1. On the importance of research for
teaching in schools
Professor Brian Hudson
Head of the School of Education and Social Work
31st January 2014
PGCE and School Direct programme

2. Structure of this lecture

Some reflections on my background experience and journey as a
teacher, teacher-researcher and academic

Some reflections on why I think research is important for teaching in
schools

3. Robert’s reflections and one output around the
start of my writing journey
“I
found the disk (computer disk)
easy to work with, enjoyable and
interesting. It tells you things you
thought you would never know.”
(Robert, 13-14 years old)
Hudson,
B. (1988) Subject Based
Approaches to Global Education, p 248252. in Pike, G. and Selby, D. (Eds) Global
Teacher, Global Learner, London, Hodder
and Stoughton.

4. Some reflections on why I think research is
important for teaching in schools

The nature of teaching as a social practice is highly contested,
especially in England at this particular moment in time – is teaching
a professional practice or merely a craft?

The existing body of knowledge arising from research and
scholarship on teaching and learning is largely being ignored at all
levels of the system

5. Current Westminster Government policy: looking
back to the future?

“teachers are “master workmen …

132 years later …

Teaching as a “craft” which is “best
not architects … There is no
genius wanted. Good intelligent,
discreet teachers are needed.”


Who said that?
Henry Clay Speer, Chief
Superintendant of Schools,
Wisconsin Frontier (1878) cited in
Kliebard (1999)
learned as an apprentice”

Michael Gove, quoted in TES
Connect (2010)

6. Déjà vu - we have been here before …
“The
teacher is not only master (my italics) of procedure but also of
content and rationale, and capable of explaining why something has to
be done. The teacher is capable of reflection leading to self
knowledge, the metacognitive awareness that distinguishes draftsman
(my italics) from architect, bookkeeper from auditor”

(Lee S. Shulman, 1986)
6

7. Three principles of research-based teacher
education

Firstly, teachers need deep knowledge of the most recent advances of
research in relation to both the subjects they teach but also in relation to
research on the associated teaching and learning of those subjects.

Secondly, is the formation of a “research-orientated attitude” on the part of
teachers, meaning the development of an analytical and open-minded
approach to their practice and drawing conclusions for the development of
education both on the basis of professional knowledge and experience and
also on the basis of evidence arising from recent research.

Thirdly, teacher education itself should be an object of study and research.

Hannele Niemi, cited in Sahlberg, P. (2011) Finnish Lessons: What Can the World
Learn from Educational Change in Finland? Teachers College, Columbia University, p
84.
7

8. What do we know already?

Being a good mathematician does not necessarily make you a good
mathematics teacher

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is not the same as Content
Knowledge but rather is the particular kind of teacher knowledge
that intertwines content and pedagogy

Decompression is the ability to deconstruct one’s own mathematical
knowledge into a less polished and final form, in which elemental
components are accessible and visible

Compression, in contrast, is central to the discipline of maths

Ball, D. L. & Bass, H. (2000) Interweaving content and pedagogy in teaching and
learning to teach: Knowing and using mathematics. In J. Boaler (Ed.) Multiple
perspectives on the teaching and learning of mathematics (pp 83-104). Westport, CT:
Ablex.

9. Teaching as craft or as an inquiry-oriented profession?

In teaching there always is:


sometimes, and

somewhere, and

for some reason

in some way facilitates

somebody else’s

efforts to reach

some kinds of competence

in some fields of knowledge

for certain purposes


somebody that
that have been agreed upon
so that an individual could better realise his/her interests.
9

10. Teaching as craft or as an inquiry-oriented profession?

This time the quote in full:

In teaching there always is:












somebody that (who?)
sometimes (when?), and
somewhere (where?), and
for some reason (why?)
in some way (how?) facilitates
somebody else’s (whose?)
efforts (by means of what?) to reach
some kinds of competence (what kind?)
in some fields of knowledge (what?)
for certain purposes (what/why?)
that have been agreed upon (by whom?)
so that an individual could better realise his/her interests.

Michael Uljens (1997) School Didactics and Learning. Hove

11. Thank you for your attention
It is teachers who, in the end, will change the
world of the school by understanding it.
Lawrence Stenhouse

12. Follow-up reading, further references and link to
slide show

Hudson, B. (2011) Reclaiming scholarship as an integrating
dimension of academic work for the impact of research on teaching
and learning in Higher Education, Scottish Educational Review, Vol.
43, No. 1, 24-40. [WWW document] URL
http://www.scotedreview.org.uk/pdf/319.pdf (Accessed on 30th
January 2014)

http://www.slideshare.net/brianghudson