Session 4: Research Informed Practice

There is a good deal of research that has been completed about teaching in the past 100 years. Are we aware of this research and are we applying it?

We need to design learning on the basis of previous research. Are we aware of the wider debate?

Research Informed Teaching Adults - article (Unitec Website)
We must apply the research, not just theory for the sake of theory.
Theory without practice is meaningless but practice without theory is blind. One must inform the other. They are both essential.

Ministry of Education - Best evidence synthesis - focuses the same things rather than tralling through lots of different stuff.

Research and Teaching:
Research-led: Curriculum based on research interests of teachers.
Research-orientated: process is as important as the content.
Research-based: curriculum based on inquiry-based activities.
Research-informed: consiously draws on the teaching and learning process. 

Who do we know:
Piaget, Dewey, Vygotsky, Wittgenstein, Bruner, Feuerstein. 
There are heaps of theorists. There is no way we can know everyone but we usually work within a small field of knowledge.

Researchers vs. practitioners:
Practitioners feel like researchers are not in the classroom and write for other researchers rather than for teachers. It does not make sense or relate to the classroom. The issue is that they need to write in a way that will be accepted by 'Peer Review'.
We, as teachers, need to part of the discussion and debate that is happening in education. The best researchers will try to unpack what it what it means in a clear and concise way. We both need each other - the same relationship as theory and practice.

So what?
Am I just using effective strategies ofered by people such as Daily 5 or can I be challenged by a theory and adjust my assumptions and change my approach? Do I use things or approaches because I know they work or can I explain how they fit into a theory?

How does this fit in with neural placisticity? In the past you would never believe that the brain can change and re-wire. This new knowledge should be changing how we develop learning experiences.
Feuerstein method.

Moderm Learning Environments:
We should say that the pedagogy of effective learning should drive the space we are provided.
The 7 principles of learning - article.