ABSTRACT
We have argued that research evidence should be used, where possible, to support teaching and decision making in higher education. We have also argued that both educational and education research are often necessary, since common sense theorising and experiential knowledge may not help us in dealing with problems of practice, especially where opinions differ. For example, some teachers see group work as promoting ‘pooled ignorance’: others see it as a valuable learning opportunity. Without the evidence provided by well conceived and executed research we must rely on unsupported opinion and anecdote. However, using research is not simply a matter of applying research findings in
an uncritical way, as we have demonstrated in Chapter 5. In this chapter we argue that any research findings, if utilised in one’s own work, should be evaluated in the course of one’s teaching. This is because findings which pertain for one group of students at a certain time and place may not pertain to a different cohort at a different time and place. At this point a sceptic might object that given the inevitable contextual variety
of teaching (no two cohorts of students are the same) it is impossible to have confidence in education and educational research findings, as applied to our own situations. And if the research is not applicable to other contexts isn’t it, in the words of Furlong and Oancea, somewhat ‘ephemeral’ and of no real significance, however personally worthwhile it has been to the individual researcher? (2005: 13). In other words is educational (and education) research of any real use? A second objection might be that the recommendation to evaluate research
findings in the course of one’s teaching is an unrealistic expectation, given the many demands on lecturers’ time. These are important objections, since if true they seem to undermine the position that teaching can be a research-informed profession. In the first part of this chapter we offer a response to these objections. In the
second part we suggest some time-efficient ways in which research activities can be integrated with teaching. We also suggest questions that you would be prudent to ask yourself at the planning stage of a practitioner research project, the answers to which should save time later. We give an extended example of a
collaborative practitioner research project that one of the authors was involved in, to demonstrate how such a project may be efficiently and effectively organised. We end the chapter with some observations on good practice in reporting one’s own practitioner research. But first we reply to the objection that research in education is fruitless since the context is always shifting.
