Research Learning Communities (RLC) was an intervention that aimed to raise teachers’ awareness, understanding, and use of educational research in developing their practice, with the ultimate aim of improving pupil outcomes. Evidence Champions from each school attended RLC workshops in which they discussed research with academic experts and colleagues from other schools.
Creating knowledge of what works in education is a useful first step. But if this research does not reach teachers or is not acted upon, then a growing evidence base will not be enough to improve pupil outcomes. For this reason, the EEF has funded this study, along with a number of related projects on research use in schools, which aimed to test the best ways of engaging teachers with relevant research.
The evaluation did not find any overall improvement in pupils’ reading results. However, the study suggests that there may be a relationship between how engaged teachers are with research, and the attainment of their pupils. There was also some tentative evidence that being in an RLC increased teachers’ disposition towards research. While these results should be treated with caution, they are of interest because they suggest one possible way in which RLC could improve pupil outcomes over the longer term: by promoting a teacher characteristic – research engagement – which is linked to positive pupil outcomes
Teachers in the study reported several challenges to engaging with research, particularly lack of time and staff turnover among research champions. The Education Endowment Foundation will continue to explore innovative ways of encouraging teachers to use research, including through our Research Schools and on-going Campaigns.
- The project found no evidence that Research Learning Communities improves reading outcomes for children at Key Stage 2.
- The project did find a positive impact on teachers’ disposition towards research. There was, however, some evidence that this impact may have been influenced by other factors such as the level of postgraduate qualifications or seniority of teachers that took part in the intervention.
- Exploratory analysis identified some evidence of a small positive relationship between teachers’ disposition towards research and pupil outcomes, irrespective of involvement in an RLC.
- Evidence Champion roles in each school were intended to be held by the same people throughout the intervention, to support the development of a research-focused culture within each school. Staff turnover was therefore a barrier to implementation.
- Some teachers felt that it may take a number of years for participation in an RLC to change teaching practice and improve pupil outcomes. Future research could therefore examine longer term impacts.