Editorial: Practitioner Research in Higher Education, 1 (1)

Welcome to Practitioner Research in Higher Education. The aim of the publication is to disseminate and debate practitioner research and evaluation in higher education. In the first paper Bloxham, Cerevkova and Waddelove describe and critically evaluate the development of an embedded personal development planning (PDP) process within a first year undergraduate module in Law. This useful case study demonstrates the benefits of fully integrating PDP within a taught module. It also highlights the need to develop understanding of reflective writing amongst staff and students and shows how modifying the use of their virtual learning environment is moving the programme towards an eportfolio approach

Becoming a teacher educator : guidelines for induction : 2nd edition

The first edition of these guidelines was published in 2007. Since that date it has been used to support the induction of new teacher educators in the UK and beyond. The guidelines and the research which underpinned them also won the Sage BERA Practitioner Research Prize in 2009. But change in the higher education sector and in the field of teacher education mean that the time is now right for a second edition. This new edition has been revised in four main ways. Firstly, a considerable body of published international research focused on teacher educators has been produced since 2007 and the revised guidelines are informed by this work. Secondly, the new guidelines include the ‘voices’ of new teacher educators themselves gathered during our regular workshops for new teacher educators and our research projects. Thirdly, the revised edition aims to be more inclusive of all teacher educators, including those in further education. In terms of this latter group, it is informed by the limited literature available and our own research into the experiences of those teaching higher education programmes in further education colleges. Finally, the new guidelines seek to respond in a measured way to changing policy and contextual frameworks. These include the continued intensification and increasing fragmentation of academic work and identity in the higher education sector; and the wider questioning of the contribution of higher education to professional education for teachers

Realistic clinical practice: proposing an inquiry-based pedagogy for teacher education

There is a broad international consensus that quality of teaching is fundamental for the development of high quality schools and educational systems. In this chapter I will argue that teacher education as a sector, particularly in England, would be strengthened considerably by adopting an explicit pedagogy. The meaning of the term ‘pedagogy’ varies considerably between languages and cultures and for the purposes of this chapter and locating my argument primarily within England I will adopt Alexander’s definition: ‘Pedagogy is the act of teaching together with its attendant discourse. It is what one needs to know, and the skills one needs to command, in order to make and justify the many different kinds of decisions of which teaching is constituted.’ (Alexander 2004: 11) Working within this definition it is important to note that Alexander positions ‘curriculum’ as subsidiary to pedagogy but as one of its central domains. I propose that teacher education providers should adopt and work towards implementing an explicit pedagogy for initial teacher education based on the ‘Clinical Practice’ model but that is adapted to become the ‘Realistic Clinical Practice’ model. This proposed pedagogy for teacher education resolves some of the misunderstandings that policy makers and other stakeholders have held when applying the ‘Clinical Practice’ model to the field of teacher education

Editorial: Practitioner Research in Higher Education, 10 (2).

This issue of the journal presents studies that give insight into both student learning and tutor learning. This is a key feature of practitioner research in higher education, that it contributes to the professional learning of academics and to the enhancement of student learning

Using 'modelling' to improve the coherence of initial teacher education

Internationally, initial teacher education programmes usually include trainee teachers in formal taught sessions facilitated by a teacher educator. These formal taught sessions are intended to build on and to shape the more informal workplace learning gained by supported teaching experience in schools. The formal teaching provides opportunities to foreground the trainee teachers’ experiences as learners, but the pedagogy of teacher education is complex and the intentions of teacher educators and actual learning outcomes of these sessions is uncertain. Many teacher educators use an element of ‘modelling’ within their approach, although the frequency, nature and impact of this strategy is contested. Modelling may also be used by school based teacher educators during more informal workplace learning, for example when being observed teaching and in the ensuing debrief with a trainee teacher. This chapter argues that explicit modelling of ‘being a learner’ by teacher educators may provide the ‘glue’ required to make the domains of knowing and the layers of purpose in the complex pedagogy of teacher educators more coherent for trainee teachers

Editorial: Practitioner Research in Higher Education, 9 (1)

Within the field of Education there are ongoing debates about the value of relatively small-scale practitioner research projects. It is important that researchers build their projects on previous work to develop generative research that contributes to the a robust body of evidence. On the other hand it can be argued that knowledge can be created in the workplace and building a body of focused practitioner research contributes an important distinctive and critical element to the overall evidence base as well as driving change in practice on the ground. In general, there is broad agreement on the value of practitioner research as a form of professional development. However, a significant risk exists in relation to practitioner research because of the Neoliberal agenda that powerfully influences contemporary academic workplaces. In reflecting on the history of action research by teachers Stephen Kemmis expresses concern that such activity may become ‘domesticated’ within managerialist workplace contexts and is critical of action research that 'aims only at improving techniques of teaching...without seeing these as connected to broader questions about the education of students for a better society' (2006: 460)

Epilogue: student teacher inquiry

In the twelve chapters of this book the authors have provided insight into their pedagogies for teacher education and how these relate to the theme of student teacher inquiry. Rather than reporting on the well-established approach of ‘teacher action research’ most of the chapters provide insight into a very wide range of creative learning activities used by teacher educators under the broad banner of ‘inquiry-based learning’. In this epilogue, reflecting as editors on the rich range of chapters within the text, we will offer some thoughts around the characteristics of student teacher inquiry, the focus of student teacher inquiry, the language of teacher inquiry and the possibilities for teacher inquiry to contribute to new knowledge. The characteristics of student teacher inquiry might reasonably be considered to include some or all of the following: * Sustained focus on learning (of pupils and / or of teachers) * Developing a meaningful and challenging question * Enactment in a classroom or school (or simulation) with an element of experimentation * Critical engagement with both public knowledge and practical wisdom * A theoretical framework or perspective * Ethical collection and analysis of some evidence of learning (data) * Development of pedagogical knowledge but within the context of a curriculum subject * Reporting on findings to peers

Editorial: Practitioner Research in Higher Education, 11 (1)

This special issue of Practitioner Research in Higher Education focuses specifically on assessment and feedback. We know that assessment has a powerful influence on student engagement and learning, making it an important focus for enhancement activity. We also know, however, that assessment is a nuanced, complex and contested area of university practice, which makes it a notoriously challenging one to change. Heightened awareness of the centrality of assessment-related matters, a commitment to scholarly endeavour and the processes of conducting, sharing and debating diverse approaches and perspectives are all vital. The two research papers and nine evaluation studies of innovative practice in this issue provide insight into the ways that many academics are, in various ways, investigating and enhancing their practice in this important area

The contemporary academic: orientation towards research work and researcher identity of higher education lecturers in the health professions

Internationally, the increasing emphasis in universities on the quality of teaching, on student employability and on a corporate approach to entrepreneurial income generation has created a tension around the primacy afforded to published research outputs as a focus for academic work and status. In this study, a framework for academic socialisation is developed and used to understand how lecturers in health professional fields attempt to ‘juggle’ four areas of work – teaching, leadership, knowledge exchange and research activity. Studying academics in professional fields, with a well-developed focus on employability and strong partnerships with employers, provides useful insight into contemporary academic work and identity. A significant proportion of lecturers in health professional fields, even of those working in research-intensive universities, appear to ‘subvert’ the paradigmatic primacy afforded across the higher education sector to research outputs and identity as a researcher

Prologue

There is currently a tension around the professional status of teachers that centres on the place of knowledge within their expertise. This tension is most apparent in nations, including the USA and England, where Neoliberalism has strongly influenced educational systems so that they are driven by parent choice, measurement of success by test and examination results, school league tables, high stakes inspection systems and performativity of individual teachers. This tension around professional knowledge and the status of professionals is found across a wide range of professionals and is a feature of social and historical change related perhaps as much to technology and the knowledge-based economy as it is to the rise of Neoliberalism. In this period of challenge professionalism is positioned by Freidson (2004) as an ideal type that is involved in a power struggle with the other two logics of rational-legal bureaucracy, and a free market model. Across most nations of the world there is strong political desire to improve education systems and an acknowledgement that high quality teachers are central to that project. There is also a broad assumption that, despite the vagaries of individual ministers for education, the development of the education system should be based on research evidence. The tension around research evidence arises as to the role of individual teachers and teaching teams within this grand project of improving educational systems. It may be expressed by considering a choice between ‘teachers as technicians who must deliver evidence-based practice’ and ‘teachers as professionals who must lead the development of research-informed practice through practitioner inquiry’