Posts

Research, quality improvement and evidence-based practice: Ethical implications

Recently I've begun to ask myself the question as to whether within the 'school-research/evidence community'  there is a shared understanding of the similarities and differences between - research, quality improvement and evidence-based practice, and the ethical implications of these similarities and difference.  This is a critical issue because if schools and school leaders are not fully aware of the ethical issues, there is a real-risk that pupils will be disadvantaged by well meaning, but ultimately flawed attempts at randomised control trials masquerading as quality improvement or evidence-informed practice.  Unfortunately, this cannot be put down to ignorance - as the knowledge exists in the health-care sector of how to conduct ethically sound quality improvement interventions. So to help school leaders begin to explore the ethical implications of seeking to develop the research/evidence based school, this post will: define research, quality improvement and evidenc...
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High staff turnover - it's not always a sign of a dysfunctional SLT

Recently I was involved in the back end of Twitter discussion with  -   @mmm684   @JarlathOBrien @AlisonMPeacock about the causes of staff turnover, and whether high staff turnover was a sign of a potentially dysfunctional SLT.  Given the limitations of Twitter, I thought it was best if I tried to expand my thinking about staff turnover, as staff turnover may have positives and negative causes. As such, I  thought it might be useful to develop this 2x2 matrix to think about the level and causes of staff turnover. Staff turnover Low High Reason Positive Q1 Q2 Negative Q3 Q4 In Q1, a school may have low staff turnover due to the supportive and developmental opportunities within the school.  The school may be growing so opportunities for advancement are naturally provided.  In Q2 you may have high levels of staff turnover which are the product of development opportunities being provided ...
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