Continuing with our broad themes for the week where we have looked to widen the scope of the topics to the general profession and, ultimately those that we directly serve - the student.
Various Australian (and sorry for the references to Australia but it is a close neighbour and one we all can relate to) education frameworks cite the use of 'research and evidence-based' initiatives as part of school improvement frameworks. For reference here's a few for you to undertake your own research initiative deep dive:
In the first instance the fact that you as a teacher are reading this indicates that you are looking to research new ideas and thoughts into education. A great start. You will agree and accept therefore that education is no longer simply 'chalk and talk' or exam and test after exam and test though some of use are guilty and we persist with this because it is easy to do so. But, what other methods work and how do we implement this requires time and resources.
Here is an article that we found that synthesizes the issues that we face as teachers - lack of time. The following is a general statement from the same article that teachers anywhere agree to:
"By reading and using the latest research, teachers can improve their knowledge and teaching skills concerning a number of everyday issues. These range from student well-being and school engagement to subject expertise and different teaching approaches, including online learning. But using research is complex and takes time to do well – time that teachers just don’t seem to have."
There are no easy answers to this modern day paradox of finding time. But, as teachers and influencers for the future generations, we need to. For, as the same article states
"[…] it would be careless and wrong professional conduct if we did not reach or try to gain as much evidence (and knowledge) about student behaviour as we could."
Happy reading and thanks for being on our site.
