Why "Unpacking"?

"Evidence is important, of course, but what is more important is that we need to build teacher expertise and professionalism so that teachers can make better judgments about when, and how, to use research."

The above quote is from this Dylan William TES article. In my last post I said that one of my key reasons in starting this blog was to share some of the findings I come across as a result of researching for my book. When writing I often found myself using the word "unpacking", which is where the title of this blog came from, but what does it mean?

"Classrooms are just too complicated for research ever to tell teachers what to do. Teachers need to know about research...so that they can make smarter decisions about where to invest their time"

Another quote from the same article that sets up an analogy for how I see the relationship between educational research and classroom teaching:

You've just bought a brand new desk from everyone's favourite DIY furniture store, IKEA. The package contains everything you need to make your desk: tools, materials, and instructions. But disaster strikes! The ride home was riddled with potholes, the package has taken a battering and has split open leaving everything strewn across your boot. You manage to get everything back into the package and inside your house.

Takeaway 1: Research often comes pre-packaged as it's impossible to make it bespoke for each individual classroom: handle with care!

You look at the jumble in front of you and sigh as you start trying to sort it all out. You carefully unpack the package and arrange all of the contents in front of you, open the instructions and start reading. You use the instructions to help you start piecing things back together.

Takeaway 2: Research must be understood in the context it was carried out in and with the specific methods used before being translated into our classrooms.

You've followed the instructions to the T and put everything together, it looks exactly like the photo on the website! But something isn't quite right, your desk is wobbly. You look closely and realise that it is in fact because your floor is uneven.

Takeaway 3: Even though we've done everything by the book if we don't account for the needs of our classroom, things are unlikely to go as planned.

You cut up a bit of card from the packaging and stick it underneath one of the table legs - still wobbly. So you cut up some more bits and keep trying and testing until SUCCESS - YOUR DESK IS READY!

Takeaway 4: Having found ways of adapting the research for our classrooms we need to test it. If it doesn't quite work, we'll need to continue adapting and testing before moving on.

So why "Unpacking"? Because teaching is hard, and implementing research into teaching is even harder. But by carefully unpacking the ideas and contexts of the research, we hopefully can find a way of successfully bringing it into our classroom.