Teacher Researcher Programme – benefits and outcomes

A key purpose of the Research Strategy of the General Teaching Council for Scotland is to encourage engagement with, and participation in, research by Scottish teachers.

The Teacher Researcher Programme provides an opportunity for individual teachers to engage in small scale action research projects aligned with priority research areas identified by the Council.

The seminar will have two elements. In the first, Ian Matheson will outline what the programme aims to achieve and how it works. In the second, Carol Smith will share her experience as a teacher researcher, reflecting on what she has learned from carrying out her research as well as discussing the outcomes of her project.

In this, she has explored the use of learning journals as a self reflection tool to support and develop the skills of Probationer teachers in critical evaluation and reflection, to support the development of their professional practice and as an aid to the coaching and mentoring process.

Ian Matheson is a secondary teacher who taught in Cumbernauld and was a Principal Teacher in Campbeltown and East Renfrewshire before managing a Scotland-wide initiative to support education-business links. He then spent ten years managing collaboration between colleges in Glasgow and joined GTCS in 2006. He also has 16 years' experience as a Principal Assessor for SQA.

In GTCS Ian's main areas of work cover all aspects of the Council's involvement in research, including supporting teachers on the Teacher Researcher Programme, as well as liaison between the Council and the college sector.

Carol Smith is a primary teacher with more than ten years' experience in schools in Falkirk, where she has been a class teacher, Senior Teacher and Acting Assistant Head Teacher before being seconded to work with the Falkirk Council Probationer Support Team in 2006. Carol is also a Chartered Teacher. In December 2007 Carol began work on her research as a participant in the GTC Teacher Researcher Programme.