© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

Bridging Gaps between Research, Policyand Practice to Build 21st Century

Education Systems

© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

3 Main Questions –

1. Why is the disconnect between research-policy-practice a problem?

2. What causes the disconnect between research – policy – practice?

3. How can the disconnect be bridged in order to align research – policy –practice and secure school improvement?

© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

• Research evidence fails to inform new policy, which in turn fails to improve practice

• Policy is thus driven by other influences than evidence, such as ideology, political bias, self-interest or vested interest

• Practice at school level – classroom teacher level and at school leadership level – fail to develop more innovative and effective practices to promote student learning

• All of this amounts to an inefficient and ineffective use of a nation’s resources – especially a waste of human talent and failure to develop a future skilled workforce and educated citizenry – able to compete in global marketplace and 21st

century knowledge-based economies

Why is the disconnect between Research-Policy-Practice in Education a Problem?

3

© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

Need to identify the main groups involved and context –

1. PRODUCERS of KNOWLEDGE – mainly universities (and other organisations with research functions) and FUNDERS of research

2. USERS of KNOWLEDGE –

• Governments (politicians, bureaucrats, advisors and inspectors – often commission research)

• Schools (leaders, teacher practitioners)

3. MEDIATORS of KNOWLEDGE – media, lobbyists, policy think tanks

4. SOCIAL CONTEXT – current issues, conventional wisdom, ways of thinking, popular prejudices

What causes the disconnect in education between Research-Policy-Practice?

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© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

• Academics and researchers specialise in knowledge production – they have their own discrete work cultures and organisational and personal goals and reward systems

• School leader and teacher practitioners specialise in knowledge use and transmission – they have their own discrete work cultures and organisational and personal goals

• Academics are driven by theory and solving theoretical problems; school leaders and teachers by practice and solving practical problems

• Academics are rewarded for grant winning and publications – not for solving the practical problems of schools

• Governments are driven more by ideology (political, religious, social, economic) and voter/citizen appeal – than they are by evidence from research findings; thus research evidence takes second place to ideology and political power……..some exceptions eg. Singapore

Cont………

What causes the disconnect in education between Research-Policy-Practice?

5

© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

Key relationships between

research & the larger

environment

6

Politics

Research

Practice

PolicyEconomics/Finance

© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

Broad strategy –

1. Improve and adapt research production

2. Improve user capacity

3. Improve the connections between producers (researchers) and users (governments for policy, inspectors for advice and monitoring, and schools for practice)

4. Align and inform media/mediator support

5. Prepare the social context to align citizens with changes in education policy and practice

How can the gaps be bridged for the benefit of all?

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© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

1. Improve relevance and rigour of educational research

- relevance to important, significant problems of practice the understanding of which would lead to better teaching and learning

- rigour in terms of more longitudinal and large scale system-wide studies that establish baseline data for a nation or state

- more mixed-method approaches using robust statistics, supported by in-depth case studies

2. Investment in the development of baseline data bases to inform dialogue between researchers, policy makers, advisors and inspectors, and practitioners – create a holistic data base of teaching, learning and leadership across the whole system (as in Singapore)

Improving and adapting research production

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© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

Users of research are mainly policy makers, advisors and school practitioners

• Involve all groups from outset in formulating research programmes

• Policy makers need to be informed of research evidence on ‘what works’ and in what contexts

• School practitioners need to work in ‘research-engaged’ schools – with every teacher involved in the school as a professional learning community

• University-school partnerships: University researchers work with teachers and principals to build research capacity at the school level

• Research organisations provide summary publications of research findings written so that users can better understand

• Teacher training programmes include a key component of research skills and knowledge production – as in Singapore

Improve Knowledge User Capacity

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© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

• Collaboration on research strategy - priorities and programmesbetween all stakeholders agreeing major problems of practice that would yield improvement if addressed

• Establishment of PLCs within and across schools – with university researchers working with teachers

• Advisors and Inspectors are key players in promoting and enforcing research, evidence-based innovations – especially where they align with government policy

• Researchers recognise two forms of knowledge – theoretical and tacit

- Theoretical knowledge is what researchers typically produce

- Tacit knowledge is what practitioners know based on wisdom from practical experience

Improve the links between knowledge producers and users

10

© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

• Anthony Bryk – Director of the Carnegie Foundation called for a “design-educational engineering-development” approach to research and development in education

• Basic idea – design educational solutions to complex problems, test and apply them, review and re-design, test them again more widely in different contexts, review again.......and scale up and continue to test: systems thinking

• We need to start with what Bryk calls ‘high leverage’ educational problems; and devise “use inspired” research programmes – using existing knowledge and tacit knowledge ie. practical ‘know-how’ in new and relevant ways to address real problems in schools

• Even if an intervention embeds and ‘works’ in a particular school it may not translate to others of a different kind and context

Research-design-development (RDD): A research approach that aligns research with practice

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© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

• Phase 1. Researchers, teachers, advisors and policy makers share problems of practice, and the available knowledge base (inc. tacit knowledge)

• Phase 2. Agree desired learning outcomes and backward map to change teaching, learning and leadership to design interventions and transformations

• Phase 3. Researchers and teachers design methodology, tools and strategies to test the feasibility and efficacy of the intervention and trial across a wide range of school contexts

• Phase 4.The research process is integrated with implementation; action learning cycle, with the intervention adapted to suit different school contexts

• Phase 5. Intervention is established and rolled out, tested in different school environments, a number of working variant models is produced; ready to scale up across the system

• Phase 6. Scalability and sustainability; researchers and advisors work with new schools to embed; test and evaluate, and network and share.

Design-based intervention model – how it works

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© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

• Bridging the gaps between research-policy-practice is largely founded on the school site being the locus of researching teaching-learning-leadership

• High-performing leadership is needed to help create, scale up and sustain research activity in research-engaged schools

• High-performing school leaders (and teachers) combine the best of their tacit knowledge, with research evidence of what works, and are data-driven

• Teaching and leadership become research-engaged in 4 ways –

- Teachers research their own teaching in classrooms – action research

- Teachers’ knowledge and interpretation of academic research evidence

- Leaders’ and teachers’ use of existing school/classroom data

- Leaders’ and teachers’ research their accumulated tacit knowledge

Importance of leadership and the research-engaged school

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© The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker’s, and not the QQA

February 2015

14

Senior Principal Management Teachers

Team

Research Into Practice

Students Parents Others

Scale Up in School

Sustain in School

Researcher

Scale up in

System

Sustain in

System

Design-Based Interventions in the Research-Engaged School

Thank you…