If you could share what works in your classroom/school, what would you say? Welcome to the 1st edition of ‘What Works?’ journal by Quintin Kynaston.
“… if school systems enter the 21st century unwilling to invest in the “wisdom of practice” they will likely find it increasingly hard to fill their classrooms with enough teachers who are both capable of and willing to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.”
Richard Sagor (ASCD)
What?
This journal is one of the first steps in our (CPD) Continued Professional Development journey to strengthen the culture of action research for all of our staff. One of the many ways we as are sharing our findings with each other at Quintin Kynaston, is through publication of journals from a range of teaching and support staff conducting long-term action research in and out of school. CPD is also about sharing best practice; to consider ‘what works?’ and encourage staff to share collaboratively so that it has significant impact on professional practice, as well as the lives of our students here at QK. ‘What Works?’ is about making research available to anyone who is interested within our own staff, as well as with our local networks within Westminster, London and further afield through our website and links to the wider educational world.
Why?
Teachers and support staff who engage in action research inevitably find it to be an empowering experience. Using action research, what we actually mean is extrapolating any of the ways staff reflect on their practice and improve it by self, peer and student evaluation. This will in many instances, require a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. This will include bringing in and trying new ideas identified from critical reading; selecting a focus, clarifying theories and analysing the results so that the researcher can take informed actions from what the quantitative and qualitative data reports.
How?
As a group of staff that engage with action research, completed further degrees, or are in the process of professional learning through inquiry, we are committed to using in-school research to improve our professional practice as effective teachers. ‘What Works?’ is about communicating key findings and recommendations of research from our own practitioners, so that all staff recognise its relevance and importance for implementing a “research-proven”strategy to use with students. In our first edition, you will find a good range of questions, topics and action researchers who gain valid and reliable data as they develop efficacy.
Presentation:
Here is a copy of my presentation I shared with staff. This was a) to sum up our CPD throughout 2014/15, as well as b) share recent research about Developing Great Teaching by The Teacher Development Trust (@NTENetwork). The final slides are the logistics for making the ‘show and tell’ aspects of the action research CPD evening work for staff.
You can download a copy here. Downloaded, then tweet a thank you.
Thank you:
I would like to express a thank you to business studies teacher @SuzanneCulshaw and headteacher @robcampbe11 of Impington Village College (@ImpingtonVC) who provided our school with the template, originally posted here.
Download:
To download the full journal, click www.bit.ly/QKWhatWorks and in return, please click this tweet.
The formatting has altered slightly due to using Slideshare. A PDF copy is available.
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