Drawing on research and evidence

© Crown copyright 2014, National College for Teaching and Leadership

National College for Teaching and Leadership

Introduction

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As part of the move to a school-led system, NCTL no longer creates or updates content for the leadership curriculum and the three national professional qualifications. To support licensees during content transition, NCTL has published a content development handbook which describes our approach to developing leadership curriculum resources and explains our processes (available on the temporary platform www.nationalcollege.org.uk). The handbook builds on a series of content development workshops that were held in the autumn of 2014. The workshops were led by leadership curriculum writers who shared their knowledge and expertise in developing leadership content. This resource complements the session, ‘Drawing on research and evidence’, which was delivered as part of the workshop days.

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Drawing on research and evidence I Resource

© Crown copyright 2014, National College for Teaching and Leadership

National College for Teaching and Leadership

The importance of an evidence-based profession The notion of developing greater evidence-based practice has been a strong theme emanating from the Department for Education (DfE), in recent years. For more information, read Nick Gibb’s speech, 6 September 2014, in which he promotes the ideas of Ben Goldacre www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-importance-of-teaching. You can read a brief synopsis of Goldacre’s ideas at the researchED website (scroll down the page) www.researched2013.co.uk/. It is also interesting to note the following references to the use of research and evidence in the new National Standards of Excellence for Headteachers: • ‘Headteachers [should] lead by example…drawing on their own scholarship, expertise…’ • ‘Headteachers [should] sustain wide, current knowledge and understanding of education and school systems locally, nationally and globally…’ • ‘Headteachers [should] establish an educational culture of ‘open classrooms’ as a basis for sharing best practice within and between schools, drawing on and conducting relevant research…’ • ‘Headteachers [should] challenge educational orthodoxies in the best interests of achieving excellence, harnessing the findings of well evidenced research to frame self-regulating and self-improving schools’ These trends have many implications for those developing content for leadership programmes. They include the need to: • support this policy within the programmes, by providing opportunities for school leaders to access the latest research and evidence • give school leaders opportunities to develop their ability to critically analyse research and evidence • consider the role leadership programmes can play as a transmission mechanism – the programmes can act as a conduit between researchers and school-based professionals

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Drawing on research and evidence I Resource

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© Crown copyright 2014, National College for Teaching and Leadership

National College for Teaching and Leadership

The territory What do we mean by research and evidence? In broad terms, the territory includes: • academic research • government commissioned reports such as DfE publications, Ofsted surveys and Good Practice reports • studies produced by independent organisations such as the Sutton Trust and CfBT • accounts of practice and case studies – small scale studies Some or all of the above may have local, national or international origins.

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Drawing on research and evidence I Resource

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© Crown copyright 2014, National College for Teaching and Leadership

National College for Teaching and Leadership

What are the challenges and opportunities for content developers? The following list emerged largely from discussions held during the content development day, 22 October 2014: • where to find the latest research • the validity and significance of a piece of research • how much research to include within a topic • avoiding the siren call of the new • how to present/position/introduce research into a module • how to avoid bias when presenting research or evidence to an audience • how best to use research and evidence to create valuable activities • there is a lot of stuff out there – critically navigating a path through the wide range of material • prioritising where to put most effort and energy and what to update • opportunities to maintain or develop a high quality product

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Drawing on research and evidence I Resource

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© Crown copyright 2014, National College for Teaching and Leadership

National College for Teaching and Leadership

Sources

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Search engines are a great starting place but they can also take you to some strange places. Here are some links to useful websites: • DfE – it is essential to check this regularly. You can use this URL to link to the news feed www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education.atom • Ofsted – this is essential. Subscribe to the news feed here www.ofsted.gov.uk/news/ latest-news/rss-feeds • National College website (archived) – http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ tna/20140701125459/http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/ • Institute of Education (IOE) – www.ioe.ac.uk/ • National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) – subscribe to the weekly news service ‘In the news’ www.nfer.ac.uk/research/centre-for-information-and-reviews/ in-the-news.cfm • The educational evidence portal (eep) is a joint venture between CfBT and the EPPI Centre at the Institute of Education, University of London, to make research evidence more widely available – www.eep.ac.uk/DNN2/ • CfBT– subscribe to CfBT updates www.cfbt.com/ • Optimus publications – http://optimuspublishing.com/publications/ • connect with the education department at your local Higher Education Institution (HEI) • British Educational Research Journal (BERJ) – www.bera.ac.uk/researchers-resources/ publications/british-education-research-journal • Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) –http://educationendowmentfoundation. org.uk/

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Drawing on research and evidence I Resource

© Crown copyright 2014, National College for Teaching and Leadership

National College for Teaching and Leadership

How do you judge the import of a piece of research or evidence? There is a lot of research and evidence being produced all the time. In practice, you are likely to be adding or replacing no more than 5 or 6 pieces of research or evidence per module per year. Your focus will be on major pieces of work in the field. You may find the following questions useful in judging if you should thoroughly review a piece of evidence or research: • Is it widely quoted and referenced? • Is it from an important source? For example, international – OECD; national – DfE, David Hargreaves. • Is it likely to help you meet the module’s aims? • Will participants be able to use the research in their professional lives? While you will want to ensure that the methodology used in the gathering of the research and evidence is sound, you probably won’t want to engage in fine-grained evaluation.

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© Crown copyright 2014, National College for Teaching and Leadership

National College for Teaching and Leadership

Strategic considerations when using research or evidence within a module or programme When determining your overall strategy with regard to the use of research and evidence, you may find it helpful to consider the following questions: • How much research and evidence do we want to include within the module – what is the right balance between this type of material and other types of material? • Purpose – why are we including research here? How does it add value to the module? • Position – will the research be in the foreground, and be a key text for the module, or in the background? Will it be essential or desirable reading etc? • How will you describe the research? Will you use adjectives such as ’valuable’ or ’interesting’? Take care with your choice of language. Avoid referring to ‘recent research’ – it will soon no longer be recent. • How will the participants engage with the research? How will it enhance their learning? Will it be incorporated within an activity etc? • What are the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) governing the use of this piece of research or evidence? If the IPR process is complex and expensive, it may not be worth it.

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© Crown copyright 2014, National College for Teaching and Leadership. Reproduced with the permission of the National College for Teaching and Leadership under delegated authority from the Controller of HMSO. To reuse this material, please contact the Membership Team at the National College or email [email protected].

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