Recent research in the sector
CUREE was commissioned by the Education & Training Foundation to research the key issues in the teaching of maths and English in the sector. Conducted very rapidly and in partnership with EmCETT we interviewed policy makers and experts, reviewed the international research evidence and consulted leaders and practitioners across the sector. We think the report provides a fascinating window into how maths and English teachers and their leaders are thinking about the new level 2 challenges. You can read the report here.
The Commission on Adult and Vocational Teaching and Learning
We have submitted evidence to the Commission based on our 15 years' experience of analysing the research evidence about effective teaching and learning.
Helping colleges and other providers strengthen their teaching and learning from evidence of what works
CUREE is proud to be associated with the further education and skill sector. Several of us have direct experience of working in the sector and we are pleased to support your work directly with individual colleges and other providers and indirectly though our work with organisations like LSIS, AoC, the 157 Group and IfL.
On our website you will find a lot of useful resources created with on in the sector (for instance practitioner research reports) or of direct relevance to the sector but drawn from elswhere (from other countries for instance). We are working to pull this information together on these dedicated Sector pages to make it as accessible as possible. This is a work in progress so why not subscribe to these pages so we can notify you when new stuff is published.
Developing Teaching and Learning , The Sixth Form College Farnborough
Farnborough Sixth Form College ran their annual Developing Teaching and Learning Conference. CUREE demonstrated how our interactive routemaps help practitioners engage with evidence to develop approaches to teaching and learning.
- Read some of the presentations here.
Teachers and research
Do you sometimes wonder whether researchers and the people who fund them ever listen to practitioners and policy makers in the sector? The National Teacher Research Panel (NTRP) was established in 2000 to:
- Champion engagement in and with evidence as a means of improving quality and increasing student success;
- Ensure that research funding and design takes account of practitioner needs.
Two of the panel members from FE had their research featured at the Panel's last national conference. Summaries of their work can be found below.
- Does using voting sticks technology enhance teaching and learning? [PDF, 287 KB]
- Strong roots healthy branches – Inspiring creativity in teaching for Early Years practitioners through peer coaching [PDF, 150 KB]
Research Tasters for the Learning and Skills Sector
CUREE has developed research tasters to help practitioners weave research findings on effective practice into their own teaching. Each taster:
- highlights an intriguing or counter-intuitive nugget of high quality evidence
- offers practical tools for gathering evidence about how your students experience these phenomena now
- provides suggestions about next steps
- provides related web-links for further information
Choose from the tasters below an area you and your colleagues would be interested in exploring:
- How can adapting learning activities increase students’ thinking skills capacity?
- How can we encourage students to contribute to discussions that support learning?
- How can we ensure students of different abilities and aptitudes work well in a group?
- How can we guide group discussion effectively?
- How can we improve the effectiveness of learning support for adults?
- How can we use enquiry to help learners become more confident and independent?
- How can we use e-portfolios to enhance the learning of students attending more than one site?
- What can we do to ensure young learners move onto the right course for them?
- What helps to improve partnerships between employers and training providers?
- What lessons on learning how to learn can adult students draw on?
You will find additional tasters on the TLRP website for each of the different audiences in the sector; Further Education, 14-19 Education, Work Based Learning, Adult and Community Learning, and Offender Learning. Just follow this link http://www.tlrp.org/ls/.
Coaching practitioners supporting 14 -19 learners
Originally developed to support the 14-19 Workforce Support Programme, CUREE adapted the Effective Mentoring and Coaching (EMAC) suite of tools and protocols in order to contextualise them specifically for 14 -19 development with new animations and tools that make specialist and collaborative coaching effective and connect professional development with student achievement.
QCDA 14-19 Student Surveys and Focus Groups
As part of its work providing QCDA with evidence for curriculum development, CUREE carried out a series of focus groups with Year 9 students to explore their experiences in making course pathway choices at 16, and the influences surrounding their choice. This report summarises the outcomes of the focus groups held with 38 students. It examines which students chose the diploma and why, what kind of support and guidance the students had received for making their choices and also whether this guidance and support had been helpful. The appendix contains the resources used during the focus groups to elicit students’ comments.
- 14-19 focus group report [PDF, 691 KB]
Sauce for the Goose
CUREE’s publication “Sauce for the Goose - learning strategies that work for teachers as well as their pupils" was circulated to a team of pioneer CPD leaders linked to the Institute for Learning. The publication argues for a greater awareness of the benefits of professional learning – something already recognised in the learning and skills sector through the introduction of the 30-hour CPD entitlement – to access the pamphlet, click here.
The pamphlet argues that we need to plan for and think as hard about work based professional learning for teachers and tutors as we do about helping students to succeed, and highlights evidence about key things that make a difference.
Practitioner engagement in and/or with research and its impact on learners
Findings from a systematic research review throw new light on how practitioners in schools and colleges get involved in or with research, and about the impact which that has on their learners. This review explores:
- the obstacles to practitioner engagement in and/or with research;
- the forms of support that help practitioners overcome the obstacles; and
- the range of approaches practitioners use to engage in and/or with research.
This systematic review was sponsored by the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE), the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education (CUREE), and the National Teacher Research Panel (NTRP) which is funded by the Department for Education (DfE), and drew on literature in the fields of education, health and social services.
- Click here to view a summary of the report for the learning and skills sector.