I believe schools should engage with research evidence because it can help embed a culture focusing on improving teaching and learning in a systematic way. Most teachers collect data in an informal way, and may not always have time to reflect on the impact of this, disseminate their findings, and think about the possible wider impact. Engaging with research evidence will give confidence to teachers, believing in what they are doing, and giving them autonomy to take action in their own classroom. 

The main barriers relate to time, as there are lots of requirements of all teaching staff, as well as where to get started. If there was a basis in which to begin, and a focus to work towards, I believe staff would be engaged with this.

Primarily, outcomes for the pupils. These don't have to be exam results, perhaps also less tangible aims like creating interest in your subject or increasing uptake at A-level from less represented groups.
While many teachers don't like change, the feeling that you are doing something that is proven to work can also lead to greater pride and confidence on the part of the teacher.

As a head of faculty I know that there  are plenty of teachers who get good outcomes for students without ever having followed what may be considered an evidence based approach. Why would they want to listen or change? From this course I hope to get a clearer idea of not only how evidence based practice works in reality but also how (and why) we should try to spread the word. 
As many have said, time is always gong to be the problem. We can carve out a slice of time in the week to promote collaborative approaches and so on but, when you are all very busy, trying to keep everyone on board can be a challenge.

In order to increase engagement within my current context, I think it would be important to introduce the change slowly from the bottom-up. The school is new, therefore I think about it as a blank canvas. I am contemplating approaching management with the idea of an optional research club for teachers. With the optional being important. I have seen first hand that due to time constraints on the teachers in my school, any forced CPD is demotivational. 

However I feel like participation would be high as many teachers are worried about there students English levels and do often talk about methods to improve these.

A barrier to this would be choosing the correct sources to cover when introducing these sources. It is important not to start with a 40 page analysis. We need to be clear that teachers are not researchers. Instead summaries, made by teachers with help from researchers, need to be the starting point. This will increase engagement as it can be accessible for all.

From this initial starting point, there should be a focus of growing the culture of learning in the staff and leadership need to help to foster this. 

·        Research gives us the opportunity to focus on teaching and learning, which should be the central to role as educators.

·        Academic research has often been overwhelming in language, and can be difficult to engage with for professionals. I would argue that much of the work I read through my dissertation was detached from the teaching profession itself, and often ‘demonises’ teaching practices through over fetishism.  More rigorous action research is required to normalise research enquiry in education, and make the findings accessible to staff and academics alike, to bridge the gap between outdated theories and modern practices. 

What are the barriers to engagement in your context and how might they be overcome?

·        Some teacher are well versed in the swings and roundabouts of education, and are happy to adapt to the ‘phases’ in best practice. Others, like myself, are more sceptical, and take a more critical view to the intent and implementation of a strategy, as opposed to just making it a tick box activity. 

·        The main barrier generally to implementation is time. Engaging with research is all well and good in training sessions, but teachers do not have time to properly implement strategies into planning and lessons on top of all of their additional duties and responsibilities. Most are willing and motivated to, but logistically we need more time (in order to maintain work life balance). Leaders should engineer directed time to maximise development opportunities for teachers.

Research is an ever growing and developing space, engaging with research evidence allows schools to maintain and upkeep the most up-to-date practices and remain at the forefront of educational provision.
Given that research-evidence is not entirely based on a single context and can be applied to a wider spectrum, it offers schools a chance to see how other settings work and overcome challenges.  This is most important when deciding on new directions for a school.
Finally, engaging with research-evidence is vital to the growth and development of teaching staff, whose engagement with research is the foundation of successful CPD opportunities.

I find engagement is often low, mainly because of the association of research with some not so fond memories of writing assignments at university.  There seems to be a disconnect between 'academic' based work, and 'teacher' based work.  It appears to be a mindset issue, rather than an actual barrier to accessing it.
My school has actively engaged with research based evidence as a way to provide CPD for all staff, those who have never engaged with academic work before and those with less than fond memories seem to be the most disengaged, therefore, creating a barrier for themselves.

Like many others, I suffer from time constraints.  I have recently tried to get around this by finding sources that tell you clearly what works in the classroom, based on research.  But even then, I do not often have the time to plan them into lessons so I can try it several times, evaluate them and try again.  Sometimes the technique may only work for a particular type of lesson and I may not have those in the current topics.  I teach Science and one may be about learning a practical skill but some topics don’t have practicals at all, or they may be observation based and not involve learning a skill.  The curriculum itself is a hinderance as new content must be taught every lesson so some activities would involve extra lessons allowing the students to engage with learnt content in a new way, or build a skill over time, but we then lose time and end up running out of lessons at the end of the year, so those are an indulgence.  Sometimes I have planned the new lesson but have fallen back on the old one, for many reasons – fear, tiredness, simply forgetting.  Some new techniques require extra resources and organisation and it is easier when in a hurry, having to put in your equipment requests the week before, to write the lesson title in the planner and fall back on the usual lesson, especially if it seems to work for a majority of students.  Fingers crossed this course gives me the drive to do better.

Challenges: Knowing how to research effectively and having the time to do so, especially in this climate where there is so much pressure on educators.
How to overcome: Giving teachers focused PPA time to engage in evidence informed research and for departments/the wider school community to collaborate.

A further barrier would be what areas of research are to be explored. Commonly, this conversation would be taken with direct reference to the school development plan and moved into a whole school context, but it should be defined and implemented within the needs of the subject and cannot be looked upon as a blanket approach. This can often be overlooked. Fortunately, I currently work in a school where discussions regarding research are encouraged and this has resulted in confidence to dig deeper into the research as well as well as creating a culture of collaborative enquiry and delivery. 

The main barriers to engaging with research in secondary teaching are time constraints, exam/course pressures, and the general culture of/opinions towards research evidence within the staff. With a set course to work through within a set (and often too-short) space of time, we can be reluctant to devote the time to trailing new/alternative methods of learning and teaching suggested by research evidence in our classrooms where they may potentially prove ineffective. If there is a general distrust of research evidence within the staff group, (i.e. it’s not applicable in a ‘real’ school situation) or if a school has adopted a set way of doing things, it can be difficult to justify new strategies with research evidence alone. These barriers can be overcome by encouraging teachers to try new strategies suggested by research, giving them support and reassurance if they are unsuccessful. There has to be an acceptance amongst teachers that researchers often have the time and space to trial new learning/teaching strategies extensively, (where classroom teachers may not), and have to be trusted to provide robust evidence for their conclusions and resulting suggestions for learning/teachers.

Hence, it is inevitable for us to engage with research evidence - we might as well get a running start. 

So, to get everyone involved, this can be built into the performance management cycle because when the push comes to a shove, we will get on board at the end of the day. To overcome barriers like funding, resources, support and consent for research to happen, this would essentially need to be a whole school initiative. However, we must also take continuity and turnover of staff into consideration. A full scale change would require 1-2 years to fully plan, implement and evaluate, by which some of the staff, including the SLT themselves, may have moved on, given the current circumstances, whether due to the covid situation, burnout or simply greener pastures. Perhaps to mitigate this, we can consider engaging in shorter, qualitative-driven projects.

But herein lies the ultimate dichotomy; challenging highly experienced teachers with years of ‘tried and tested’ methods to be intrinsically motivated to invest their time (the most valuable commodity in their 10-hour-a-day profession) into a research project that may or may not resonate with their beliefs. As mentioned by many individuals here, this is indeed a tough one. I think a possible way forward, is for us dig deep and ask ourselves - what is it that drives you as a teacher? If there is a chance that we could make a greater impact for our students, would you not seize it? Change is never convenient. It wasn’t too long ago that we would have never imagined being able to do everything we do in a school day through a screen - look where we are now. 

Research can be undertaken in many different ways: applying a new teaching methodology (e.g. a flipped classroom approach) and assessing its impact (through tracking of progress, results and overall student satisfaction), trialling new assessment methods (and observing their effectiveness in providing useful and meaningful information to both learners and teachers) and resorting to relevant literature to better understand how the learners’ cognitive processes function and how they can be supported more effectively.

As far as barriers are concerned, educators often complain about the lack of time to devote to reading materials or conducting studies when having to complete other CPD tasks and other school duties (such as the incredibly high amount of marking required of teachers, especially at higher levels). Furthermore, there is often little correspondence between the training received and the actions taken: it does take time for the new ideas and concepts to sink in and be put into practice, as becoming a mindful practitioner will not occur after attending a course or reading an article. It happens after a lot of reading, designing of activities and dynamics, and observing and evaluating their results and consequences. Finally, sometimes there is some reluctance coming from leadership teams to develop new initiatives that do not fall into what was “canonically established” by the system, which will result in some practices to remain ossified and a difficulty to find collaborators to engage in newer methods.

It is beneficial for schools to engage with research evidence as it helps to foster reflective practitioners, promotes collaboration not only within the schools but further afield. Ensure that the school is reflective on what they consider as 'best practice.' 

For us the largest barrier is time- using staff meetings to enage with reseach and team meetings to reflect rather than it being an extra add on.

I think it is important for schools to engage in research evidence as teaching and learning is constantly changing. Being aware of the research out there can really enrich learning, whether that be through motivating pupils or aiding them in their revision of topics. It also gives teachers so structure to their teaching and can help them overcome barriers or difficulties they may have in their classroom or with a particular class.

What are the barriers to engagement in your context and how might they be overcome?

Perceived time restraints is a barrier to engagement within my context, however this is also impacted by a lack of modelling and support from senior leaders. A fundamental barrier that our senior leaders face is their own perception of our staff body's willingness and eagerness to engage in research informed practice (led by their own reluctance to impinge on teacher workload). They therefore do not create a systemic culture that supports and encourages teachers to take risks in their own practice as a result. This is a barrier in itself in that the majority of teachers lack the confidence to openly have their own practice and the school ethos does not effectively challenge and support this. Interest in and commitment to evidence-informed practice by senior leaders is critical in overcoming this barrier. As a school we have indicated that research must contribute to a teacher's professional learning profile linked to appraisal but this is somewhat superficial and left down to the individual. To move beyond this we need to have clearly defined research questions linked to our school development priorities and should perhaps move to a model where a dedicated team of research advocates is established.