Reimagining Teaching and Learning in Schools with Research-Practice Partnerships by Prof Penuel

RPIC Keynote Address by Prof William Penuel

Reimagining classrooms and schools as sites of ambitious and equitable teaching and learning is a centerpiece of reforms today across the globe. Achieving those dreams, though, requires sustained, collaborative efforts among researchers, policymakers, educators, and communities to achieve. Nor can individual innovations for classrooms get us there: changes to systems are necessary. Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are a collaborative research strategy for transforming teaching and learning at the level of large school systems. RPPs are intentionally organized to connect diverse forms of expertise and shift power relations in the research endeavor to ensure that all partners have a say in work they do together. This talk will define the key features of equity oriented RPPs and how such RPPs vary in their goals, approaches to research and composition, presenting examples drawn from across the globe. In addition, the talk will describe multiple projects of an RPP called the inquiryHub research-practice partnership, to develop and study curricular innovations in a large urban school district, many of which have spread to other systems across the U.S. These include an effort to develop free secondary science materials aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards and a multi-institutional project that is investigating the potential of an Artificial Intelligence partner to support more effective and equitable small group collaborative learning in STEM. The talk will conclude with a call to action for organizing RPPs toward the goal of reimagining classrooms and schools toward more just and sustainable futures.