This presentation formed part of the HEA-funded workshop 'Research methods for teacher education'. This event brought together academic experts in educational research methods with school leaders, to debate, share and determine how student teachers and teachers on part-time Masters-level programmes can best be taught to use research methods to better understand and ultimately, improve the quality of their teaching and improve educational outcomes for pupils and schools. This presentation forms part of a blog post which can be accessed via: http://bit.ly/1m8vkEW For further details of HEA Social Sciences work relating to teaching research methods in the Social Sciences please see http://bit.ly/15go0mh

1. A role for teacher research
in initial teacher education
Professor Tim Cain, Edge Hill University
edgehill.ac.uk

2. Main messages
1 Teacher research, as a form of insider research is
different from other forms of research
2 Understanding this provides possibilities for considering
what mixed-method teacher research might look like
3 Mixed-method teacher research could transform teaching
by transforming teacher education
edgehill.ac.uk

3. Teaching: ontology
Teachers inspire development
-Thinking, understanding,
Knowledge, Action
 An authority (content)
 In authority (relationship)
 Teachers’ expectations
 Students
 Influence of peers
 Influence of institution
 Supra-institutional influence
edgehill.ac.uk

4. Teacher research researches…
Beyond
Institution
Teacher
Past experiences/
knowledge/
expectations
Students
Pedagogy/
Regulation
Past experiences/
knowledge/
expectations
edgehill.ac.uk

5. Teaching: epistemology
 Ready access to data
 All data mediated through
the teacher’s self
edgehill.ac.uk

6. Problems when TR is used to generate knowledge
Methodological:
 self-confirming tendency
 power relationship issues
 ‘teaching’ data vs. ‘research’ data
 Teaching ethic trumps research ethic
Practical:
Tendency to ‘research’ technical improvements, divorced from aims & values
‘mission creep’
Research can become individual
Research not prioritised
edgehill.ac.uk

7. Teaching knowledge
Research knowledge
Procedural – partly tacit
Propositional
For developing students
For understanding situations
Practically-driven
Theoretically-driven
Messy
Focused
Situation specific
Generalised
Quick
Slow
T
R
edgehill.ac.uk

8. Tripp, 2003
edgehill.ac.uk

9. Examples
Jo Mattock: Behaviour management
Mel Holmes: Formative assessment
Alison Larrett: Freedom to learn
Satisfy the conditions for one-turn action research, based on literature
However, quite insular
edgehill.ac.uk

10. Mixed methods?
Would a combination of Teacher Research and ‘outsider
research help to connect the two worlds more effectively?
If so, what might it look like?
edgehill.ac.uk

11. tim.cain@edgehill.ac.uk
edgehill.ac.uk