ABSTRACT
This chapter considers what it means to integrate research ‘as part of an ethos of continual improvement and reflection’. Research informs decision making; research develops teaching mindsets. But for some teachers, particularly Senior Leaders, the contribution of research to their school is broader than that: research helps to develop the school as an intelligent community, or what others have called a ‘Professional Learning Community.’ Common to all the theories outlined is the idea that the development of an intelligent community is social; people learn not only individually, but also as a consequence of working together and talking together. There are various opportunities for teachers to work cooperatively and collaboratively, and, as a consequence, for their schools to develop as intelligent communities. Most of the Senior Managers in our research referred, at one point or another, to large-scale initiatives within their schools. Coincidentally, two of these initiatives involved teaching boys and girls separately within some subjects in Secondary schools.
