Championing Education Research

05 Mar 2021

Two-year study carried out by The Brilliant Club finds that teachers with a PhD are primed to value education research and the importance of research-informed practice.

The study, Transforming PhD graduates into research-engaged teachers, shows that teachers with a PhD on the Researchers in Schools (RIS) programme access and understand research evidence, use research evidence in practice, and use research evidence to influence others.

The findings of The Brilliant Club’s study were compared to research conducted by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) on research engagement in the general teaching population and found that RIS teachers are comparatively highly research engaged.

Key Findings

• 87% of RIS participants reported that they felt confident analysing information from research, compared to 66% of the general teaching population
• All RIS teachers enrolled in the second or third year of the programme in 2020 reported they knew where to find relevant research
• 25% of first year RIS participants in 2020 found academic literature “very easy” to understand, compared to 12% of the general teaching population
• Information from academic literature was the most frequently identified source of influence by RIS teachers (selected by 60% of respondents), whereas only 16% of the general teaching population selected academic research as a top-3 influence
• In 2020, all final year RIS participants reported that they had used academic research to help them implement new teaching and learning approaches in the classroom
• In 2020, 64% of RIS participants in the final year of the programme reported they had used research evidence to influence their colleagues to change their research practice. This was in contrast to 47% of the general teaching population

Kike Agunbiade, National Programme Director for Researchers in Schools, said:

“Promoting education research is one of the three core ways in which RIS participants can benefit both pupils and schools. We are delighted to read these findings which confirm our RIS teachers are engaging with research right from the outset in their teaching careers.”

You can read the full case study here. For more information on this study and how you can get involved with our Research, email us.