What a difference a year makes

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What a difference a year makes

• Vanessa Pittard
• Director, Evidence and Evaluation

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To football
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and to ICT research strategy
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Ambitions

• We believe the ambitious and imaginative use of
  technology will be a central element in improving
  personalisation and choice across the system
• (DfES Five Year Strategy p. 88)
• We aim to put learners, young people - and their
  parents in the driving seat, shaping the
  opportunities open to all learners to fit around
  their particular needs and preferences. In
  achieving these goals the effective use of
  interactive technologies is absolutely crucial
  and I am determined that we grasp them
• (Secretary of State Foreword, DfES Harnessing
  Technology Strategy)

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Will it work?

• Focus strands of work impact and outcomes
• transform teaching, learning and help to improve
  outcomes
• engage hard to reach learners, with special
  needs support
• improve personalised support and choice online
  information cross organisation collaboration
• Achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness

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But its ambitious achieving success is complex
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Success is here already
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Success is here already

• Highcliffe School, Christchurch
• European Schoolnet 2004 e-Learning Awards
• Best use of ICT in education

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Highcliffe School

• Met the challenges of
• Technology integration
• Engaging parents online
• Transforming pupil support
• Integration with reward system
• And more

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But success is also a long way off

• Getting real value its tough
• Sustainability, affordability, reliability
• Institutional vision, leadership and management
• Practitioner competencies
• System online services, information and
  learning architectures
• Huge progress, but overall were far short of the
  value barrier

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Current institutional capability
Source PwC 2004
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What about research?

• Change challenges
• Broader technology context pace of change
• Many insights too late, too obvious
• Early understanding needed of effectiveness and
  transferability of new practice
• Understand how to support and accelerate local
  change

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What about research?
Pilots/ trials of emerging practice

• The simplest frameworks are best
• Foresight
• Insight
• Hindsight

Mixed Method Case Studies
Impact analysis
Progress monitoring /surveys
Summative evaluations
Most research reviews
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How useful is Highcliffe School?

• transform teaching, learning
• engage hard to reach learners
• improve personalised support and choice
• achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness

• Evidence-informed practice and policy?
• Its not research
• Robust assessment of outcomes?
• But more is needed than evaluation
• Transferability theories and models
• Interdisciplinary insights
• There is nothing so useful as a good theory
• (Lewin, 1951)

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Development and Research DR

• Research-based knowledge
• Clearly linked to educational developments
• Partnerships especially research and practice
• Not about technology development (per se)
  social and organisational change, supported by
  technology
• Complex problems demanding interdisciplinary
  insight
• Outcomes (Becta) What interventions will make a
  difference?

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Other research? Adding value

Foresight Insight Hindsight
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Other research? Adding value

• transform teaching, learning
• engage hard to reach learners
• improve personalised support and choice
• achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness

• Insight impact analysis, case studies
• focus agreeing and operationalising key
  outcomes - real outcomes
• Insight research reviews
• focus supporting change priority issues in
  practice

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• Foresight
• Insight
• Hindsight

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Other research? Adding value

• Hindsight know how far weve come understand
  lack of progress and related challenges
• Hindsight - Focus on key indicators of change
  gain insight where possible

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Other research? Adding value

• Hindsight know how far weve come understand
  lack of progress and related challenges
• Hindsight - Focus on key indicators of change
  gain insight where possible
• Hindsight not really much room for summative
  evaluation, unless lessons are transferable

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The bigger research picture

• Inc. myriad of small-scale research and single
  case studies
• Renewal and development concept validation,
  exploratory research e.g. unanticipated outcomes,
  theoretical development
• But can we find ways to build a robust,
  coherent and useful knowledge-base to inform the
  way forward?
• Research questions and frameworks

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Research roles

• Bectas role?
• The role of others?
• e.g. learning and teaching practice
• Clear link to reflective practice
• Problem of subject-specific pedagogies and
  individual approaches
• What works a red herring?
• Understanding, dialogue
• Cross-case analysis

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How can we make the communication work?
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How can we make the communication work?
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What a difference a year makes

• Vanessa Pittard
• Director, Evidence and Evaluation