CONVERSATION TWO

This topic is a very important stage

Posted by Gina Revill at Jan 22, 2009 10:22 PM

Do not rush this part - the questions you ask are vital - you need to have the scope of your enquiry right. Your questions need be tight and focused.

Who has identified a workplace advocate? Who would be suitable? What role will they fulfill?

This topic is a very important stage

Posted by Lisa Taner at Jan 29, 2009 10:34 AM

Wouldn’t mind some words of advice on my focus this year pleez!
Have been looking at the global dimension for 2 years now, and it makes sense to do the dissertation on the same theme, which I intended.I WAS going to look at the impact for teachers in real and possibly online networks- it would require lots of reading around this area.
HOWEVER im leading a group of teachers on a TIPD visit under quite a different theme, G&T ( although it IS of course international in dimension) and this will need a lot of reporting on…therefore makes perfect sense to base it round this theme/visit.
Im thinking of something along the lines of: an investigation of/ critical review of/something else …into the impact of a TIPD visit on teachers practice (in terms of the theme-G&T, or the international dimension…) or my own practice, so ‘leadership’ or something around the theme of G&T/ International dimension...but that would only be assessing my own change not others.Is that too narrow?
I know im going to need support in getting the wording right, and designing the actual research itself- what actually happens, gets measured etc.
The TIPD is in April, and I don’t see my focus becoming much clearer until nearer the time , probably during March.
Any thoughts gratefully received! Carol, what do you say?

Re SB Advocate this is tricky as Im not in school this term.

This topic is a very important stage

Posted by Carol Jones at Jan 29, 2009 03:31 PM

Hi Lisa
You didn't get a chance to tell me about hte G and T bit. Mmmm Not sure whether it woudl be measureable as it is specifically about students I guess so p'raps it might be better to keep it to Teachers' practice and international dimension or maybe "understanding of" . You would be a teacher so you could include the impact it has on you too in a different section. But.... I'm only at the same stage as y ou so haven't a clear idea of what would be a desirable or necessary focus. DOn't know if that helps Lisa but I'll give it some more thought.

You've also echoed one of my own thoughts. I have a reasonably clear idea of where i'm going but Gina, this first page is only draft isn't it as what follows will surely alter the focus - it's an organic thing too.

C

Thanks carol

Posted by Lisa Taner at Jan 30, 2009 01:25 AM

it might be getting clearer...
an investigation of the development of my own leadership ( with the focus on preparation for TIPD, TIPD itself, and after effects) so the focus is not G&T or even the GD but about me as a leader. Quite a change then.
Dettie says there is a lot of stuff on here ( or the old site) about leadership- perhaps investigate my own 'perceived' leadership style then ask others- I think a reflective diary might be essential this year, was rubbish last year with that.
I still cannot get my head around the design of the research- are there any examples dissertations on here anyone knows of that are good?
What about you carol, yours is not exactly straightforward either ...more investigational and critical ..any thoughts yet?

Getting clearer!

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 02, 2009 01:12 AM

So - leadership is something you are interested in - you keep coming back to that - good! This is an area of expertise for Ian too (though really he's an expert in just about everything though not perhaps gin...) Personally, I haven't done much work on the evaluation of leadership, but wouldn't life be boring if we knew exactly how to do everything before we did it?!!!!!

Ian (or anyone else) would you know of any good dissertations in this area?

The key here will be to think about a good question. The narrower the better. Once you have a good research question, the data you need to gather in order to answer that question will be much easier to work out. So don't worry too much about the design yet - get your question good and narrow. (I feel like I sound like a broken record already :) So - what do you want to know about your leadership? Looking at the report, you have online and face to face parts of this project - do you want to focus on aspect of your leadership? Your developing online leadership skills? Or do you want to look at your leadership overall? Any particular aspect?

Leadership

Posted by Ian at Feb 03, 2009 09:20 AM

There are some leadership dissertations and a lot of material. Carol needs to look up Moral leadership, and work on belifes and values of leaders. You might also look at the principles of catholic education (or indeed any religion) and analyse the implications for leadrship.

Leadership- next steps

Posted by Lisa Taner at Feb 03, 2009 08:43 PM

Gina you asked ‘what do you want to know about your leadership?’ Having not really ever thought of myself as a ‘leader’ as such, in fact, I think it was until Carol pointed out that I was one! I always think it’s about leadership of people and not subjects areas- how wrong I am!
I’m thinking its really Qs about where I am now and how I can develop leadership skills. Carol cleverly pointed out that these developing skills would need to be quantified, and made great suggestions how.
I have been on the NCSL website and done some of their analysis type Qs but the problem is these are developed for aspiring Heads, and don’t really fit in with what I want. I would like to start by doing one that analyses my leadership style (any ideas where?) and then reflect on what if any, areas of strength are, and then to develop those that need it- weaknesses if you like- and then try to improve them- using the TIPD as an ideal way if doing this. It will need measuring.
It’s very personal and is a complete turn around from my more outward looking modules one and two- is that still OK?
Re your other points, online and face to face parts of this project, I predict that the online part will be negligible- unless they surprise me- but I will try and use this as a rallying tool/ and to keep them all informed and for it to be a learning place before and after. It could be a place to develop leadership skills but for this study, not THE place. The programme is a 2 year thing so it would last the life of the dissertation ( answering Ian’s comment about longevity).

So, yes to focus on aspect of my leadership, can it not just be leadership the whole thing or does it have to be an element of it? Feel less sure about the online bit - judging by my ability to rally the troops on the DPP, which is a challenge. Although hurrah, the snow seems to have got lots of online activity hasn’t it? Which is great.

Ian I might come over soon when snow clears and look at your nice neat collection of dissertations on your shelf filed under leadership. I m definitely not going to look at G&T do research purposes, but will be learning lots about it for the trip anyway (and seeing Dr Edward De Bono next week in Prague-will take notes for self and participants).. think leadership is the one to do.

Carol I really appreciate your ideas and thoughts on this. So you think I can measure my (developing) leadership skills by getting them to do what I have planned? That would be good!
You mentioned I could say what I want out of them, and say how I will do it, and then get their reaction to my efforts/leadership with your ideas of questionnaire, interviews, group discussion etc, thanks! A ready-made study!

I’m meeting them all for the first time on Thursday. I was thinking that I could ask them in that first session, what they want from a group leader, an open ended task, and then perhaps to design some kind of Questionnaire to see how I rate on that scale at the end of the process. What do you think?

I will have to ask their permission for academic purposes and perhaps set it up online the final version, so that they know that their responses are confidential.

Leadership- next steps

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 03, 2009 11:07 PM

Hi Lisa,Gina, Ian, everyone (Blimey I sound like Rabbi Lionel Blue!!!)
Glad that you're feeling clearer about your direction Lisa! Having thought a bit about the openended questionnaire, I can't help thinking that it might be a good idea to offer some suggestions about qualities of leaders and then leave a space for thier ideas too. I always find it helpful when answering a quesitonnaire if some ideas are there already. It gives me some sort of security and I think Stringer mentions something about it too. Ian came up with a summary (on the main midwheb site under leadership 100 qualities or something like that - let me know if you need a copy as I downloaded it a couple of months ago. I know that there is loads (p'raps too much for us to read for one little dissertation!) on leadership but I've found Laurie Mullins - management and organisational behaviour v useful on analysing the type of leader you are - he synthesises many views in easy to read format.

Ian - Have got Fullan, Strike and Shapiro and have been reading Fullan to get some feel to what I shall be asking. I shall be dipping into the leadership bit of MIDWHEB again - it's really helpful but I wondered if I might be able to contact Beneradette Clinton about those aspects of Global Dimension Leadership. Would that be ok?
Thanks
C

Leadership- next steps

Posted by Ian at Feb 04, 2009 08:58 PM

OK for me but you will need to speak to Bernadette as its a private arrangement and I know that she is very busy.

Getting the focus right

Posted by Gina Revill at Jan 30, 2009 02:01 AM

You are right Carol - this is a draft - what you put here is a conversation - a way of exploring the focus. The best thing you can do is share your thinking with others as it helps to clarify points and identify holes in your thinking.

So - Lisa - you know you want to do something with the G&T group (it is Friday afternoon here so of course I'm thinking about gin and tonics now :) - this is a good start. I like that you are doing your dissertation about work you have to do anyway - as much as possible it's good to do that.

You could look at something to so with YOUR practice - eg leadership as you have suggested, or you could look at THEIR practice. I wouldn't necessarily recommend looking at both. One area would be enough for the scope of a dissertation. It is far more likely a focus will be too wide - in my experience, it's more of a trap to look too wide and end up with too much breadth and not enough depth.

What's something you are going to need to know for your report? (don't worry too much about the methodology for now - think about what it is you want to find out - we can think about how later!)

Getting the focus right

Posted by Lisa Taner at Jan 30, 2009 10:06 AM

Thanks Gina and Carol.yes I cant get the G&T thing out of my head either- wonder what that is in Ukrainian!! I have ordered teach yourself Ukrainian on CD...now that could be a whole otehr thesis on how I cannot learn languages. Although I can say go away old woman in Russian which has always been handy.Not as handy as my only phrase in italian, No, Im not John Travolta- I kid you not.
Ok serious stuff now. The reporting pre and post (and during) is led by me and takes this format:
Stage one: Pre study visit- application. I say how participating in this visit contributes towards my personal learning objectives- what qualities would I bring to the group? apart from charm and terrible jokes.
Pre-visit: 2 meetings minimum, includes SWOT analysis for group (and I can do a personal one here too I imagine- have ideas already) that goes back to organisers/LA and other preparation. I have already set up a Ning space for the groups travelling this year- mine as well as others- to get some camaraderie going!
During study visit: Short daily feedback meetings to help contribute to the post visit report- findings, outcomes, progress towards goals etc
After: I write the group report that fits a certain format, agreed by the group, 6 weeks post visit.
Action Plans for each participant and evaluations,
Organising dissemination,
Further post visit requirements: updated action plans at 6 months/ 12 months/24 months.
heavy going.

Getting the focus right/mines a Gordon's

Posted by Carol Jones at Jan 30, 2009 11:32 AM

Hi Lisa
I agree with Gina that it's so much easier to use something which you're doing already as the focus of your research as it enriches your actions and development on all levels. I know that I've found that and my two past modules have helped me enourmously in my pedagogy and practice. My focus for the final part is purely a luxury as it's something which I've noticed and which intrigues me - I think that we GDLs (global dimension leaders) are a different breed of school leader and want to analyse what exactly makes us different from other leaders - I'm convinced that it's our ethical view of the world and our personal values systems. I'd like my dissertation to prove that.

You seem to have your dissertation set out for you on a plate alreaday and I could easily see the link between your group's learning and your leadership could be used as the focus of your dissertation. What you want out of them, how you do it and what their reaction to your efforts/leadership is (questionniare, interviews, group discussion with plenary notes) and how this matches your intentions. Now THAT would be quantifiable.
Hope this helps
Have a good weekend
C
(PS you are too modest!!! I'm totally impressed with yoru whizzy plan for your trip!)

This topic is a very important stage

Posted by Ian at Feb 03, 2009 09:17 AM

Lisa. You need to select a different topic albeit a related one. Either online e linking is a very original field worthy of research and worth you exploring. G&T is angle that you have not taken. Both need to be sutstained for the year.

This topic is a very important stage

Posted by Tracey Amoa-Sakyi at Feb 02, 2009 09:50 PM

Thanks a lot Gina. I am working on my dissertation this year. I introduced myself in conversation one. I would like to look at raising achievement of boys in Food Technology.Last year when I did my action research, I focused onraising the achievement of students of ethnic minority using a system of support.(booster lessons) I was thinking that if boys are encouraged to feel better about themselves. their results can be improved. Encouragment can be giving them responsibilities(jobs around school for wich they will be rewarded)I am thinking that this could improve their behaviuor as well as build self esteem. My other idea is raising achievement in Food Technology through personalised learning. What do uou think?

Tracey

Raising Achievement

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 03, 2009 12:26 AM

Hi Tracey - I replied to you in Conversation One as well - human discussion is never tidy!!!

I think you have a fantastic goal here - I recommend you choose something that you are truly interested to motivate you through times when you are tired and busy (two things teachers never are of course ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha) I like both ideas personally. You are right to be trying to stick to one - that is plenty.

You also need to think about what will be useful to your organisation. Does your work advocate have any ideas? How will what you do benefit your colleagues?

Raising Achievement

Posted by Tracey Amoa-Sakyi at Feb 03, 2009 12:41 PM

Thanks Gina!! I looked at your response in conversation one too. Thanks. I know how fish can fit into the cactus theme, having cactus plants in the kitchen !

Anyway, I have taken note of our comments and I will discuss it with my advocate. This fish is now getting back into water. Catch you soon Gina.

Tracey

This topic is a very important stage

Posted by Ian at Feb 03, 2009 09:23 AM

Tracey: This is an intersting idea of personalising food technology to raise acheivement. A simple research question on what makes them tick in food technology would be good. If you can build some personalising elements and see what happens even better. You need to define your terms (eg personalised, self esteem or whatever)

This topic is a very important stage

Posted by Tracey Amoa-Sakyi at Feb 03, 2009 12:42 PM

Thanks a lot Ian. I will get started.
Tracey

Tracey/Food tech n boys

Posted by Lisa Taner at Feb 16, 2009 06:25 PM

Hi Tracey, We met at Bishops a year ago (its Lisa). i was wondering if you have thought about incluing TV chefs as a motivator for your boys- /perhaps not Gordon Ramsey! (or why not- minus the language) but some from various diff backgrounds too- or have a ready steady cook type event for them to prepare - youve probably already done stuff like this but just thought it would certainly motivate me!
If you do can i come???!!

Tracey/Food tech n boys

Posted by Tracey Amoa-Sakyi at Feb 17, 2009 10:12 AM

Hi Lisa, How are you? Yes, I remember our meeting. Thanks for thinking of me.I have some lively boys this year who just love to cook. Excellent idea about TV chefs. I was axtually thinking of inviting Ainsley dueing the summer term, so we are thinking alike (SMILE). We have ready steady cook coming up, students against staff. If you are free, it would be nice to have you there. Al the best with our dissertation

Brain Compatible Learning/instructional strategies

Posted by Tracey Amoa-Sakyi at Feb 17, 2009 05:32 AM

Hi Gina/Ian,

I had a chat with my advocate regarding my proposed focus. (personalising Food Technology to raise acheivement) She was very supportive. I am however not very excited about it.I have had some interest in brain based learning for some time. I was thinking that I could look at the impact of brain compatible teaching/instructional strategies on learning in Food Technology. What do you think? Does it make sense?

Brain Compatible Learning/instructional strategies

Posted by Tracey Amoa-Sakyi at Feb 18, 2009 08:54 PM

Hi Gina/Ian,

I have put some thoughts down and placed them in my folder. Can you have a look and let me know what you think?
Thanks
Tracey

Brain Compatible Learning/instructional strategies

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 22, 2009 03:57 AM

Hi Tracey

I have tried and tried to find your folder but I cannot - I suspect the site is playing up for me today as I am having trouble doing several things!

May I suggest you email Ian, your supervisor, at i.terrell@mdx.ac.uk

Brain Compatible Learning/instructional strategies

Posted by Tracey Amoa-Sakyi at Feb 22, 2009 10:16 PM

Hi Gina,
Thanks a lot. I will do so. Enjoy your trip.

Tracey

Suggested focus of enquiry

Posted by Laura Vallone at Jan 31, 2009 03:34 PM

Path: AESI

Hello Gina,

The focus of my enquiry will be to investigate the ways in which a well planned differentiated curriculum can be implemented within the class setting. It is my intention to investigate and ultimately understand the reluctance of some teachers to differentiate and give them the tools to overcome this hurdle. I want teachers and the learning support department to collaborate to ensure that all children have the opportunity to access the curriculum.

My workplace advocate is the head of my school. I currently work closely with her and she has contributed constructively to my research and totally supports the need/benefit of a differentiated curriculum.

Hope I am on the right track?

Laura

Suggested focus of enquiry

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 01, 2009 11:56 PM

Hi Laura - you most CERTAINLY are on the right track - this is a really interesting topic and you clearly have great support in your school and a great link between your study and what you need to be doing anyway. This will be good!!! <rubbing hands together in glee>

I'd love Ian to come in here also - these are MY thoughts on how to focus your enquiry...

-You name three potential areas here - 1 - the reluctance of teachers, 2 - giving them the tools, 3 - collaboration between learning support and teachers.

1 - I am least keen about this, as it will be looking at attitudes and practice from a negative place - eg- why are you reluctant? rather than what is your experience of differentiation? It can get bit murky when trying to pinpoint negative feelings.

2 - Giving tools - this one really grabs me - you could assist with tools and investigate how they have been used??? Part of this will be looking at teacher attitude but it could be in a more useful way I believe. Student data could come in here.

3 - Depts collaborating - this also grabs me - it has a lot of potential. You could even introduce one very small measure and see if it changes anything.

I would recommend only choosing ONE of these. This is plenty for an action research study. Keep it small. Keep it tight.

How does this help? What do you think?

Suggested focus of enquiry

Posted by Laura Vallone at Feb 08, 2009 10:30 AM

Hello Gina/Ian,

You pointed out that the area I was interested in researching was three fold. So I have focused on one area, that of teacher’s and LSD collaborating to assist the SpLD child’s development within the class setting, where possible.

As a team, we will work together to identify the child’s learning style and devise an appropriate IEP. From talking to my colleagues I have assessed that they do not have a negative approach to differentiation, but they are unsure as to its implementation.

Your comments please.

Thanks. Laura

Suggested focus of enquiry

Posted by Ian at Feb 03, 2009 09:25 AM

Your study therfore is not on how it is implemented (hich sounds like its straightforward ) but what teachers think about how it is implemented. You really need to study the implementation phase of change (see Fullan- Meaning of Educational Change ch 3 I think)

Brief outline Action Enquiry - took me ages to forget about the G & T on Friday

Posted by Jacqueline Andrews at Jan 31, 2009 08:25 PM

Hello Gina

Working in Further Education, I would like to analyse the College's attitude to inclusive education - taking the 3 main criteria identified in the Tomlinson Report as starting points and then looking at the questions linked to the auditing process for this Report - not sure if that is too broad a subject - comments gladly received? Jackie Andrews

G & T rules the roost!

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 02, 2009 12:10 AM

Hi Jackie! You and me both - gin and tonic yummy! With lemon. Now we can imagine drinking that while musing over options for your excellent enquiry....

My first reaction was 'what a great topic' and my second was 'make it much smaller'. I really like that you have already thought about using the Tomlinson report and you have some ideas around an audit. (BTW can you share the criteria and auditing questions here?) It is obviously an area in which you are interested which is also very important. Would this knowledge be useful for your organisation also? Do you have a work advocate in mind?

We need to take a step back here and consider the characteristics of an Action research project - ideally you are looking at bringing in some kind of small change to your practice and evaluating how useful that change was. Is there anything that springs to mind? Anything small you could introduce? Can we talk more about your role in the college and whether, like Laura, you are thinking about others' practice, or like Lisa, you are wanting to look at your own practice? (looking at the whole college would be too large in my opinion).

This is a great topic that needs narrowing down - can we keep talking?

suggested focus of enquiry

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 02, 2009 11:14 AM

Hi everyone. Ian has looked over the title of my enquiry and it hopeuflly is this: Moral Leadership: An investigation into the leadership of the Global Dimension in UK schools. I think I've put somehwere else that my hypothesis is that Global Dimension Leaders (GDLs) are more ethically motivated than other leaders in schools and that they are more motivated by bringing an ethical quality into the curriculum. I want to examine the nature of ethical leadership and how it specifically relates to the global dimension more particularly than to other subjects.

Originally I had wanted to contrast their leadership with that of people in industry and headteachers but I don't know whether that would be too broad.

I have in mind to do this by examining the historical purpose of education in the uk (brief, what exactly is ethical leadership and hwo it applies to the GD and asking current/successful practitioners why they have taken up leadership of the GD in their school. I could/would like to look at a couple of case studies (Lisa would you be game for this?) and Helen Goslnell, a mate of mine who is AST for the GD in Hertfordshire. I would like to organise a questionnaire to be given to practitioners and other subject leaders about what motivates them as leaders and if any ethical dimensions are related to their choices and practices. I think that this woudl be enhanced if I could set the same questionnaire to leaders of schools and other organisations such as charities and local government (but not necessarily industry as I fear this would be too wide) and have a numebnr (about 25) willing participants lined up in this particular area. Does this sound feasible Gina.
Thanks
Carol
PS am enjoying a snow day here - everywhere looks v pretty but the snow is falling heavily and we live on top of a hill so any driving is a tad difficult! What a shame!!!

Fantastically Feasible!

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 03, 2009 12:35 AM

Your ideas are sound and well-progressed by the sounds of it. Your connections will come in handy! There are others in this group who are involved with GD - they may even add to your list!

The historical purpose of education in the UK will be interesting. I think about this a lot in my (face-to-face) job here in NZ where we have a new school curriculum which is very focused on 21st century skills of creativity, collaboration, entrepreneurship, resilience etc etc - this of course is very different from the Victorian ideal of preparing lots of nice factory workers to populate their factories - teaching is far more complex now. You are all marvellous just for doing such a complex and demanding job and you all have so much to contribute to each other through sharing your experiences.

Snow day and time to think!

Posted by Jacqueline Andrews at Feb 02, 2009 03:34 PM

Thank you for your comments, Gina. My mentor is my Line Manager, Head of Additional Learning Support (East) of Barnet College. By the way, he's asked me how much work/time he needs to put into mentoring as he has his own MA to contend with?

I re-read your comments and would like to look at how Departments work (collaboraton) with Additional Learning Support that is how much do other lecturers value our expertise, let along the Senior Management Team? enough to discuss individual students' needs with ALS tutors - one or two lecturers are wonderful; others are rather diffident - in this huge organisation we often do not meet other teaching staff, everything is done by email. So the small step would be 1) To make a point of meeting every tutor of every student that I support which is harder than it sounds - and see if it makes a difference in say, them asking for differentiation techniques/just talking about students' difficulties but the differences would be hard to measure 2) go to each Department and give the staff a brief overview of what ALS does/where we are/phone number for advice,questions. An audit would go along side asking questions about differentiation, Splds, hearing impairments, are students asked about their learning styles, etc. Another audit could be done on the attitude of Additional Learning Support tutors - how much do they know about current legislation, contact with other Departments, would they take part in information sessions for other tutors, etc.

What do you think Gina - this is a very topical subject at work at the moment, the Senior Management Team have said that they are keeping a sharp eye on Additional Learning Support - there's redundancy and new teaching contracts coming along + OFSTED.

Jackie

Good thinking

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 03, 2009 12:52 AM

Firstly - you ask an excellent and important question regarding your mentor. There is no prescription here. The relationship needs to be beneficial for both of you. In this case, if your mentor is also doing an MA - your conversations could be mutually supportive. You need to come to an agreement about timing and demands that suits you both. You could restrict it to one meeting per term for half an hour. You could want a freer arrangement where you can phone/email anytime. Perhaps a good thing to do would be to take the guidance on Workplace advocates given in the induction pack to a meeting with your mentor, and make these decisions together.

Secondly - your focus - sounds like it is excellent timing for you to be showing how valuable your role is! With this in mind, would it be best to look at something that provides help to the lecturers? Carol and Lisa have done some excellent Action research projects looking in part, how a staff meeting on GD helped with staff understanding of the subject. I agree that going to every tutor might be too arduous and time consuming. Is it possible to run some kind of meeting where you can perform your audit and provide staff with valuable information? One meeting may be enough for this one assignment. This is where your workplace advocate can give you valuable advice and support when setting this meeting up. In this case, your enquiry would be looking at the effect of the meeting on staff knowledge/attitudes.

There is no RIGHT or WRONG focus here - you have good ideas. I tend to see running a meeting as the most useful and straightforward focus, with perhaps one follow-up survey but this is only one view.

How are the ideas settling for you? What are your thoughts? Lisa and Carol and others may have some ideas to share!

Good thinking

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 03, 2009 10:32 AM

Hi Jackie
when I conducted audits lst year about teacher attitudes, I gave an INSET to all staff about how the global dimension can be embedded into the curriculum. It ws helped by the fact that my work advocate was and still is my deputy head of curriculum (we live close and we shaer lifts from time to time so he's a great person to have on board and to sound ideas off!) I found that getting staff together on one occasion was very helpful in a practical way (Brundrett and Coehn et al suggest it) as I gave them a questionnaire ant time to fill it in on the day and and then time to complete the audit on the day too as part of the inset. I used a mixture of open and closed questions and managed to gain some valuable rich data from the open questions as well as more quantifiable data from the closed ones. I also interviewed a couple of staff independently where I gtought it was relevant. IF I hadn't organised it in this way, then it would have been incredibly time consuming and it also had the benefit of departments giving a dempartmental view (with the audit) as well as gaining an insight into the indivicual (with the questionnaire).
The INSET also had athe added benefit of giving the same message/info to each department at the same time so that the reaction from each group was more reliable. Let me know if you'd like a copy of my questionnaire if it's helpful.
Carol
Hope you're enjoying your second snow day! It's great isn't it!

Thank you for your suggestions

Posted by Jacqueline Andrews at Feb 03, 2009 10:10 PM

Both Carol and Gina, I've arranged to talk over the ideas with my mentor on Thursday. Apparently we have staff training on 13th Feb - not sure what's involved in that as yet so it could be a useful time if it involves all departments. So I thinking about all this - Carol I'd be grateful to have a look at your questionaire, if that's ok?

Perhaps the ideas will come together after the meeting - well, hopefully - thanks again. Jackie

Thank you for your suggestions

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 03, 2009 11:26 PM

Hi Jackie
I've posted my questionnaire in my folder but not quite sure whether you can access it or not. I think I've enabled it but not too sure. http://mwb.plone-hosting.co.uk/[…]/file is the link. Let me know. If I can't use this properly then I'll ask Ian how to.
Good luck
Carol

Thank you Carol

Posted by Jacqueline Andrews at Feb 04, 2009 05:51 PM

Hi Carol

Thanks for this. I did try to access the information but, unfortunately no joy. Perhaps Ian could shed some light as you suggested?

Thank you very much though, Jackie

Thank you Carol

Posted by New User at Feb 06, 2009 10:03 AM

This is Ian- using my other identity called Newuser !!!
This allows me to see what you can see. Ian sees a different screen because he is omnipotent and all powerful in this environment.

I can now, as Newuser see Caroles work. I think if you follow her link above you will be able to see it too.

To do this Carole (or the all powerful Ian in this case) had to make her folder "public" and not "private". They could do this by adjusting the option on the top left of the green bar when in "caroles" folder.

Try it and let me know a. If you can do this and b Others can see it.

CAUTION: Public means its public- people can see it! Be warned not to put stuff in their that is confidential.

Thank you Obi Wan Kenobi

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 06, 2009 11:25 AM

Many thanks O Omnipotent One! I thought I'd put it down as "public" but obviously I'd hadn't. Thanks for helping out there
Carol

Downloading survey

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 08, 2009 10:43 PM

Hi Carol and Jackie

I could access the survey no problem - it downloaded straight away onto my desktop when I clicked on the link. What browser were you using? I used safari.

Good thinking

Posted by Ian at Feb 04, 2009 09:02 PM

Perhaps you can show people you last assignment Carole? It was an intersting read and they will get the feel

Ok Ian but how do I do this?

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 04, 2009 11:37 PM

Do you mean the WHOLE of my AESI assignment Ian? I'm happy to do this but I'm not sure how to put this onto this site. Could you give me a hand please. I tried to upload the questionnaire by putting it in my folder but failed miserably to make it accessible to Jackie.
Thanks
Yours ineptly with ITC
Carol

Carol

Posted by Jacqueline Andrews at Feb 05, 2009 03:23 PM

You're not inept at all. Perhaps Ian can shed some light on how to access material though - Jackie

Carol

Posted by New User at Feb 06, 2009 10:09 AM

I have another idea of seeing Carols work. (apologies carol).
She created it in the MA Education space and its at http://midwheb.core-ed.net/Members/caroljjones55

I think you might be able to see it there in full.

Trying to focus - its you lot going on aobut gin.

Posted by Beverly Benson at Feb 02, 2009 02:42 PM

Hello Everyone,
We are just in the process of introducing the Managed Learning Environment, so I would like to study that. I had originally thought I would look at the role or management in the implementation, but I don’t feel I’m using any management skills. What is more of an issue is deciding how to use the MLE – the government is insisting we have it, but there are very few guidelines about how it is used. There are lots of pitfalls – parental attitude, staff time etc. I think I’m going to try and define a question around that. What do you think?

Trying to focus - its you lot going on aobut gin.

Posted by Ian at Feb 03, 2009 09:28 AM

Hi Bev. I think there might be othesr doing similar. You cant study what you haven't got. A study about what is effcetive use would be good in terms of literature, implementation and reearch on what happens.

Still trying to define the question:

Posted by Beverly Benson at Feb 03, 2009 03:42 PM

Thanks, Ian. I noticed other people mentioning MLE in secondary schools, so we might be of use to one another for cross-phase information. How about 'Critical Study of the management issues surrounding the implementation of the Managed Learning Environment in a primary school'?
This would include effective use and issues about parental concern/access and staff workload as well. How do I submit it to you as a formal suggestion?

Still trying to define the question:

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 09, 2009 05:17 AM

Hi Beverly

You could submit your proposal to Ian - look in the module guide, pages 29/30 to follow the format.

Still trying to define the question:

Posted by Linda Snow at Feb 17, 2009 01:49 PM

Hi Gina...I too am looking to do something around MLE as this is a major part of our School Plan for this year but I am going to link it in with the restructuring of the curriculum too and possibly look at transition issues....phewwww! I think I am having trouble defining the question too...getting it just right so that it is a manageable project! It would be good to link up at some point to discuss findings/barriers etc.
Linda (FIPC group)

Still trying to define the question:

Posted by Linda Snow at Feb 17, 2009 01:50 PM

Oops....should have said Hi Beverly!!
That's how good my brain is over half term!
Linda

Still trying to define the question:

Posted by Peter Gordon at Feb 18, 2009 11:25 PM

Hello Linda. The issue is to find a focus that is substantial for an MA module yet manageable within the context of everything else that you have to do in school. It might help to think about what one area of the creative curriculum is the most important for your school. If you could address only one aspect, which would it be? It has to be something that you feel it is worthwile investing your personal time in.

Hello

Posted by Nasima Menni at Feb 02, 2009 03:53 PM

HI Gina, Hello everyone.

I am Nasima Menni and have just recenly decided to do the Action enquiry module. Initially I had hoped to start on the SEBD modlule but its no longer being offered. I would like to research a project related to Head of Year work, in particular behaviour management. If anyone has any interesting ideas and questions in this area. Please share.

Nasima

Hello

Posted by Ian at Feb 03, 2009 09:30 AM

Hi nasima

Perhaps you can develop this idea further. certainly behaviour managment is a good field, and stratgeies that HOY might use might involve counselling, target setting, monitoring etc. Perhaps other things such as parental involvement. You need to think of literature, strategies and research that you will do.

initial plan and focus - here it is

Posted by Rebecca Poole at Feb 02, 2009 07:04 PM

Focus of enquiry:
Developing a virtual learning environment for pupils will facilitate more effective assessment for learning strategies, through one-to-one dialogue, personalising learning and more focused teacher planning in response to learners’ needs. This will, in turn, have a deeper impact on the results of the pupils who engage most readily and on a regular basis, compared with those pupils who do not engage regularly within a virtual learning environment.
Questions I am trying to answer:
How to engage pupils in a virtual learning environment? How can it enhance deep learning? What do I understand by deep learning? Does the level of personalisation make an emotional impact on the pupil, and does this, in turn, have a positive impact on their summative assessment? Do they establish an identity within the learning community? Do they develop other characteristics which support their learning away from the classroom-based characteristics? What can the MLE do which a conventional classroom can’t? What is the potential for this within the personalised learning agenda and the whole concept of extended schooling? Whether this tool will enable the intellectually able yet demotivated boys to engage more readily with the challenges of German? How well will girls respond using this as a learning tool?
My hypotheses and hunches:
That extending learning into a regular yet virtual “any time, any place, anywhere” environment will add a dimension to learning which will facilitate real differentiated i.e. personalised learning. Regular out-of-hours contact with the teacher and peers will engender an emotional “buy-in” to the learning and a commitment to building on learning collectively. It will also help establish a learning identity amongst the group which may persuade more pupils to stay on into the sixth form (although not necessarily to study German). That this tool will enable the teacher to introduce concepts away from the classroom which can then be explored in greater depth within the classroom, and that the teacher will be better placed to challenge and address misconceptions.
This is important because:
A recent OFSTED visit has identified, once again, the relatively poor provision for gifted and talented pupils within the curriculum, the lack of challenge and the relatively lower performance of this group of pupils in comparison with other cohorts of pupils within the school; all schools should use a managed learning environment by 2010; as a Language College this could (long-term) add an extra contact dimension to other schools, pupils and teachers around the world; this could be used to partly address issues raised within the extended schools agenda, ECM (Every Child Matters etc); it can provide evidence for supporting key aspects of Assessment for Learning as a mechanism to embed higher levels of achievement (e.g. through one-to-one dialogue with pupils, teacher planning etc); it can provide examples of good practice on which to build practice in APP (Assessing Pupil Performance)

Contextual information:
All pupils within the group have broadband internet access at home. The school has a tradition of losing its brighter pupils at the end of year 11 to the local sixth form college or high-achieving schools with a sixth form attached. The particular group of pupils is able but under-achieving across the board in German. Levels of motivation in September were low, with a patchy understanding of key “big picture” concepts in German, most particularly those relating to sentence structure and accuracy when expressing more intellectually challenging concepts with German as the medium for communication. Pupils were regularly prioritising other subjects above German and perceive the subject to be “difficult” rather than an exciting challenge. This is particularly noticeable amongst a cohort of intellectually able boys.

initial plan and focus - here it is

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 03, 2009 01:06 AM

Thanks for this Rebecca - this answers all the questions I asked you over in conversation one!

You have plenty of valuable ideas. Wow! ONE of these would be enough to look at for one enquiry module. Eg - deep learning OR establishing an identity OR stimulating G&T pupils OR engaging boys - there are overlaps of course but you need to tighten the focus.

OR - you could approach it differently. You could introduce the MLE and observe the effect - with less preconceived ideas - eg what are the results on student achievement? What do they say?

This will be really interesting - you have a great opportunity here.

initial plan and focus - further questions

Posted by Rebecca Poole at Feb 04, 2009 11:18 AM

If I were to introduce the MLE and observe the effect where does that leave the initial question? It means I can't do a hypthetical question, because that would mean I am making assumptions. Do I then relate it to the academic literature as a voyage of discovery as I notice more and more about the pupil behaviour? That would mean that i compile this as a mix between narrative and artefacts ... wouldn't it?
also - it is suggested that a small data sampling exercise is undertaken. could I use the mock results of the group and also the based line usage of the MLE within school from beginning of January? Feeling a bit at sea with all of this, sorry!!

Hi! Thank you

Posted by Rebecca Poole at Feb 03, 2009 05:50 PM

thank you for your comment that was really quick. I was just trying to make the most of my "snow time" out of school by starting to work through the booklet. I have just started working with this group using the MLE and have been very taken aback by both their engagement, and the sudden steep curve upwards in how it is impacting on my teaching. Early impressions are that it is a real life-saver for the pupils who are struggling having come up from another class. Over half the class engaged last Sunday with an on-line coursework workshop I ran through the MLE. However, I am also interested in it as a tool for AfL. .. I also don't have a school-based mentor ...

Hi! Thank you

Posted by Ian at Feb 04, 2009 09:52 PM

Charles has done some work on AFL using a VLE (he is on the MA Education programme. E mail me and I will send his e mail address)

A hard beginning

Posted by Iwona Bus at Feb 04, 2009 11:14 AM

Hello everyone,
I have read through all the discussions and I am impressed and terrified at the same time. You are doing so well, having focus set and all main areas identified and chosen paths to follow. I started MA Inclusive in October but because of some technical problems actually entered at the start of December and run late with almost everything. A bit frustrating beginning, isn’t it? Anyway, I still do have problem with identifying what I should precisely focus on. My setting is SEN school and no doubt my enquiry has to circle around SEN and Inclusion. Being a teacher from abroad (no teaching position yet in the UK, currently LS in the Autistic Dept) plus English as second language do not make it any easier. My advocate, the head of school, is a very busy person and that is why I am not getting as much support as I probably need, or at least expect.
My genuine intention was to enquire how inclusion has been implemented in SEN schools and what roles my school has taken in this process, with reference to LEA policy, to give it a bit wider background or maybe putting special interest in process of transition from special to mainstream? ( All in fact goes the opposite way)These questions did not, however, impressed my advocate as there is not enough material and evidence of the latter, I mean transition, in school and there is naturally no intention in SEN schools to decrease their number of students and send them back to mainstream, though, for some it would sound sensible. I was then suggested to scope on inclusion practice in the school and attempt enquiry on how pupils’ needs are met in the broad light of recent changes and further plan of improvements, with reference to local policy, OFSTED report for school 2007, and Plan for years 2008-2011. To me it is pretty extensive, seems much to broad for research, truly don’t know and little experience in the matter makes me falter in here, lose confidence and plot. How do you think? Which path to follow? I work with autistic children, shall I tighten my research to this department only and what if I am allocated the next term? Can you reflect on, and help in regaining my confidence and putting me on the track? All comments would be appreciated.
Iwona

A hard beginning - Hi Iwona

Posted by Rebecca Poole at Feb 04, 2009 11:20 AM

Don't know if it will help you but our school opened its autism provision in September, alongside a long-standing provision for deaf pupils. We are a mainstream comprehensive school in North London - very multi-cultural intake. don't know if you would like to spend some time here to help you? rebecca

A hard beginning

Posted by Ian at Feb 04, 2009 09:41 PM

Hi Iwona

Your ideas seem good ones to start with. However, are you not on the ~SEN module. You are not following the Action Research module and what you discuss with us here may confuse you. Am I right?

You need to go to the SEN conversation.

best wishes

Ian

Some great initial ideas here

Posted by Ian at Feb 04, 2009 09:46 PM

There are some great initial ideas here.

You need to think of the task as a research task and what data you can collect. There are two models. The action research one is:
1. Review and identify needs
2. Best Practice literature reviewed and Implemeted
2. Data collected and analysed
4. New actions

The research one is

Action Takes Place
Research is taken

(Eithr can be done for Action Enquiry or Dissertation)

Some great initial ideas here

Posted by Ian at Feb 04, 2009 09:50 PM

You also need to think about what kind of data you will collect. Its normally
Observation
Asking Questions (Interviews or surveys)
Analysing assignments
Assessment data

be careful of perce[tions of staff and students. they are beliefs and attitudes and not "facts".

I feel better" is an opinion/belief/percpetion. It doesn't mean the patient is better. If staff say "I dont believe in inclusion" what does this mean? (ie they are unaware, unskilled, ill informed, or informed but cynical etc)

So think about what you are asking.

Data - Ian

Posted by Rebecca Poole at Feb 04, 2009 11:05 PM

But I would need a base-line set of data to measure impact? In addition to questionnaires and what I notice about pupil performance? Beauty of the MLE is of course that everything is stored in a virtual space ... way forward for APP?

Will e-mail you in the morning to get Charles' details

Data - Ian

Posted by Ian at Feb 05, 2009 09:15 AM

Base line data is one possibility. Except where measres such as assessment data in a specific subject are concerned we do not advise on it. (Groups change and there are other variables).

Impact can be defined as "what happens". Using the OU 6 questions (What are the pupils doing? What ar they learning and Is it worthwhile?) Can lead to a judgement of impact of a new initiative compared to the past.

In your case, there was no VLE to compare. You need to find out what happens when you try to use a VLE and what works well.

Do not get hung up on scientific method of testing- retesting as in education it is impossible to control the variables- IMHO

Ideas for Dissertation

Posted by Elaine Parkin at Feb 05, 2009 09:04 PM

Hi Gina and Ian ( I think I am beginning to learn the names!!)

At the moment we have increasing numbers of MLD pupils entering mainstream. My focus will be MLD and I want to look at how things can be improved in the curriculum through the Personalised Learning route. At the moment my exact focus is unclear I am assuming that I would select one of the following three areas; ’Effective Teaching and Learning’, Assessment for Learning’ and ‘Making a flexible curriculum for personalised learning.’
My goal is trying to improve the standard of their education and I am hoping to work with a Department on a discrete area of the curriculum, although I don’t have any volunteers as yet (it may be back to the drawing board if no one is interested)
I have spoken to various SMT at work and the LA SEN Advisor and this is felt to viable and useful(and I am excited!!). MY current school is particularly keen as we already have nine MLD’s for next year 7 in addition to the current cohort.
I still need a focus – I am getting there and would really appreciate your advice!!!
p.s one of the major problems may be defining what is MLD or perhaps this may be determined by defining pupils whose score fall 2sd's below the mean or below a certain percentile and I could use the CAT's scores to determine the cohort (or is this another subject)...help and I will think about trading in my cats in for a cactus!!!)
Regards
Elaine Parkin

Ideas for Dissertation

Posted by Ian at Feb 06, 2009 09:38 AM

Perhaps you should identify some stratgeies for teaching with diverse learning needs from the literature, research and best practice materials. (Whether these are justified or amount to by "Personalisation", or just old fashioned "Differentiation" is worthy of dicussion in your work).

You need to train some folk to be able to do the strategies effectievely.

Then you might research what happens (Uisng the OU 6 questions)

Ideas for Dissertation Elaine Parkin

Posted by Elaine Parkin at Feb 08, 2009 10:33 PM

Hi Ian

Thank you for the response. I don't want to 'bite off more that I can chew' and suspect stressed teachers will not withstand additional training - I might have to rethink? I will investigate your suggestions as I feel the work I do on this project is still be valuable to the school. Perhaps another angle but with the same group of students? I was hoping to try and raise their achievement and awareness amongst my colleagues as I am fairly certain they are not catered for correctly within the curriculum. I like the notion of looking at 'Personalisation or old fashioned differentiation'. If I took this as theme perhaps I could measure how the school has moved forward on these ideas and look at the effects or otherwise on this cohort of learners...maybe too broad again... what do you think??

I want to ask a question and I am fairly ceertain that I have missed something basic so please don;t throw yourself on the cactus..... what do you mean by 'using the OU 6 questions?'

Thank you

Elaine Parkin

6 questions developed by Open University

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 09, 2009 05:24 AM

Hi Elaine - Ian loves them!

What did the researchers do?
What did the researchers learn?
Was it worthwhile?
What did I do ?
What did I learn from this?
What will I do next?

They are a great framework to use for the kind of enquiry you are looking at.

Not a cactus spike in sight :)

6 questions developed by Open University

Posted by Ian at Feb 11, 2009 09:19 AM

Thanks Gina, 6 good questions-close but not quite:

The OU 6 questions are:

What did the pupils do ?(This is observation and description of what they were doing)
What did they learn? (This is assessment of what they learned both planned and unexpected)
Was it worthwhile (ie what values and beliefs lead us to the conclusion that what they did, and what they lerned was worthwhile- ie measure the value)
What did the teacher do? (ie cause)
What did the teacher learn? (ie action/learning)
What would the teacher do next?

see OU Curriculum In Action 1981

Old but really significant.

6 questions developed by Open University

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 11, 2009 09:14 PM

LOL - thanks Ian - I have used many variations. They ARE very useful. It's amazing how simple frameworks can really help to organise thoughts.

Personalised Learning

Posted by Elaine Parkin at Feb 19, 2009 06:03 PM

Hi Gina/Ian
Thank you for your reply..
Following attending Ian's Saturday course which really was 'food for thought' and considering the fact that I will not be given any additional time on my timetable to undertake research into my dissertation this has severely limited my original intentions. Realistically it looks like I am down to considering a dissertation that is limited to research 'questionnaires' or ‘interviews’. Following your general advice I have subsequently been undertaking more research into the area of curriculum and SEN. I still want to push the notion of Personalised Learning( PL) for SEN pupils within my school. One of the major differences with PL seems to be this idea that learning is staged level by level with greater attention at the planning and assessment (AFL) stages combined with the notion of developing the confidence and competence of each student etc.,. I also want to ask how teachers use other SEN resources such as Statements, IEP’s, TA’s to influence PL. Having read more about the theory I am wondering if I should try and explore ‘how the teachers interpretation of PL (or otherwise) has impacted on the development of the curriculum and assessment of SEN pupils?’ My reason for this question is also based in the fact that many of the Teaching Assistants complain that very little differentiation takes place especially at assessment time. I feel I have to find a way into this topic that does not alienate my teaching colleagues or make them feel in any way that I am judging what they teach yet be able to examine the situation to benefit the learners, teachers school etc.,. I am trying to find a way in that protects the anonymity of the staff involved. I would also want to examine the difference, if any, between the TA’s reports and the teachers comments/experiences.
Thank you

Personalised Learning

Posted by Elaine Parkin at Feb 19, 2009 09:20 PM

Hi Gina and Ian

I have uploaded a outline fo my ideas following the information and questions from the two conversations. This further fine tunes the above. I am assuming you can access my folder. If not please let me know and I will send via email.
Thank you

Elaine Prkin

14th February Research Methods

Posted by Elaine Parkin at Feb 15, 2009 07:18 PM

Hi Ian

I could not find your email address on this site so I hope you do not mind that I say 'Thank You' via this forum. I really enjoyed Saturday. Trent Park is absoloutely wonderful - so peaceful and very impressive!! Mansion House is a wonderful piece of architecture and it's a shame there was not more time to explore and find out the history etc., The course really helped me focus on what was required for my dissertation and consider the research methods more thoroughly. It was great to see previous dissertations and I was reassured by one person who acknowledged the lmitations of the dissertation were timetable constraints. I realised that I was thinking too big but now I feel more confident about trying to reduce my focus. The morning was very informative and good use fo my time.

Elaine Parkin

Ian's email

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 22, 2009 04:03 AM

Hi Elaine - I can't seem to access anyone's folders today!! Here is Ian's email for future reference...

Ian Terrell <i.terrell@mdx.ac.uk>

I'll also let him know to look in case he has missed this post - it's easy to do!

Gina :)

New Technologies (Fronter VLE) Intial Focus- Help!!

Posted by Vanessa Dumas at Feb 05, 2009 09:39 PM

The focus of my enquiry revolves around looking at the implementation and the impact of the Fronter VLE.

I have a number of questions I would like to answer, however I am torn as to which approach to take on board as my action enquiry.

I have been heavily involved in the set-up and implementation of the Fronter VLE in my secondary school. I have conducted whole-school staff INSET and developed and circulated training materials. I also provide on-going training for various departments within the school to encourage maximum use of the VLE. As result I have observed the issues from an administrator – teacher perspective. As an ICT teacher I’ve been using it with Year 9 – 13 and have been able to observe a number of issues and opportunities with use of the Fronter from teacher – student perspective also. So I’ve had a broad and varied experience with Fronter so far. Therefore, I can take a number of approaches. I can focus on the implementation of the Fronter school-wide, this is technical and development side of the VLE. I can look the staff experience with the VLE and focus on a particular department and observe their development of using it and the impact on their pedagogy. Alternatively, I could choose one of my own classes and explore the use of the VLE with regards to personalising learning and challenging underachievement or opportunities for G&T. As you can see there are a number of approaches I can take with this as I have been involved in all areas. I am really unsure of what my focus should be and I am open to comments, recommendations and suggestions from you all. Please help!!!

New Technologies (Fronter VLE) Intial Focus- Help!!

Posted by Ian at Feb 06, 2009 09:52 AM

I am not sure I can help you decide which of the several good ideas your school needs or you wish to persue for a year........

I am concerned about research that uses teacher perceptions about somthing they do not do, have not done, or ar against doing. However, there may be a place for it in identifying the problem but I just don't think we know how to use new technology to be able to form useful comments. It takes a long time to perfect practice and find a place. When the telephone was invented it was optimistically predicted that one day every town would have one!

We just don't know enough about where new technologies take learning.

We would hope that it does not simply replicate the past-why do something we already do well? It should give us something added, better in some ways, for a different purpose. I am therfore intersted in ideas about learning that is more creative, analytical, inciteful, collaborative, networked, community based, has an authentic audience, uses differnet modes (visual, audio etc), interrogates more accessible data, infomation. It strikes me these things are possible with new technologies more than old ones. To me research should be based on these things and not whether the learning can be the same.

Well those are my thoughts

Good luck with your decision but do chat to gary meek. G.meek@mdx.ac.uk who will be your supervisor.(Also Charles, Adibisi, from previous groups and Rebecca Poole)

New Technologies (Fronter VLE) Intial Focus- Help!!

Posted by Vanessa Dumas at Feb 06, 2009 03:24 PM

Thanks for your thoughts. I will be speaking to Gary, hopefully he can advise me further.

Starting where others finished

Posted by New User at Feb 06, 2009 10:16 AM

I am a great believer in developing work from where others have finsished. If someoen has already doe your research then building on it is useful. You can replicate cases to see if the results are differnet in different contexts. You can use research tools or develop them. Obviously you can reanalyse literature and add to it.

Of course you have to avoid plagiarism, copying and poor scholarship. You can dod this by
acknowledge sources meticulously
develop work and dont replicate it
compare, contrast and critique wherever possible
emphasise your contribution
make sure you leave enough (scholarship) for you to do to warrant an MA and not being hauled before the Dean for cheating!

So if you have a projct that would help others like carol and Wendy cattemole let us know where we can see it (ie your folder or other place)

Starting where others finished

Posted by New User at Feb 06, 2009 10:18 AM

Oh ************

That was me Ian. I must stop being "Newuser" now. There I have done it again

Struggling with ideas

Posted by Eric Andrew Fridthjof Christiansen at Feb 06, 2009 11:23 AM

Intresting to read comments/thoughts. I realise the questions posed are really important and provide the focus for the research. We do pupil tracking here and have done for several years so I have data going back awhile. however the tracking is not on all children but on identified key groups-these are children who we may feel are at risk of underachieving- this is based on data from the borough plus things like the childrens centre core offer data (ie children on the CP register. I'm toying with the relationship between assessment and tracking (all children have on going assessments) in this respect tracking is an assesment tool.Also at the end of the foundation stage children need the Foundation Stage Profile completed- so really this is the context to set my enquiry within-however children here leave us to go their reception class so they still have another year to complete before the EYFS profile is completed. My thoughts at present are around 'why we track?'-'who we track?' individuals or whole cohort.As well as these questions I'm thinking about what the key workers think of the tracking-what benefit is it to them? (I suspect they see little relationship between tracking data and their work with children)So there's a whole raft of work there what would be useful to staff. And finally how can we use parents knowledge more for tracking? We ask parents at the start to give an opinion on their childs language acquisition levels- this forms part of our 'baseline data' however I feel many parents 'over score' their children (ie give them a higher mark-i understand why parents might do this)It seems to me theres a whole area of potential data/information which we could effectively tap into.

Struggling with ideas

Posted by Ian at Feb 11, 2009 09:27 AM

Andrews questions are illustrative os a number of issues.

Firstly, the issue of practice based action research. I guess we hope that the research will either evaluate some strategies that we have a hunch will improve. In this case the assesment/tracking strategies. In doeing so we can make them better. The literature rveiew should justify the worth of the strategies.

Second, we need to look at what our source of data would be. Andrews question "Why do we do it?" can only be answered by the differnet players. (Managers, teachers, children, parents) each may have a differnet persopective. Or it could be answered byt he literature.

Now whether we get what the literature says is another thing and another good piece of research.

In general, should we as researchers worry about why teachers do something? They may not need to know? They may be unique in having that reason and not helpfulk to illustrate something in genereral.

Struggling with ideas

Posted by Ian at Feb 11, 2009 09:30 AM

Andrew (and others) could adapt the 6 questions maybe?

What are the actors (teachers, pupils and parents) doing?
What learning is going on?
Why is this activity worthwhile? (Literature and judgement of value)
What improvements in learning/effects/impact take place?

I need to refer you to Stakes matrix (Robert Stake)

Struggling with ideas

Posted by Eric Andrew Fridthjof Christiansen at Feb 12, 2009 02:41 PM

Thanks thats useful stuff to think about

Planning/deciding on enquiry

Posted by Janet Price at Feb 06, 2009 06:57 PM

Hi,
I have used the snowy days to have a read and a think after dithering around a bit. I came to the conclusion that I want to carry out my research in the area of multi-agency working for SENCOs and focus on the CAF which is problematic for myself in terms of time from the requirements of being the lead pofessional and how this impacts on other aspects of the SENCO role. This has been echoed as an area of anxiety for nearly all other SENCOs I have spoken to. I am a non teaching SENCO in a large school with a number of vulnerable children. Our borough has been trying to get all the SENCOs to carry out referrals and become the lead professional using an online CAF form as part of the ECM agenda and improving outcomes for the more vulnerable children. There has been support in the form of training and an allocated worker to provide support for problems that might arise. However, from speaking to other SENCOs, there are a number of problems getting in the way of carrying these out efffectively and the ideals are not being met because of a number of constraints. I would like to look at and identify these constraints and what could be done to address them. The borough is not happy at the lack of CAFs being completed. For myself I would like to look at how I can organise things so that I can manage the demands effectively. Perspectives can be looked at from the parent view, SENCOs views, pupil views and other agency involvement's views too. I would do this from questionnaires. Is this acceptable data to collect and does it meet the criteria for this assignment? How can you measure success?: - Pupil outcomes? Increased number of CAFs completed? Any ideas/help will be very gratefully received!!!! My advocate is my head teacher who represents SEN for head teachers in the borough and is also concerned that the workload can be manageable for a SENCO to manage effectively and meet the requirements of the ECM agenda without impacting on other aspects and requirements of the role.

SENCO Stuff and CAFs

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 06, 2009 07:35 PM

Hi Janet
We have a very proactive Senco at my school (1200 comp in Hertfordshire 83%A*-c) who despairs at the complexities of the CAF and the constraints which surround and accompany it. I'm sure she would be happy to answer any questionnaires which you may devise.
I just wasn't clear exactly what you wanted to measure. It seemed to come in several parts: The complexity of the form (is it all relevant or should the form itself be analysed and critqued?); the constraints which are connected to completing the form: the attitudes of the parents who have to give some of the information (and be present when some of the form is completed from wht I remember); the attitudes of the SENCOs towrds the form. These are different areas. You also mention how the CAF is linked to ECM and I wondered if you wanted to analyse if it is linked productively. You seem to be asking different questions some of which are attitudes, and some of which are about the aim of the CAF itself. Do you want to devise a CAF which makes the workload manageable for SENCOs and which adheres to the guidelines of ECM or do you want to analyse the present one.... or do you want to do both? Loads of questions I know but I just felt that it might help if you narrowed and refined the focus of your research a bit more so that it could be manageable.
Best wishes
Carol

SENCO Stuff and CAFs

Posted by Janet Price at Feb 09, 2009 06:57 PM

Dear Carol,
Thank you very much for your thoughts. They have been really useful in helpig me to try and focus. I've been trying to find that focus all weekend but haven't really got much closer. There are so many aspects to the CAF process that cause problems e.g persuading parents that all their children need a separate CAF,the problems many SENCos have of getting all the professionals to come to meetings. Sometimes I have heard of none turning up to discuss the cases. The fact that the lead professional seems to always end up as the senco and are other professionals referring as many as education?

SENCO Stuff and CAFs

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 09, 2009 11:51 PM

Hi Janet. I think the simple answer to that is No they're not. (Well in my limited experience anyway) I used to be a Head of House - i/c of approx 250 pupils 11-16. It was up to us to refer pupils to the SENCO but mostly we did this WITH her anyway - lines of communicatin being particularly strong. Occsionally we got asked to by parents adn we investigated. Occasionally it has been known that No-one bothered to turn up to the meetings. You could always do an analysis of the present CAF and the thinking behind it. I wonder who devised them anyway. What do they hope to achieve? Are they successful (No) Why.... What do people think of them etc. Sorry, I've had a limeted experience of them but that woudl seem quite valid to me.
Good luck
Carol Let me know if our SENCO can help with any responses you need.

Planning/deciding on enquiry

Posted by Eric Andrew Fridthjof Christiansen at Feb 09, 2009 09:09 AM

One of the intresting things about the CAF is the relationship you have with the parent. For the CAF to be effective you need to have an open and honest conversation. Sometimes you know there is 'more' detail which parents can add but they may be reluctant to do so. It might be intresting to askl parents about this-but it depends on how confident they feel

help please!

Posted by Isobel Barron at Feb 08, 2009 02:50 PM

there are a number of areas that I could choose to focus on but the ones that are of interest include parent partnerships, attendacne & NVQ for support staff (MDA team). I am unsure which route to take, as the project would need to be tighly focused. Perhaps looking at a good model/ example may help & see this is in the plan. In order to mange this module, I am conscious that any reserch I undertake will be need to be online. Is there anything availbale on parent participation/ attendance/ train to gain/NVQ?

Projects others are choosiing seem interesting- especially multi-agency working/ CAF- my experience of this so far in Essex han't been a good one. In my opinion the system has created a barrier to support for families, rather than remove them (CAF process).

help please!

Posted by Peter Gordon at Feb 11, 2009 10:22 AM

Hi Isobel,
Hang on to all these thoughts and we can talk them through when we meet tomorrow. It would be useful if your focus dovetailed with your School Development Plan as this would 'provide' the 'need'!
Peter

DISSERTATION STUDENTS!

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 08, 2009 11:26 PM

...many of you seem ready to begin writing your research proposals. These need to be shared with your tutor before you begin your actual research, so let's begin!

You will find the guidance you need in your dissertation handbook, and an outline to follow on Pages 29/30.

Feel free to ask questions here and to seek more guidance - just keep in mind, it will be your tutor who needs to approve so make sure they are in the loop.

I am an Action Research student!

Posted by Hyacinth Rose-Manners at Feb 09, 2009 08:00 AM

I am not a dissertation student. I feel as though I have not begun to date although I am registered as beginging in January 2009. I sit for hours trying to get my head around the techncial aspect of this course.I still do not know where to find my folder? I think I saw it but can't locate it since!!!! Sometimes i think it is my computer so I will have some one who knows spend some time with me sorting this out. I still can't get logged into oasisplus or the library OHHH!!!!

where I will be doing my research, I do not work there ( as I am a self employed one - to -one teacher)has a doucment entitled Proposal for District - Wider Inclusion - I am thinking that my action research could be in implementing this proposal but not across the curriculum but specifically in reading with pupils with SpLD tendencies .My focus - that we all learn differently. Harry Chasty says 'we should teach a child the way they should learn' ( I will look it up) Reading results as an enhancement in ones learning across the curriculum. Inclusion measuring its benefits and stating it disadvantages. Is this too simple? Thanks

DISSERTATION STUDENTS!

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 09, 2009 10:08 AM

Hi Gina/Ian
I'm still not sure who is my tutor. Have looked but can't find any mention of it in any of the mailouts. Is it you Ian?
Have posted some stuff for my introduction - it isn't finished yet but it goes on to discuss the moral imlications of global dimension leadership[ and why I want to study it. Is this the sort of thing needed? I'd be grateful for some help . I'm also hoping to write a brief timeline this week.
Thanks
Carol

DISSERTATION STUDENTS! who is it?

Posted by Lisa Taner at Feb 09, 2009 09:29 PM

Ian are you the dissertation tutor? Regarding my earlier comments, I dont know if you had a chance to look through it, but I hope I have justified my focus, bearing in mind my limits and constraints ( not working in school currently, current 'employment'status etc) and my opportunities and potential to develop an area that: is relevant, will support the TIPD process and my group of 15 teachers, will be advantageous for personal development and potentially, future career options.

How things work?

Posted by Jacqueline Andrews at Feb 09, 2009 10:44 AM

Hello Ian and Gina

I have to agree with other students' comments - ok so we discuss our ideas on this area; then we put together our Action Research ideas + a timeline in a folder and then you look at it? Is this what happens? Or have I got it completely wrong - advice need please? We also must have to keep a folder with work, or is everything online and marked online?

Jackie Andrews

How things work?

Posted by Janet Price at Feb 09, 2009 07:01 PM

Hello Gina and Ian,
I am also not sure about the folder and where to save the work. I am also not clear as to who my tutor is to discuss my proposal with. I'd really like to know if I have made an appropriate choice or need to think about something completely different.
Janet Price

How things work?

Posted by Lisa Taner at Feb 09, 2009 09:30 PM

hi janet- top of the page on the right there is your name, next to it your folder click on that and from there you can add your own files and folders. Hope it helps.

Folder Thanks

Posted by Hyacinth Rose-Manners at Feb 10, 2009 06:47 PM

Lisa,
Thanks found the folder I am working around it to understand it Thanks again hya

is it me or is this coversation too big???

Posted by Lisa Taner at Feb 09, 2009 09:52 PM

Would it be better to sub group oursleves? Although I am loathe to suggest it after last year when that left me n carol :-)
Its just huge and hard to read through, must be same for Gina n Capn Ian too.

is it me or is this coversation too big???

Posted by Jacqueline Andrews at Feb 10, 2009 04:33 PM

I don't think it's you, I've copied the bits I need and saved them in my area as looking at this list of messages does rather confuse me. Don't know if you're supposed to do this but I found it helped to focus a bit. Jackie

is it me or is this coversation too big???

Posted by Ian at Feb 11, 2009 09:34 AM

Yes. We shall adapt our activity. last year people wrote less and engaged less! Now we have this brilliant group where everyone is so brillaintly keen. You will need to find your own stratgies as we will.

well done everyone and lets work together on making this work as a conversation of ideas

Best wishes

Concerned

Posted by Lisa Aylett at Feb 09, 2009 10:57 PM

Hello, I have only recently joined the dissertation group and I'm concerned that I only have a week to come up with an idea. I'm still not sure who my tutor is or what I'm supposed to be doing online. I am Head of Geography and my school wants me to start up a new GCSE of Leisure and Tourism for September to enable those students who are not so good at exams to still do well. Can I do something about this for my dissertation?

Be Concerned Not

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 10, 2009 08:25 AM

Hi Lisa! Well it appears I am your tutor! The week time frame is for the focus on this conversation and a guide to keep up momentum of work. You have plenty of time to discuss your ideas. Try to work towards completing your proposal as close to the March 3rd date as possible, but regular, steadily-paced work is better than a feast and famine approach.

You idea about your new course is a possible one. As much as possible do what you are doing anyway. Look at the questions at the top of this conversation to guide you - what do you want to know about this? Why does your school need it? Does it? What do different staff/students think about this?

You could also do something else - it needs to be something you can collect data on before Sept, so you would not be looking at the course when it is running, but on the set-up aspects.

There is not a simple right and wrong - perhaps try fleshing out this idea and see how it goes. We can change if it doesn't feel right. I won't know until I see more detail.

Enjoy!

Concerned

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 10, 2009 09:50 PM

Hi Lisa A and welcome aboard. I'm afraid I don't know much about yoru area but we have a flourisihing Leisure and tourism GCSE group at my school and so I'm sure I could ask peopel about it for you if you need any feedback of that sort. Don't be concerned - we're here to help each other out.
best wishes
Carol

Concerned

Posted by Ian at Feb 11, 2009 09:40 AM

Hi Lisa

Ther are a number of questions here. As ever (and with other projects) you might need to decide is this leadership or learning focused. (Ier what teacehrs do or what pupild do)

One aspect is the Vocational Ed aspect of L&T.
What is it for? What challenges does it face etc.
What do teachesr think its for?
How do pupils see it?

Stake's Matrix might be needed here (see above and below)

There is ample literature on the Vocational movement (and its continued failure- mostly as it is seen as a sink for less able pupils in the ~Uk IMHO)

key question is does the Vocational GCSE break this pattern and make something "inclsuive" diverse or personalised?

L and T in Sawbridgeworth

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 12, 2009 12:40 PM

Hi Lisa
Have just answered a message from you in Convefsation 1. I didn't realise we were neighbours as I'm at Leventhorpe. Could be useful expecially if we're both doing a disseration on aspects of leadership.
Carol:)

A reply to Carol, Lisa T, Lisa A, Jackie and Janet

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 10, 2009 08:26 AM

Hi to the four of you! All very good questions. I will answer them all in this one response to make it easier to find!

1 - Allocation of tutors. This has taken some time as registrations have apparently been very delayed and it has taken a while to sort out staffing etc. I assume you will be notified officially shortly. Sorry for keeping you waiting you lovely keen students you! I have been notified that the tutors for the four of you are as follows:
Carol - me
Lisa T - me
Lisa A - me
Janet - Ian

2 - Feedback for your ideas. To Carol and Lisa T - we are used to each other. Just let me know when you have something to share and I will get back to you as soon as I can. In this case, it will be early next week I'm afraid - I'll try my best to get back to you sooner. Concentrate on your proposals, using the module guide. Lisa A - see 3 below :)

3 - how to get feedback - It depends on your tutor. I like work to be put in your folders and it needs, of course, to be in electronic form as I am in NZ! So, just put your drafts in your folder and let me know they are in there and I will give you some feedback. Give careful thought to organisation of your files. If you have a tutor who wants you to do something different, you need to sort it out with them. I know many of you already know who your tutor is, so negotiate with them. There are guidelines on the format of submissions in the module guide.

4 - splitting up conversations - yes, I take your point! They are long! I am loathe to separate yet though- how about we give it some time? This space is for you and needs to suit you - it also has to be manageable for tutors - shall we keep open minds? Leave it with me - I will watch carefully!

A reply to Carol, Lisa T, Lisa A, Jackie and Janet

Posted by Jacqueline Andrews at Feb 10, 2009 01:36 PM

Hello Gina

I'm all at sea on my own. From the above 5 students, 4 have tutors, and I was missed out - story of my life!!

Jackie

Not alone!

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 10, 2009 09:49 PM

Hi Jackie! I didn't tell you your tutor because you didn't ask! I thought you might have known - if I'm coy in giving out the tutors, it's because I know Ian is still working on the list as late registrations come in and topics are finalised. I have you down currently as assigned to Ruth Green. :)

Confused

Posted by Jacqueline Andrews at Feb 11, 2009 04:13 PM

Hello Gina, Ian and Ruth

So does Ruth take part in these conversations as well? Am I taking part in the correct conversations?
Jackie

Focus of enquiry

Posted by Laura Vallone at Feb 10, 2009 06:02 PM

Path AESI

Hello Gina/Ian (or should I be addressing Ruth - haven't had contact recently!)

(Sorry this is the second submission of query as not sure if you scroll back through previous, sent as reply a few days ago.)

You pointed out that the area I was interested in researching was three fold. So I have focused on one area, that of teacher’s and LSD collaborating to assist the SpLD child’s development within the class setting, where possible.

As a team, we will work together to identify the child’s learning style and devise an appropriate IEP. From talking to my colleagues I have assessed that they do not have a negative approach to differentiation, but they are unsure as to its implementation.

Your comments please.

Thanks. Laura

Focus of enquiry

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 10, 2009 10:04 PM

Hi Laura

Ian and I both replied to your query - what you have decided is fine - it just needs refining. Ian suggested looking at the implementation phase of change and gave you a reference to look at. What you need to do now is refine your idea yourself, using the prompts at the start of this conversation. Ruth's email is R.X.Green@mdx.ac.uk if you are having difficulty contacting her.

Your idea is sound and it's up to you now to work on it a little more - will be great to hear what your workplace advocate thinks - let us know!

Structuring your research: Stakes matrix

Posted by Ian at Feb 11, 2009 09:51 AM

useful reference to Stake's own unpicking of his matrix is PROGRAM EVALUATION PARTICULARY RESPONSIVE EVALUATION, available online at http://www.wmich.edu/evalctr/pubs/ops/ops05.pdf. The original paper on countenance evaluation is also available online as a sample chapter in a book: http://books.google.co.uk/b[…]DxnN9D_PbB6o5jBOULLiUwCwarQ (found through Google Scholar), although I have the original paper from Teachers College Record.

Structuring your research: Stakes matrix

Posted by Ian at Feb 11, 2009 09:57 AM

What stake was trying to do wa to make categories of data which you could colelct in anay evaluation type peice of research. His first three categories were
1. Antecednets (ie aims, plans, history, background, context)
2. Processes (ie activities, doing, actions)
3. Outcomes (ie results, acheivement, impact)

Clearly 1, 2 and 3 should be connected and if they are not it might be revealing.

The second category (think columns here) would be intentions and Observation(or reality).
ie you can have intended outcomes abd real outcomes. Intended proceses and real ones (ie the children absent themselves from class)

Evaluation can alos look at th match between intended and observed.

Thus you have 6 boxes (Antecedents,proceses and outcomes) in two columns (intended and observed)

Each "box" has different questions and types of data.

Then you can evaluate.

Structuring your research: Stakes matrix

Posted by Ian at Feb 11, 2009 09:58 AM

See

http://209.85.229.132/searc[…]p;cd=1&client=firefox-a

Structuring your research: Stakes matrix

Posted by Ian at Feb 11, 2009 10:02 AM

Found another example at
http://www.google.com/searc[…]22Robert%22&btnG=Search

Workplace Advocate

Posted by Laura Vallone at Feb 12, 2009 12:16 PM

Hello Gina,

As mentioned my workplace advocate is the head of my school. She has been very supportive and encouraging, especially towards my proposed research area. I have had lengthy conversations with her with regards to the way forward for our school. She is a great believer in inclusive education and understands the importance of differentiation within the class setting. Something she strives to implement within her own lessons.

We have had numerous meetings with staff members in trying to promote the importance of differentiation, giving practical advice. The concerns noted are that teachers lack the time, confidence and experience to differentiate. It has been decided, by the head and myself, that the learning support department will lead the way by working closely with the mainstream teachers to devise and implement a differentiated curriculum.

Fullan, Meaning of Educational Change, reflects the sensitive area of trying to change a teacher’s way of teaching without dictating. “… to meet specification laid down by policy makers who neither know them or the contexts in which they work.” Fullan. In striving to avoid undermining years of experience and knowledge it has been deemed that collaboration between all members of staff is necessary.

ASEI Initial plan and focus - draft

Posted by Laura Vallone at Feb 12, 2009 12:19 PM

Hello Ruth,

I have posted the above in my folder. I await your response.

Regards.

errr...changing focus

Posted by Lisa Taner at Feb 16, 2009 01:59 PM

Think I am going to change my focus. Am wondering if I will be enthusiastic enough to pursue leafdership all year when its not been my focus. I had an epiphany in the bath, and wanted to share- any thoughts greatfully received! Perhaps it was the Lush products...
I am interested in Community Cohesion and how the Global Dimension might help meet this agenda. Its been linked already-but not extensively. I know Ian likes study that builds on stuff already done. So...
I could investigate the Community Cohesion agenda and perhaps map it onto the GD agenda looking for overlaps and also investigating which schools have used the GD to fulfill their CC responsibilities and obligations.
I’m thinking the focus could be: Community Cohesion and the Global Dimension: an investigation into how integrating a Global Dimension meets Community Cohesion duties or Local 4 Global: A Global Dimension for Community Cohesion
With the Big Q asking: How can integrating a Global Dimension meet schools obligations/ statutory requirements?
This could be more of a case study approach. Is that OK ian/Gina?
I could look at the CC agenda, and how a GD can help meet this agenda (which I believe it can). SO I would examine the policy in its broadest sense and then how it affects schools -they have a duty now to act on it, and its being measured by OFSTED this academic year for the first time is crucial.
Bit late in the day to change tack but any thougts anyone?

errr...changing focus and a little bit of info for Gina

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 18, 2009 12:32 PM

Hi Lisa
This is rushed as I'm dashing of to Mansfield (as you do!) in an hour. Just wanted to say Gosh! change of heart and ... sounds really i9ntereting and you're heavily involved in this sort of thing anyway so you'd be able to find lots of Action Enquiry research stuff. A couple of things I've thought about tho. Is "obligation " a better word than duties? I agree where you've put it in the Big Q and obligation to whom? does statutory need to come in the title? DOn't know.
COmmunity Cohesion is an all embracing term and I'm not sure whether you mean the community of the school, the community of a social kind ie neighbourhood (is this where local 4Global comes in?) or community as in UK. I think schools obligation to incorporate the gd is not being recongnised by schools and pleanty of them are going to fail this bit of OFSTED if they're not careful. I think a case study would be a great idea.
SOrry this is a bit meandering but i'm in a rush and wanted to write somehting before i went.

BTW I have skype now so it would be good to get together with you and Gina. Don't think you have it yet and I tried to find if Gina was but to no avail. Gina are you on skype? If so, what's your address/name number for skype?
I have a workplace advocate. His name is Mark Judge and he's head of Psychology at my schol He did an MA a few years ago and has lots of interesting views about leadership. I'm really pleased he's agreed and he seems to be pretty enthusiastic about it.
Carol

errr...changing focus and a little bit of info for Gina

Posted by Lisa Taner at Feb 18, 2009 06:58 PM

As I’ve said before Carol…you are like my online mentor. Thank you for your valuable thoughts and observations especially as you are setting off- enjoy your trip. Just back from Prague where my camera actually froze.

Yes, I do think that "obligation " my well be a better word than duties, don’t know why I didn’t use the words I used earlier- obligations/responsibilities.

I mean that the GD can meet legal/statutory obligations- it could be a carrier if you like, a boat to get on in order to traverse the river that you have to travel down anyway. Just makes it more relevant and intersteing IMHO.

Re the Community Cohesion as an all-embracing term, I am referring to the govnt docs (and ofsted inspection criteria) that emphasise all of the things you mentioned: school community, national community and international community. It’s the national where schools sometimes come unstuck and the global when there is no GD at all. Still not quite sure how to approach it though.

I’m also thinking of doing something on ECM as well, but that may make it too broad. I’m actually waiting for a response from Gina and also interested to hear from Ian too if he has an opinion on it.

I had skype on the old laptop but can easily get it again. Still don’t know who could be my advocate- perhaps an L4G person. I will ask.

Thanks again carol- enjoy half term.

errr...changing focus and a little bit of info for Gina

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 22, 2009 04:58 AM

Hi Carol and Lisa

What a great idea for a Skype!! My account is ginarevill.

I am away all this next week - shall we try for a time Monday 2/3 Feb? We are 13 hours ahead at the moment. So we could meet my early morning or my evening or your early morning/evening....

I'll email you about times.

Lisa - I actually really like the sound of your new focus. Very much. It just feels clearer in your head somehow if that makes sense. I have to confess to being unfamiliar with the concepts around community cohesion and exactly what you mean by that but that is not important - if you are doing a good job I ought to learn from you! My job is to make sure the research approach is sound. A case study is appropriate for a dissertation.

I'm going now to reply to your emails.

Gina :)

errr...changing focus and a little bit more info

Posted by Lisa Taner at Feb 22, 2009 12:56 PM

Thanks Gina. It feels like it's coming together. For the rest of you and my updated thoughts, here goes.
Draft working title:
Local for global: a critical enquiry into how the Global Dimension meets Community Cohesion requirements.
or
Community Cohesion and the Global Dimension: a critical investigation into how integrating a Global Dimension meets schools Community Cohesion requirements.

Research Questions
How can/ does including the Global Dimension in the curriculum and ethos of a school meet schools Community Cohesion obligations and requirements?
How useful is it?
Which schools have used it, was it a deliberate choice?
What were the results?
Can the two agendas be ‘mapped’ together?

The big question is:
How can integrating a Global Dimension meet schools obligations/ statutory requirements?
I know that the scope is too huge . I was thinking perhaps either a case study ( even one school, in depth) or a comparison of 2 or 3 (or more?) local or regional ones.

However, by contacting those schools I KNOW have incorporated a GD, this would mean that I am aiming the focus on schools who HAVE already made a choice in doing it, so wouldn’t it be retrospective and biased, because I am making a deliberate choice about who I approach? Does it answer the Qs?? I don’t want it to be a propaganda exercise!

Should I be more objective? I’m worried that it will look like I’m not.

Other ways to do it would be to contact a very wide range of schools ( local/regional, mixture secondary and primary, diverse or not)with a general early questionnaire about GD and community cohesion and then take, from those results, either some deliberately chosen case studies, or some random ones, although I may never find what I’m looking for! Difficult, this!

Lisa

what is community cohesion??

Posted by Lisa Taner at Feb 22, 2009 01:09 PM

Some brief notes on community cohesion for all those out there who are interested (and especially if you are outside the UK!)
Community cohesion means:
working towards a society in which there is a common vision and sense of belonging by all communities; a society in which the diversity of people’s backgrounds and circumstances is appreciated and valued; a society in which similar life opportunities are available to all; and a society in which strong and positive relationships exist and continue to be developed in the workplace, in schools and in the wider community.

And especially for schools:
• the school community
• the community within which the school is located
• the UK community
• the global community

From what my early readings indicate, community cohesion for schools means the following:

• Teaching, learning and curriculum
• Equity and excellence – to ensure equal opportunities for all
• Engagement and extended services – to provide reasonable means for children, young people, their friends and families to interact with people from different backgrounds and build positive relations.

The above is now a statutory duty on all maintained schools in England ( not sure of rest of UK) and came into effect on 1 September 2007 . It is being inspected this acedemic year for the first time since sept 08.
Hope that helps.

Initial Plan

Posted by Lisa Aylett at Feb 16, 2009 03:28 PM

Today I was able to get some ideas down. I have saved it in my folder. Gina wondered if you could have a look and see if I'm on the right track.

Carol I am very local to you. I work at St Marys Catholic School. I believe you would probably know David Chadwick our new head of sixth form. I will keep what you said in mind about you L&T GCSE as it is completely new to me.

St Mary's

Posted by Carol Jones at Feb 17, 2009 06:09 PM

Hi Lisa
Yes of course I know Chadwick - for some reason we always called him by his surname or Chadders! He's a bit of a legend at Leventhorpe. Look foward to meeting you soon.
Have a good half term.
Carol

Dissertaion last minute possible change/thoughts??

Posted by Janet Price at Feb 17, 2009 02:20 PM

Hi Ian,
I have completed my introduction and timeline for my dissertation on the CAF, however, now I've done it I am feeling uneasy. I am concerned that the information could be hard to gather and that some comclusions might potentially be damaging to my borough that is doing its best to roll it out and be positive. I have therefore completed a 2nd Introduction and Timeline for another research area. This is much easier for me to carry out but is it too easy? I am already a little way down the road. Will it promote the particular product and be a commercial advertisement and is that ethical? There is another problem in that the company providing the software will stop it in July unless the school pays up a hefty amount. My two ideas are in my folder and I await your response. Janet

submit proposal

Posted by Lisa Taner at Feb 19, 2009 12:25 AM

Hi Gina,
have posted a draft research outline in my folder- I think that once I get going on it, it will become apparent how many schools it will be possible to work with. Please let me know if it's too broad still.Thanks, Lisa

Focus of enquiry

Posted by Gillian Chumbley at Feb 19, 2009 01:30 AM

Hi Gill Chumbley here.. at the eleventh hour but there is a reason! I have known for a while that I wanted to research boys' achievement in Literacy and would quite happily of focused on both reading and writing. However I realise that for the purposes of research this would be far too broad which led to another dilemma as my passion is the teaching of reading but in my present school the main issue relates to writing attainment not matching reading attainment....Therefore I feel the focus of my enquiry will be boys' writing. There is a possibility that I will stray into the area of reading so I guess I need to be focused and keep the reasearch tight. Key questions will evolve around 'Why writing results are inferior to reading...' and 'What motivates boys to write..' My work placed advocate is my Headteacher and is very supportive of this focus. It may also link in with the work on film that I am promoting throughout the school (visual strategies). Hope this is ok. Best wishes to all.

Focus of enquiry

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 22, 2009 04:11 AM

Hi Gill

I think the area of your research is great. I agree with you - you need to keep your enquiry very very narrow - 'what motivates boys to write' is just too large for one little action research assignment. As I said, the topic though is fantastic.

How could you narrow it down? Look at one boy? Look at one class? What amount is achievable? Then focus on a small number or even one strategy for motivation. Has is made a difference?

This is more the scale you would need to look at - what are your thoughts?

Gina

Outline plan

Posted by Linda Snow at Feb 19, 2009 12:07 PM

Hi....well here goes...I am about to submit my outline plan having deliberated long and hard about the focus of the enquiry. Or to be more accurate trying to refine the question. It has taken several goes and has included help from Peter our tutor.

I will be looking at the setting up of the managed learning environment (we are going to be using London MLE from Fronter) and look specifically at the impact on a range of groups within the school, namely EAL, SEN, G&T - this way I can operate across a variety of year groups (we are a three form entry junior school) and involve a number of staff. Hopefully this will then ease the full set up across the school later this year.

I would be interested to hear from anyone doing anything similar.

Linda (FIPC Action research group)

outline plan

Posted by Isobel Barron at Feb 19, 2009 02:43 PM

Following much thought and discussion I have finally decided upon a focus, as it could have been one of many: Parent Partnerships, 'What effect will developing parent partnerships in pupil learning at school and home have upon pupil achievement and standards?'

We need to develop our parent partnership work further and currently offer a range of family learning and other activities to engage parents in their child's learning. However, participation has dwindled and in some instances we do not seem to attract the families/ parents that would seem ot benefit the most. We need to look at how we can increase and improve participation in our endeavour to maintain and raise standards. Boys in particular seem to be struggling, especilally in writing. They are a majority group in our school and therefore success here would have the greatest impact overall. Speaking, listening & vocabularly, together with social skills are areas of concern that we have been working on for some time. We feel that greater parent understanding and participation would make a significant difference.

The intention of the research project would be to improve provison and participation to aid pupil achievemennt & standards by:
-re-auditing what we offer & how,
-conducting a needs analysis of parents: determining their level of understanding & the benefits from thier perspective,
-assessing the barriers to parental involvement and seeking solutions to overcome them,
-reseraching other models/ benchmarking tools/ national standards
-delivering an improved service: skilling up parents & better meeting the needs of our school community.

I feel that it may be that we do not attract the most needy/ vulnerable due to barriers that are outside the shcool's control, e.g. social issues linked to housing or family breakdown. Parents also do not participate due to their own educational experience and perhaps there may be a fear of joining in as their own abilities or skills may be exposed or judged. Lack of confidence or just switched off? Tying to bridge the gap and develop the partnership aspect would be beneficial to all parties, particulary the children, therefore it is in everyones best interests for this to be successful.

I am interested to learn of any benchmarking tools or national standards in developing parent partnerships as this may be of benefit and widen our perspective. If anyone can help direct me or has experience of such tools, I would be particularly interested to hear from you.

Peter I have emailed my detailed plan.

Setting the question...

Posted by Halina Tucker at Feb 19, 2009 06:27 PM

dear Gina, I am an independent tutor and assessor for SpLD, however most of the time I am working full time for one independent college for girls (secondary sector). Over the last few years, after some initial relactance on part of the school)I have developed agood working relationship with teachers, students and parents. Nevertheless, it seems to me that the independent sector is somewhat behind with understanding the concept of SpLD and the impact of it on students. There is still confusion regarding what dyslexia means and whether these children should be at the school? I must add that there is only a small proportion of staff who think so but they tend to voice their disapproval. Additionally, there is the question of one to one tuition and withdrawal from lessons to attend these lessons. I will not go into all the issues as it takes to much space.
Therefore, I would like to concentrate my question on the above issues but to combine it with developing policy and procedures which will give the school some framework to work with and hopefully stop the uncertainty as to what the policy is or should be. I am not sure at the moment whether there is the same legislation for independent schools as there is for state ones, so bringing the school up to date with this might also be included in my research.
There is also the question of developing classroom strategies for defferentiation of curriculum in most subjects( mentioned in the last inspection report), and how my expertise could help to develop these strategies.
I would appreciate some comment on these. Thank you. Halina

Setting the question...

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 22, 2009 04:18 AM

Hi Halina

You do not appear on my list yet so I am unsure whether you are doing a dissertation or an action enquiry. Either way, the comment is the same, which is - your area of research is exciting and important and I can see you already know a lot about it. So yes, great area to be exploring.

Be careful not to take on too much. Just looking at developing differentiation strategies and evaluating them would be enough for one enquiry. You will have a chance to examine policy in the literature review. If you want to concentrate on developing policy, that is another area again - I would recommend you choose one of these to do.

I hope this helps. Once I and you know who your tutor is you can begin to refine your excellent ideas.

Gina

Setting the question...

Posted by Halina Tucker at Feb 22, 2009 04:44 PM

Hi Gina, I am doing Action Inquiry and yes, I am not sure who my tutor is, but hey......I am sure this will resolve itself soon.
Thank you for your comments and encouragement as this is still a bit scary. i am going to have a meeting with my contact at college and hopefully this will give me a better idea which of the two questions for inquiry to choose.

I sort of got lost in navigating the sites, it is a proverbial maze but I think I know where i am now.
Halina

What happens now?

Posted by Jacqueline Andrews at Feb 20, 2009 05:21 PM

My ideas for the Action Research Project are in my folder + the questionnaires - I have not heard yet who my tutor is, there was a suggestion that it may be Ruth Green? Will a list of tutors be sent by email? I am assume the allocated tutor will look at the work?

Jackie

What happens now?

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 22, 2009 04:21 AM

Hi Jackie

You are a star! You have begun well if you have authored questionnaires already! Yes, Ruth is your tutor. I'll get Ian to update you all in here how the tutor situation is coming along!

In the meantime, here is Ruth's email R.X.Green@mdx.ac.uk

I will also let her know you have completed this work -thanks!

Introduction, Focus and Overview handed in!

Posted by Vanessa Dumas at Feb 20, 2009 06:18 PM

Dear Gina Revill,

I would really appreciate it, if you could have at my Introduction, Focus and Overview. Its in my folder. I would your viewpoints on it.

Thanks

Vanessa

Introduction, Focus and Overview handed in!

Posted by Gina Revill at Feb 22, 2009 04:26 AM

Hi Vanessa

I'll alert Gary for you - he is your tutor and he will be the person to best comment on your plans - well done for working so steadily!

Boys writing - Gill Chumbley

Posted by Gillian Chumbley at Feb 22, 2009 11:36 PM

Thanks Gina for your comments. Very helpful. Initally I planned to focus on boys writing in Lower Key Stage two i.e. Year 3 and Year 4. Would this be too broad? I could limit my focus to Year 4 .....I am keen to research the influence of film in Literacy as I think this could be a key area in catching the attention of boys.

Boys writing - Gill Chumbley

Posted by Amanda Gable at Feb 23, 2009 06:23 PM

Hello Gill
I'm interested in your last entry, hope you were inspired by film stuff! Hope you had a good break
See You Soon
Amanda

focus - late

Posted by HELLEN MITEMA at Feb 23, 2009 10:34 AM

HI
SORRY FOR JOINING LATE AS I HAVE BEEN ON MATERNITY LEAVE. HOPE I WILL QUICKLY CATCH UP .
AM THINKING OF FOCUSING ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION ON THE PROGRESS OF THE ACQUISITION OF LITERACY AND NUMERACY SKILLS IN CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES. DOES IT SOUND GOOD?

focus - late

Posted by Ian at Feb 23, 2009 11:03 AM

better late then never. We have moved on though to the next conversation. Your idea sounds good but "inclsuive education" is vague to research unles there is a case study context eg group of specific children and their experience.

Initial Research Plan

Posted by James Spark at Mar 02, 2009 11:48 AM

The focus of my enquiry is key stage 4 – raising achievement via identification of underachieving pupils and implementation of a new senior leadership team mentoring programme additional to learning community provisions.
Identified Questions:
How will underachieving pupils be identified?
What data do senior leadership class as important?
How will progress be measured?
What will happen to the produced data?
What access will I be given to data?
How will my evaluation and research of senior leadership be viewed and affect my own position?
Will feedback of this project be given to staff as it runs or on completion?
Will individual subject and teachers performances come into focus?
What methods will be employed by senior leadership to mentor?

My hunch is that learner’s needs are not being met due to poor differentiation. Also I feel the context of our pupils is often overlooked with a one size fits all approach.

The institution needs to implement a programme as the estimated exam results are not looking good. The research itself will allow me to gain a better understanding of how attainment is both monitored and how improvement projects run. I will also benefit from the opportunity of working closely with senior management.

The schools contextual information:
High free school meals, high non English speakers and English as an additional language. High level of one parent families.
My work based advocate is the professional development officer; she is on senior management and has an active role in the SLT mentoring programme.

I am excited at the range of possibilities that this research offers, hopefully I am on the right track.

Focus

Posted by Jessica Jacob at Mar 18, 2009 10:07 PM

For a while there, I wasn't sure what my focus was going to be. First, it was going to be on creative teaching and inclusive pratice. Whole language approach to teaching which targets the varied learners. Now, I have spoken to the school Head and she proposed that I do the research on the inclusive practice of the school. That will be my focus of enquiry?
The question is to find out if the inclusive practices the special needs school supplies the SEN pupil is beneficial.
The hypotheses is that in the SEN setting it will be. For the minor SPLD pupils Mainstream inclusive would be more beneficial with the right amount of attention.
I find the questions important because we can get to the heart of the true issue, the Child. Are we doing what benefits the Child or what fits into our adgenda?
I must bear in mind who benefits from this research? How can we better improve standards for the SEN pupil?

Observations,Planning and discussions,(begining of term and throughout) Participations, Journals,( throughout the programme) questionares, ofsted reports, plans,(after first module)

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