Access To Impact

OVERVIEW

Despite widespread recognition that the teaching profession can benefit from greater engagement with research, a range of factors continue to prevent this from being adequately realised in a coherent and sustained manner.  Among these are capacities and confidence in engaging with published research, tensions created by publishing requirements, the translation of research into shifts in practice and what educational research can and cannot do for teachers and pupils.  Critically, in instances where teachers do engage with research - often as communities of practice, there is no professional dialogue with the authors of the research they are utilising. In sort, it allows us to move beyond just open access and downloading published research into the realm of access to impact – for both teachers and researchers.

This project, undertaken in collaboration between the ITEEA, the University of Glasgow and academic partners, draws upon research led by the University of Glasgow in an attempt to address these shortcomings.  It seeks to develop a new teacher learning module and on-line platform for professional dialogue that links teachers with the authors of the research they are using in ways not currently done.  It is hoped that by reciprocally closing the gap between research producers and research users, teachers will build their capacity for more sustained research informed practice and researchers will gain greater insight into how their research is being employed to inform on learning and teaching.  This will be enacted internationally and, over time, this has the capacity to collectively and more responsively shape research agendas in countries around the world.

INITIAL PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS

1. Break down the ‘us and them divide’ that can be seen to exist between research producers and research users.
2. Support teachers in developing a deeper understanding and confidence in the use of published research to inform their own practice.
3. Compliment the range of different approaches and systems for this that are already taking place within schools including practitioner research groups, communities of practice, individuals and departmental/school working groups.
4. Provide free access to a learning module that facilitates this based on pedagogical design for enhanced learning transfer.
5. Allow teachers to post reflections on how the research has been used that can be accessed by the researchers.
6. Allow, with permissions, extended dialogue to develop around this.
7. Allow the developing research agendas of researchers to be shaped by this collaborative dialogue and greater insight into use, value and impact.
8. Allow teachers to output these reflections as evidence of their own on-going professional development.
9. Utilise existing researcher identifiers such as institutional email addresses and/or Orchid IDs.
10. Cultivate, within this, a shared sense of values and use by both teachers and researchers.
11. Incorporate clearly understood terms of use from both the research user and researchers perspectives including such things as consent for varying uses of data, associated legal and ethical measures and measures of expectation.
12. Be technically and financially sustainable with all core developments covered by initial capital outlays and the adaption of proven and existing technologies and platforms.
13. Adequately account for future scalability and projected bandwidth requirements.
14. As far as possible, be accessible across a range of platforms, operating systems and mobile devices.
15. Be ‘front-fed’ (and hence self-replenishing) by studies from existing sources/repositories that teachers identify in response to genuine opportunities to develop aspects of practice. 
16. Over time, help contribute to a shift in culture around the use of research and promote more open communication between researchers and research users.

PROJECT FEEDBACK FORM

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