Slides from Gary Jones' session at Research Leads Conference, Cambridge, March 15

1. +
To boldy go where others have gone before and why
the school research lead is not Captain Kirk
Dr Gary Jones, March 2015
The Role of
the School
Research
Lead and
Star Trek

2. +
Research ED – What’s Love Got to
Do With It & The CUPID model
Consume Use
Involve Disseminate
Production

3. +
By the end of this session I hope to
have
 Provided a brief introduction to Evidence-Based Practice
 Identified successes and failures in the teaching of Evidence-
Based Medicine relevant to the role of the School Research
lead
 Outlined three techniques to help you become a better
evidence-based practitioner
 Shared my own experiences leading an in-house ‘research’
project
 Generated curiosity

5. +

6. +

7. +
Learning from evidence-based
medicine
 Focus on pupils/colleagues
 Focus on colleagues’ learning
needs
 Connects ‘old’ knowledge with
‘new’ knowledge
 Matches setting, time and other
opportunities
 Focus on judgment not
research evidence
 Focus on doing research rather
than using it
 Doing statistics is emphasized
over interpreting statistics
 Substituting research evidence
for teaching/managerial expertise
 Disconnected from
pupil/school/colleagues needs
 Mismatch with time and
resources available
Successes Failures

8. +
The PICO question structure

9. +
Asking better questions
 A question root (who, what,
how, when, how ) with a verb
 An issue or matter of interest
 How does homework improve
student achievement?
 What are the benefits of e-
learning?
 When is the best-time to give
students diagnostic tests?
 Who is best placed to undertake
performance reviews and
appraisals?
 Where can you find examples of
effective 'flipped' learning
Background questions Examples

10. +
Asking better questions
 Asks far more specific
questions about a
particular action,
intervention or
innovation,
 Does 24/7 access to
iPads compared to
Chromebooks improve
the timely completion of
homework tasks?
Foreground questions Examples

11. +
The PICO format
 P — Pupil or Problem. How would you describe
the group of pupils or problem?
 I — Intervention. What are you planning to do
with your pupils?
 C — Comparison. What is the alternative to the
intervention/action/innovations
 O — Outcomes. What are the effects of the
intervention/action/intervention?

12. +
Using the PICO format
 For pupils requiring additional learning support (P) how does
the provision of 1 to 1 support (I) compared with group support
(C) affect achievement rates.
 For pupils aged 16 who failed to achieve at least at a grade C
in GCSE English (P) and subsequently retake GCSE English (I)
at the end of the academic year, how well do they achieve (O)
compared to students who have been prepared and entered for
iGCSE English (C)

13. +
The Critical Synopsis

14. +
Critical Synopsis
 A Why am I reading this?
 B What are the authors trying to do in writing this?
 C What are the authors saying that is relevant to what I
want to find out?
 D How convincing is what the authors are saying?
 E What can I make of this?

16. +
Critically Appraised Topic

17. +
Critically Appraised Topic
 Theme – Background question
 Question- PICO
 Bottom-line – What does the evidence say for practice
 Best available evidence summary
 Comments – Strengths/weaknesses
 References
 Appraiser
 Date – Completed and to be reviewed

18. +
CATs – why use them?
Consolidation
Accumulation
Share
Refinement

19. +
My own-experience leading
research
 College-wide action research project
 Vocational Pedagogy
 HEI partner
 12 months
 55 plus written reports and 80 staff
 Shortlisted TES FE Awards – Best Teaching and Learning
Initiative

20. +
Professional Development
 Intense: at least 15 hours, preferably
50
 Sustained: over at least two terms
 Content focused: on teachers’
knowledge of subject content & how
students learn it
 Active: opportunities to try it out &
discuss
 Supported: external feedback and
networks to improve and sustain
 Evidence based: promotes strategies
supported by robust evaluation
evidence

21. +
The aims of the project
1. To test the applicability of a theory of vocational pedagogy
within a small further education college.
2. To build the professional capacity and capability of lecturers
by engaging in process of professional enquiry.

22. +
Initiation
Jan – June,
2013
Implementation
Sept, 2013 –
April, 2014
Continuation
May, 2014 -
Timeline

23. +
A special kind of question
If I do x will y happen?
© The Expansive Education Network

24. +
Three take-aways
 Ask better questions
 Expert teachers – novice researchers need to build capacity
 Non-linear process for both ‘leaders’ and ‘teachers’

25. +
A special kind of question
If I do x will y happen?
© The Expansive Education Network

26. +
Using the PICO format
 For pupils requiring additional learning support (P) how does
the provision of 1 to 1 support (I) compared with group support
(C) affect achievement rates.
 For pupils aged 16 who failed to achieve at least at a grade C
in GCSE English (P) and subsequently retake GCSE English (I)
at the end of the academic year, how well do they achieve (O)
compared to students who have been prepared and entered for
iGCSE English (C)

27. +
Teacher- Researcher Expertise
Teacher Expertise
Novice
Research
Expertise
ProficientCompetent
Adv. Beg
Expert
Expert
Novice
Adv. Beg
Competent
Proficient

28. +
The Dreyfus model of human-
learning
 Novices act on the basis of context-independent elements and rules
 Advanced beginner also use situational elements, which they have learned to identify and
interpret on the basis of their own experience of a particular situation
 Competent performers are characterised by the involved choice of goals and plans as a
basis for their actions. Goals and plans are used to structure and store masses of both
context-dependent and context-independent information
 Proficient performers identify problems, goals and plans intuitively from their own
experientially perspective. Intuitive choice is checked by analytical evaluation prior to
action
 Expert's behaviour is intuitive, holistic and synchronic, understood in a way that a given
situations releases as picture of the problems, goal, plan, decisions and action in one
instant and with no division into phases. This is the level of true human expertise. Experts
are characterised by effortless performance, unhindered by analytic deliberations.
(Flyvberg p21)


29. +
Teacher- Researcher Expertise
Teacher Expertise
Novice
Research
Expertise
ProficientCompetent
Adv. Beg
Expert
Expert
Novice
Adv. Beg
Competent
Proficient

30. +
Mix of teacher/researcher expertise
Research
Expertise
Teacher
Expertise

31. +
Mix of teacher/researcher expertise
Research
Expertise
Teacher
Expertise
Subject
Pedagogy
Experience
Dissertation/Action
Research
Support – 121
Leadership and
Management

32. +
Spirals of Inquiry – Halbert and
Kaser

33. +
So by the end of this session I hope
I have
 Provided a brief introduction to Evidence-Based Practice
 Identified some successes and failures in the teaching of
Evidence-Based Medicine which are relevant to education
 Outlined three techniques which can help you become a better
evidence-based practitioner
 Shared my own experiences leading an in-house ‘research’
project
 Generated curiousity

34. +
Three questions for discussion
 Can you develop a PICO question relevant to your school?
 What is the difference between ‘research’ and ‘evidence’?
 Is there a difference between a ‘research-lead’ and and
‘evidence-based practice lead’ ?

35. +
A moment of reflection
 P — Pupil or Problem. How would you describe the
group of pupils or problem?
 I — Intervention. What are you planning to do with
your pupils?
 C — Comparison. What is the alternative to the
intervention/action/innovations
 O — Outcomes. What are the effects of the
intervention/action/intervention?

36. +
The 8Rs model
 Research Research
 Relationships
 Relevance
 Respect
 Rigor
 Reflections
 Resourcing and resourcefulness
 Risk

37. Dr Gary Jones
jones.gary@gmail.com
@DrGaryJones

39. +
What profession was this?
 There is a large research-user gap.
 Many practices are doing more harm than good.
 Practitioners do not read academic journals.
 Academics not practitioners are driving the research
agenda.
 Practice is being driven more by fads and fashions
than research.