Practitioner Track and ‘Teacher Day’ at the EDUCATION Showcase, at London Festival of Learning, June

One of the most important days at this year’s London Festival of Learning (June 22-30) will be the Practitioner Track.

Being held on the first day of EDUCATE’s three-day Showcase, on June 26, the event will bring together academics, researchers and educators in a unique opportunity to share and discuss research evidence and to initiate potential collaborations.

Dr Mutlu Cukurova, Lecturer in Digital Technologies in Education, Learning Scientist at UCL Knowledge Lab, and a Chair of the Practitioner Track, said: “One of the fundamental purposes of educational research is to provide evidence to facilitate effective practice in education.

“We know that some of the most frequently reported barriers to research evidence uptake are poor access to good quality and relevant research, and the lack of timely output. On the other hand, improved relationships and effective collaboration between researchers, policymakers and practitioners expedite the adoption of evidence in practice.

“The London Festival of Learning is a great opportunity to overcome some of these barriers and facilitate research evidence in educational practice.”

Practitioner track this year has received submissions from academics and practitioners across the globe and the ones accepted for discussion and dissemination are those that teacher can relate to as part of their work.

The programme for the day includes discussions on ‘Education as a Design Science’, ‘No more snake oil: How research informed EdTech is changing the landscape’ and ‘Research and practice – bridging the gap’.

Also present at the day-long event will be representatives of EDUCATE’s cohorts – the SMEs, entrepreneurs and innovators that the team has worked with over the past 18 months since its inception – who will be discussing their own work in EdTech and how this can be used by practitioners and learners.

“The London Festival of Learning is a great education and learning event. It will bring together researchers and practitioners in the field from different parts of the world to share evidence and experiences. This is a great opportunity for practitioners and other stakeholders to engage with key researchers and recent research evidence,” Mutlu added.

Graeme Lawrie, Director of Outreach and Innovation at Sevenoaks School, who spoke recently at the VR World conference on how to harness VR, AR and mixed reality in schools, said: “This is a welcome and rare opportunity for those of us working in the classroom to have a direct dialogue with academics, researchers and businesses, whose ideas often have an end point in our classroom.

“If we, as teachers, can offer feedback and knowledge on what works and what doesn’t, then surely we can improve teaching and learning and the life chances of children.”

*The TES has kindly agreed to be Media Partner for the London Festival of Learning and the Showcase. Teachers wishing to come to the Practitioner Track and Teacher Day can get a discounted ticket, offering a £50 saving, by quoting tespromo2606 when purchasing their ticket on the London Festival of Learning website at: https://www.londonfestivallearning.com/