Dylan Williams Keynote Speech – research ED, Haninge, Feb 9th 2019

 

This video presentation considers the shortfalls of research and how we need to make more use of the researcher/teacher relationship.

He starts with an overview of the vast array of educational research over the past 150 years and identifies the shortfalls. This section ends with the classic Robert Kennedy quote about research – “Just do what works!”

Dylan then looks at the research behind a number of different initiatives (reducing class size, teacher performance incentives and ability grouping) and discusses how the research can be warped by context. He considers the fact that only “lucky” studies get published therefore have the best chance of having an impact.

He then proposes the three questions that all teachers must ask about research before putting actions into place: Does it solve a problem? How much extra will we get? Does it work here?

He finishes by suggesting that teacher need to stop being the “intellectual navvies who are told where to dig but not why.”

An interesting short presentation that should give the viewer an appetite for more of Dylan William’s work:

What do we mean by assessment for learning?

Why teaching will never be a research based profession.