Developing a Practitioner Research Network

Status:

Complete

Completion Date:

Saturday, 31st Jul 2010

LLN:

Higher Education Progression Partnership - Sheffield City Region

Description:

Two research development officers from the Institute for Lifelong Learning in the School of Education, University of Sheffield, have been working alongside Higher Futures LLN and Aimhigher South Yorkshire management teams since March 2008 to develop a practitioner research network.

The aims are to:

• Raise the profile of research and evaluation activities within the Higher Futures and Aimhigher South Yorkshire Networks;

• Encourage a self-reflective approach to evaluation consistent with the needs of the LLN and Aimhigher;

• Increase internal capacity for practitioners to undertake measurement and evaluation of practice;

• Enhance knowledge transfer between partners to develop skills and techniques that can be embedded in practice and ensure sustainability beyond the funding period;

• Enable the sharing of good practice and data on how to measure the effectiveness of different interventions; and

• Support practitioners to undertake investigative projects which fit with existing internal evaluation/quality assurance systems.

The approach has been to facilitate:

• Learning from and with each other;

• Sharing ideas and experiences with colleagues across the two initiatives;

• Exploration of learners’ views and experiences by practitioners;

• Enhanced working practices and experiences; and

• Ethical research practices.

Outcomes:

Seminar briefings
The network was launched in March 2008 with a series of four initial briefing seminars which all members of the Higher Futures and Aimhigher South Yorkshire networks were invited to attend. A total of 40 Aimhigher/Higher Futures staff attended one of these briefings.

Research workshop series
Between April and June 2008, 36 Aimhigher and Higher Futures colleagues attended at least one of a series of 4 workshops which were designed to:

• Outline the research process
• Showcase the evaluation work of other LLNs and Aimhigher networks
• Enable participants to share experiences
• Support practitioners to develop their own investigative project ideas

1:1 support
Ongoing 1 to 1 support has been provided for all practitioners conducting an investigative project (telephone, email, individual support meetings).

Practitioner research group meetings
In addition to the research workshop series, practitioners have been supported with an on-going series of group meetings.

MA Module
Practitioner researchers were provided with the opportunity to gain accreditation through their investigative projects; they were invited to undertake one module (30 transferable credits) of the MA in Applied Professional Studies in Education at the University of Sheffield, with fees paid from Higher Futures funding. Two of the cohort registered for the module.

The Practitioner Research Projects
12 practitioners have undertaken a total of 11 small scale projects (8 Higher Futures/ 3 Aimhigher projects). The projects focus on a range of issues including learner experiences, parental experiences and Foundation Degrees. The projects cover several sectors including Early Years, Engineering and Sustainable Communities.

The two research development officers are engaged to support the network until December 2009. By that date, the key output from the project will be a final report that will include a) an outline of the over-arching project written by the University of Sheffield research development officers and b) a series of brief reports detailing each of the investigative projects undertaken by the practitioner researchers. In terms of outcomes, it is hoped that the project will have made progress towards meeting the six key aims outlined above.

Contact:

Name:

Margaret Lewis and Louise Ritchie, Institute for Lifelong Learning, University of Sheffield

Email:

[JavaScript protected email address]

Telephone:

0114 2228128 and 0114 2228121