Slides for researcchED

1. 1
Evidence Informed Practice:
Connecting teachers with researchers
Jonathan Sharples
Caroline Creaby

2. The EEF Approach
Summarise
the existing
evidence
Make
grants
Evaluate
projects
Share and
promote
the use of
evidence

3. What are the challenges in accessing
and using reliable research evidence?
Sifting reliable research conclusions
from the rest
Not skilled to judge the validity
of claims
Can be a conflict with
existing school
practices
Knowing where to look for useful
information
Too much information is
available
Senior Leadership Teams
Time, time, time!

4. 4
• Millions of pounds are spend each year on educational research, but
important results can take decades to make an impact in the classroom.
• Key questions:
1. How can research
organisations and others
effectively communicate their
findings and engage with
schools? (‘Push’)
2. How can schools overcome
the barriers to using research
well? (‘Pull’)
3. How can brokers and
mediators help schools find and
use evidence-based
approaches? (‘Linkage’)
The research use challenge
• £2m funding round - 130 applications in 6 weeks

5. Different types of ‘knowledge
mobilisation’ activity
• Dissemination: simple circulation or presentation of research
findings to potential users
• Interaction: developing stronger links and collaborations
between the research and policy or practice communities;
• Social influence: relying on influential others, such as
experts and peers, to inform individuals about research and to
persuade them of its value;
• Facilitation: enabling the use of research, through technical,
financial, organisational and emotional support;
• Reinforcement: using rewards and other forms of control to
reinforce appropriate behaviour.
Walter, Nutley and Davis, Evidence and Policy 1(3)335

6. Social nature of research use
Uptake of research is based on trust and personality as much as practical usefulness -
informal networks, direct contacts and brokerage are important
‘Passive’ dissemination vs
‘active’ engagement

7. ‘Research use in Schools’
round projects

8. The RISE project:
Evidence-informed School Improvement
External evidence summarised in the Toolkit
can be used to inform choices.
Step 2: Identifying possible solutions
Evaluate the impact of your decisions and
identify potential improvements for the future.
Step 4: Did it work?
Mobilise the knowledge and use the findings
to inform the work of the school to grow or stop
the intervention.
Step 5: Securing and spreading change
Applying the ingredients of effective
implementation.
Step 3: Giving the idea the best chance of success
Identify school priorities using internal data
and professional judgement.
Step 1: Decide what you want to achieve

9. York-informed Practice Initiative
(YIPI) pilot
Establish school
objectives
Identify areas to
improve
Identify a range
of evidence-
based strategies
Support schools
to implement
approaches
Evaluate the
impact of
changes
• Five schools in N. Yorks (four
primary, one secondary) as
development partners
• Worked with SLT predominantly
across an academic year
• Five 1.5hr meetings, each with a
defined goal
• Example: ‘Independent learning’
– metacognition, ‘thinking skills’
interventions, cooperative
learning, formative assessment.
Introduced peer tutoring in KS2
maths

10. Lessons learnt
• Providing complementarity to existing provision..
• … People sometimes don’t know what they don’t know
• The importance of dialogue
• Different information for different purposes
• Signposting/matchmaking is key – researchers,
programme developers, other schools etc
• Gaps on support for implementation (actionable
guidance, high-quality training)
• Research-engagement needs fertile ground prosper
Sharples & Sheard (2015) Evidence and Policy, available online

11. Making connections with
researchers

12. Researcher Profile 1
Teacher(s): Me!
Interested in: strategies to support
teachers to develop teaching and
learning
Researcher: Dr David Frost, Fellow
and Senior Lecturer in Education,
Cambridge University
Interaction: Colleagues in the
HertsCam network, university
supervisor, ongoing advice and
support about leading change and
teacher development

13. Researcher Profile 2
Teacher(s): Abbie Winters.
Advanced Lead Teacher in
Chemistry
Interested in: the role of
interleaving assessment to support
learning
Researcher: Dr Henry Roedigger,
Professor or Psychology,
Washington University in St. Louis
Interaction: Email, feedback on
classroom strategies, UK teacher
contacts, feedback on article written
about the project

14. Researcher Profile 3
Teacher(s): Mel Breakell,
Advanced Lead Teacher in
Sociology
Interested in: strategies to reduce
the gender attainment gap
Researcher: Professor Becky
Francis, Professor of Education and
Social Justice, Kings College
London
Interaction: Face to face advice,
literature recommendations, video
support, feedback on article

15. Researcher Profile 4
Teacher(s): Authors of our school’s
Learning Journal
Interested in: feedback on our
articles
Researcher: Dr Daniel Willingham,
Professor of Psychology, University
of Virginia
Interaction: Email feedback about
our journal

16. Researcher Profile 5
Teacher(s): Teachers engaged in
action research projects
Interested in: feedback on the
focus of our projects and the ways
in which we could assess impact
Researcher: Dr Gillian Hampden-
Thompson, Professor of Education,
University of Sussex
Interaction: Email feedback on
each project, ongoing support
including ‘effect size’ calculations

17. Researcher Profile 6
Teacher(s): Group of teachers who
attend our school’s ‘Think Tank’
Interested in: strategies to
enhance the way we feedback to
students
Researcher: Dr Steve Higgins,
Professor of Education, Durham
University
Interaction: Skype attendance at
our ‘Think Tank’ discussion
meeting, feedback on subsequent
blog post, literature
recommendation.

18. Reflections
• Significant gains in knowledge and specific literature
• Nuanced advice about approaches in the classroom
• Significant impact on teacher identity and connectedness
to the wider education community
• Supported us to reflect on how to develop an approach
to support evidence informed practice across the school

19. Evidence for the Frontline (E4F)
Evidence for the Frontline (E4F) aims to enhance educational practice by
linking practitioners with researchers, high quality evidence, evidence-based
programmes and colleagues in other schools.
A collaboration between Sandringham School in St Albans and the Institute for
Effective Education, University of York, working with 11 schools to develop the
process and a further 20 to pilot it.
Developed by the Coalition for Evidence-Based Education (CEBE). The ultimate
intention is to provide a sustainable service open to schools, colleges and other
frontline organisations.

20. Evidence for the Frontline (E4F)
Signposting schools to
researchers, programme
developers, other schools, in
order to develop evidence-
informed practice

21. Questions
1. What are your experiences of linking research and
practice?
2. How do you ensure Research Leads are working on the
‘right’ issues?
3. How do you ensure that the work of Research Leads
gains traction across the whole school?
4. What would you like to see to help Research Leads in
this role?