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8 Ways to Engage with Research as an MFL Teacher

Rebecca Nobes explains how she makes research a part of her day-to-day practice without letting it take over her life…

Rebecca Nobes
by Rebecca Nobes
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It’s all well and good being told to engage with research and to use it in your teaching, but where should you start?

I’m going to explain how I have engaged with research as part of my day-to-day practice, without it taking over my life or creating a huge amount of extra work.

I’ll aim to share the lessons I’ve learned so far and how I now go about my approach.

1 | Know where to start

Knowing where to find research is the first challenge. Luckily there are lots of people like researchEd and the Chartered College of Teaching who are making this much easier for us to do.

Take a look at what people are discussing on Twitter for an idea – someone will probably be sharing something useful.

The Impact journal from the Chartered College is full of interesting articles to consider and there are many good bloggers who will include references to research that you can explore.

2 | Don’t be too ambitious

The first lesson I learned was that you can’t do it all at once. You can have all the great ideas, try them in one lesson and then maybe never do them again because you’ve just set the bar too high for yourself. It’s just not sustainable. Start with one change and build from there.

3 | Be realistic

If it’s taken you an age to plan, extra resources and a lot of extra effort then think carefully – are you really going to be able to keep this up?

Really consider what you will be able to do and weigh it up against the potential impact on your students. If the effort involved is larger than the potential impact, leave it. There will be something else to try.

4 | Don’t just assume that it will work

It’s very easy to read an article or a blog and assume that just because something has worked for someone else it will work for you.

There is a much used quote from Dylan Wiliam that goes along the lines of ‘Nothing works everywhere and everything works somewhere’. There is so much truth in this.

You should really consider what you are going to try and don’t forget to follow it up and check if it really is making the difference you thought it would.

Just because this particular piece of research can be applied to maths/science/history classrooms it doesn’t mean it’s going to work well for MFL.

5 | Be willing to be challenged and be open to new ways of thinking

This can be one of the biggest learning curves, but you have to be willing for people to tell you that there are better ways of going about what you’re doing.

They won’t always be right though! You have to be willing to enter into that debate with them. You might not come to a conclusion in the end, or the conversation may not go the way you’d hoped but you’ll leave it with a different outlook on the issue and it may well help you make changes you didn’t realise you need.

Remember though, don’t unquestioningly accept what they are telling you, make sure they can justify any claims they’re making.

6 | Keep students in the loop

Sometimes you need to explain to students that you’re trying something new.

Of course, this will depend on what it is you’re trying and the age of your students but it’s likely to be useful to take a moment to do this.

Students will be able to give you feedback on how they’re finding it and they’re more likely to be on board if they understand that you’re trying something to help them improve their learning.

7 | Make it a habit

When you introduce something you need to make it a habit in your practice. It’s no good to try something once and not return to it. You need to keep trying it, figure out the bugs, check its working and then make it a habit.

If you’re not willing to do this then it’s probably not worth even starting.

8 | Share your progress

Whether it’s with colleagues in school, on Twitter or in a blog it’s really important to share what you’re doing.

We’re all in this together at the end of the day, so it’s worth sharing. Your ideas could help someone else and could help to start discussions that lead to bigger changes in your school. It’s always good to share and get feedback from other people that may have tried something similar.

This is the basis of a talk I will be giving at ResearchEd Rugby in June where I will also focus on a couple of key pieces of research and how I have tried to apply them in my classroom.

Rebecca Nobes is an MFL teacher, second in command and curriculum lead for Spanish, and a learning manager for Year 9. She blogs at bex-trex2teaching.weebly.com and you can follow her on Twitter at @BexN91.

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