- What is the role of research within initial teacher education (ITE) and how does
it contribute to programmes of continuing professional development and
learning (CPDL)? - What is the impact of research-informed teacher education on the quality of
teaching and how far does research-based teaching improve learning outcomes
for students? - How far does current provision across the UK meet the requirements of
research-informed teacher education and research-based teaching? What are the
barriers to creating research-rich environments at a school and system level and
how may these be overcome?
A total of seven papers were commissioned from a range of leading scholars
(BERA-RSA2014a). A review of more and less successful education systems and
their approach to teacher education was carried out by Maria Teresa Tatto and she
found that there was at leastprima facieevidence of a positive linkage between
enquiry-oriented approaches to teacher education and successful outcomes—she
looked at Finland, Singapore, the USA and Chile.
Two of my colleagues at Oxford, Katharine Burn and Trevor Mutton were asked
to look at research-based clinical practice models of initial teacher education. They
looked at approaches in Scotland, Australia, the Netherlands and elsewhere, as well
as our own Oxford internship scheme, and found that models which sought to
integrate theoretical and experiential learning in a systematic way, provided afirm
basis for teachers’continuing professional learning and for the creation of teachers
who could work in a range of contexts and situations.
Overall the Inquiry came to the following conclusions (BERA-RSA2014b):
- Internationally, enquiry-based (or‘research-rich’) school and college environ-
ments are the hallmark of high performing education systems. - To be at their most effective, teachers and teacher educators need to engagewith
research and enquiry—this means keeping up to date with the latest develop-
ments in their academic subject or subjects and with developments in the dis-
cipline of education. - Teachers and teacher educators need to be equipped to engage in
enquiry-oriented practice. This means having the capacity, motivation, confi-
dence and opportunity to do so. - A focus on enquiry-based practice needs to be sustained during initial teacher
education programmes and throughout teachers’professional careers,...[this
needs to be] embedded within the lives of schools or colleges and become the
normal way of teaching and learning, rather than the exception—[that is,
teachers should be equipped with]‘Research Literacy’.
The report made recommendations for each of the four UK jurisdictions but also
some more general recommendations, as follows:- With regard to both initial teacher education and teachers’continuing profes-
sional development, there are pockets of excellent practice across the UK but
- With regard to both initial teacher education and teachers’continuing profes-
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