Research Champion Coordinators take the role of building relationships and leading the provision and professional learning for research champions across the partnership. The coordinators build capacity by modelling the use of research in schools. They are pivotal in sharing and supporting research-informed practices across the partnership.
The partnership shares the outcomes of students’ assignments, in particular, the visually enhanced summaries, with stakeholders. These summaries use info-graphics to communicate the outcomes and potential impact of research clearly and succinctly. They explain and encourages the use of research to inform school development.
There are also regular collaborative research and enquiry sharing events, such as the partnership’s research conferences and research seminar series. All stakeholders are invited to attend and contribute to these events by disseminating their own research. The partnership has collaborated with other ITE partnerships to share good practice in supporting student teachers to develop their research skills.
The research assignments supported by the work of the RCs have resulted in the production of
podcasts, Youtube videos and visually enhanced summaries. These have been particularly effective in disseminating ideas from research-informed practices across and beyond the partnership.
References:
Burn, K. and Mutton, T. (2015) ‘A review of “research-informed clinical practice” in Initial Teacher Education’, Oxford review of education, 41(2), pp. 217–233. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2015.1020104.
McIntyre, D., 2005. Bridging the gap between research and practice. Cambridge journal of education, 35(3), pp.357-382.
Pugh, C., Thayer, E., Breeze, T., Beauchamp, G., Kneen, J., Watkins, S., & Rowlands, B. (2020). Perceptions of the new role of the research champion in developing a new ITE partnership: Challenges and opportunities for schools and universities. Cylchgrawn Addysg Cymru = Wales Journal of Education, 22(1), pp. 185– 207.