Talk for the annual UCET conference on 1/11/22.

1. Research in Teacher Education (RiTE)
How can we develop expansive, research-informed ITE ?
Dr Sally Bamber Dr Christian Bokhove
University of Chester University of Southampton
s.hughes@chester.ac.uk C.Bokhove@soton.ac.uk

2. Challenged by representations of evidence-informed or research-
informed teacher education across the partners’ teacher
education classes.
Aim - Research in Teacher Education
Promote and facilitate (student) teachers to create an evidence-
informed teaching practice in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) education.
In this RiTE project, (student) teachers are stimulated to use
evidence from educational and scientific research to experiment
and innovate their teaching and learning processes

3. University of Groningen The Netherlands
University of Southampton United Kingdom
Universitaet Paderborn Germany
Adam Mickiewicz University Poland
University of Chester United Kingdom
Five Case Studies - Research in Teacher Education (RiTE)

4. Each case study designed using Engeström’s (2001, 2015)
Expansive Learning Cycle
Engeström Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work 14(1).
Engeström, Y. (2015). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

5. Whereas the outcomes of research might play a role in professional
judgement, they can only ever assist professional judgement and action but
can never dictate what should be done. Educational practice consists of
situations that in a sense are always new and unique.
(Biesta, 2007a)
G. Biesta (2007). Bridging the gap between educational research and educational practice: The need for critical distance.
Educational Research and Evaluation, 13 (3), 295-301
Research cannot supply us with rules for action but only with hypotheses
for intelligent problem solving. Research can only tell us what has worked
in a particular situation, not what will work in any future situation. The role
of the educational professional in this process is not to translate general
rules into particular lines of action. It is rather to use research findings to
make one’s problem-solving more intelligent.
(Biesta, 2007b)
Biesta, G. (2007b). Why what works, won’t work: Evidence-based practice and the democratic deficit in educational research. Education
Theory, 57(1), 1–22.

6. Nelson & Campbell (2017, p. 132)
“‘evidence’ constitutes a range of types and sources of knowledge and
information, including professional expertise and judgement, as well as
data and research. Indeed, despite the considerable debate about ‘gold
standards’ of research methodologies, the most frequently used
sources of ‘evidence’ are often derived from professional experiences
and colleagues rather than original research studies. […] we need to
consider carefully the accessibility, appeal and capacity to use a range
of evidence from, in and for practice.”
Nelson, J., & Campbell, C. (2017). Evidence-informed practice in education: meanings and
applications. Educational Research, 59(2), 127-135. Link.

7. Evidence-use mechanisms (Breckon & Dodson, 2016)

8. Does the tension between evidence-use
mechanisms and research-informed professional
judgement influence you in ITE?

9. Two Phases:
1.Small scale collaborative lesson research
Part of the wider mathematics teacher education programme that
aims to bridge university- and school-based education.
Research translated by the tutor. Small group teaching in a safe,
low-stakes context. Interrogation of the learners’ Reponses.
2.Practitioner enquiry in mathematics education
Embedded within the Master’s Level study within a PGCE course.
ITE student interrogates research, designs and implements the
enquiry.

10. Preparation
Teachers and University tutors
meet to agree the focus for the
Teacher Research Group.
Research that informs the project
is shared.
Professional learning session
Participants learn about the focus for the TRG, the concepts, pedagogy,
current practice and research that informs the learning. The session is
interactive and models lesson activities and resources. Reading sources
are shared.
Planning small group teaching
Participants use the models learned in the first session to design a lesson
so that they can interpret the impact of the learning models on the
learners’ knowledge and understanding. They work with experts to design
the lesson.
Small group teaching
Participants teach the lesson. In some cases, one participant observes
while the other teaches. All participants focus on noticing the impact of
the lesson design on the pupils’ learning. They record significant
comments or photograph pupils’ work.
Review of teaching and learning
Participants review the impact of the learning models on the pupils’
learning. They discuss significant comments or photograph pupils’ work.
They reflect on how their choices seemed to influence the learning.
Participants interrogate the relationships between the teacher, learners
and the mathematics.
Professional learning session
Participants learn how to transfer the
outcomes of their small group teaching to
each class’s context. They reflect on the
place of the learning models used in the
TRG within their schools. They discuss
potential barriers and opportunities for
enhancing learning. They identify the
significance of these models for their own
professional knowledge and for their
practice. Participants plan further reading
and identify the significance of the outcomes
of this TRG for their own practice.
The collaborative lesson research
cycle is aligned with Engestrom’s
cycle and is influenced by
• Models of transformative
teacher education (Darling-
Hammond, Lytle and Cochran-
Smith)
• Lesson study in mathematics
(Baldry and Foster) and
• Teacher Research Groups,
Design Research and Lesson
Design (Swan & Burkhardt)

11. • Initial Teacher Education –
mathematics
• Redesigned our programme, so
that Masters level assignments
include evidence-informed
practices.
• Importance of ‘questioning’.
• Screencasts discussing annotated
research on mathematics
education topics. Intentionally
conflicting literature.
• Implemented this from ‘20-’21
onwards.
Context

12. Format of materials
Mix of
• Instructional
materials e.g.
presentation slides.
• Screencasts
• Annotated PDFs
• Intentionally
conflicting
literature.

13. Participant Interviews
• We present quotes from participants.
• What are the contradictions between research and practice?
• How can ITE support evidence-informed teaching through the
expansive learning cycle?
• How can we use authentic assessments there?
• …

14. Some have challenged why they need to create a written critical analysis
within a profession that represents expertise through activity and decisions
at the site of learning, illustrated by:
I struggled a lot with the practitioner enquiry. I found that the write up was
really, really difficult… and I'm kind of wondering, is there a better a better
way that isn't as much writing and as much pressure because at the point
when that was due, that was all I could think about and my teaching then
suffered because of that… My wish would be that it wasn't there, wasn't as
much focus on this big essay that I have to write to go with it because that
then took precedent to the actual thing.
When asked whether this participant would have studied the research so
closely if they had not been asked to submit the enquiry for assessment they
responded:
Probably not. I guess maybe having to do the 4000 words, I needed to make
sure I brought in so many different areas and look for different research and
evidence and so I guess by having …this piece of work to do made me
probably think about it much more and bring in different pieces of research
and so it might have been much of a less well done job.
Authentic assessment…

15. So, to be honest, when I was looking at my reading, I skipped over chapters, partly because I didn't
understand they were talking about, and partly because I kind of feel like if they hadn't have
covered all that in the first place, it probably wouldn't have been published, which I realise is naive
of me. But when I'm like I need information about this specific thing, then I didn't read it all.
the more people who agree I would start to doubt myself more to be like ‘oh I must be
misunderstanding something
… so quantitative data carries more weight but equally if you suddenly start getting quite a few
anecdotes then you have… then that's ringing alarm bells too, right? You're still saying: okay, there's a
bit of an issue here.
So, say it won't have been that I've read one article [and said] This is the evidence. I think it's more
when I read the same thing in several different articles by people that I trust. If they’re, if multiple
people are saying the same thing, then I tend to pay more attention to that.
Being persuaded by evidence…

16. [I use] Evidence from research projects that had happened in the past and then discussion
and like you as an expert. I believed whatever [my tutor] said was good and thought, oh OK,
I'm going to try and include that in my in my lesson. And that's sort of how I started to… I
tried to include the assessment for learning to know whether the students were along the
same lines as me and picking up what I wanted them to be picking up.
… that was actually my mentor and he'd done he, he read so read so much about what are
the best approaches and so I suppose in terms of the curriculum and the way that they
developed their curriculum that would make the curriculum a very evidence-based because
that they really based that on many [sources- Craig Barton Referenced] .
I think the connectionist approach works really nicely when you're in an environment that.
Allows you to explore that, whereas I think maybe if you're in an environment where every
lesson you need to show that [the pupils] have learned a new skill and that in that lesson
they are more successful at that skill… it's more like a short term versus long term view, I
think.
How evidence is used in practice…

17. I don't think it works that way. I don't think I tend to go (.) I'm going to be doing a lesson on this so I'm going to
actively research it. I think I just read a lot and then when I'm planning my lesson, hopefully the stuff that's
been important will stick in my brain and even like subconsciously affect the way that I plan.
I think at the beginning of the training year if you got conflicting feedback it was quite confusing but then you
start to realise that maybe there isn't one right answer all the time.
But I don't. I don't. I've never sat down and thought to myself, oh, I want to be a better teacher. I will pick a
research paper on this to read and then implement it. It's more like I read because I'm interested and then if I
find something that I think is applicable, then I will plan around it at the time.
Yeah, so in my day-to-day life it's never black and white, …I never actually as a person, I don't generally take a
position on things because I'm just waiting for the next input and then so my, my sort of belief system is kind of
always, always developing…
… it's a question of looking at both sides and being quite critical about both sides of the argument
You start to recognize those kind of things rather than just googling something and finding some website.
How evidence is used in practice…

18. It's taught me the need for evidencing what I'm doing, and especially my justifications for the way I've
chosen to teach it and evidencing where the children are up to… I would say the practitioner enquiry and
what I've learned from university has taught me more about that than my placement school has.
I think teachers need to have that skill set actually and to be able to say: actually I'm going to do my own
little bit of research here so I can back up what I'm doing.
But again like reflecting on it afterwards they have been probably the biggest parts of the learning this year
in terms of the university-side of what I've learned.
Every literally every single thing [my tutor] said I tried to write down. … But then I also researched and
read a lot like Doug French and van Hieles approach [using] his model… So yeah, I suppose it was the
evidence from research projects that had happened in the past and then discussion and like [my tutor]
as an expert. I believed whatever [they] said was good and thought, oh OK, I'm going to try and include
that in my in my lesson. …But as a general lesson design, my evidence for why I did what I did was from
the research my own reading our discussions and discussions with like the other [student teachers]
because [they were] doing a similar geometry project
Professional learning…

19. …what I think is really interesting is then going back to your own classroom and
saying right okay well let me collect my own evidence and see, … if there is some
intervention that I can do that then shows me that the literature, a certain part of the
literature applies to this classroom so I think that has been really interesting.
And then again, I do a worked example, they'd have a go. And then I let them on to do
their own independent work. I'd do another question that’s similar to what we just
covered and they'd had a go at for them all to show me on their whiteboards all at the
same time for me to see generally. Which I suppose I'm using as evidence for moving
forward, thinking that moving on was going to be appropriate or not, and see, I think
it was like 80%. That's what they said within the school. If 80% of them you can see
are successful and have got the answer right then, then you move on and you allow
independent work. … I want to say it was within Rosenshine's principles.
Professional learning and practice …

20. • Awareness and agreement being
evidence-informed is a good thing.
• But views on evidence differ.
Context matters. Tension practice-
research.
• Contextual constraints – becoming
a teacher is a tough job.
Findings

21. Preparation
Teachers and University tutors meet
to agree the focus for the Teacher
Research Group. Research that
informs the project is shared.
Professional learning session
ITE Participants learn about the focus for the TRG, the concepts, pedagogy,
current practice and research that informs the learning. The session is
interactive and models lesson activities and resources. Reading sources are
shared.
Planning small group teaching
Participants use the models learned in the first session to design a lesson so
that they can interpret the impact of the models taught on the learners’
knowledge and understanding. They work with experts to design the lesson.
Small group teaching
Participants teach the lesson. In some cases, one participant observes while
the other teaches. All participants focus on noticing the impact of the lesson
design on the pupils’ learning. They record significant comments or
photograph pupils’ work.
Review of teaching and learning
Participants review the impact of the designed lesson on the pupils’
learning. They discuss significant comments or photograph pupils’ work.
They reflect on how their choices seemed to influence the learning.
Participants interrogate the relationships between the teacher, learners and
the mathematics.
Professional learning session
Participants learn how to transfer the
outcomes of their small group teaching to each
class’s context. They reflect on the place of
the designed lesson used in the TRG within
their schools. They discuss potential barriers
and opportunities for enhancing learning. They
identify the significance of models used for
their own professional knowledge and for their
practice. Participants plan further reading and
identify the significance of the outcomes of this
TRG for their own practice.
Questioning
Relational
Risk taking
Teacher and student
learning. Research
translated by tutor/mentor.
Not performative.
Learning from and
with experts.
Evidence from
professional
judgement and
research.
Close to practice
research that is iterative
and systematic.
Research design
tradition.
Not performative.
Shared responsibility
for lesson design.
Interrogating
students’ responses.
Interrogating students’
responses and artefacts.
Discipline of noticing-
capturing and accounting for
contradictions.
Constraints from
space to
question and
culture
Structures and control.
Tensions from the activity
of the school and
university.
Performativity.
Cultural
difference.
Challenge existing
practice
Constrained by limits of experience to
what does/does not work.
Tensions with culture
and activity in teaching
practice. Agency of
beginning teacher.
Uncertainty and risk.
Time limited enquiry.
Student’s own
practitioner
enquiry focus
Student teacher uses research to
design the enquiry with guidance
from tutor and mentor.
Ethical considerations.
Appropriate methods for classroom
enquiry.
Student implements the enquiry.
Gathers data from field notes,
mentor observations, pupils’
responses, pupils’ mathematics and
lesson artefacts.
Student analyses the
enquiry- presents
justification for the
design and analysis of
findings for PGCE
assessment.
Implications for
practice identified.

22. Thank you
• Any questions?
• Discussion:
How do you think we can best improve
our maths trainees’ research literacy?
Dr Sally Bamber Dr Christian Bokhove
University of Chester University of Southampton
s.hughes@chester.ac.uk C.Bokhove@soton.ac.uk