Practitioner Enquiry Tip of the Week: Does size matter? When I'm supporting teachers doing enquiry an unseen force often seems to push them to think quality comes from large sample sizes meaning they make decisions they might otherwise have avoided/1🧵
#PractitionerEnquiryTotW
Congratulations Paul and all the authors. Already shared with @uogcfte.bsky.social Teacher Associates and @katewall.bsky.social as we launch new CfTE Hub focusing on innovative pedagogies.
Don't be pushed by your own assumptions (or someone else's) in regard what is good quality research. Sample size is a minimum requirement for quality, rather focus on developing a line of enquiry from question to population to evidence to synthesis. You're decisions matter/8
So, keep aware of balance:
Bigger samples = simplified data sets (numbers)
Smaller samples = detail and rich evidence (words and pictures)
Make your choice based on what you want to know, what kinds of evidence you like, pragmatics of your context and who is in population. /7
Going large when you're interested in detail and complexity pushes enquirers to overstretch and overcommit, both in regards workload and scope of their enquiry. It's easy to become overwhelmed by a large data set of complex, rich evidence (e.g. drawings, work samples, video)/6
Good quality case studies of 1 or a small group of individuals exist, although again the sample size is not what brings quality to the case study approach. Quality in the end comes from the match between method (and sample size) and the enquiry question, so be open to options/5
There is no rule that large samples equal quality research. This is a misnomer that comes from scientific method aiming for statistical significance (a very particular research aim), and even then the sample size is only one aspect of bringing quality to the approach. /4
If detail and complexity are of interest then doing this with larger sample sizes can result in over whelming amounts of information, esp. at analysis stage. You can still count or summarise, but fidelity to the richness of the evidence collected will be challenging./3
Larger sample sizes (30+) have workload implications unless you simplify the data set. So this decision to go large often needs surveys or numerical data such as assessment scores to be used. There is nothing wrong with this, but be aware of the decision you are making/2
Practitioner Enquiry Tip of the Week: Does size matter? When I'm supporting teachers doing enquiry an unseen force often seems to push them to think quality comes from large sample sizes meaning they make decisions they might otherwise have avoided/1🧵
#PractitionerEnquiryTotW
Are you interested in finding out more about practitioner enquiry but are unsure where to start? The CfTE Hub at Strathclyde is holding a 90-minute online workshop on practitioner enquiry, led by Professor Kate Wall.
Register here!
events.teams.microsoft.com/event/c06244...
Practitioner Enquiry Tip of the Week: being stuck. This week's inspiration comes from how I'm feeling facing this week's practitioner enquiry tip of the week. Inspiration usually strikes, but its Wednesday afternoon and my brain's full of other stuff /1🧵
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We need to recognise that the challenge of asking questions we don't know the answer to will lead to moments of stuck-ness. That's when learning happens. Embrace it and in your enquiry communities be ready to help each other out through moments of stuck. Normalise it./8
In my case a relatively positive disposition to being stuck, combined with a deadline (def helps!) and a wee bit of creativity generated inspiration. If you're stuck with your enquiry, embrace it and be resilient when trying different strategies to get un-stuck./7
I was inspired by the honourable state (a term first coined in maths education by Mason et al. 2010) was extended in a primary school across the curriculum to reclaim the position of being stuck as something positive and fundamental to learning, rather than it being a problem /6
At one level it doesn't matter how you solve a problem, different approaches will need to be tried, it's more important how you feel when stuck and your disposition to overcoming the challenge. Your behaviour, whether you give up, or keep going and persevere is important./5
People have different strengths to help us solve a problem, some are good are providing reassurance that it'll be alright and they have confidence in us, other's have different types of knowledge and expertise to draw on, a few think very similarly but might be switched on/4
We can get creative and try and find another way into the problem. I often draw things out, create mind maps or write notes to myself, all as a way of trying to see the problem with a new set of goggles. At the moment this is all very solitary, my fail safe is talk to people /3
So how can we deal with being stuck? Well, we can sit and stubbornly stare at the computer (it didn't work) or we can do other things and hope that a bit of healthy distraction and procrastination will bring about that moment of clarity (also not very successful today)/2
Practitioner Enquiry Tip of the Week: being stuck. This week's inspiration comes from how I'm feeling facing this week's practitioner enquiry tip of the week. Inspiration usually strikes, but its Wednesday afternoon and my brain's full of other stuff /1🧵
#PractitionerEnquiryTotW
Practitioner Enquiry Tip of the Week: being a practitioner enquiry role model. When we share our working out during enquiry, both during and after a cycle of enquiry, then we are, often unconsciously, modelling our metacognitive learning process/1 🧵
#PractitionerEnquiryTotWeek
So embrace being an enquiry role model. Know this doesn't mean you need all the answers or know what you're doing all the time. Indeed this doubt is exactly what we need to role model to each other.
I think that means I'm an expert in not knowing, make of that what you will!/9
Role modelling in practitioner enquiry is essential, but it's not 1 person's job. If everyone's asking authentic questions (being novice) of their practice (where they've expertise), they need to know and don't know simultaneously. This is what needs to be role modelled. /8
So we need to tap into these different opportunities to learn through enquiry and rather than feel pressure to be THE role model, see that we are all modelling to each other, sometimes successes and sometimes not so much, but we learn from that and share responsibility /7
This sharing of enquiry learning over time often doesn't happen just in formal moments, but rather in the informal conversations about process, successes and failures. In fact it can feel a lot easier to make admissions of doubt and not knowing in an informal situation/6
This is daunting when you start sharing your thinking about enquiry: what they're going to model my thinking, I am no expert! Yet we have to remember that part of what we are modelling in enquiry is genuine not knowing and trying to find out. We need to model this novice status/5
It's a relatively robust research finding that metacognition can be learned through good metacognitive role models: a teacher talking through their thinking as the problem solve an exam question acts as a model for young people. We need more of this in prof learning contexts. /4
Through sharing this thinking we're making practitioner enquiry not just about teaching and learning in the classroom, but equally important, the professional learning process and its intricacies. By sharing our thinking we are saying our learning is as important as learners'/3
Sharing during the process of enquiry means being open about your decision making and why. It means showing to others the reflective process of thinking through the question to ask, evidence to collect, interpretation and next steps. In doing so we share our thinking process. /2
Practitioner Enquiry Tip of the Week: being a practitioner enquiry role model. When we share our working out during enquiry, both during and after a cycle of enquiry, then we are, often unconsciously, modelling our metacognitive learning process/1 🧵
#PractitionerEnquiryTotWeek
