College awarded "research-engaged" status
National Foundation for Educational Research honours College
The Sixth Form College Farnborough became one of only two institutions in the country to receive recognition as a Research-Engaged College at the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) annual research conference held in London recently.
The award has been created by a group of educationalists, led by the National Foundation for Educational Research, in order to underline the importance of putting research at the heart of good teaching practice in schools and colleges.
The research project at Farnborough is led by David Godfrey, Assistant Director of Personalised Learning. He said, “Every year, we support subject tutors to undertake research projects with the intention of improving teaching and learning across the College.”
Mr Godfrey, who has undertaken research in education at Brunel University and has published his findings widely, encourages a research based approach to teaching. Tutors whose projects are selected for support funding undertake their research, attend additional research meetings and disseminate their findings at a June conference held at the College, attended by colleagues from many other institutions. All the reports are posted on the College’s website and published in the in-house journal, and many have been taken up by national publications, such as the NFER’s ‘Practical Research for Education’.
Mr Godfrey said, “Farnborough’s approach has been particularly praised for the sustainable, embedded way in which teachers are encouraged to carry out action research.”
“The model established at the Sixth Form College has been studied by Ofsted and LSIS and is celebrated in the national web-based resource, Excellence Gateway, as an example of good practice for others in the sector,” Mr Godfrey added.
In the citation at the awards ceremony in London, Alison Lawson, Principal Research Strategist at NFER said, “Farnborough’s excellent application demonstrated a thorough commitment to research across the whole College, with involvement of a large number of staff. Their enthusiasm and passion for improving learning and teaching through research was clear and they well deserve the award.”
College Principal, Dr John Guy, said, “The College always seeks to improve as a learning institution and it is a great honour that the research approach led by David Godfrey has received such national recognition.”