In the voice of teachers: The promise and challenge of participating in classroom-based research for teachers’ professional learning

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.01.004Get rights and content

Abstract

This article provides an initial exploration of the impact of teachers’ involvement with classroom-based research projects on their professional learning. Interviews with classroom teachers are used to explore their experiences of working with Graham Nuthall and his research teams, who focused on finding out how students’ interactions with teaching events affected their learning. The aim was to investigate whether teacher involvement with research on and about their own classrooms contributed to their professional learning, changed their teaching practices, and made a difference to their professional career paths. This study draws on the literature around effective teacher learning and compares it with the impact of teacher involvement with the Nuthall classroom research projects.

Section snippets

The context of Graham's work

Graham Nuthall has presented a number of accounts of the methods that he and his research associates used to collect their data for the classroom research projects. The most detailed account of the specific methodology used can be found in an unpublished booklet by Graham called Project on Learning: Classroom Recording and Data Analysis. (The URL for this is included in the references.) Another conceptual account with less detail on method but more narrative is also very useful (Nuthall, 2005).

Involving teachers in research

A significant feature of Graham's research was the way he built up a relationship with the classroom teacher. This involved face-to-face meetings between the teachers and the researchers for explanations of how the project would be physically set up in the classrooms. The project required a lot of recording equipment, both video and audio to be shifted inside the classrooms. All of the participants commented on the impact of the equipment on their experiences in the classroom. For example:

Teachers voice their experiences

Early in 2005, I interviewed the five teachers, who had worked with Graham and his team of researchers. At the time of their involvement with the research (1985–2001), they were quite varied in their ages, professional experience and status. In this section of the paper, I will introduce each of them and then present the findings that emerged from their interviews. In the conclusion of the paper, I will attempt to draw out the extent to which their experiences of being involved in a classroom

What the research says about effective teacher learning

Overcoming teachers’ (our) lack of awareness of how schools and the dominant cultures in teaching determine our practice has been identified as one of the main obstacles to transforming classroom teaching (Cuban,1998; Nuthall, 2005; Timperley & Parr, 2004). Achieving increased awareness implies a learning process in which teachers are sufficiently “deeply” involved that they can not only perceive the effects of their current practice on students and their learning, but also feel convinced that

The one limitation: not enough feedback

As I have mentioned above, a significant requirement in providing effective teacher learning is that it reflect the attributes of successful classroom teaching and learning. A prominent feature of quality teaching for students and teachers alike is the use of feedback. (Alton-Lee, 2003) Feedback facilitates learning when it is respectful and takes on the quality of a “learning conversation” (Timperley & Parr, 2004). Guskey (1995) identifies five guidelines for effective professional development

Future promise

Graham Nuthall's approach to classroom-based research has not only given educationalists new information on how children learn, on the realities of student experiences in the classroom, and the impact of what teachers do on students’ learning. Although that in itself would have been enough for a life time's research work, Graham Nuthall's meticulous research methods and his way of working with teachers in their own classrooms has provided a successful model of how to bring about long term,

References (23)

  • A. Alton-Lee

    Quality teaching for diverse students in schooling: Best evidence synthesis

    (2003)
  • A.G. Alton-Lee et al.

    Imperatives of classroom research: Understanding what children learn about gender and race

  • Alton-Lee, A.G., Nuthall, G.A., & Patrick, J. (1987). Take your brown hand off my book: Racism in the classroom. SET:...
  • A.G. Alton-Lee et al.

    Reframing classroom research: A lesson from the private world of children

    Harvard Educational Review

    (1993)
  • D. Britzman

    Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach, revised edition

    (2003)
  • P. Cordingley

    Teachers using evidence: Using what we know about teaching and learning to re-conceptualise evidence-based practice

  • Cordingley, P., & Saunders, L. (2002). Bringing teachers and research closer together: The GTC's ‘Research of the...
  • L. Cuban

    How schools change reforms: Redefining reform success and failure

    Teachers College Record

    (1998)
  • M. Ginsburg

    Reproduction, contradiction and conceptions of professionalism: The case of pre-service teachers

  • I. Goodson

    Professional knowledge, professional lives: Studies in education and change

    (2003)
  • Guskey, T.R. (1995). Results-oriented professional development: In search of an optimal mix of effective practices. URL...
  • Cited by (23)

    • Patterns in teacher learning in different phases of the professional career

      2011, Learning and Individual Differences
      Citation Excerpt :

      We will do this from a certain perspective, concentrating on the learning activities teachers employ. This means that we deviate in at least two respects from existing literature: (1) in most of the literature on teacher learning and workplace learning, ‘learning activities’ are conceptualised as observable, overt activities, like reading, taking part in professional development activities, working together, etc.; and (2) most of the literature on teacher learning and workplace learning is prescriptive, in the sense that models are presented about how teachers should learn best (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002; Hodkinson & Hodkinson, 2005; Rathgen, 2006). In this paper, we adopt an approach developed in our research on student learning: we include covert (mental) as well as overt activities, aiming to understand how teachers learn in more or less natural settings before we intervene with prescriptive advice.

    • Translanguaging in action: Incorporating translanguaging pedagogy in a Korean heritage language classroom

      2022, Korean as a Heritage Language from Transnational and Translanguaging Perspectives
    • The postmodern teacher of social sciences: A model of good practices in heritage education

      2020, REICE. Revista Iberoamericana Sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educacion
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text