Research which fuels new ways of thinking, learning and improvement
When we talk about evidence-informed policy and practice, most of us think about using evidence to make decisions. What does the research say about this practice? What will work for my students? Sometimes this is called 'instrumental use' and this way of using research can help ensure schools are adopting strategies that are likely to improve learning outcomes.
But we want to shift thinking away from such uses for a moment and focus on research use as a form of professional learning. Thinking this way makes engaging with research valuable in and of itself, not merely an administrative task as part of decision-making. This kind of use, which is a type of 'conceptual' use, can promote new ways of thinking about educational issues, inspire new approaches and lead to schoolwide improvement.
We base these claims – and the examples that follow – on our recent study of four elementary schools that were identified as 'deep users' of education research in a national survey of US schools.[1] Importantly, these schools are not very different from any other school on many criteria – both within the US and in contexts elsewhere. They are not especially high-performing nor located in affluent communities. They serve diverse student populations. The types of problems they face and the types of decisions they make in response are not especially unique, including adopting an early literacy curriculum, working to ensure students have equitable opportunities to learn and supporting teachers’ professional growth.
These schools also represent different communities, governance arrangements and visions for their work. What distinguishes them from other schools in our larger project is that research use is the work of their school, not more work for the school. Across all four schools, educators and leaders not only use research to inform school improvement efforts but engage with research in ways that advance their own knowledge and skills, supporting both individual and collective learning.