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Presentation by Phil Taylor and Dario Faniglione for the Higher Education Academy (HEA) symposium at BERA Annual Conference in London, September 2014. The project, one of four projects supported by the HEA in 2014, has created an app which can be used by student teachers and other practitioners to carry out both individual and collaborative research, Further details can be found in the project report at http://bit.ly/ZpLMfU
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Developing a web-based research app to support practice-based enquiry in teacher
education
Phil Taylor & Dario Faniglione
Background
• A web-based research app ( ) to facilitate collaborative practice-based enquiry (we decided not to call it the Collaborative Research App!).
• Underpinned by long-standing notions of teaching as research; links to lesson/learning study.
• Initially intended for educational practice, but could be used for practitioner research in other disciplines.
• To be made available as ‘open source’. • Builds on the Literacies for Employability (L4E)
project, also supported by the HEA.
Theoretical Knowledge
Practice Knowledge
Research Knowledge
A tool for thinking and the creation of knowledge
Based on Poulson and Wallace (2004, p.17)
‘Using research means doing research.’ (Stenhouse, 1981, p.110)
‘…a researcher in the practice context…constructs a new theory of the unique case.’ (Schön , 1983, p.68)
‘…a vehicle for researcher and co-researchers (the participants in the research) to seek and to share meanings constructed from shared experience’. (Phelps and Hase, 2005, p.514)
Aims of the project
• To further enhance outcomes for student teachers and their professional skills by strengthening their research enquiry projects.
• To enable student teachers to make greater links between theory and practice, through the development of research skills.
• To support the process of analysis and sharing of classroom practice evidence and student teachers’ reflection on their professional development.
Use of the WRApp
1. Identify a group of collaborative practitioner researchers – set up a user group.
2. Agree and design a framework for gathering evidence (e.g. a lesson structure).
3. Use the framework to collect evidence in practice, through observation and reflection, in various forms (text, picture, audio, video) using portable devices.
4. Post and share evidence to user group website.5. Analyse, synthesise and compare evidence.
ClassroomWorkplace Context 1
ClassroomWorkplace Context 2
ClassroomWorkplace Context 3…
Agreed Framework
Text
Picture
Audio
Video
Web Server – User Group
Admin Researcher Participant
List (a simple list)
Grid (a simple table)
Matrix (a table with headings)
Web (nodes and connections)
Cyclical (process model)
Spiral (change process)
Framework templates
• …….• …….• …….
Piloting the WRApp
• Successful use in ‘reading the workplace’ through Literacies for Employability project.
• PGCE Secondary students using it this year.• Teachers using it with their students as participants
or co-researchers.• Interest from several universities, national and
international, and plans for joint projects.• If you are interested in using the WRApp, please
contact [email protected].
References:
Phelps, R., & Hase, S. (2005) Complexity and action research: exploring the theoretical and methodological connections. Educational Action Research, 10(3), 507–524.
Poulson, L. and Wallace, M. (2004) Learning to read critically in teaching and learning. SAGE Publications.
Schön, D. A. (1983) The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.
Stenhouse, L. (1981) What counts as research? British Journal of Educational Studies, 29(2), 103–114.
