To explore how improvement can come from collecting evidence of our teaching
Aim
To explore how improvement can come from collecting evidence of our teaching.
Evidence and reflection
The key to this process is to create a focus and to consider what evidence is required in order to make judgements about how to proceed. For example, you may be considering the progress of a particular child in a specific curriculum area, or analysing the effectiveness of a method for encouraging group dialogue. Whatever your focus, the stages you’ll consider are:
1. Which facet of classroom life should be investigated and why?
2. What evidence to collect, and how?
3. How can we analyse, interpret and apply the findings?
This may seem rather formal, but these are all things you’ll be thinking about in any situation where you are evaluating your classroom.
To start with, pick a small issue or dilemma and see if you can construct a plan for evidence gathering, on which you can base subsequent action.
Extension
Generally, teachers focus their first classroom-based research and development activity on an individual child or group of children. Is there a whole-class intervention that you would like to trial? How will the evidence base change for such work?
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