Joint Practice Development: academics and practitioners working together Dr. Maggie Gregson University of Sunderland Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training (SUNCETT) One of the defining characteristics of educational research is that it aims to contribute to the improvement of educational practice (Biesta et al 2010)

Sunderland AFC: Stadium of Light April 2008 Niall Quinn (Chairman) and Roy Keane (Manager) – Sunderland Promoted to Premier League NRAIS (2004– 2006) Research project in Northumberland schools - head teacher led whole school initiatives to improve teaching and learning Richard Sennett The Craftsman (2008) – most people want to do a good job and (given the right environment and support systems) will do a good job When we stop talking about something we run the risk that we may stop thinking/caring about it Stadium of Light, Sunderland

What Makes it Difficult to Put Teaching and Learning at the Heart of What We Do? (Coffield 2008, 2009) Culture and climate of performance distracts activity away from teaching and learning Performance climate reduces people and situations to less than they could be and brings with it costly overheads Too strong an emphasis on micro-managed performance steeps us in bureaucracy and misdirected accountability Diminishes our energies and reduces our sense of possibilities CPD can become reduced to a smorgasbord of ideas which may or may not be supported by robust evidence and good educational research Good practice and notions of transfer may be reduced simply to notions of transmission or uncritically implementing content

LSIS –IfL RDF Project What We Did Aimed to improve educational practice and systems in a range of institutions across the FE system Recruited, engaged and mentored twenty practitioners from across the sector in a range of research including projects investigating aspects of, Assessment for Learning, Mentoring, Informal and Community Learning, Access to Education, Work based Learning, Computer Mediated Communication etc Used principles and practices of Joint Practice Development (Fielding 2005, 2008) to Work with LSIS-IfL Research Development Fellows Organised three, three-day Residential Workshops based on Joint Practice Development and deeper engagement with relevant literature Supported practitioners in the FE system, enabling them to see their research projects through to successful completion and effective dissemination

Why We Did It This Way In order to be credible and useful good practice has to be experienced and demonstrated in context not just explained Implementation has to be practised in context and judgment has to be exercised in the context of practice Importance of building professional relationships, confidence and trust Sensitive to the pressures on all of us How we arrive at judgements is as important as the judgement itself How we evaluate the wisdom and consequences of our judgements are even more important Making and reviewing judgements together in local contexts using local knowledge is crucial

Lessons from RDF Developing good practice - isnt always - or ever - one way traffic – all parties need to be able to originate and adapt in context 2.In an age of increasing austerity it may be wise not to spend money on a smorgasbord of CPD activity some of which may be better supported by robust educational research than others 3.May be better to go for one or two well-researched ideas which have credibility in the practitioner, research and policy communities 4.Then help and support practitioners get to grips with implementing them alongside each other across the whole institution using joint practice development

Looking Forward Defining moments Name what is important to us – what we value Stay strong and clear about values and purpose What kind of partnership/college/institution do we want this to be? What does the partnership/college/institution want and need to be held to account for? Identify and Develop (hard and soft) indicators of impact and quality criteria that will be used to hold the partnership/college/institution to account

References Ball, S.J. (2008) The Education Debate, Bristol: Policy Press Biesta, G. et al (2010) Theorising Education; The Laboratory for Educational Theory. Research Intelligence. Macclesfield: British Educational Research Association Coffield, F. (2008) Just suppose teaching and learning became the first priority, London: LSN. Coffield, F. (2009) All you ever wanted to know about learning and teaching but were too cool to ask, London :LSN. Elliott, J. (2001), Making Evidenced Based Practice Education British Educational Research Journal Vol.27 No. 5 ( ) Fielding, M. et al (2005) Factors influencing the transfer of good practice, London: DfES, Research Brief No RB615. Fielding, M. (2008) Personalisation, education and the market, Soundings, 38, Spring, Gregson, M et al (2008) Evaluation of Raising Achievement in Northumberland Project. Sunderland. University of Sunderland Press Gregson and Nixon (2009) Assessing Effectiveness: Ways of Seeing Impact. International journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences. Vol. 3, Melbourne: Common Ground Publishing. Sennett, R. (2008) The Craftsman, London: Allen Lane.