Perspectives on evidence-based knowledge for teachers: acquisition, mobilisation and utilisation

This introductory paper reviews the literature on the use of evidence-based knowledge (EBK) in the initial and continuing professional development of teachers and also in their everyday practice. It will set the scene for the theme of the SI and critically discuss general current issues about the generation of educational research evidence, how teachers may, or may not, acquire this and, drawing on and updating the outcomes of the previous JET SI (41 (5), 2014), some of the implications of translational research and knowledge mobilisation.Financial Support by CIEC (Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho; FCT R&D unit 317, Portugal) by the Strategic Project UID/CED/00317/2013, with financial support of National Funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and co-financed by European Regional Development Funds (FEDER) through the COMPETE 2020 - Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-00756

Building Research-Informed Teacher Education Communities: A UCET Framework

©UCET December 201

Aiming higher : the Plymouth and Peninsula Tri-Level Model (PPM) for school/HE links : putting the university into school and community

"This report outlines an innovative, effective model of school/higher education (HE) liaison, the Plymouth & Peninsula Model (PPM). The PPM is of major national and international importance. The defining quality of PPM is that it is a genuine partnership, with parity of esteem between HEIs, schools and local authorities (LAs), supported by other major stakeholders. The PPM is based upon firm research evidence, is highly cost effective and could be rolled out nationally to cover geographically all primary and secondary schools and college grouped in consortia" - page iii

Scarcely visible? Analysing initial teacher education research and the Research Excellence Framework

In the UK, the Research Excellence Framework is a mechanism used for ranking the quality of research in higher education institutions. While there has been analysis of the entire Research Excellence Framework, and of the Education unit of assessment more generally, analysis of how research on initial teacher education featured in the Research Excellence Framework has been minimal. In this article, we report on Phase I of an 18-month project that mapped the extent to which initial teacher education-focused research was included in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. Employing a novel methodology and a theoretical framework based on policy as text and discourse, we identify a sample of 12 higher education institutions that provided initial teacher education programmes and returned outputs to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. Analysis of over 1,600 outputs suggest that in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework only 5.5 per cent of these were focused on initial teacher education. We discuss the methodological approach, some headline findings and areas for future research, arguing that these add evidence to the literature of initial teacher education-focused research and, in doing so, can inform policy at the levels of schools, higher education institutions, Research Excellence Framework and the government. We conclude that although the Research Excellence Framework only concerns the UK, similar exercises are becoming increasingly prevalent globally, and therefore the extent to which research on initial teacher education was marginalised in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework is of interest to all concerned with teacher education

Building research-informed teacher education communities: a UCET Framework

This paper presents a response to the challenge to produce a sector-wide plan to strengthen research-informed practice in UK initial teacher education. We affirm teaching as a profession underpinned by evidence-based knowledge and provide an accessible ‘thinking tool’ to enable teacher educators to interrogate and develop aspects of their existing practice in which research has been identified as having a significant bearing. This dynamic framework provides practical support for the development of high quality research-informed practice wherever teacher education occurs

Text production in Bebo : a study of three children's text production in online social networking sites

This thesis aims to explore three pre-teenage children’s text production in online social networking sites. Social networking is a mainstream youth activity in the UK, conducted by (at the time of writing) almost 50% of 10-12 year old internet users (Ofcom, 2011, p.44). While social networking has been the subject of much interest amongst scholars and policy-makers, little has been published that documents the use of social networking amongst pre-teenage children. The literature that does exist is largely concerned with documenting usage (Ofcom, 2011; Livingstone and Haddon, 2010), and children’s safety in these contexts (Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)/Byron 2010; DCSF/Byron, 2008; Livingstone et al., 2011a). This study aims to explore children’s text production in social networking sites with rightful regard for this concern, but with a focus on how children behave as text producers in these contexts. Working from an interpretive qualitative research paradigm, a purposive sample of three children who used (at the time) the popular social networking site Bebo was selected. The children were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule three times between June 2008 and May 2009. Interviews were transcribed using a line by line coding method. To support these data and contextualise analysis, screenshots of the children’s profile pages were also collected at each interview. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006), these data were analysed within data sets around each interview incident, and then synthesised to build a case study for each participant. This recursive process involved initial and focused coding, where following the construction of key codes for each data set, the codes were organised under thematic headings and finally used to construct tentative categories that described how the children behaved as text producers. Four tentative categories were constructed to describe the participants’ behaviour: text production to achieve social positioning; text production to achieve social control; text production to enact a text producing role; and text production for pleasure. Based upon the elaboration of these categories, a model of text production as mastery is proposed. In this model, children’s text production is regarded in relation two spectrums of mastery: a spectrum of social control and a spectrum of textual crafting. This study concludes by recommending that the social networking context must be recognised by educators as a meaningful context in which children’s mastery of these critical skills can be developed in order that they can they learn to be critical and masterful text producers in the new digital age (Gee, 2011 and Hayes, 2011).EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

An unusually effective school/university programme: the Plymouth and Peninsula Model

This article describes a novel UK school/university partnership, the Plymouth Model designed to encourage young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to aim for higher education (HE) study. The model incorporates the activity of university students, researchers and teachers working together to improve aspirations and outcomes for pupils and potentiate their own intellectual, professional and personal development. Background policy and curriculum development models are outlined and a UK study in which inner city primary and secondary school teachers’ views and pupils’ aspirations were gauged before and after the school/university partnership model was implemented. The intervention led to a significant increase in pupils’ motivation to go on to HE study and findings further suggest that the problem of aspiration and motivation for progression to HE may lie not with the pupils themselves, or with their parents or carers but with their teachers. The serious implications of the findings for policy and practice are discussed and suggestions made for future research