Teaching and Learning Research Programme

TLRP

The Teaching and Learning Research Programme is the UK ESRC's largest educational research programme and provides coordination for 700 researchers in some 70 project teams and almost 20 initiatives of cross-programme thematic analysis across the UK. The first projects began empirical work in 2000 and the last project is presently expected to end in 2011. The total budget in the summer of 2007 was some £43m and drew contributions from a wide range of UK government bodies.

History

The origins of the Programme can be traced to the mid-1990s when educational research was heavily criticised for being small scale, irrelevant, inaccessible and low quality. Researchers faced major challenges in demonstrating the value of investment in this field. Nevertheless, through the imagination and commitment of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, a new opportunity was created though TLRP.

TLRP’s overarching strategy has been to support research which is of both high quality in social scientific terms and of high relevance in terms of policy and practice. At the same time, considerable effort has gone into impact work, capacity building across the field of educational research and in ‘bridging’ between the worlds of researchers, policy-makers and practitioners.

Aims

Learning: To improve outcomes for learners of all ages in teaching and learning contexts across the UK.

Outcomes: TLRP studies a broad range of learning outcomes. These include both the acquisition of skill, understanding, knowledge and qualifications and the development of attitudes, values and identities relevant to a learning society.

Lifecourse: To support research projects and related activities at many ages and stages in education, training and lifelong learning. The Programme is concerned with patterns of success and difference, inclusion and exclusion through the lifecourse.

Enrichment: To commit to user engagement at all stages of research. The Programme promotes research on teaching and learning across disciplines, methodologies and sectors, and supports various forms of national and international co-operation and comparison.

Expertise: To enhance capacity for all forms of research on teaching and learning, and for research-informed policy and practice. This work is the particular focus of the Programme’s research capacity building strategy.

Improvement: To develop the knowledge base on teaching and learning and contributes to the improvement of policy and practice in the UK. The Programme works to maximise the impact of its research.

Strategy

TLRP’s overall development is driven by six key strategic commitments:

1. User engagement for relevance and quality

The programme maintains links with high-leverage user organisations in each educational sector and in each part of the UK. TLRP also works directly with governments in each part of the UK to maximise the use of its research. TLRP has been represented by the Director on national bodies for the coordination of education research in Wales (Education and Training Research Liaison Committee of the National Assembly for Wales); England (National Education Research Forum and the DfES Schools Research Advisory Group); Scotland(Management Committee of the Applied Educational Research Scheme). The Programme has also sustained links with senior government officials in Northern Ireland and presented at the 2005 conference on the restructuring of teacher education.

2. Knowledge generation by project teams

In 2000, TLRP started by funding four networks of projects. A second phase brought in nine larger projects and this was followed by funding of twelve more. At the same time, focused funding initiatives have made specific provision for teams in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales – and for some high priority topics (such as widening participation in higher education and concerning technology enhanced learning). Additionally, there have been five different types of investment in capacity building – ranging from fellowships, training courses and e-resource development.

3. Knowledge synthesis through thematic activities

The Programme’s strategy for thematic development is a major focus of work as the initiative matures. The portfolio of initiatives to add value through cross-Programme analysis includes: consultancies, thematic groups, thematic seminar series, conferences, workshops, thematic meta-tagging of outputs and sectoral reviews. A conceptual framework is used to organise and integrate this work.

4. Knowledge transformation for impact

TLRP’s impact strategy is a multi-level one, which tries to produce research findings in forms which are tailored to specific audiences. TLRP produces its own publications and works with user bodies to maximise impact. Outputs include ‘Research Briefings’ (summarising findings), ‘TLRP Commentaries’ (applying findings to contemporary issues), practitioner applications (classroom enquiry activities drawing on research), books (in two series with Routledge), journals (including many special issues), reports, etc. TLRP also uses an electronic repository and meta-tagging system called D-space. This has been adopted for deposition of all project publications and has significantly improved the availability of outputs via the internet and major databases.

5. Capacity building for professional development

Capacity building is an intrinsic part of TLRP’s work. In all phases of TLRP funding, it has been a criterion for project selection, and this work is supported, monitored and reported on each year. Particular attention has been paid to skill and career development of contract research staff, with special events each year. Additionally, with support from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), TLRP has funded five Research Training Fellowships, which enable senior practitioners to study part-time for PhD’s in association with TLRP projects. From 2002-2005 the Programme’s Research Capacity Building Network provided cross-Programme training services in the research methods which were appropriate in the study of teaching and learning.

6. Partnerships for sustainability

Despite its size, TLRP is still small in relation to the challenge and range educational research. It is also only expected to exist for a limited period. For such reasons, the programme has sought to develop close working relationships with other organisations. Such partnerships exist with the British Education Index (BEI) for electronic knowledge management, the Cambridge Centre for Applied Research in Education Technology (CARET) for development of an advanced ICT infrastructure, and Routledge for book and journal publications. TLRP also works with the relevant government bodies which help to form policy regarding education research within each country of the UK. Generally, an informal goal is to ‘give everything away’ by the end.

Because of the duration, scale and complexity of TLRP, these elements are managed simultaneously - for instance, with some projects being commissioned just as others complete. However, as the Programme matures, there is also a change in the balance of activity, with more emphasis being placed on knowledge synthesis, transformation and impact. Explicit strategies to underpin post-Programme sustainability are being developed in relation to capacity building, the use of ICT to support research development in the field and the deepening of partnerships with cognate bodies.