Vivienne Baumfield

Action Research in the Classroom

Introduction Action Research and Professional Enquiry Deciding on a Research(able) Question and Choosing Complementary Research Tools Collecting Data from Pupils Collecting Data from Teachers Collecting Data from Parents and Other Adults Interpreting Your Data Sharing Your Findings Moving Forward Classroom Enquiry and Professional Development

Creating and translating knowledge about teaching and learning in collaborative school/university research partnerships: an analysis of what is exchanged across the partnerships, by whom and how

Whilst there is a growing body of literature on practitioner research and the role of collaborations and partnerships that include universities in that process, there are relatively few studies examining the role of the university in any depth. We reflect on 12 years of working in school–university collaborative research partnerships through an analysis of the exchanges between teachers and academics as documented by interviews, case studies and project reports. We draw upon a sample of 90 teachers in 51 schools covering all phases of compulsory schooling. Focusing on the exchanges between the university and partnership schools, we extend the idea of radical collegiality to encompass teacher to academic dialogue in the process of mutual transformation. We contribute to the development of greater conceptual clarity regarding school–university research partnerships and their potential to contribute to the creation and translation of knowledge about teaching and learning. The interplay of the project as the context, the role of enquiry and the development and use of tools by the participants is outlined and a model for understanding the dynamics of school–university partnerships proposed. We suggest that the project as a space‐ and time‐limited context inclusive of partner institutions may have the scope to reconcile the tension between an impetus for exclusive bonding and the flexibility of bridging across structures in social networks. We conclude that the model of the exchanges between partners is fruitful in unravelling the relationship between theory and practice in the pursuit of knowledge about teaching and learning.

Catalytic tools: understanding the interaction of enquiry and feedback in teachers’ learning

This paper investigates how the use of Pupil Views Templates (PVTs), a tool designed to elicit, record and analyse the development of students’ awareness of their own learning processes, supports teachers’ professional learning. This paper reports on a three‐year collaborative practitioner enquiry project involving more than 30 primary and secondary schools in England. The data set includes practitioners’ case studies, interviews, questionnaires and cross‐project analysis completed by the university team. Analysis focuses on the role of feedback, stimulated through the use of PVTs, in teachers’ learning through three dimensions: the influence of student feedback on teachers as part of the pedagogical encounter; the influence of student feedback on schools within the context of the practitioner enquiry projects; the influence of feedback on the lead teacher researchers. Links between the tools used, the source of the feedback, and teachers’ learning are mapped from a ‘second order perspective’ derived from the diverse data sources.

Tools for pedagogical inquiry: the impact of teaching thinking skills on teachers

This paper explores the idea of thinking skills approaches as tools for pedagogical inquiry and in so doing seeks to develop the link between the promotion of inquiry‐based learning, which is a central tenet of thinking skills, and inquiry‐based teaching as an approach to professional development and school improvement. The first part of the paper examines the impact of teaching thinking skills on teachers by drawing upon a systematic review of research evidence. The second part of the paper sets the characteristics identified in the context of research into teachers’ development and considers the contribution of a pedagogy based on thinking skills approaches to continuing professional development.

Failures of meaning in religious education

The educational aims of religious education (RE) in the UK as evinced, for example, by Ofsted have been couched in the language of meaning making. Based on an ESRC funded three-year ethnographic study of 24 schools across the UK, this essay represents one attempt to interrogate how such meanings are shaped, or indeed fail to be shaped, in the day-to-day transactions of the school. We do this by locating RE in current discussions of efficacy, as manifest in inspectoral reports and allied scholarship, illustrate how complex the entailments and purposes of RE are, explore some of the ethnographic and related data to understand how meaning is shaped inside and outside the classroom, and, finally, attempt to locate that material in more general observations about the nature of meaning in RE – observations that are informed by contemporary readings of meaning making in the work of, among others, Baudrillard. We observe that RE, so dependent upon meaning for educational justification, is too frequently a site which witnesses failures of meaning.

What do teachers think about thinking skills

Presents findings from a case study of the implementation of three different thinking skills programmes ‐ Somerset Thinking Skills, Instrumental Enrichment and Philosophy for Children, in year seven of an inner city secondary school. Focuses on the perceptions of the teachers involved and explores the extent to which teacher perceptions affected implementation. An understanding of teachers’ perceptions is important if effective training and support is to be provided and the problem of poor implementation of thinking skills programmes is to be addressed. Analysis of teacher perceptions will also contribute to our understanding of why a particular programme is chosen and the extent to which the needs of the teacher are consistent with its aims. Findings of the study reaffirm the difficulty experienced teachers face when attempting to develop new skills and highlight the problems presented by the lack of immediate, concrete outcomes from a thinking skills lesson. Identifies teachers’ planning and perceptions of what constitutes group work as areas deserving further research and notes the importance of the presentation of thinking skills materials for the teachers using them.

A Defence of Teaching General Thinking Skills

There has been developing interest in thinking skills in schools over the past decade. However in the UK the consensus seems to have been against the possibility of the very existence of general thinking skills. We present three main arguments in defence of general thinking skills which hinge upon assumptions in a priori arguments about transfer, we suggest that a clearer definition of the domains of knowledge theory is necessary for the way it is used against thinking skills and we offer a consideration of the expert/novice objections about subject or domain-specific knowledge.

The Delphi method: gathering expert opinion in religious education

The ‘Does Religious Education work?’ project is part of the Religion and Society programme funded by two major research councils in the UK. It sets out to track the trajectory of Religious Education (RE) in secondary schools in the UK from the aims and intentions represented in policy through its enactment in classroom practice to the estimations of its impact by students. Using a combination of approaches, we are in the process of investigating the practices which determine and shape the teaching of RE in secondary schools through linked case studies, semi-structured interviews and a practitioner enquiry strand. In this article we focus on the first stage of the project where we used the Delphi method to elicit expert opinion on the aims and intentions of RE in secondary schools in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. We outline the place of the Delphi process within the rationale of the project, discuss emerging themes and some of the issues arising from the use of this approach.

Investigating pupils' questions in the primary classroom

The paper presents the findings of a coding system applied to the questions generated by primary school pupils to a narrative text. The coding schedule proved consistent across university and teacher researchers. The results and discussion centre on the question type and the degree of understanding displayed by pupils. Suggestions are put forward for the use of a community of inquiry approach to question generation as a means of empowering pupils and allowing the speaking and listening requirements of the National Curriculum to be met in a holistic manner.

Developing and Sustaining professional Dialogue about Teaching and Learning in Schools

Abstract This article presents empirical evidence from a follow-up study of schools which had been members of a school-based research consortium. It offers insight into the work of professional learning communities at the level of practice and so contributes to the growing research interest in probing their development. It investigates the extent to which activities to support professional dialogue that evolved in a schoolbased research consortium had been sustained and developed three years after the period of external funding. It was found that only those activities most explicitly focused on immediate classroom practice were sustained. The findings support the view that learning in partnerships and networks is highly contextualised and consequently not easily transferred.