Practitioner Research And Professional Development In Education

Practical, accessible and up-to-date, this book draws directly on the work of teachers and other professional trainers concerned with programs for continuing professional development.

This book is a guide to research methods for practitioner research. Written in friendly and accessible language, it includes numerous practical examples based on the authors' own experiences in the field, to support readers. The authors provide information and guidance on developing research skills such as gathering and analysing information and data, reporting findings and research design. They offer critical perspectives to help users reflect on research approaches and to scrutinise key issues in devising research questions. This book is for undergraduate and postgraduate students, teachers and practitioners in practitioner research development and leadership programmes. The team of authors are all within the School of Education at the University of Glasgow and have significant experience of working with practitioner researchers in education.

Extensively revised, this new edition provides the theoretical underpinnings of practitioner action research as well as the "how-to" information necessary for classroom application.

Appropriate for novice and experienced educators alike, this indispensable book explains how practitioner research can be used to solve instructional problems and improve student achievement.

How might inquiry enhance the professional practice of student and practising teachers, teacher educators and other practitioners? What effect might this have on the learning of young people in and outside of the classroom? Based on the findings of an international colloquium and drawing upon a range of practices from the UK, USA, Canada, Europe and Australia, this book is designed to make explicit the connections between Practitioner Inquiry and Teacher Professional Learning in Initial Teacher Education and Ongoing Teacher Professional Development. Considering issues such as the relationship between practitioner inquiry and pedagogical content knowledge whether it is possible to scale up from small local and intensive innovations to more broadly-based inquiry inquiry’s role in professional identity, both individual and communal prevailing socio-political contexts and consequences for social policy formation. It brings together writers who work in designing teacher education courses, and those who are practice-based researchers and policy makers. Crucially, many of these writers inhabit both spheres, and their accounts of how they successfully combine their multiple roles will prove vital reading for all those involved in examining and improving practice leading to enhanced teacher professional learning.

Over the past decade there has been increased interest in teachers' investigation of their own practice in their classrooms. Practitioner research is not a new concept in education and many teachers have attempted to enact and study their own practices with the view of improving teaching effectiveness. However, the findings of many of these studies are often not treated seriously by education scholars and policymakers, and not disseminated to others. In fact, the research process is perceived more as a professional development exercise for teachers to improve upon their own practices. Despite these criticisms, there is growing support for getting teachers to study their practices in the context of their own classrooms. This book has the potential of generating knowledge that not only informs and shapes teachers' practices and professional development, but also makes the stakeholders aware of critical education issues. Distinct from action research, practitioner research provides the platform for teachers to try out ideas in practice as a means of improvement and of increasing knowledge about curriculum, teaching, and learning, and the ways of transforming them.

`This is a very simple but notable piece of work....they have done a service to education in providing evidence (and there is remarkably little elsewhere) that continuous professional development does pay off in terms of a better education for pupils in schools' - School Leadership and Management Much debate currently concerns the value of education research : how is it perceived by practitioners and students ? How useful and relevant is it ? Who best carries it out ? Can it be free from political influence ? While practitioner research is widely advocated, little is known about its effect on individuals, teams and the institution. In Practitioner Research in Education, the au

Practitioner Enquiry: Professional Development with Impact for Teachers, Schools and Systems offers an accessible, step-by-step guide to practitioner enquiry, describing what practitioner enquiry is, what its adoption in schools entails, and what research and experience says about its benefits and possible pitfalls. Written by an experienced Headteacher who has worked with many schools to support their own engagement with practitioner enquiry, and who has been using the approach himself for over eight years, the chapters examine all aspects of its theory, practice and engagement. The book includes a variety of case studies to explore the effect of practitioner enquiry across a range of settings, and to show how you can bring about deep, sustainable and embedded change that has positive impacts for all learners. Chapters cover: how you can create the conditions for succeeding with practitioner enquiry the process of enquiring into your practice the role of school leaders and teachers in successful enquiry processes the benefits you may expect from such enquiry case studies from a number of different contexts, showing enquiry in action examples of research posters produced by teachers involved in enquiry. Practitioner Enquiry serves as a much-needed injection of up-to-date research into the field, combining theory and practice in an engaging and comprehensive style. It will be key reading for teachers and school leaders in both primary and secondary sectors.