NIACE event to raise the profile of research Friday, December 11, 2009 - 10:30

The Learning and Skills Research Network (LSRN) encourages the use of research in order to make a difference to professional practice, management and leadership.

Changing World, Changing Research provided opportunities for all those working in the Learning and Skills sector - practitioners, managers, tutors, trainers, teachers, learning support staff - to hear from major research centres as well as projects, to present their own research and to take part in the many available workshops on research methods.

Chairing the conference was Andrew Morris, Member of the LSRN national planning group. Other speakers included:

• Professor Mike Campbell, Director of Research and Policy, UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES);
• Tom Schuller, Director of the Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning; and
• David Collins, Chief Executive of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service.

 Andrew Morris, Member of the Learning and Skills Research Network planning group, said:

"The Learning and Skills Research Network is going from strength to strength, as policies and organisations in the sector come and go and the underlying need for sound knowledge remains."

"2009 has seen the Learning and Skills Research Network become a major catalyst for collaboration between organisations such as the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, the Institute for Learning, the Learning and Skills Network, Edexcel and the National Foundation for Educational Research as well as between practitioners on the ground, meeting in the regions."

Peter Lavender, NIACE Deputy Chief-Executive, said:

"The Learning and Skills Research Network event is the only independent national conference for researchers who are also teachers and managers in the Learning and Skills sector. It's a critical thing to get the connection between public policy, good research and the experience of those in classrooms and other learning environments, right. The Learning and Skills Research Network adds a valuable dimension to what we can learn from research and from each other."

Tom Schuller, co-author of Learning Through Life, the final report of the Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning, said:

"In Learning Through Life, we put forward proposals for making the lifelong learning system ‘more intelligent' in order to improve its effectiveness and fairness. As part of this greater intelligence we need to strengthen our knowledge base. For example, we spend £55bn a year on lifelong learning, but still have only a fragile grasp of how effectively this expenditure is deployed."

"The Learning and Skills Research Network is a major channel for strengthening our understanding of how the system works, and how it might work better. I'm looking forward to hearing the high quality research which will be presented and discussed."

The LSRN has this year reinstated its Learning and Skills Sector Research Award for 'Best Research Paper'. The awards - first prize and runner up - were announced at the close of the conference.

Chair of the Judges Panel, Jill Jameson, of the University of Greenwich, said:

"The prize winners who will be announced today, provided excellent examples of practitioner research which will help to transform practice and develop evidence-based approaches to teaching and learning."

Changing World, Changing Research is sponsored by the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), the Institute for Learning (IfL), The Higher Education Academy and the National Open College Network (NOCN).