As part of the Welsh education reform programme, the relationship between research and teacher education has been identified as an important component for improving Welsh education and meeting the aspirations of the new Welsh Curriculum.
We were commissioned by the Welsh Government to support developments in research-informed teacher education, by strengthening capacity in the education system for evidence-based, research-informed pedagogical practice.
Focusing on initial teacher education, we designed a quality enhancement tool with two key areas of focus aimed at building capacity for research-informed practice:
- the need to increase research capacity in teacher educators in Higher Education
- the need to integrate theory and practice in initial teacher education programmes.
The quality enhancement tool is designed to support Initial Teacher Education partnerships to meet the Government’s ITE accreditation criteria and engage in ongoing quality enhancement. It is intended to support evidence-informed planning, implementation and evaluation for improvement, by supporting providers to:
- articulate change mechanisms and identify resources needed and actions to take
- use external and institutional evidence to review the current situation
- plan the monitoring of progress towards goals.
