This course aims to develop students' capacity to engage in rigorous, evidence-informed professional enquiry to support their professional judgement. It introduces key perspectives on teacher enquiry, contrasting structured and pragmatic approaches. Students gain hands-on experience using the Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) framework before progressing to action research, where they identify an area of practice, formulate a research question, and design an actionable, literature-informed enquiry plan. The course emphasises collaboration, criticality, and disciplined enquiry.

Not known.

N/A

N/A

1. A 5000-word essay consisting of two sections (80% of the final grade):

First section will include a portfolio of 2500 words (1500 for the group part + 1000 for the personal part):

Students will work in small groups of 4, in which they will engage in collaborative reflection processes, following a structured framework. The portfolio will document the group's deliberations, detailing how they used the framework to inform emerging pedagogical understanding and provide an overview on their learning process.

The portfolio should include:

i) Group reflective analysis-A record of the group's interpretations of teaching challenges.

ii) Group learning-A description of the key conclusions that emerged from the discussion around each challenge, including details regarding unresolved disagreements among group members, explaining their different perspectives.

iii) Personal reflection-A personal consideration of the student's experience serving as a critical friend to a peer who shared their artefact, and their experience receiving feedback from their peers.

iv) Application-A personal account for each student, explaining their understanding of collaborative enquiry, based on discussion between the course literature and their personal experience.

Second section will include a 2500-word enquiry proposal:

Students will design a comprehensive proposal for a practitioner enquiry project that could be conducted in their own professional context (to clarify, students will only write a proposal. They will not undertake this enquiry as part of the course).

The proposal should include:

i) Research focus-A detailed description of a problem of practice (professional concern) grounded in evidence.

ii) Research question-A clearly formulated, relevant research question derived from the problem of practice.

iii) Methodology-Detailed description of the methodology for the enquiry into the research questions, including an explanation of the pros and cons of the chosen approach.

iv) Ethics-A full consideration of the ethical implications of the proposed enquiry, including balancing benefits, risks, and actions to mitigate risks.

■ To continue to develop a critically reflective approach to practice, encouraging continuous professional self-evaluation and improvement through an evidence-based approach.

■ To develop understanding of dominant approaches to practitioner enquiry and their implications for professional judgement.

■ To develop the capability to use analytic tools to inform pedagogical dialogue and educational decision-making, promoting evidence-based practices in professional settings.

■ To develop knowledge of designing a theoretically informed research plan focused on practice improvement.

■ Cultivate a critical, ethically informed orientation to enquiry within diverse educational contexts.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

- Analyse professional practice using structured and flexible enquiry approaches, demonstrating disciplined reasoning.

- Evaluate the affordances and limitations of different enquiry traditions, including AIW and action research.

- Design a proposal for enquiry which formulates a clear and relevant research question indicating the focus of proposed enquiry within the professional context.

- Engage productively with peers as "critical friends," offering and integrating constructive feedback.

- Assess the strengths and weaknesses of diverse practitioner research and enquiry approaches and justify appropriate methodologies for their own proposal.

- Apply ethical research guidelines and professional guidelines in the preparation of proposals for practitioner enquiry.