 Andrew Pollard considers the question and identifies some opportunities
Research into teaching and learning matters when it has a direct, beneficial impact on teaching and learning in schools, colleges, universities, the workplace - wherever this process takes place. The challenge to university researchers is to go beyond the requirement that their studies should be of high quality and integrity and ask hard questions. They must ensure that teachers and pupils are fully engaged in the research itself. They have to come out of their "ivory towers" and get engaged with authentic situations. We need partnerships between researchers and practitioners in which their complementary roles are recognised, affirmed and used.
The involvement of teachers in research is a crucial driver of improvement. It should be an essential feature of professionalism. Teaching is the exercise of knowledge, skills and judgement. It is realised in practice. Day in and day out in classrooms teachers are involved with problems and tensions. They try to identify and solve the issues which lie beneath the problem; they face and resolve dilemmas; they constantly have the needs of their pupils in mind.
It follows that the central argument for research into professional practice is the need for evidence to inform the quality of teacher judgments in solving tensions and dilemmas.
There is an existing tradition of teacher researchers which includes action research, reflective practice. But teachers cannot escape the same tough questions that face university researchers about the quality of their research. Is the research any good? How has the analysis been done? Is it open-minded? Does it yield useful and appropriate answers?
The real issue for all therefore is the question of quality. We need a rationale for enhancing the quality of research into teaching and learning. The kind of partnership between colleagues in universities and schools that is evident in the InterActive Education project points us in a productive direction.
Opportunities
There are, I know, many barrriers to the involvement of teachers in research in this way. But it is possible to identify some opportunities in the current situation.
The government has hit problems in achieving its educational objectives. The early upward trajectory in attainment standards is flattening. There are some indications of opportunities opening up because of the nature of the challenges being faced. In a range of voices recently another tune is discernible.
"Let the system breathe, develop, expand. Let the innovation and creative ideas of public servants be given a chance to flourish"
The words of Prime Minister, Tony Blair in 2001. A similar theme of autonomy is evident in the DfES' statements about professional development of teachers.
"We want to encourage teachers as reflective practitioners to think about what they can share with colleagues as well as identifying their own learning needs." ( A Strategy for Professional Development, DFES, 2001)
The Teacher Training Agency is very clear about the links between research and practice.
"Teachers should know how to find and interpret existing high quality evidence and see professional development which includes elements of research as a means of improving practice and raising standards. They must accept that systematic enquiry is at heart a crucial component of new professional development and a key to raising the esteem in which the profession is held." (TTA policy statement on teacher research, 2001)
Personalised Learning
Personalised learning is quite likely to be a new educational mantra. It entered the policy discourse in a speech by Tony Blair to the Labour Party Conference in 2003. Since then there has been evidence of a push in this direction from inside the DfES. It is likely that ICTs will play a major role in its development as an idea. The InterActive Education Project has some very important things to say in this connection.
All the indications are that there is an opening up of opportunities for teacher professionals in partnership with academic researchers to move the focus for initiative taking from the centre and back into the profession; to, as David Hargreaves urged, take ownership of such new directions and reforms.
The DfES defines personalised learning (Sept 2004) as "an aspiration or a philosophy" providing "space within which others can operate."
In Autumn 2004 TLRP/ESRC published :
Personalised Learning:a commentary by the Teaching and Learning Research Programme
Andrew Pollard and Mary James (eds)
The publication contains contributions from five TLRP projects: Learning How to Learn (Mary James);Improving the Effectiveness of Pupil Group Work(Peter Blatchford); Consulting Students about Teaching and Learning (Jean Rudduck); Home School Knowledge Exchange (Martin Hughes); InterActive Education:Teaching and Learning in the Information Age (Rosamund Sutherland).
The final section on Challenges in the Development of Personalised Learning is most helpful.
See www.tlrp.org
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