“Engagement levels and marks in the longer written responses have both improved.”

Heather Garland, Head of Faculty, St John Plessington

Innovation Programme Outline

1) Based on a firm foundation of evidence, this professional learning journey is centred around your student needs and your staff priorities. The project digs deep into the process of learning and helps develop ‘Metacognitive Mindsets’ for both pupils and teachers.
2) An investment in learners – An engaging classroom tool that enhances cognitive outcomes and educational progress. This new brick building concept has been shown to enhance critical and creative thinking.

Why is the Innovation Programme right for your school?

This engaging approach to professional learning gives staff practical strategies to use in their classrooms and guides them through current (and relevant) research evidence. We have created an approach that makes engaging with educational research manageable and useful. Using digestible research summaries, we build classroom practices that focuses on the current needs of your learners. The focus of the project is help children build knowledge for themselves. This active approach helps build independence and reflective mindsets promoting life-long learners. Sustained professional learning engagements have been shown to be the most effective way of improving teaching and learning practice. Keeping it simple and making it enjoyable will mean your staff get the maximum value out of this professional development experience.

What are the Benefits of Action Research in Schools?

Teachers who engage in action research inevitably find it to be an empowering experience. Action research helps educators be more effective at what they care most about—their teaching and the development of their pupils. When teachers have convincing evidence that their work has made a real difference in their pupils’ lives, the countless hours and endless efforts of teaching seem worthwhile!

According to Richard Sagor, Professor and Director of the Educational Leadership Program at Lewis & Clark College, Schools who have carried out Action Research report that it brings about the following positive effects:

• Building the reflective practitioner
• Making progress on schoolwide priorities
• Building professional cultures

Want to find out more about Action Research for yourself?

This link presents a teachers research project and this link takes you to a dissertation based on this new method.

“Results clearly show a higher percentage of children’s progress being recorded as ‘Better Than Expected’.”

Rob Francksen, Head Teacher, Crawford’s CEVC Primary School

Action Research Programme Format:

Supported Classroom Action Research delivered to teacher-researchers.

Time Commitment from Teaching Staff:

4 x 1.5 hour twilight sessions

Action Research Project

Timetabling and Curriculum

The Innovation Programme methodology will complement your existing curriculum and will not require additional timetabling. It is suitable for cross-curricular and cross-phase applications.

Project Duration:

An academic term (Sept-Dec, Jan-Apr or May-July) – This provides enough time to support your participating staff and conduct a well-thought out research project. The framework is cyclical and can be repeated with different focuses each time it is conducted. Alternatively, we can facilitate the project over a full academic year.

Responsibility:

We will need a dedicated member of staff to act as the Innovation Programme Learning lead, this will be our point of contact and will help sustain the momentum of the project.

Commitment from School:

Dedicated time in your after-school staff meeting schedule to conduct the project and complete these tasks.
1) Explore the potential barriers to student progress and create a hypothesis.
2) Design a classroom strategy that focuses on the student need.
3) Monitor the effects of this strategy in the classroom.
4) Consolidate the findings into a research summary.

The package includes:

– Four twilight professional learning sessions.
– Large classroom kits of the ‘Thinking Toolkit’.
– Support Journals, Research Digests and Planning Resources.

Next Steps:

enquiries@jmcinset.com

020 8531 4182

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