Combining Development with Research

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Combining Development with Research

• Andrew Morris
• Director
• National Educational Research Forum, England
• Becta conference
• 10th June 2005 Birmingham

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The talk
Discussion points

• Whats the problem?

Whats the analysis?
Problems and approaches
What is NERF doing?
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• Education
• Regular problems persist
• Initiatives are often not effective
• Small-scale initiatives are not scaled up
• Improvements do not sustain
• Quality is patchy

• The problem

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• Research
• Very under-funded in education
• Not sufficiently linked to needs of practice
• Engages too little with potential beneficiaries
• Not phased well with policy

• Development
• Not often based on research evidence
• Short-term
• Learning doesnt accumulate
• Buries the questions it throws up

• The problem

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• D needs to be connected with R
• Development to be based on research
• Problems thrown up by development to be
  researched
• People in development and research to collaborate
• Funding streams to be linked

• Analysis

• But D and R cultures differ in
• outlooks
• incentives
• purposes
• objectives

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• Connect D with R
• Start from an established problem in practice
• Review what is already known
• Engage with a programme of development
• Bring high quality multi-disciplinary research to
  bear
• Pursue joint goals
• Local improvement on the ground
• Theory to enable generalisation

DR programmes
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• There are examples of
• Focusing on a relevant practical problem
• Collaboration between teacher developers and
  researchers
• Local improvement plus theory building

NERF findings

• Difficulties are reported in
• Multidisciplinary working impeded by perceived
  prestige (RAE and journals)
• Funding from R and from D not linked
• Practice and research cultures differ markedly
• Short term funding for long term issues

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• Workshops
• Many people from D and from R recognise the
  problem
• Some people working towards DR programmes
• Problems and solutions being identified

NERF action

• Network
• Interested parties exchanging problems and
  approaches
• Linking to papers and individuals abroad ( eg
  USA)
• Workshops planned to discuss case studies

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Some problems and approaches

• Engaging practitioners
• HEI runs ongoing think tank with LEA officials,
  headteachers etc
• HEI runs e-community with hundreds of schools,
  LEAs

• Linking D with R
• Researching maths cognition whilst developing
  tools for teachers
• Developing teachers understanding of Disability
  Discrimination Act whilst researching implications

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Some problems and approaches

• Reviewing what is known
• Build on an EPPI review
• Review reports in the grey literature
• Engage practitioners, managers, officials in
  review team

• Multidisciplinary approaches
• Difficult and uncommon
• Often based on acquaintance
• Problem of formulating issues broadly to include
  social, economic, cognitive, managerial,
  financial aspects

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Discussion points

• Is this relevant to me?
• Is the problem as stated
• Does the DR analysis ring true?
• Does it help me?

• What could I do about it?
• Are there DR problems that I face routinely ?
• What scope do I have for engaging with DR?
• What contribution would I make?
• What do I need from others?

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Two short working papers on DR available from
NERF website www.nerf-uk.org Email
Andrew.Morris_at_dfes.gov.gsi.uk
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