Webinar on ‘Mobilising knowledge for professional learning: what should leaders be doing and how can networks help?’

Given the complexity of the current context in Hong Kong, rather than hosting face to face events for the remainder of the academic year, IPDA Hong Kong are running a special series of webinars connecting last years #IPDAconversations theme of ‘Harnessing creativity in changing times: Risk, resilience and professional learning across the professions’ and this year’s theme ‘Imagining the Post-Professional: identity, ethics and response-ability beyond professional standards’.

• Date: Thursday 21st May 2020
• Time: 4:30pm (Hong Kong Time (UTC +7))
• Registration: Visit this link to register

This webinar is open to all.

This webinar will be led by Professor Chris Brown, Durham University, U.K.

Abstract: 

Although there is now a recognition that academic educational research can and should be mobilised to improve teaching practice there is only limited evidence on how this might be facilitated at the school system level (Graves and Moore, 2017). Furthermore, a gap appears to exist between research and practitioners more generally, which shows little indication of narrowing (Coldwell et al., 2017; Graves and Moore, 2017; Whitty and Wisby, 2017). As a result this leaves only sporadic instances knowledge mobilisation occurring within and across schools; with other factors such as intuition and experience instead solely driving much of the decision-making undertaken by teachers (Vanlommel et al., 2017). A key question therefore is what can we do to mobilise knowledge at scale? To address this question, this workshop will present understanding and ideas for how best to close research to practice gap across all schools (Graves and Moore, 2017) and the vital roles of both network and system leadership. In addition case studies of successful initiatives in this area, including the notion of Research Learning Communities and will be discussed.

Key findings include:

1. That in networked and school improving school systems we want one or two people to mobilise innovation so that everyone uses it effectively
2. The importance of distributed leadership using PLCs and learning conversations 
3. Who helps to mobilise also makes a difference; and
4. The need for leaders need to formalise and prioritise

How to Participate:

This webinar will be run using ‘Zoom’. Please ensure you have this downloaded prior to joining the webinar. A link to join the webinar will be sent to all participants one day prior.

This webinar is open to IPDA members only. Find out more about becoming an IPDA member.

About Professor Chris Brown:

Professor Chris Brown is Professor in Education at Durham University’s School of Education. Chris is seeking to drive forward the notion of Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) as a means to promote the collaborative learning of teachers. The aim of this collaborative learning is to improve both teaching practice and student outcomes, not only in individual schools, but also in the school system more widely. Alongside his research into PLNs Chris also has a long-standing interest in how research evidence can and should, but often doesn’t, aid the development of education policy and practice.

In 2018 Chris was also awarded a Siftung Mercator Foundation Senior Fellowship. Each year Siftung Mercator identifies and invites just six people world-wide to apply each year for one of its fellowships. Potential Fellows are identified by a panel as ‘exceptionally talented and outstanding researchers and practitioners’ from areas seen as relevant to the themes and fields of activity of Stiftung Mercator. The purpose of the Mercator Fellowship programme is to offer selected fellows the space and freedom to also devote themselves to exploratory and unconventional research and practical projects (typically for six months). Previous fellows include advisors to former US President Obama and current French President Macron. Other recent prizes include the 2015 American Educational Research Association ‘Emerging Scholar’ award; the 2016 AERA Excellence in Research to practice award and the 2016 UCEA Jeffrey V. Bennett Outstanding International Research award.

References

Brown, C. (2017) Further exploring the rationality of evidence-informed practice: a semiotic analysis of the perspectives of a school federation, International Journal of Education Research, 82, pp. 28-39.

Coldwell, M., Greany, T., Higgins, S., Brown, C., Maxwell, B., Stiell, B., Stoll, L, Willis, B. and Burns, H. (2017) Evidence-informed teaching: an evaluation of progress in England (London, Department for Education).

Graves, S. and Moore, A. (2017) How do you know what works, works for you? An investigation into the attitudes of school leaders to using research evidence to inform teaching and learning in schools, School Leadership & Management, early online access.

Rose, J., Thomas, S., Zhang, L., Edwards, A., Augero, A. and Rooney, P. (2017) Research Learning Communities: Evaluation report and executive summary (December 2017) Available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Projects/Evaluation_Reports/Research_Learning_Communities.pdf, accessed on December 15th 2017.

Vanlommel, K., Van Gasse, R., Vanhoof, J. and Van Petegem, P. (2017) Teachers’ decision-making: Data based or intuition driven, International Journal of Educational Research, 83, pp. 75-86.

Walker, M. (2017) Insights into the Role of Research and Development in Teaching Schools, (Slough, NfER).

Whitty, G. and Wisby, E. (2017) Is evidence-informed practice any more feasible than evidence-informed policy? Presented at the British Educational Research Association annual conference, Sussex, 5 -7 September, 2017