Our Work

The National Teacher Research Panel was set up in 1999 by its then sponsors, the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Its initial purpose was to provide an expert teacher perspective to researchers, funders and policymakers on research priorities, projects and reports. Since then, the Panel has also worked to promote teaching as a research and evidence informed profession.

The National Teacher Research Panel has three main goals:

To ensure that all research in education takes account of the teacher perspective;
To ensure a higher profile for research and evidence informed practice in government, academic and practitioner communities; and
To increase the number of teachers engaged in and with the full spectrum of research activity.

Ensure that all research in education takes account of the teacher perspective

From the start, a core principle of the Panel's work has been the importance of the teacher perspective as a means of improving the design, conduct and reporting of educational research and making it more relevant and accessible to the profession. The Panel provides a resource to researchers, funders and policymakers who require input from teachers with research expertise at all stages of the research and policymaking processes, from identifying priorities to making published research accessible to teachers. We encourage research project managers to involve teachers as partners in the process from the very beginning and support them in doing so.

Panel members currently participate in many national advisory groups and research steering committees. All Panel members have extensive experience of research through their own and others' work, which means they are ideally placed to bridge the gap between the research and practice worlds.

In recent months, Panel members have commented on the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Professional User Reviews, systematic reviews from the EPPI Centre (Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating Centre, based at the Institute of Education, University of London), and various DfES commissioned research reports. They have also taken part in research seminars on lifelong learning and reasons why teachers leave the profession.

Ensure a higher profile for research and evidence informed practice in government, academic and practitioner communities

Panel members act as ambassadors for teaching as a research and evidence informed profession, in the policy and research communities as well as amongst colleagues. We believe that making use of research and evidence is a complex process involving professional interpretation, and that teacher engagement with and in research is a tool for improving teaching and learning and not an end in itself.

We have published various academic papers and resources (such as, our papers for the BERA conference in recent years which will be available on this site shortly, and our guidelines for CPD/staff development coordinators) which illustrate the benefits of involving teachers as partners with a distinctive, but equally important, contribution to make.

The Panel is also keen to increase debate about the issues raised by participation in large scale research projects for teachers and schools (see Hosting research in schools).

Increase the number of teachers engaged in and with the full spectrum of research activity

The Panel believes that engagement in and with research has the capacity not only to raise the self-esteem and credibility of the teachers involved, but also the profession as a whole. Teachers naturally reach out for good ideas that seem to them to be likely to work in their own classrooms. Research and evidence informed practice means doing this systematically and learning from the outcomes, very often in collaboration with others, especially with academic researchers. In order to increase the number of teachers engaged in and with research, the Panel seeks to work strategically with policy and academic colleagues to ensure that opportunities exist for teachers to use research processes and/or findings in their work.

The Panel recognises that teachers may benefit from engagement in and/or with research in different ways at different points in their careers, from having access to relevant research findings through to the opportunity to undertake doctoral research or publish their own findings. We therefore promote teacher research as not only an effective form of professional development, but also as an important contribution to the body of knowledge about teaching and learning.

Glossary of education research terms
Members of the National Teacher Research Panel have drawn together concise and accessible definitions of key terms and concepts in educational research to support practitioners new to the process. Many of these terms and definitions continue to be the subject of discussion and debate, but we hope that practitioners consulting this glossary will find that it is a useful introduction and a supportive tool in their research work. We welcome further contact from all site visitors.