Unlocking excellent teaching and learning at SCA: drawing upon evidence
In terms of unlocking excellent Teaching and Learning, our vision is simple: to develop efficiency, draw upon evidence and celebrate our subject expertise.
I want to explore what it is to draw upon evidence and set out what that might look like within our school.
Why is evidence important?
In my previous blog, I wrote about the need to develop efficiency in order to improve teaching and learning. Quite simply, the best way to improve efficiency is to promote evidence-based approaches. For many of us, the words evidence and research were seldom used in schools when we began teaching. Looking back, I feel a sense of frustration at the time I wasted engaging in fads and poor practice that ultimately hindered my students’ learning. Evidence-based practice should, therefore, save our precious time and significantly increase the likelihood of our teaching leading to better progress and stronger outcomes.
Building an ‘engine room’ of improvement
In order to foster a meaningful culture of research within our school, we have established a research group in the form of a small team of teachers, enthusiastic about exploring research and sharing that with colleagues.
The primary function of the group will be to make research both accessible and relevant to busy teachers. When asked, many teachers say they would love to engage with research but they struggle to find the time. The research group will do the mental ‘heavy lifting’, distilling research ideas into tangible actions that can then be incorporated into the classroom.
A further function of the research group is to identify the strongest practice within school and share it. As busy secondary teachers, it’s easy to find ourselves working in silos. Group members can work as researchers in their own right, actively identifying good practice and spotlighting it to a wider audience.
A tool of implementation
As with any aspect of school improvement, effective implementation is essential for long-term success. The research group is intended to serve as a conduit between academic research and classroom practice, creating a space for us to contextualise research before applying it.
Applying evidence-based approaches without considering this process of implementation has the potential to cause ‘lethal mutation’. To avoid this an investment in high-quality training and concrete examples are essential. As a research group, we intend to use the EEF implementation guidance to bring about change following the cycle of explore, prepare, deliver and sustain. It will look something like this:
Explore: identify an improvement priority and meet to unpack the best research around that area. Identify tangible strategies.
Prepare: trial strategies within the classroom and report back to the group. Share successes and signpost potential pitfalls.
Deliver: disseminate findings to the wider staff body through departmental meetings, briefings, TeachMeets, and training days.
Sustain: support staff with ongoing coaching and mentoring.
Next steps…
We are at the start of our journey towards a culture of evidence-based teaching but, with such a committed and enthusiastic team, the potential impact is profound!
