Presentation by Phil Taylor and Dario Faniglione for the Higher Education Academy (HEA) symposium at BERA Annual Conference in London, September 2014. The project, one of four projects supported by the HEA in 2014, has created an app which can be used by student teachers and other practitioners to carry out both individual and collaborative research, Further details can be found in the project report at http://bit.ly/ZpLMfU

1. Developing a web-based research
app to support practice-based
enquiry in teacher education
Phil Taylor & Dario Faniglione

2. Background
• A web-based research app ( ) to facilitate
collaborative practice-based enquiry (we decided not to call it
the Collaborative Research App!).
• Underpinned by long-standing notions of teaching as
research; links to lesson/learning study.
• Initially intended for educational practice, but could
be used for practitioner research in other disciplines.
• To be made available as ‘open source’.
• Builds on the Literacies for Employability (L4E)
project, also supported by the HEA.

3. Theoretical
Knowledge
Practice
Knowledge
Research
Knowledge
A tool for
thinking and
the creation of
knowledge
Based on Poulson and
Wallace (2004, p.17)
‘Using research means doing research.’ (Stenhouse, 1981, p.110)
‘…a researcher in the practice context…constructs a new theory of
the unique case.’ (Schön , 1983, p.68)
‘…a vehicle for researcher and co-researchers (the participants in
the research) to seek and to share meanings constructed from
shared experience’. (Phelps and Hase, 2005, p.514)

4. Aims of the project
• To further enhance outcomes for student teachers
and their professional skills by strengthening their
research enquiry projects.
• To enable student teachers to make greater links
between theory and practice, through the
development of research skills.
• To support the process of analysis and sharing of
classroom practice evidence and student teachers’
reflection on their professional development.

5. Use of the WRApp
1. Identify a group of collaborative practitioner
researchers – set up a user group.
2. Agree and design a framework for gathering
evidence (e.g. a lesson structure).
3. Use the framework to collect evidence in practice,
through observation and reflection, in various forms
(text, picture, audio, video) using portable devices.
4. Post and share evidence to user group website.
5. Analyse, synthesise and compare evidence.

6. Web Server – User Group
Admin  Researcher  Participant
Classroom
Workplace
Context 1
Classroom
Workplace
Context 2
Classroom
Workplace
Context 3…
Agreed Framework

Text

Picture

Audio

Video

7. List
(a simple list)
Grid
(a simple table)
Matrix
(a table with headings)
Web
(nodes and connections)
Cyclical
(process model)
Spiral
(change process)
Framework templates
• …….
• …….
• …….

8. Piloting the WRApp
• Successful use in ‘reading the workplace’ through
Literacies for Employability project.
• PGCE Secondary students using it this year.
• Teachers using it with their students as participants
or co-researchers.
• Interest from several universities, national and
international, and plans for joint projects.
• If you are interested in using the WRApp, please
contact phil.taylor@bcu.ac.uk.

9. Demonstration
• http://wrapp.bcu.ac.uk/

10. References:
Phelps, R., & Hase, S. (2005) Complexity and action research:
exploring the theoretical and methodological connections.
Educational Action Research, 10(3), 507–524.
Poulson, L. and Wallace, M. (2004) Learning to read critically in
teaching and learning. SAGE Publications.
Schön, D. A. (1983) The reflective practitioner: how professionals
think in action. New York: Basic Books.
Stenhouse, L. (1981) What counts as research? British Journal of
Educational Studies, 29(2), 103–114.