The ETF believes that enabling FE practitioners to take charge of their own professional development can lead to increased levels of empowerment, motivation and most importantly improvement for learners.
Over the years the ETF has offered practitioners the chance to support their own and others’ growth in teaching, learning and assessment through a variety of practitioner-led development and research activities.
The Outstanding Teaching, Learning and Assessment programme ran from 2015 to 2022 and consisted of small groups of FE practitioners undertaking an action research project with the support of a research mentor.
If you are interested in the action research process, the programme produced an organisational guide to undertaking action research.
Project reports from the programme can be found on the ETF’s Practitioner Research and Evidence Portal (PREP).
The ETF’s practitioner research programme, delivered by the University of Sunderland, was the successor to the Research Development Fellowship. This programme started in 2018 and will conclude with its final MPhil year 2 cohort in 2023. The programme enabled FE practitioners to develop their research skills at the postgraduate level. Research reports from the programme can also be accessed on the PREP.
Practice development groups involved groups of teachers and trainers meeting in action learning sets to develop an area of teaching, learning and assessment. The aim of action learning sets is to follow a set process to discuss problems and successes, hear different perspectives and share useful resources.
Current practitioner research activity at the ETF includes: