LSRN Research Round-up
Jo Fletcher-Saxon
Assistant Principal: Higher & Adult Ed I Teacher Educator I Podcasting Pracademic I Co-host #FEresearchpodcast I Ed. LSRN I PhD teacher research as CPD I Jisc Community Champion I BERA Teacher Network
September 2023
Research Round-up from LSRN is a new name for the LSRN Newsletter. It circulates information about events and publications related to research in the further education and skills sector. Send items for the next issue to Andrew Morrris and Jo Fletcher-Saxon by Friday 27th October
Introduction
From Jo:?
‘Welcome to the first Research Round-up of 2023/2024. There’s quite a lot of activity within LSRN this term.? The editorial group has started reviewing submissions for the post-conference publication. Thank you to the AoC (Association of Colleges) for their support in bringing this publication to life. We expect to share it in 2024.
It was great to see LSRN colleagues at the recent BERA Conference (British Education Research Association). Two of our convenors are also convenors of special interest groups within BERA that are very relevant to further education colleagues. Kayte Haselgrove is a convenor for the BERA Post Compulsory and Lifelong Learning special interest group and Joyce Hui-Chen is a convenor for the Practitioner Research special interest group. Both may be of interest to the LSRN network.
Christina Donovan and I met up with Dr Rachel Marsden (Lecturer in English ITE) from Edgehill University to talk about their Research Lab.? We are collaborating to host an event next summer as a Research Lab and LSRN mash-up!? We will be bringing FE, Secondary, and University colleagues together to discuss collaboration and shared education research interests, a first for the LSRN. Happy reading!’
LSRN Regions
Beds, Bucks and Herts LSRN Relaunch event
The new co-convenors of Beds, Bucks and Herts LSRN are organising a regional research and scholarship sharing event:
It aims to promote the values and purposes of LSRN by fostering collaboration, sharing insights, and exploring ways to enhance the impact of research and development within the education sector. Staff, students or researchers in the area interested in presenting their research are invited to contact the organisers.
22 November 2023 from 10am to 3pm. At Bedford College Group’s Cauldwell Campus, Bedford.
Register here or email: Mahruf Shohel [email protected]
Black Country LSRN Face to face conference
LSRN Black Country Colleges have the 3rd Annual ‘Hear, me – See me’ Research in FE, by FE event planned for Thursday 23rd November 2023. It will be an evening, face-to-face conference hosted by Dr Adam Dwight City of Wolverhampton College.
Dudley College launched its first FE research meet on July 15th 2023 supported by the Learning Skills Research Network (LSRN) Black Country Colleges. A brief report of the event, entitled ‘On the Inside Looking In’, is given by convenor Julie Wilde on the LSRN website. Read it here: LSRN groups | Learning and Skills Research Network (wordpress.com)
23rd November 2023. Please contact [email protected] for details and details will be shared on twitter (X).
East Midlands LSRN New co-convenor
A new co-convenor, Kirsty Haughton from Nottingham College, joins Kayte Haselgrove at East Midlands LSRN. Kirsty writes:
‘Having worked in education for almost ten years now, I am rooted firmly in the Further Education sector and have worked as a Lecturer, Advanced Practitioner and at present I manage English & Literacy at Nottingham College. Research has guided me throughout this journey, and I am extremely passionate about evidence-based practice, particularly within the realm of English and maths resits. I am really excited to join the LSRN as a convenor, working closely with Kayte Haselgrove in our region and focusing on the theme of literacy'. ?
Kirsty has recently written for FE Week.
East Anglia LSRN
We will announce some Meet and Greet events for East Anglia LSRN soon. Dates and locations to be confirmed. East Anglia LSRN has monthly events in partnership with the College of West Anglia. Please book events via Eventbrite or contact: Joyce Chen
Events
BERA Practitioner Research (Special Interest Group (SIG)
Ethics in Practice: Showcasing examples of good ethical practice in practitioner research
BERA Practitioner Research SIG (co-convened by LSRN’s Joyce Chen), is hosting this online event on 23rd November 6:00-8:00pm. Practitioner researchers are invited to submit their abstract for the showcase.
More details here: Ethics in Practice: Showcasing examples of good ethical practice in practitioner research | BERA Contact: Joyce Chen
Publications
Edge Foundation
The Role of English and Maths in Technical and Vocational Education: Looking back to look forward. By Nuala Burgess, Kings College London
The aim of this paper is to provide an historical overview of the role of English and Maths within technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in England. It examines how the perceived value attributed to English and Maths, both together and as individual academic and applied subjects, has developed over time. It notes in its conclusions “a notable absence of policy interest in the teaching of English and Maths as part of TVET”.
Read here: Looking back to look forward - What lessons from the past teach about the role of English and Maths within technical and vocational education today.
Amplify FE and ALT
A new audit of Communities of Practice audit report is available: AmplifyFE Sector Audit Launch.pdf - Google Drive
Engineering UK
Engineering skills needs – now and into the future
This report, produced by Lightcast for EngineeringUK, sheds light on labour market changes resulting from technological change, an ageing population and the shift to a greener economy. While it is impossible to predict the future, this report provides cutting-edge insights on the direction of travel for the engineering profession. It does so by combining projections from past labour market trends with big data analytics from job postings data – a unique, almost realtime source of information on employers’ skills needs.
Interventions to increase girls’ aspirations for engineering and technology careers
This rapid evidence review brings together the available evidence on interventions that aim to increase girls’ aspirations for engineering and technology careers. Through summarising the existing literature, we draw out learning on effective interventions that can be used by STEM outreach providers to improve gender diversity in these career
Read here: https://www.engineeringuk.com/media/318995/rapid-evidence-review-girls-stem-aspirations-final.pdf
领英推荐
House of Commons Education Committee Report
Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance
An inquiry was launched in January 2022 and aimed to look at how well the current system for careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) is working, with a particular focus on children and young people. We received 136 written evidence submissions and held seven oral evidence sessions with a range of witnesses, including a panel of young people aged between 16 and 19, supported by Teach First. In our final oral evidence session we took evidence from the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, the Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, under whose Chairmanship the Committee had started the inquiry.
Read here: ?Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance - Education Committee (parliament.uk)
Monash Q Project Report
Monash Q Project’s latest report "Using Research Well as a System” is a Discussion Paper examining how using research well can be supported at the system level.?It builds on Q's earlier work relating to using research well as an aspiration (QURE Framework DP in 2020) and using research well as a practice (Using Research Well in Australian Schools DP in 2021) to consider using research well as a system.
Drawing on survey, interview and co-design responses from Australian educators and system actors, it identifies six system enablers of using research well that cut across three different system levels – actions that support educators as individuals, schools as organisations, and system actors as leaders.
System actors are encouraged to consider what actions they can take as:
●?????? Individual users of research
●?????? Individual leaders of research use
●?????? Collective enablers of research use in schools
The full report is available to download here
AELP Report
In the last LSRN Newsletter, an item from the AELP (Association of Employment & Training Providers) incorrect URL was given for the report “Raising the Standard”, due to transition to a new website. The correct URL is now https://www.aelp.org.uk/policy-and-research-topics/raising-the-standard/
Podcasts
The FE Research Podcast latest edition about scholarly podcasting
Jisc Podcast latest edition about AI
BERA has a great podcast series, available to members only.
Research invitations
The Research College Group.
Learning through a Collaborative Research Project
The Research College Group (google.com) invites you to join in a small-scale research project that is built around exploration and curiosity whilst also developing your research skills. It is aimed at people who are keen to:
You would need to check in once a month online to share progress and learning. All sessions are online and will take place on Wednesdays at 4:30 - 5:15
For further details and to register click:
The ideas-informed society. A co-produced research project.
The aim of this co-produced project is to better understand how people engage with evidence in order to make decisions in their daily lives, be those big or small decisions. The project team includes former teachers including Chris Brown, professor of education at Durham University.
The project wants to understand what sources people look to for information, and how those sources, as well as other factors in their lives, affect their views and decision making. Democratic societies thrive when citizens actively and critically engage with new ideas, developments and claims to truth so engaging with the best available evidence and using it to make decisions is crucial. What we want to explore with this project is how close we are to this type of situation and what might be done to improve it – by both academia and publishers.
The website includes: research papers, video, blogs and an invitation to join the conversation. The work was discussed at a symposium in the upcoming BERA conference at Aston University on 12th September. For full details click here.
Octopus publishing.
Are you a researcher looking for a new publishing platform? Octopus is a new publishing platform for scholarly research, funded by UKRI – the UK government research funder. Here researchers can publish all their work for free, in full detail, enabling peer review and quality assessment, gaining credit for what they have done, and allowing the research community to build upon it.
Further details here: https://www.octopus.ac/
Oriel Square Newsletter
The Education Media Centre has been sending out a free weekly Newsletter linking current education news stories to the supporting evidence. Unfortunately, EMC has had to close for economic reasons, but the essence of the Newsletter has been preserved by the move of the editor to set up a similar Newsletter at Oriel Square. Click here to subscribe (free):
Blog
We welcome submissions to the LSRN blog.? If you would like to submit a piece, you can send it straight to us or get in touch if you would like some guidelines or support. It will get circulated via the newsletter, appear on social media feeds and live on the LSRN website. Contact either Andrew Morris and Jo Fletcher-Saxon .
This month’s blog comes from Christopher Morris, FE lecturer, Trade union representative, Action researcher. He writes:
Using lesson observation in a high-stakes accountability system as part of the quality assurance and staff development process.
‘This blog will take you through my thoughts about why we carry out lesson observations and what we hope to achieve by them. I’m writing as an FE lecturer with over seven years of teaching and IT industry experience and someone who discovered a year ago that their active interest in improving the use of lesson observations was a piece of action research’. ?
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LSRN contacts
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