REVIEW/PLAN

Sharing and Applying

• Share your learning with others
• Put next steps into action and begin the next cycle of your research

Introduction

Now that you have consolidated your learning by creating a report, it is important to share your learning with others. These may be others in your community who can benefit from what you have learnt. You may also want to share your work with a wider community of practice beyond your own department or school, in this way participating in a wider conversation about creativity and education. This is also an opportunity to celebrate your work, and that of your students.

In this section, we will also look at putting learning into practice. You may find that this process leads you towards asking a new question: if so, this is where you should return to the ‘plan’ stage to begin a new cycle in your action research.

Ethical reminder

Remember that you must not share information about your research participants unless you have asked their permission to do so in the context of the research. This applies to photographs and names, but also to examples of work, and direct quotes, even if they are anonymous. Remind yourself of the permissions that participants gave through your ethical consent process, and ensure that however you are sharing your research, you respect your participants’ right to confidentiality and anonymity. Some journals and academic conferences will only accept contributions from research that has been reviewed by a university ethics committee, so check this before spending time in preparing material for these contexts.

Activity 1: Sharing your research

• Look at the examples given below of different ways of disseminating the findings from an action research project to help you make your own plan for sharing your research findings.

Examples of action research dissemination

Sharing within your community: you might want to share your findings with others in your department, or within your school.  In Penryn Creativity Collaborative this included: sharing findings within departments, sharing findings across the whole schools in staff meetings, leading training sessions for other teachers in school, using the findings as part of a coaching programme, sharing information with parents via newsletters and at governors’ meetings.

Sharing with your wider community: think about the networks you are already part of.  In Penryn Creativity Collaborative this included presenting information at local head teachers’ associations, at events for the national Creativity Collaboratives programme, and with Multi-Academy Trusts.

Journal articles, conferences, blogs, seminars, webinars: both teacher-researchers and university researchers got involved with all of these kinds of dissemination during Penryn Creativity Collaborative.  Examples included articles for practitioner journals, presentations at subject association conferences,  a symposium with local businesses and schools, and a number of different blogs.  You may also want to consider publication in action research specific journals, such as Educational Action Research.

Press: Publication of your own report on a school website, or any kind of sharing event can be a good basis for a press release to local or national newspapers, together with dissemination on social media.  Liaise with your school or Multi-Academy Trust press officer for this.

Resources: Creating resources can support your colleagues to try out your findings in their own classrooms.  For the Penryn Creativity Collaborative Toolkit, teachers created planning tools as well as resources showing how creative skills might look across the curriculum and for different age groups.

Activity 2: Action and planning

Action research is always thought of as a cycle. This is because researching practice is complex and ongoing. Through the process of exploring a topic, trying things out, reaching some findings and putting findings into practice, you’ll almost certainly find that you need to refine your question, widen, or narrow your question, or ask a follow-up / related question.

• Review the ‘implications’ section of your report to help you decide what actions you want to take (or are already taking) as a result of your research – make a note of these in your research diary.

Schools in Penryn made wide ranging changes to policy and practice as a result of their teachers’ action research.  These included individual teachers incorporating new approaches into their teaching, schools  including creativity in school improvement/ development plans, in whole school visions and values, changes to curriculum in individual subjects and across whole school curricula, changes to assessment models, incorporation into CPD and coaching programmes, links to careers programmes, and changes in partnership practices.  Explore the Penryn Creativity Collaborative final report (Findings RQ1, pp. 29-38) for more details.

• Consider whether there is a follow up question that you need to ask:
  • Have you fully answered your original question, or is there a part of it that still needs to be investigated?
  • Do you want to refine / adjust your original question now that you know more about creative skills / pedagogies in your setting?
  • Do you want to explore the same topic with a wider / different group of people?
  • Has the action you took during your research raised new questions for you?
  • Is there a question that you need to ask in relation to whatever your next actions are going to be?
• In your Research Diary, make a note of any follow up questions you have identified, then return to the Research Design module to begin planning your next cycle of action research!

FAQ

How can I share my research with my students?

It is good practice in all research to share the findings with participants. Think about students as one audience you are creating a report for and consider how to make it accessible for them. This could be as simple as creating a one-page summary and introducing this in a lesson or assembly. You may also want to collaborate with your students in developing the report and sharing it more widely.