Scope, nature and progress of impact in practice-oriented educational research: a conceptual and empirical substantiation

Figures & data

Figure 1. Conceptualisation of impact of practice-oriented educational research.

Note: The division of ‘conceptual change’ in ‘cognitive’ and ‘affective’, and the subdimension ‘stability’ under the dimension ‘progress’ resulted from the empirical part of the study.

Table 1. Overview of teacher-researchers and their research projects.

Teacher-researcher	School subject	Title of postdoc research project
Anna	Chemistry	Interrelatedness of context-based chemistry education and student needs
Alex	Biology	A practical approach to within classroom differentiation using video’s
Daniel	Mathematics	Differentiation according to students’ interest in mathematics education
John	Biology	Influence of knowledge on neurological processes on teachers’ classroom practice
Leonard	Physics	Multidisciplinary contexts for flexible use of concepts
Mark	Biology	Professional development in a teacher development team focused on design, use and evaluation of context-concept education
Mike	Biology	Use of data to enhance teachers’ teaching practices
Oscar	Physics	Modelling in physics education
Peter	Physics	Technical internships to enhance students’ motivation for science
Tessa	Chemistry	Enhancing language proficiency of grade 10 students in science education

Table 2. Example of quotation, summarising descriptive statement and coding.

Quotation	Summarising descriptive statement	Coding
Q: What do you hope your research will yield for your school? A: Well, the wish to teach in a more differentiated manner is substantive, for everyone, but almost nobody actually succeeds at it. It would be really nice if we could achieve something, like say 10% of all lessons, or 20%, are taught in that way. Look, you should never do something for 100%. But that everyone has some guiding principles to teach in a differentiated manner. (Alex, interview I)	Alex wants all teachers at his school to get guiding principles to teach in a differentiated manner, so that they can change 10% to 20% of their lessons to more differentiated education.	SCOPE = practice Context = of research study Target = individuals teachers NATURE =  Conceptual, cognitive Instrumental PROGRESS = /

Table 3. Overview of teacher-researchers’ exemplary quotations to illustrate scope and nature of impact of practice-oriented educational research.

EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE				EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
WITHIN CONTEXT OF STUDY OR BEYOND
INDIVIDUALS
conceptual change		instrumental change		conceptual change		instrumental change
Q1	Cognitive and affective change: ‘Well, multiple things. So, they [students] should be able to see that there are real-world problems for which you need different techniques and subject knowledge to solve them. Often students find those real problems interesting. So that is one thing, their motivation. But also, that they become more able to flexibly use their monodisciplinary subject knowledge. So, suppose that they learn something in chemistry and then suddenly they have to apply that in a very different way in biology, again, in a different context. If they can do that, I think their understanding becomes more flexible.’ (Leonard, interview 2)	Q3	‘I set the go al for myself to get as many students as possible to go to a technical university. That is my goal. So with this research I want to figure out if we are on the right path to achieve that. So not just following those educational innovations that are proposed on a national level, but doing what is right to achieve that goal.’ (Anna, group discussion)	Q5	Cognitive change: ‘What I think is valuable, is that I am working at school and at the university. I think that some university researchers should stand in front of a classroom some time. That would be a whole experience for them, because I really think they miss that experience. I think I can communicate that practice experience to them. I think that can be really valuable for people who work at the university.’ (Anna, interview 1)	Q7	‘The most important issue is that the research question is answered so that they [supervisors] can continue research on this topic.’ (Alex, interview 1)
Q2	Affective change: ‘Well, they [colleague teachers] are more interested in the approach in my teaching materials and the impact of my teaching materials than in my research. They are less interested in that, but more in things like differentiation according to interest and letting students make choices and the effects of that et cetera.’ (Daniel, interview 2)	Q4	‘The most important thing that I want to achieve is to develop a procedure that teachers can use for differentiated instruction over a longer period of time while maintaining grip and control.’ (Alex, interview 2)	Q6	Cognitive change: ‘Well, he [university-based supervisor] does not know so much about language, so for him there is also [something to learn]: the relationship between language and natural sciences.’ (Tessa, interview 1)
COMMUNITIES
conceptual change		instrumental change		conceptual change		instrumental change
Q8	Cognitive and affective change: ‘There now is someone who has the time to walk around in the school. I can take a look into their classrooms more often. I learned a lot from that, but they did as well, from observing. […] I observed other [physics] teachers, but they could also learn from that because we had discussions about it. How do you do something? Why do you do it that way? What are pros and cons? […] You should ask them, but I am certain that we all gained from it. And what stands out is that we now have a team in which everybody finds that the collaboration and atmosphere are great. I don’t think that is because of my person, but I think that is because of the fact one of us has the freedom to go to the others, to observe, to collaborate.’ (Oscar, interview 1)	Q10	‘What I would like is that higher order thinking. […] Teachers should support that by asking questions in a structured way, because students can’t do that on their own. […] Higher order thinking needs to be well implemented for students […] and that needs to be done by teachers. That is what I really want to achieve and what I want to become part of the regular curriculum.’ (Anna, group discussion)	Q13	Cognitive change: ‘When I am here [at the university] in this scientific community, and we have a research team that meets about once a month, I notice that I can share a lot from my experiences in practice. Because I notice that people here [at the university], they kind of have an idea about students and what happens in a school, but the atmosphere in a school and how hard it is to change something for example, well, they often don’t have a good image of that. Then I can bring in nuances or explanations. So, it is valuable to share here [at the university] what I encounter at school and what I encounter as a teacher in my classroom for example’ (Mark, interview 1)	Q15	‘One impact is that there is more attention for language in the teacher training program. I discussed this with my supervisor and he added language exercises to the classes for new teachers.’ (Tessa, interview 2)
Q9	Affective change: ‘I want to initiate a culture of learning in my school. That they understand that change does not occur in one leap, but that it happens in small steps. That requires a long-term vision from the school.’ (Mike, interview 1)	Q11	‘In the school’s mission statement, they state five principles. Well, if you want your education to connect to the development of the brain, which is one of the principles, you need knowledge about that. But knowledge, how to do that, is minimally present. So that is what I studied so I can say which are relevant points and what that means for the school’s policy and other school things, like what course materials or methods to purchase. So that informed decisions can be made.’ (John, interview 2)	Q14	Cognitive change: ‘At the university they really want to know how teacher development teams work, how they do and do not work. They want to use that knowledge to study other teacher development teams, both the success factors and the methodological aspects, like how to study the development of teachers.’ (Mark, interview 1)	Q16	‘I know that different people [in my research group] are doing different things with interdisciplinarity and I talk to them of course. And well, it could become more of a research theme, so that these [different things] can reinforce each other.’ (Leonard, interview 2)
		Q12	‘My intended impact is to improve the set-up of the internships, mainly by increasing the role of parents. Then we want the results […] to be tested in other schools and in other regions.’ (Peter, group discussion)
BEYOND CONTEXT OF STUDY
EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE IN GENERAL				EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH IN GENERAL
conceptual change		instrumental change		conceptual change		instrumental change
Q17	Cognitive change: ‘I think in general, schools, on a large scale, just do all kinds of things without being able to give substantive arguments for them. […] I hope I can contribute to [change] that.’ (John, interview 1)	Q18	‘It would be really nice, not that it is going to happen, if it would be expanded to the whole Netherlands so that all students in grade 8 or 9 students would do a business, social and technical internship.’ (Peter, interview 2)	Q19	Cognitive change: ‘My idea was to somehow scientifically prove that responding to students’ interest will improve their motivation and effort. So, if I can prove that, I’ve achieved something nice. And that by focussing their [students’] attention on how they can use mathematics in other disciplines, that you can improve their image of mathematics. And that you can integrate that in teaching materials. That is basically what I want to prove. […] If I look at the literature, I find some things on differentiation based on interest, but it is not the main focus. Differentiation is mostly based on ability levels, not students’ interest.’ (Daniel, interview 2)	Q20	‘What could it yield? […] That you should not just change so many things at the same time in giant leaps. […] Science should learn that you should not make drastic, big and many changes. Then at some point you have no idea anymore what you are changing and what effects it has. And before it [an educational innovation] is studied, it is already implemented. Maybe science should learn that it should be the other way around. That you should first know what you are doing before you implement it.’ (Anna, interview 1)

Table 4. Overview of teacher-researchers’ exemplary quotations to illustrate progress of impact of practice-oriented educational research.

SUSTAINABILITY		TIMEFRAME		STABILITY
Q21	‘I expect it to be sustainable. […] They [teachers] have to name advantages and disadvantages of all steps of regular and differentiated teaching. The disadvantages of regular teaching are of course the motivators to do this [participate in intervention]. The advantages of differentiated teaching actually occur and the disadvantages are less than expected. [.] I already notice, and that is nice to see, that some colleagues become reluctant to teach in a regular way, old-fashioned lessons.’ (Alex, interview 2)	Q23	‘I really want it [published] in a good journal. For that you need some more content, you need to have something substantial. And that isn’t there yet. You really want data to underpin it. […] That is also why I haven’t yet presented my research in the research group. […] For my school it can all be a little less scientific. There you can share sooner, all small steps, compared to the research world. Everybody’s time is limited and then I really want to have something to say.’ (Tessa, interview 2)	Q27	‘Higher order thinking is what we actually want to achieve with this educational innovation, but teachers have to guide that process. […] A sort of scaffolding has to occur in their thinking. Students cannot do that on their own, that needs to be guided. I think that that is where the problem occurs for teachers. They think that students can do that on their own, but they need guidance. I think that teachers need to learn that first.’ (Anna, interview 2)
Q22	‘I think they [teachers] will remember that they participated in a nice course, you know? And I hope that the management will pay certain attention to use of the outcomes, to use the results in continuing development. […] I had a conversation about this with the school leader last Monday, about his vision for next year.’ (Mike, interview 2)	Q24	‘What I would like is that it results in a method for differentiated instruction and that it will be successful. […] In addition, I hope that the video’s become successful, because I have a strong believe in digitalisation and working with videos. […] So, in a little while, two to three years, we will have a whole new educational set-up [at school].’ (Alex, interview 1)	Q28	‘What I also noticed is that three teachers from my school [that participated in the teacher development team], start to collaborate more easily on other topics as well. […] They have a sort of common ground and I think that is nice to see. It gives them a feeling of, and sometimes I hear them talk about this, of belonging to a little club that knows something about practical inquiry and that has an inquiring attitude.’ (Mark, interview 2)
		Q25	‘I have not presented my research at a conference for chemistry teachers yet, because I do not have results yet.’ (Anna, group discussion)
		Q26	‘What I didn’t expect, and thus didn’t plan for, is, well, the expansion to other subjects. Of course, that is something you want, but you never know. That is always hard to predict, in what timeframe that will occur, but it is happening somewhat sooner than I expected.’ (Tessa, interview 2)