Facilitating evidence-informed practice

2013

This study aims at describing what research-based teaching is so that students understand and succeed in learning English as a starting point. The study provides specific information on a number of questions about how the English language learning should be done seeing students always tries to understand but difficult to do. All the teachers need an awareness of the indicators of research-based teaching and need to know how to conduct it. It then explores the insight of critical thinking and even more in a result as the response to research-based teaching. The findings of the study refer to a need for setting standard accommodation for learners to become a participant instead of a recipient. The findings also highlight the need for teacher training in order to have a working knowledge of what to look for in conducting research-based teaching in the English language classroom.

2017

The field of education is awash with research. What is important for teachers however is accessing the right research, in the right way, at the right time. This paper presents an innovative way forward for teachers who want to develop evidence-informed practice and for those who want to be engage further with research. We start with explaining the concept of translational research, which is a systematic approach to the practical application of research knowledge. We have followed this approach in the development of the MESHGuides project, which provides research summaries for teachers. The research evidence is presented in a visual format so that it is accessible and can inform teacher's professional judgements and practices. This approach is informed by initiatives adopted in the field of medicine. Furthermore, we are developing the MESHConnect initiative that aims to create and engage communities of teachers both in and with research. This initiative aims to develop teachers by engaging them in the broader community of researchers in education, so that they are able to develop a critical perspective on research to inform their own professional practices.

Educational Action Research, 2020

Although English language teachers are increasingly being encouraged to engage in forms of collaborative practitioner research (PR), such as action research and exploratory practice, to date there are still comparatively few studies recounting the benefits of collaboration in research from teachers' perspectives. Drawing on culturalhistorical activity theory, our study aims to address this gap. Set in a Turkish university context, where collaborative PR has been encouraged in recent years, it draws on semi-structured interviews with teacher-researchers, a reflective account of collaboration in research kept by the first author and an analysis of research outputs produced in the setting. It focuses on teachers' initial engagement in research within the university, and how they overcame challenges at this point and subsequently in sustaining engagement in teacher-research through collaboration. Finally, in the hope their stories will inspire others, it highlights the benefits research participants felt they had gained from engaging collaboratively in teacher-research.

2018

Most policies and strategies to improve teaching practice and student learning have often underpinned their arguments on research as the basis to authenticate their appropriateness and potential effectiveness. In essence, the idea of using research to inform teaching and learning is often considered as important and at the heart of any attempt to improve teaching practice and student learning and achievement. However, there is little evidence to demonstrate how teachers use research to inform their teaching (Ingen et al, 2016). The idea of using research to inform practice (evidence-informed practice) attracted extensive discourse in the 1990s particularly in the UK following a keynote address by David Hargreaves in a teacher training conferences in which he made an unfavourable comparison between the teaching profession and the medical profession (Hargreaves, 1996; Hammersley, 1997; McIntyre, 1997; Foster & Hammersley, 1998; Gillborn & Gipps, 1998). Hargreaves (1996, 1) contends “....

Educational Researcher, 2018

Recent efforts to improve the quality and availability of scientific research in education, coupled with increased expectations for the use of research in practice, demand new ways of thinking about connections between research and practice. The conceptual framework presented in this paper argues that increasing research in educational decision-making cannot be simplified to an issue of dissemination or of motivating practitioners to access evidence-based research but rather is a bidirectional problem in which characteristics of both the research and practice communities must be understood and addressed in order to strengthen ties between research and practice in education.

Library Trends, 2013

The relationship between research and practice in the work of members of the University of Sheffield's Information School (iSchool) was examined through a mixed-methods study carried out in two stages. Two focus groups with doctoral students and faculty members explored motivations for undertaking research, views about the impact of research, and the role of social media in its dissemination. Personal enjoyment and pursuit of knowledge for its own sake emerged as strong motivators but were also linked with expressing professional identity and contributing something useful to practice in the field. Differing stakeholder definitions of research impact were perceived as problematic, and multiple channels of communication were advocated, including judicious use of professional and social networks. A content analysis of journal articles written by iSchool faculty collected qualitative and quantitative data on the subject matter, methodology, references, and other dimensions of published output, including statements relating the research to practice. Published outputs highlighted diversity in the methods used, demonstrated collaboration with practitioners in conducting and communicating research, and identified five distinct ways of connecting research with practice. The study concludes with ten recommendations for strengthening the research-practice relationship in library and information studies.

This case study considers how educational researchers and practitioners can work together to engage in participatory knowledge building, a process rooted in both empirical research and the lived practices and expertise of on-the-ground educators that produces knowledge relevant to both educational theory and practice. The method shared was used as part of a broader approach called research-practice partnerships (RPPs), a model of collaboration between researchers and practitioners that departs from and counters traditional assumptions of “research translation” that suppose a unidirectional relationship where researchers simply share findings with educators, administrators, and youth. Instead, research-practice partnerships are characterized by joint work, mutuality, and a focus on persistent problems of practice across stakeholder groups. Within research-practice partnerships, we propose participatory knowledge building as one method that indexes these values. Rooting our case in the production of collaborative white papers addressing shared issues between researchers and practitioners, we first focus on practical techniques associated with participatory knowledge building, then discuss the outcomes of this approach for research- practice partnerships, and finally make recommendations for utilizing this approach. In discussing techniques to develop collective knowledge through participatory processes, we detail topic emergence and selection, leveraging community contexts as spaces for knowledge building, integrating basic research data, synthesizing and creating an initial draft of the paper, and engaging in community-based feedback and dissemination. We then detail the outcomes that such a process has for those engaged in research-practice partnerships, including development of shared language, fostering a collective knowledge-building orientation, surfacing practitioner expertise, implicit renegotiation of the focus of joint work, and catalyzing new educational experiments and shifts in practice. We close with lessons learned from our experience in this area and recommendations for others who are looking to engage in this practice. Broadly, the case highlights both the practicalities and affordances of using collaborative, participatory methods of knowledge production when the goal is first and foremost to improve educational practice.

The Language Educator, 2019

Invited framing article for special April/May 2019 issue of "The Language Educator": Connecting Research to Our Practice.

In this article we present an initiative in which two compulsory courses- Research Methodology and EFL Practice Teaching – were partially blended in a Teacher Education College. The methodology courses (i.e. Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods) are courses in which students study topics as data collection and data analysis, while Practice Teaching is a pedagogic workshop which accompanies the students‟ teaching at school. The purpose of this collaboration is twofold: to create a relevant and positive research arena for the methodology courses on the one hand, and to promote critical and reflective teaching skills and thinking of student-teachers, on the other. In order to evaluate our collaboration an action research was conducted on 8 English student-teachers who took part in the Practice Teaching course. Findings are that the students repeatedly related to research concepts when referring to student learning. The interviewed students characterized various aspects of learning, mentioning a variety of tools used for collecting empirical information. Thus, the learning and understanding of statistics was enhanced when students conducted their own research using real data and addressing real problems. We therefore propose to use Practice Teaching course as an arena for application of other courses taught at the college (e.g. psychology, philosophy and language) so data collected about teaching and learning could serve as a basis to deal with various authentic issues.

Emerging Trends in Education Volumen 2, número 3, 2019