Research Insights
Creative thinking S
chools in England are entering a period of professional freedom unlike anything that has been seen since the introduction of the fi rst national curriculum. Academies, for example, have no requirement to follow the national curriculum and those schools that do have been promised less prescription and more scope to innovate. How will we make the most of these freedoms? The old adage “if you do what you always did you’ll get what you’ve always got” presents both a challenge and opportunity to those hoping to use these new fl exibilities to design more compelling learning. In education, as in all other fi elds of human endeavour, there are always new ways to enhance what we do. How as teachers, for example, do we respond to the emerging evidence about how the brain works? How do we design learning to equip young people for life in an interdependent globalised world? How do we exploit the creative potential offered by technology? With increased freedom, however, comes increased responsibility. As professionals we need to act ethically and rationally in the best interests of learners. This is why, I believe, we are seeing a growing call for more evidence-based practice and for new opportunities for teachers to engage in and with educational research. It is important that education change is not driven by opinion or passing fad but by the informed expertise of professionals. Perhaps one of the most droll observations made by Professor John Hattie in his book Visible Learning is that a selective reading of
research would suggest that “everything seems to work”
Gareth Mills looks at how engaging teachers in research to inform best practice can unleash untapped creativity and bring about sustainable improvement in schools
“It is important that education change is not driven by opinion or passing fad but by the informed expertise of professionals“
Everyone, politician, parent and teacher, can fi nd a justifi cation for why their particular view about teaching is likely to be successful. However, as a result of 15 years’ work and a synthesis of more than 800 meta-analyses of research studies, Prof Hattie has built up an authoritative evidence- informed picture of the key infl uences on student achievement. Teachers engaging with his work can make informed judgements about teaching strategies based on a credible weight of evidence. Andreas Schleicher is not a household name in the UK, yet in a speech this year education secretary Michael Gove suggested that he could be one of the most important fi gures in world education. Dr Schleicher is the special advisor for education at the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and is passionate about using evidence to support school improvement. Earlier this year he published Building a High Quality Teaching Profession: Lessons from around the world.
Looking at international best practice in teacher development, Mr Schleicher notes that high quality is most likely to be achieved when teachers are “active agents in school reform, not just implementers of plans designed by
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