line with Clarke & Hollingsworth's Interconnected Change Model.
Clarke, D., & Hollingsworth, H. (2002). Elaborating a model of teacher professional growth. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18(8), 947–967. doi:doi: DOI: 10.1016/S0742-051X(02)00053-7
@Barb - So helpful and please be enthusiastic any time - It's infectious. Thanks for the paper too. He there been any research comparing teachers you go through this approach and those who don't. I would love to learn more. the model sounds quite promising.
@Robin, at this point, the PLC process isn't used at University here. Only in schools and districts. The concept of communities of practice as part of pre-service teacher training is starting to gain traction (and a PLC is basically a specific format for a community of practice). You can see a conversation about it on Etienne Wenger's blog here: http://wenger-trayner.com/all/which-teacher-training-colleges-take-the-cop-approach-seriously/
I participated in that conversation and shared this research that I'd found:
HOAGLUND, A. E., BIRKENFELD, K., & BOX, J. A. (2014). PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES: CREATING A FOUNDATION FOR COLLABORATION SKILLS IN PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS. Education, 134(4), 521-528.
You can go here http://www.allthingsplc.info/evidence/ to look at the progression of improvement of districts and schools who have demonstrated proficiency in the PLC framework. You will see that the PLC process seems to be successful across soci-economic lines.
Hello
Please see some publications in my profile. You may find something interesting.
Kind regards
NP
@Nikolaos - Which pubs? Can you suggest a few? I don't see any directly relevant to this question.
I am working on a related issue which is the use of adapted primary scientific literature in secondary school classes to promote scientific literacy, appreciation of scientific research, and public understanding of science for both teachers and students. We set up workshops in which teachers and scientists collaborated to adapt current and local research for high school students. While teachers were interested in the research itself and in the opportunities to talk to scientists, they did not use any of the resources that were developed. They cited the lack of 'time' as the reason for not incorporating a novel resource, regardless of the fact that they indicated that the research would be intriguing for students and would help to address curricular outcomes. As teachers we are often apprehensive of moving away from 'tried and true' strategies that take us out of our comfort zone. I know this sounds simplistic and cliché, but it is true. I appreciate the suggestions and references from others in this forum.
I am curious: to what extent are teachers more likely to be consumers of research such as the attached with significant implications for policy? Given that education research often is applicable to both policy and practice, I wonder how we might help teachers make stronger connections between knowledge they can use to improve and even transform their practices and knowledge that can strengthen their voices and impact on policy?
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2016/01/19/classroom-observations-may-hurt-teachers-more-than-they-help-study-says/
@Hyancinth - Yes, I can see that kind of resistance BUT I also finding it particularly disturbing. to think that the reason a teacher does not consumer research is that he or she does not want to feel uncomfortable. For some reason, that really, really doesn't feel right to me.
@Linda - Yes improving the intrinsic value of consuming research is a good idea - Maybe we all ask, what's in it for me? If the research were linked to policychanges, I only wonder if that might skew observations and results depending on what policy one might be supporting?
Robin:
You can have the teachers form a Book or Journal e-group that will facilitate topics of interest for them. The material used should not be too long so that each person in the group can take turns of presenting and leading a discussion online once a week or every two weeks depending the time available. Usually a semester is about 12-13 weeks. In addition, as was said before, they can get involved in action research in their classroom to address issues thru their own planned interventions pertinent to improving their practice. These two components (e-group and action-research) can be linked so that teachers keep their focus on issues that are relevant to them.
many thanks,
Debra
@Debra - Good ideas but wonder (a) how much interest there would be in this kind of activity and (b) what the scalability might be - Then again, maybe you develop a core of research savvy teachers and build from there.
Robin:
The interest would be determined by the teachers' issues and you can do a pilot to begin with a group of interested teachers. If they find the strategy useful, then they would share the benefits with the other teachers who will be reading their published research.
Best regards,
Debra
@Debra Sounds like a promising research study for pre-service teachers. I like the set up in theory and it would be interesting to see the impact.
Hi, Robin et al.,
I have been keeping an eye on this discussion since this question has haunted me for years. I take the point re: time--I remember when I was in a secondary classroom, nearly half a century ago, that any request for me to read something additional or fill our a form was a major intrusion on my work. Still, we need to find ways to engage teachers in research-based practice if we are going to make this the education century--and I think we should. Joyce's suggestions all seem headed in the right direction.
Just moments ago, a colleague sent me a link for the University of Plymouth (UK) teaching and learning website. It is all about "7-step programs" including one called "7 Steps to: research-informed teaching." Each of the topics is presented with a very specific set of practical suggestions and an accompanying list of research articles. The overall web site is:
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/your-university/teaching-and-learning/guidance-and-resources/7-step-series
Granted, the focus here is post-secondary teaching, but there is plenty of room to apply these ideas at all levels.
Bill
Bill-
I agree that it is not just a K-12 issue. Plenty of tertiary instructors present material as research-based when it is not--rather merely rhetorical essays, advocating for a set of ideas. What research is and what it is not is another issue related to this discussion. In an age where marketing is the coin of the realm, it is even more challenging to help teachers see what is skillful marketing vs. research findings that apply to their work.
Hi Robin,
my suggestion would be: talk to the teachers, share ideas as much as you can, inform them about other existing resources besides the curricula and textbooks. This is especially relevant for teachers who are at the beginning of their teaching careers and besides the lack of time, they may have a lack of information, as well. Another important issue may be the language, meaning that international research is in English, which makes findings even less accessible for most of the teachers in non-English speaking countries. Third, access to research journals requires funding, which many schools can not afford (even if there are teachers with a particular interest in reading some articles).
@Bill Yes _ Remember when we tried to insert a Research-Based course for our pre-service teachers. The resistance was surprising and intense from the students - that's before they even started teaching. Eventually we dropped it from the program but maybe it is time to bring it back - in a different way (yet to be determined). Greta resource BTW - very helpful and not just for research-based education
@Joyce - I hadn't even thought about higher education where the problem is probably worse because the research focus of many instructors is not on teaching per se - Research is in it's little bundle and then there is Teaching - They may not mix often in non-education programs.
@Ana - I think your idea of focusing on starting teacher is probably a good one. Talking to current teachers about research appear to be a bit of an uphill battle - We aren't as persuasive as the corporate-backed agencies who promote slick methods not based on any research.
Great point about the language barrier - Never thought about that, but it makes sense. That said, MANY studies are freely available in a number of language on Research Gate - So access need not be as big a problem as it once was. Well providing teacher know about Research Gate. Plus the search feature are pretty limited on RG.
@Robin--I remember it well, both you and I tried to sell it, but it may have been an idea ahead of its time--I am quite certain we were the first teacher ed program ever to require such a course. It probably is worth another try--both because of changing sensitivities and because of greater access to resources (as we are discussing here).
@Ana. Language is definitely an issue, but China is currently becoming a massive producer of research in both English and Chinese and we can look at a future in which written documents (at least) should be fairly available in diverse languages due to computer translation. I don't really think that access to research journals needs to be a big barrier for many teachers--with the overwhelming growth in use of mobile devices worldwide, many teachers can access not only Google and Google Scholar and other tools for finding research, but they can directly obtain research in open access journals like those listed in
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HXp6ImQP6yMea4KmHVBfueNKDpR3ygpdgGmHh7gjaeo/edit?pref=2&pli=1#gid=0
and
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/11/11/100-excellent-open-access-journals-for-educators/
and
https://doaj.org/search?source={%22query%22%3A{%22filtered%22%3A{%22filter%22%3A{%22bool%22%3A{%22must%22%3A[{%22term%22%3A{%22_type%22%3A%22journal%22}}]}}%2C%22query%22%3A{%22query_string%22%3A{%22query%22%3A%22education%20learning%20teaching%22%2C%22default_operator%22%3A%22AND%22}}}}%2C%22from%22%3A0%2C%22size%22%3A10}
(and many others).
For my money, the biggest barriers are time and a conviction that applying research can indeed improve performance. A really beg help in dealing with both of those barriers could be unions and professional organzations.
Bill
I think the answer may lie in propagating a cultural shift that originates within facilities of education. Not directly relevant to the original question, but in medicine making such a transition towards evidence-based practice required a top-down generational change in how basic theory, not just research theory, was taught.
An analogy to this problem could be the rise of evidence-based medicine (EBM) within the 1960s. At this time a pioneering physician, Dr. David Sackett began heading the department of biostatics at the newly founded medical school at McMaster. He had a vision of promoting the "study of diagnostic and therapeutic process in order to effect an improvement in health". In order words, the study of evidence-based practices within medicine. What was revolutionary about this was that for the first time the techniques of "critical appraisal", were being taught within professional training and from the very earliest period of training. Students were being introduced to methods not only needed to understand the literature but on how to translate this information into practice and it was integrated into the larger curriculum longitudinally. Such ideas were being taught hand-in-hand with other aspects of medical theory. The direct connection and importance of research became obvious. For the students the importance of evidence-based practice was not a "new idea", it became a fundamental underpinning of one's foundational knowledge in a topic, in this case medicine.
I think it is hard to teach research methodology when it is isolated from practice and detached from direct links to relevance. I also think it is hard to think about research and translating it into practice without being guided, at least initially, by a mentor. Once one has personally been through a research cycle (or part of one), and have seen the effect such work can have first hand, their perspective on research is going to invariably change. It becomes much less dry, it becomes a means to effect change, a powerful tool. I also think it is hard to teach the importance of being an educated consumer of the literature once a window of opportunity has passed. I can't help but think this opportunity is when one is acquiring their initial training and learning the fundamentals of their practice. This is a natural period to teach evidence-based practice, as it lends to instruction as to why a foundational concept became fundamental in the first place.
@Ken - I use the medical model often when examining the role of evidence or lack there of in education. I would be curious to know more about how the shift occurred in medicine. Was there pressure from above NOT to use evidence as there is in education? Did leaders pretend they were using evidence when the were not? Were practice forced on doctors due to political pressure? In other words, how did medicine escape the non-research bind?
Maria, I think it is a question with no simple answers. There are so any reasons that teachers are not conducting research. A lack of training of research methodology, lack of time and support and lack of motivation without incentives. On top of that, some states make it difficult for graduate students and higher ed faculty to use their site and students for research which keeps the team effort away from teachers in research. I believe the team effort can encourage teachers to begin their journey of conducting research.
@Linda - I understand teachers not being able to conduct research - That is a big ask when their primary responsibility is teaching. My questions was how do we get teachers to even read relevant research to guide their practice?
Hi Robin, thanks for your post. I think to get teachers to read relevant research can start with staff development and the administrators need to encourage and support such effort. The other way will be teaming with higher education faculty. The university that I worked before has a study council with members from public school teachers. The best outcome actually comes with collaborative research. When they are involved in research they shared the responsibility of reading literature and collecting data. I agree with you that asking teachers to conduct research alone will be too much to ask.
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