Extending Impact and Influencing OthersOnline Seminar
Ben Davey & Kate McGreal
Alice Ayres & Avril Jordan
Please be patient…
• We’re all new to Zoom.
• We may not be as slick as usual on this.
• Please be understanding.
Seminar norms
• The call has different phases.
• Explanation
• Breakout groups
• Feedback
• You'll be asked to contribute your thoughts.
• If you have any questions about the session, please put them in the chat bar.
• These will be answered at pause points or at the end.
For each task look for the black box for instructions.
Session Outcomes
– how to effectively design a robust claim to knowledge*
– how to share the complexity of research in a professional setting*
- how to influence for growth of your project*
– how to scale from sample to policy*
*these all depend on which assignment title you’re doing.
Making a robust claim to knowledge…
McNiff & Whitehead (2006)
Making a claim
Action research
project
Professional
research project
Trying it in the
classroom
Outcome
(or potentially impact)
Your claim to knowledge
Filtering – outcome to claim
What is a good, filtered claim to effectiveness?
It considers…
• Whether the research question was answered.
• What you learned from the process.
• What it taught you about your context.
• Where your limitations exist.
• What isolation you’ve done.
Outcome
(or potentially impact)
Your claim to knowledge
Filter
“Theory without data is empty; data
without theory say nothing”
Silverman (2013)
Questions?
Making a claim (Hart, 2018)
The data* from this project, which happened during the school attendance to tutor time drive, suggests that circle-time in tutor time may improve the group dynamics and attendance of students in tutor time.
What you did
Tentative language
The impact you had
Isolation
__ - the theory
*You could expand this to include the method
Consider your own claims (Hart, 2018)
The data* from this project, which happened during the school attendance to tutor time drive, suggests that circle-time in tutor time may improve the group dynamics and attendance of students in tutor time.
What you did
Tentative language
The impact you had
Isolation
__ - the theory
*You could expand this to include the method
Instructions:
1. In a notebook...
2. Have a try and craft your
claim.
3. Re-read and redraft to
ensure it is robust and
clear.
Critique these claims
Claim A
Tony measured the impact by looking at their work before
and after their work. He looked to see whether the work of
3 random students in his class of 32 had made an
improvement. He developed a matrix to consider the
change between the pre and post work.
The majority of the students improved the work.
Claim: substantial and detailed written feedback can make
a substantial impact on the progress of students.
Claim B
Tony measured the impact by looking at the work of 15
randomly selected students. He also interviewed these
students to understand what they’d taken from the research.
Tony identified in his write up that he believes written feedback
is a key element of a teachers work. He also noted that the
school’s current work scrutinies may have improved the
quality of his feedback.
Claim: substantial and detailed feedback may have an impact
on student’s understanding of how to improve a piece of work
if that feedback is sufficiently clear.
Scenario
Tony wanted to understand the written feedback had on the students in his
class. He ran a project where students received at least 500 words of
feedback per extended writing task.
Context:
Tony is the only class teacher for this group. The school is investing
significant time in looking at teacher’s feedback due to guidance from
OFSTED.
Instructions:
1. Read this slide
2. Consider the strengths
and weaknesses for both
claims.
3. Add them at:
bit.ly/eiioclaims
“It’s not possible to find nothing, at least not in qualitative enquiry”Patton (1990: 500)
What if you’ve found nothing?
Sharing your research findings & influencing others…
Sharing your findings
• Keep it simple
• Be transparent
• Talk about theory but don’t over-do it
• Know what you want from them
• Think small before scaling
Let's remind ourselves of EAST & Cialdini’s Principles...
Reciprocity
Scarcity
Authority
Commitment
Consensus
Likability
Easy
Attractive
Social
Timely
“You can easily show your allegiances by
using a school’s* code words”
Becker (2007: 38)
Questions?
How effective is this presentation?
• Go to bit.ly/eiiosw
• Look at the presentation.
• It focuses on an action research project aiming to improve a tutor-group's interactions.
• Discuss in your breakout room how effective this presentation is in influencing the stakeholders?
• Be ready to feedback when you return.
Instructions
1. Open the link.
2. You’ll be moved into a breakout
group.
3. Discuss.
4. Be ready to give feedback on
behalf of your group when
called on
From research to policy
Building wider impact
Why policy?
• Policy is the (potential final step).
• Ball’s (2016) policy levels help theorise.
• Each level adds impact.
• Each level adds variability and complexity.
MICRO
Scaled-up project
MESO
Department/Faculty
MACRO
School (or trust)
Basing policy in research
School teaching
and learning
policy.
Principles of
Instruction
(Rosenshine,
2012)
Research
underpinning
Feedback for
instruction
School feedback
trial.
Synthesise the key points.
Take what you need.
Remove what you don’t.
• Context• Staff capability
• Aspiration
• What do you want out of it?
Questions?
Key principles (adapted from Griffin, 2017)
• When designing a policy these are suggested.
• Now consider these key questions:
1. What are the biggest risks when scaling from a research project to a policy?
2. How do you mitigate those risks?
Content – what’s needed?
Be succinct
Logical order
Disseminate
Train
Implement
Review
Instructions:
1) Consider the two questions above.
2) Write potential answers in a notepad.
3) Add your best answers at bit.ly/eiiopad1
Next Seminar
• A set of interviews to watch with ambassadors.
• A video from the South West team.
• Release date:
http://bit.ly/SW1819sPlease fill in the evaluation for this session:
Teach First is a registered charity, no. 1098294 teachfirst.org.uk @TeachFirst @teachfirstuk
Thanks!