A Global Revolution in Teacher-Led Research Introduction 04
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Dr Richard Churches, Astrid Korin, Kate Sims Test and Learn: A global revolution in teacher-led research Introduction 04 What is Test and Learn and how does it work? 07 Empowering practitioners as creators of new evidence and learning ..................................................08 How can practitioner-led research strengthen school systems and improve outcomes for children? .........................10 How does it work? ............................................................................................14 Case studies 17 How to understand the results section in an individual teacher poster .................................................18 Case study 1, Miriam Mason-Sesay, Sierra Leone .................................................................19 Case study 2, Luis Miguel Bermúdez Gutiérrez, Colombia ..........................................................23 Case study 3, Kenneth Silburn, Australia ........................................................................27 Case study 4, Souad Belcaid, USA ..............................................................................31 Case study 5, Francis Jim Tuscano, The Philippines ...............................................................35 What’s the prize? 39 Appendix and references 43 Appendix 1: Meta-analysis of teacher research effect sizes ..........................................................44 References ..................................................................................................47 About Education Development Trust ............................................................................49 About the authors ...........................................................................................50 TEST AND LEARN: A GLOBAL REVOLUTION IN TEACHER-LED RESEARCH 2 In this report, we explore the impact and The teacher-researchers potential power of Education Development • Akash Patel • Luís Miguel Bermúdez Gutiérrez • Alexander Rubio Alvarez • Marcela Henríquez Trust’s Test and Learn approach to identifying • Andrews Nchessie • Marj Brown • Eligio Salamanca • Miriam Mason what works (and what doesn’t), in what contexts • Frances Jim Tuscano • Morris Oates and for which pupils. We share the personal • Hiba Ballout • Odeogbola Ayodele • Itodo Samuel Anthony • Sarah Mathews experiences of five of the Varkey Foundation’s • Katerine Franco Cárdenas • Souad Belcaid • Kavita Sanghvi • Thomas J. Rusk Global Teacher Ambassadors in conducting • Kenneth Silburn experimental research in their classrooms around the world. With thanks to the Varkey Acknowledgements Foundation, these teacher-practitioners, We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the Varkey Foundation for sharing our enthusiasm for the alongside 13 others, were the first to carry out power of teacher-researchers and funding the work highlighted in this report. Thank you to the Varkey simultaneous experimental research studies, Teacher Ambassadors listed above who embraced the including randomised controlled trials, in their challenge and worked hard to use our methods and generate the findings. classrooms around the world. We believe that their stories and the emerging impact of their work marks the start of the global revolution in teacher-led research. TEST AND LEARN: A GLOBAL REVOLUTION IN TEACHER-LED RESEARCH 3 TEST AND LEARN: A GLOBAL REVOLUTION IN TEACHER-LED RESEARCH 4 Introduction Test and Learn: that gap and support teachers to not only Taking the Test on learning outcomes, leading to 31 Building scientific engage in research but produce evidence and Learn innovation trials and replications (34 findings). that has the potential to generate real More information can be found in a literacy among change in education. to scale forthcoming article in the US Journal Mind, education practitioners During ‘Closing the Gap-Test and Learn’ Brain and Education: ‘Translating laboratory Test and Learn is a practical, accessible we supported teachers to carry out 50 evidence into classroom practice with Millions of pounds are spent on approach to education research that builds teacher-led studies, some of which were teacher-led randomised controlled trials education research every year, yet ‘scientific literacy’ among practitioners, published in ‘Evidence that counts: 12 – a perspective and meta-analysis.’7 The compared to the role that research plays enabling them to test and evaluate Teacher-led randomised controlled meta-analysis showed overall, positive in medicine and healthcare, education theories, approaches, pedagogies and trials and other forms of experimental effects were found over short periods lags dramatically behind. Education policies, and to interpret, challenge research.’3 This programme made a major [one to six weeks].8 receives a fraction of the funding that and critique the wider evidence base. contribution to the government’s drive medicine and healthcare receives. But It unleashes the voice and agency of Infinite Learning, a private teacher towards a self-improving school system perhaps more fundamentally, funding teachers, empowering them to make professional development organisation where teaching is an evidence-based tends to go to researchers who no evidence-based decisions and improve in Dubai, and Pickwick Teaching School profession, paralleling evidence-based longer practice, or in some cases have their practice. It was developed in response Alliance in the UK have contracted us practice in medicine. The programme also never practised in the classroom. This to requests from teachers themselves who for three consecutive years to deliver built research capacity in teaching schools disconnect between serving teachers as participated in a large scale Randomised teacher-led research training and support by providing training in experimental consumers rather than producers of the Controlled Trial (RCT) on a Department teachers to carry out research. In total research methods for use in teacher/ key research evidence is unsustainable. for Education project in England, Closing these engagements have alone produced practitioner research and for school In many cases, it leads to research foci the Gap: Test and Learn.2 Teachers around 100 teacher-led RCTs. Introductory improvement.4 that are distant from the practical day- discovered the potential of carrying out workshops have also been delivered in to-day concerns of teachers. In contrast, research in their classrooms and sparked In 2018, we worked with the Wellcome Kenya, Dubai and Jakarta and teacher in medicine and healthcare, serving the idea for us to develop a method and Trust, Eleanor Dommett5 and Ian research has been presented at academic clinical practitioners do much of the 9 analysis tools to make it accessible to all Devonshire6 to use Test and Learn with conferences around the world. work translating evidence from ‘bench practitioners without a background in teachers to investigate the impact of to bedside’.1 This publication focuses on research or statistics. neuroscience-informed teaching practice one approach we have created to bridge Building the capacity The Varkey Foundation is a family foundation of the world’s best teachers in Test and Learn established to improve standards of The Varkey Foundation saw great potential education and raise the status and capacity in Test and Learn to build the capacity of of teachers throughout the world. some of the best teachers in the world to carry out classroom-based research and investigate ‘what works’ in different contexts. The project featured in this report was a collaboration with nineteen Varkey Foundation Teacher Ambassadors, teachers who feature in the top 50 finalists of the Global Teacher Prize, a highly prestigious award, presented annually to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession. They were all trained in the Test and Learn method, to design and deliver practitioner-led randomised controlled trials in classrooms and collaborating schools.10 They learned about the concepts of ‘effect size’, ‘confidence interval’ and ‘significance’; and were introduced to a range of research methods and our bespoke data analysis tool, StatsWizard.11 They were guided through a scaffolded approach to define their hypotheses and design their protocols. All follow-up support was provided remotely in groups and one-to-one sessions to refine the methods and analyse results. 1 Horton (1999) 2 Churches (2016); Churches, Higgins and Hall (2017a) 3 Churches and McAleavy (2015) 4 Churches (2016); Churches, Higgins and Hall (2017a) 5 Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), Kings College London 6 University of Nottingham Medical School 7 Churches et al. (2019) 8 (r = 0.15, p < .0001 [d = 0.30], N = 2,157) 9 Including BERA 2015; EARLISIG 22 2018; ICERI 2019; IMBES 2018; BERA 2019. 10 The materials included the research methods textbook ‘Teacher-Led Research’ (Churches and Dommett, 2016) and additional reading about the science of learning (Churches, Dommett and Devonshire, 2017). 11 StatsWIzard is an EXCEL based programme that carries out assumption testing automatically and directly teachers to the correct ways to produce effect sizes, p-values and confidence intervals. Results appear automatically within a written results paragraph. TEST AND LEARN: A GLOBAL REVOLUTION IN TEACHER-LED RESEARCH 5 TEST AND LEARN: A GLOBAL REVOLUTION IN TEACHER-LED RESEARCH 6 Nineteen trials were completed in twelve countries • Australia • Nigeria • Chile • Philippines • Colombia • Sierra Leone • India