More than the sum of its parts? Coordinating the ESRC

Innovation and Change in Education Programme

Martin Hughes (slides produced by Andrew Pollard)

Origins of the programme

• Conceived 1988, funded 1990 to 1996• Teaching and learning processes and

outcomes in the context of 1988 Education Reform Act

• Commissioning: 250 outline applications, 25 shortlisted, 10 projects funded

• Coordinator …. as ‘an afterthought’?

Role of the coordinatorThree main overlapping areas• Networking• Creating coherence• Dissemination

• Shifting ESRC priorities (1993 Realising Our Potential)

• Changing external circumstances• ‘Bewildering variety of tasks’

Working with projects

• Good relationships - no substitute for face to face meetings

• ‘One of the most difficult problems … is that of negotiating … a mutually acceptable understanding of what it means to be part of a programme.’

• Programme priorities vs. project priorities

Working with ESRC

• Six different programme officers• Steering Committee• Research Programmes Board• Other directors & coordinators

Creating coherence

• ‘With the agreement of the Steering Committee, the five overarching questions were put to one side, and a more flexible and mutually acceptable statement of the aims and objectives of the Programme was generated’.

• Discussions, seminars, consultation and presentations internally and externally

Five main themes

• Progression in learning• Coherence in the curriculum• The nature of effective teaching and

learning• Understanding innovation and change• Differentiation and equal opportunities

Dissemination

Three part strategy• Identification of target audiences• Development of dissemination products• Delivery of products to targets

‘We did all we could …. But it is hard to gauge impact..’

Experiences with the media

• Positive coverage, and work with Maureen O’Connor

• Distortion/parody by Daily Telegraph• ‘Re-interpretation’ of project findings on

grammar for 14 year olds by politicians

Conclusions• ‘A flexible, responsive model is a better

description of the way most programmes operate in practice.’

• Clarity about programme-project expectations and an appropriate ‘management style’ is vital.

• User engagement should ‘take place in a context where the intentions and assumptions of both users and researchers can be explored’.

• ‘Added value’ is possible, through the focus, visibility, synergy, and open and collaborative processes which a programme provides.

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

TLRP background

• ‘reform’ throughout the UK education system

• concern for economic competitiveness and social inclusion

• aspirations for evidence-informed policy

• new researcher/practitioner/user alliances

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Key features

• Large (almost £30m, 50+ investments, 400+ researchers, sophisticated projects, often with large teams)

• All sectors of education (pre-school to retirement)

• UK-wide (England, Wales, Scotland, N. Ireland)

• 2000 to 2008/9

• Directors’ Team of six (Andrew Pollard, Mary James, Steve Baron, Alan Brown, Miriam David, John Siraj-Blatchford – 3.5 fte)

• Capacity building (with associations & other initiatives)

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

AIMS:• Learning

• Outcomes

• Lifecourse

• Enrichment

• Expertise

• Improvement

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Many independent,

but interlocking

and cumulative,

research activities

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

ORGANISATION:• Projects, funded in seven phases

• Sectors, of educational provision and research

• Themes, analysing across the programme

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008/9

Phase I

Phase II

Scottishextensions

Phase III

THEMES

User engagementCapacity building

Neuroscience

Learning outcomesLifecourse

InternationalICT and learning

Impact

Contexts & communitiesLearning transitionsChanging teacher rolesEducation research quality User collaboration

Welsh extensions

Northern Irish extensions

Associated projects

CurriculumPedagogyAssessment

Diversity and learningPolitical contextsProgramme development

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT: 1. Early user engagement

2. Knowledge generation by project teams

3. Knowledge synthesis by thematic groups

4. Knowledge transformation with users & task groups

5. Outputs for impact

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Programme outputs:• Newsletters*

[*to all those registered on the TLRP database at: www.tlrp.org]

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Programme outputs:• Websites (www.tlrp.org)

News, projects and themesResearch capacityInternational links

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Programme outputs:• Databases

BEI PERINE

Regard CERUK

D-Space

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Project outputs:• Research briefings from each project*

[*to those with special interests registered on the TLRP database at: www.tlrp.org]

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Project outputs:• Seminar/workshops for policy-makers and key users

• Policy Task Groups

• Press-releases, articles in professional journals, user collaboration, etc

Seminar/workshops:

Science Education: Royal Society

Modern Apprenticeships: DfES

Pupil Consultation: QCA and NCSL

Inclusive Education: London and Manchester

Policy Task Groups:

Personalised Learning

14-19 Education

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Project outputs:• ‘Video-Assets’

Embedded video footage

Key Findings

Supporting analysis

Hyperlinks for follow-ups

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Project outputs:• Gateway, overview booksImproving Learning series

• Practitioner books and materials

• Academic publications

• RoutledgeFalmer publishing partnership

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Project outputs:TLRP Commentaries

• Personalised learning

•14-19 education

• e-strategy and electronic knowledge management in education

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Add value through:• analysing key issues and themes

across the whole Programme;

• contributing to innovation in communicating new substantive knowledge

At the end of each session you attend, there should be an opportunity for you to record the key concepts which seem important to you. Please record your thoughts on this sheet and leave it when you depart. The whole set will be analysed with great care to enable an appropriate conceptual vocabulary to be constructed for electronic tagging purpose. Thank you.

KEYWORDS FROM PRESENTATIONS AND ROUNDTABLES

Hanbury Suite NAME: ………………………

Chair: Mary James__________________ Presenters:

Keywords:

KEYWORDS FROM PRESENTATIONS AND ROUNDTABLES

Bardd Suite NAME: … Miriam David……

Chair: Bob Burgess

Presenters: Frank Coffield, Martin Hughes (papers only)

Keywords:

Frank Coffield: Learning society, employment, work, vocationalism, training and education, learning trajectories, participation and democracy, social capital, economic inequalities. Programme, projects, themes, collaboration, informal learning, publications.Martin Hughes: Innovation, change, curriculum, progression, effective teaching & learning, differentiation and equal opportunities. Programme, added value, projects, coordination and management, themes, negotiation, users, engagement, dissemination, media relationships.

Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Political, economic and cultural contextsInformal and formal learning contexts

Learners and learning through the lifecourse

Teachers, teaching and training

Learning outcomes Educational issues

International comparisons

Curriculum and domain knowledge

Interaction and pedagogy Information technology

Assessment and learning

Research approaches

Research capacity

Programme development

Neuroscience and learning

User engagement

Knowledge transformation, impact

www.tlrp.org