Keep

Evaluation of the Excellence Gateway

CUREE undertook for QIA an evaluation to assess the costs and benefits to the further education system of developing and maintaining the Excellence Gateway (a web-based portal plus a set of supporting resources) relative to the services it replaced.  In addition to an assessment of the actual cost of introducing the Gateway, QIA also wanted to establish:

  • the extent to which the Excellence Gateway was used; and
  • the extent to which users were interacting with the resources and with each other: the perceived benefits for users and their organisations.

 

Development of materials for newly appointed and aspiring college principals

We assisted CEL in developing the self-study materials component of the Principals Qualifying Programme.  The resources covered the full range of the principal’s role (including curriculum, HR and marketing). Our particular contribution was to ensure that the material addressed the key issues in an accessible and relevant way – and had realistic and useful assessment tasks. We subsequently undertook a similar project for the Aspiring Principals and Senior Leaders programme.

Creativity Action Research Awards

In 2004, Creative Partnerships commissioned CUREE to design the Creativity Action Research Awards (CARA). This was a national programme of action research into creative learning which involved research partnerships in schools across England. The award scheme aimed to enhance understanding of how creative learning works in practice and to share that understanding across the education system.

Support for the development of MTL

CUREE supported the TDA’s work in developing the new Masters in Teaching and Learning by facilitating two seminars, aimed at building a shared understanding amongst the stakeholders of what is meant by work-based professional learning and the role of coaching in supporting it.  The first seminar was for senior officials from the national agencies, whilst the participants in the second represented various HEIs and schools.  Preparation for the first seminar included telephone interviews with key figures in each national agency and preparing a heuristic reflecting the different coaching and p

How can research improve classroom practice?

CUREE's Chief Executive, Philippa Cordingley, presented a paper on 15 April 2009 to the American Education Research Association (AERA) in San Diego. In it, she explores how the English system has supported use of education research over the last 13 years and highlights the limitations of knowledge management and dissemination/communications theories and strategies for shaping such work. Through a case study of the development of mentoring and coaching in England, she argues for the use of the large body of empirical evidence and growing body of theory about continuing professional development and learning to inform and shape support for use of reserach. What is needed, she suggests, is much more investment in encouraging and enabling teachers to pull knowledge through into their practice and their working relationships.