Research-engaged school
NCSL is co-sponsoring a research and development project into the research-engaged
school with the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), the Local Government Association
(LGA) and the General Teaching Council (GTC). This exciting and timely project brings together teachers
from 15 schools in five LEAs to investigate what it means to be a 'research-engaged school'. More details
about the project are available on the NFER website.
What is a research-engaged school?
In the research-engaged school, research and enquiry are integral to learning
and teaching. They are built into the school's culture, outlook, systems and activity. Self-evaluation
is not undertaken to satisfy some external demand but integral to the day-to-day practice of the school
and the classroom.
Teachers in the research-engaged school:
- have a desire of evidence and are inquisitive about learning and teaching
- recognise
that existing research may already provide useful intelligence about practice but are critical of received
wisdom
- have confidence in the research process
- enjoy mutual support
in exploring their thinking and scrutinising their practice
Groups within
and beyond the school collaborate on research and enquiry activity. They find ways of supporting research
and enquiry; making it more rigorous, transparent and of value not only to the school itself but to
a wider constituency.
Further information
- Leading a research-engaged school.
What is a research-engaged school?
In the research-engaged
school, research and enquiry are integral to learning and teaching. They are built into the school's
culture, outlook, systems and activity. Self-evaluation is not undertaken to satisfy some external demand
but integral to the day-to-day practice of the school and the classroom.
Teachers
in the research-engaged school:
- have a desire of evidence and are inquisitive about learning and teaching
- recognise
that existing research may already provide useful intelligence about practice but are critical of received
wisdom
- have confidence in the research process
- enjoy mutual support
in exploring their thinking and scrutinising their practice
Groups within
and beyond the school collaborate on research and enquiry activity. They find ways of supporting research
and enquiry; making it more rigorous, transparent and of value not only to the school itself but to
a wider constituency.
Further information
- Leading a research-engaged school This booklet
aims to help practitioners understand more about research engagement and to envisage how it could work
in their schools.
- Research in schools and colleges The final
report of Philip Barker's investigation is available on the NERF website. It details what teachers,
their managers and their colleagues do when they conduct research. It also recognises the well-documented
evidence about practitioners' involvement in research and explores what their role and needs might be
in supporting large-scale research programmes.
- Leading
the research-engaged school: why and how school leaders engage with educational research (Review
of the literature, 2003, CUREE) Practitioners do not typically engage with research by sitting down
and reading research papers. Unless they have already become interested in research in a day-to-day
school context, very few are likely to attend academic seminars at which research findings are presented.
A strong message from across the literature as a whole is the need for the research community to embrace
the range of everyday contexts in which practitioners encounter the outputs of research.
