Thinking Allowed – Teachers as Researchers

In this edition of Thinking Allowed, our Deputy Head of Primary (Teaching and Learning), Cristi Wilsmore, shares two experiences of “teachers as researchers”: the first being a Research to Practice Program that is underway in the Primary School and the second is her own experience as a PhD candidate.

Aspiring to be the best educators we can be requires a commitment to high-quality, sustained professional learning. Teachers engaging in educational research as professional learning has grown in popularity in recent years. This can include teachers reading academic literature, conducting their own informal forms of research within the school context, taking part in research partnerships with universities or initiating their own academic research through university-based post-graduate programs.

With the central goal of education being to help students to learn well, teachers engage in professional development to continually refine their own teaching practices as they work towards improving the learning outcomes of all students. There is a diverse range of professional development opportunities that teachers can participate in. These include activities such as conversations with colleagues, lesson observations, participation in professional networks, mentor partnerships, and attendance at conferences and workshops. As the academic field of educational research has continued to grow in the past 20 years, so too has teachers’ interests in learning more about evidence-based teaching practices, and it has become increasingly common for teachers to read, use, and engage directly with educational research. However, the direct translation of educational research to the classroom comes with some limitations. While the studies conducted might be of a high academic quality, the research typically takes place in a unique educational setting involving teachers and students who themselves are also unique. Therefore, it can be difficult for educators to directly apply generalisations from research and to transfer findings across different school contexts. In working around this limitation and in exploring the academic evidence of “what works”, teachers can take this “evidence-base” and combine this knowledge with their own experience and professional judgement to inform their teaching practices in the context of their own classroom. This evidence-informed practice becomes an essential component of high-quality teaching as schools work towards enhancing academic and educational excellence.  

The Primary School has recently engaged in a Research to Practice Program facilitated by the Association of Independent Schools NSW. Through this program, our Primary School teachers are taking on the role of “teacher researchers” as they look towards investigating evidence-based practices in two specific areas:

1. in the teaching of reading and writing in Years 3-6
2. in play-based, inquiry learning in Kindergarten – Year 2.

Involving ourselves in the Research to Practice Program provides us the opportunity to engage directly with educational research, to explore current research evidence and to use this knowledge to inform our own teaching practices in the context of the Primary School.

The Research to Practice Program utilises a research approach called the “Spiral of Inquiry” over an 18-month period. The process of inquiry includes six distinct phases including: scanning, focusing, developing a hunch, learning, taking action and checking. At the time of writing, we are currently engaged in the scanning phase. With students sitting at the centre of the “Spiral of Inquiry”, the scanning phase is all about gathering as much information about the girls’ learning experiences as we can and finding out what is happening for our girls as learners. Some of the scanning tools we are using include teacher and student surveys, work samples, student focus groups and whole class discussions around specifically designed questions. Having scanned a lot of information, many ideas will have emerged through this intensive process. The focusing phase requires teachers to sort through this information with a critical eye to select one specific issue to be the focus of the in-depth inquiry. Once a specific area of focus has been identified, teachers work towards developing a hunch about what might be contributing to the situation by brainstorming all possible reasons and ideas.

The aim of this phase is to expose all possible assumptions and to challenge any long-held beliefs or practices. Following this, teachers move into the learning phase where they identify what they need to learn to do things differently in relation to the area of focus. This includes things such as reading academic literature and seeking expertise within the school or broader education community with the purpose being to build skills and knowledge.

Through the taking action phase, teachers then use their new knowledge and skills to refine and change their teaching practices. The checking phase enables teachers to gather information about the impact of their changed practice and to critically assess if changes in practice are positively impacting student learning. The final three phases (learning, taking action and checking) often form a mini spiral as teachers continue to refine and improve practices and assess the impact of these.

Participating in the Research to Practice Program encourages teachers to adopt a reflective and evaluative mindset as they question their impact, seek evidence, embrace further learning, and remain curious about what is happening for the learners in their classroom. Through our involvement in this rigorous form of school-based research, we aim to bridge the gap between evidence-based research findings and what is happening in the classroom to support high-quality teaching and optimise the learning outcomes for our girls. Being an active member of a learning community is a key benefit of this form of research for our teachers as they engage in a collective professional learning journey that is both relevant and purposeful for our SCEGGS community.

Professional learning that sees educators engage in academic research can help build a broader and deeper knowledge-base in the field of educational research. In 2018, I began the journey of completing a Doctor of Philosophy (Education) with the School of Education at Western Sydney University. Leading me to the decision to embark on an academic pathway was my intense interest in Mathematics Education. I was curious about the mathematics classroom, the way girls engage in mathematics learning, the beliefs teachers hold about mathematics learning, and the teaching practices and strategies used by primary mathematics teachers. SCEGGS supported my access to rich professional development across many areas of teaching, including mathematics education, but there were questions and wonderings that remained unanswered, and it felt right for me to take the leap and try to find a solution to these through an academic study.

Unlike our Research to Practice project that is a collaborative, team-based endeavour, venturing into the world of academic research as a true novice can be a lonely journey. I’m ever mindful that my contribution to educational research is a drop in the ocean. The very premise of academic research is to find a gap, an unanswered question, and to work towards bridging the gap between what we know and what we don’t know.

So, what is it like to be a “teacher researcher”? I talk to the girls frequently about the Learning Pit analogy – that to learn something new, you must take a risk to dive into the unknown, to struggle with challenging ideas and concepts, to make mistakes and to work hard to find solutions to unfamiliar problems. As an adult learner and “teacher researcher”, I am firmly at the bottom of the Pit! Sometimes I wonder if I will ever get out with the answer to my research question in hand! I certainly have an appreciation for the research process and the rigour that it requires. Being a practising teacher, I bring a perspective to the research process that I know is valued by the academics that I work with. And in turn, they continue to challenge my analytical and critical thinking skills. In conducting my data collection at another school, I also feel I am contributing to those teachers’ professional learning, building stronger connections within our teaching profession and modelling to other teachers that they too can make meaningful contributions to educational research.

Students lie at the heart of everything we do as teachers. We are a profession focused on improving the learning outcomes for all students. Ensuring that we are working to be the best educators we can be requires a continual process of professional development. As the well-regarded educational researcher, Dylan Wiliam says, “every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better”. Educators engaging in research is one impactful form of professional learning that all teachers would benefit from adding to their repertoire.

Cristi Wilsmore
Deputy Head of Primary (Teaching and Learning)