Blog Post 4
Evidence informed practice
What is evidence informed practise? Well it’s teachers either planning using existing evidences and data from school and/or educational research.
David Muij, Head of Research, Ofsted and Ann Mroz, Editor of TES talk about Informed teaching that teachers need to be able to translate the evidence into specific classroom context. Teachers have access to Blogs, Podcasts, Research and conferences but with the day to day busy schedule of a teacher do they really have time to look into the research?
We know what research tells us but it’s what it doesn’t tell us like;
What wasn’t included?
What were all the outcomes?
What didn’t work? Why?
How did this research effect my subject?
This can be a lot for a teacher so schools need one person who can best support this roll and deliver appropriate training. For example, in my school we have a member of the Senior Leadership Team who focuses of Teaching and Learning. Once a week we will receive briefings on Teaching and Learning, this would either be to discuss new teaching practises to look at and try or evaluate how our teaching had progressed. Working together in Triads we would take turns observing each other giving and receiving feedback.
The advantage of this was that you can and try new things always developing as a teacher. However sometimes it feels that you are never good enough. I understand being a teacher you need to continuously improve developing your breath, depths & pace of teaching within education. As teachers we all wants best for our pupils and sometimes the way we are teaching is the best for our pupils.
What challenges do we have to face when developing our teaching?
Thinking too narrowly about ‘evidence’ Some people look solely at the research and data to make decisions about the way they will teach. Others may just look at their evidences from the pupils the way they respond to lessons and the data from their exam results. I feel the best would be using a combination of the both of them adapting to pupils needs.
Being ‘driven’ by evidence As a teacher you can be either ‘evidence informed’ or ‘evidence based’. I feel being evidence informed I would have more control in the way I teach. As teachers we all come with our own knowledge and skill set and we should be confident to speak up and use them instead of waiting to be told.
Risking your own practice being challenged Evidence-informed practice invariably throws up challenges, like being observed weekly being forced to try new things make you come out of your comfort zone. It can stop people failing in to ‘our school teaching’ and moving forward trying new things ensure I’m the best practitioner I can be for my pupils.
Convincing others about the value of evidence-informed practice
Having a shared focus with everyone with what matters most will mutually benefit all. Instead of one person conducting research and then telling everyone. It would be better for a number of you to work together challenging one another. Developing your ideas in a small group other can observer and begin to engage which slowly create the by in from all staff.
For example, in my current school our SLT lead the teaching and learning and the staff were told what they would need to change this was because it had recently been taken over by a new academy. However now SLT and had members of staff stepped up wanting to be more involved wanting to deliver on the research they had gathered from reading and attending seminars. It took some time to get staff to by in to the process by now all the staff see it as a part of every day school and people seem to be engaging and relishing in new challenges. This all links back to everyone being mutually benefiting and wanting the best for the pupils.
I feel Good quality teaching will likely involve a combination of these attributes.
- (Pedagogical) content knowledge. A teacher needs to ensure they understand the content in detail. Prior to teaching anything I knew I hadn’t taught before I would re-teach myself. I felt it was important to understand how the pupils would process the information along with identifying any misconceptions. All this can be done in a number of ways from self-study or by attending department CPDs.
- Quality of instruction. I believe it’s about how to deliver best practice either scaffolding the work or providing a modelled answer. Within my lessons I would routinely show the class a model answer for them to copy into their books then they would attempt their turn. Depending on the level of difficult I would scaffold the questions increasing in difficulty.
- Classroom climate & Classroom management. You need to establish an environment that works best and gets the best from the pupils. I found having a routine and remained consistence with my expectations and discipline the pupils knew what to expect. It’s also being able to interact with the pupils, recognise progress rewarding by giving merits. It’s all about maximising the most of their learning.
- Teacher beliefs. Why do we teach the way we teach? For me I found watching other teachers and reading. I would then attempt to put into practise what I had observed then evaluate my lesson looking at what changes I would make. With knew practise and evidence I will continuously adapting my style of teaching to best suit the pupils needs.
- Professional behaviours. Reflecting on and developing professional practice, participation in professional development, supporting colleagues, and liaising and communicating with parents.
One challenge I know I struggle with is identifying the best style of teaching for my pupils whether it is using RAG, Variation theory or mastery. The advantage of being new to the profession I’m not afraid to ask questions and make changes. I will challenge myself to continue to observe other teachers no matter what school I teach at next and use evidence to guide me for future decisions. Another challenge I face is my subject knowledge with topics moving from the A level papers to GCSE’s and there are always new ways to be able to teach a topic I need to continuously practise and attend CPDs.
Teachers should be judged on not what the pupils’ final grade and outcome is but the progress the pupils have made. We need to work on an evidence informed system. I don’t need to know all the research but aware of how it works and how can I can use it to best support my teaching style. We need to continue to enrich our practises an although it can be challenging, we need to be able to embrace them.