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Title: |
How can I improve my practice as a Senior Educational Psychologist? |
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Authors & affiliations: |
Marie Huxtable Bath and North East Somerset Local Authority |
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Abstract: |
Relevance of study or enquiry (to BERA members) Over the years I have tried to develop a framing for my
activities as an educational psychologist that are consistent with the
creation of educational theories that can explain educational influences in
learning Whitehead (1993). As a senior educational psychologist and
practitioner-researcher I am researching my co-ordination of the Local
Authority's APEX (Able Pupils Extending Opportunities Project) in order to
generate knowledge of educational environments in which it can flourish. I have found the traditional approaches to evaluating my
work at best inappropriate and at worst destructive and I have searched for
ways of evaluating my effectiveness against standards which contribute to the
progress of my understanding and practice and enable me to hold myself
publicly accountable. This is relevant to current discussions on assessing
quality in applied and practice-based research (Furlong and Oancea, 2005) Focus of enquiry; In the process of contributing to the development of a
culture which supports children learning to live satisfying and productive
lives my focus is on making explicit the values, skills and understandings
that emerge through the enquiry. Because this research into my professional
practice is contextualised within the policy making implementation and
evaluation of a Local Authority I will be analysing the educational
influences of the policy making, implementation and evaluation processes. In
particular I will connect with the DFES Excellence and Enjoyment (2003)
Primary Strategy Principles of Learning and Teaching. These are: ensure every
child succeeds; build on what learners already know; make learning vivid and
real; make learning enjoyable and challenging experience; enrich the learning
experience; promote assessment for learning. Appropriateness of methods; Because I am engaged in a self-study of my
knowledge-creation in the process of researching my educational influences in
my professional practice, a living theory approach to action research appears
appropriate as the form of research in which the individual practitioner
generates explanations for their educational influences in their own
learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of social formations
(Whitehead, 2005). The action research approach used in the enquiry will
follow the model of Thinking Actively in a Social Context (TASC), developed
by Wallace (Chandler & Wallace, 2004) Robustness of analytical or theoretical framework; The robustness of the theoretical frameworks of living
educational theories can be judged from their genesis (Whitehead, 1989) to
their global spread (Whitehead, 2006) in processes of enquiry that are
withstanding evaluations of validity and legitimacy in a range of communities
of educational researchers in Britain, China, Japan, Canada, South Africa,
the USA, Australia and Singapore.
Significance for educational policy and/or practice. There is national and international interest in the type
of research I am proposing. For instance, this 7th World Congress on Action
Learning, Action Research and Process Management will focus on standards and
ethics in participatory research practices: participatory action research,
action learning, and process management. (http://www.alarpmgroningen2006.nl/). There is still much research to be done on showing and
legitimating such standards of practice and demonstrating their explanatory
power in knowledge-claims about educational influences in learning. The significance in relation to educational knowledge is
focused on the nature of the standards of judgement for practice-based
educational research (Furlong and Oancea, 2005) and the academic legitimacy
of individual's creating their living educational theories from collaborative
enquiries of the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?' (Whitehead, 1989) References: Chandler, S. & Wallace, B. (2004) How TASC (Thinking
Actively in a Social Context) led to rapid school improvement. Retrieved 6
December 2005 from http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:i63ttaOJv2kJ:www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ntrp/lib/pdf/ChandlerWallace.pdf+How+TASC+(Thinking+Actively+in+a+Social+Context)+helped+to+ensure+rapid+school+improvement&hl=en&client=firefox-a Whitehead, J. (2006) What is a living educational theory
approach to action research. Retrieved 22nd January 2006 from http://www.actionresearch.net |