ED:TALK – Evidence & Dialogue Toolkit

Projects don’t necessarily have to end. Many of the teachers who helped with the development of the toolkit found new effective practice that they wanted to continue implementing in their day-to-day work.

However, for the purposes of reflecting on what you have achieved and in order to facilitate reporting on the evidence you might have developed in your evaluation of your project, it is desirable that you have a small amount of time to take stock of the project you have undertaken.

You may want to (but do not have to) draft a brief project report. A template has been developed to help you do just that.

To help you with the final reporting process, make sure that:

1. Keep a record of the project you have chosen, adapted, or developed — this can be a simple text document, or a presentation slide.
2. Document what evaluation approach you have taken in your attempt to understand if your project has been successful at meeting your initial goals — include this alongside the project description.
3. If you collect any data as part of the evaluation, keep it safe and secure and only delete it once you have explored it thoroughly.

Potential ways to report on your toolkit implementation journey

A chat or a presentation in a staff meeting A chat or a presentation in a staff meeting of another subject department or another school, e.g., within your federation or locality A presentation in parents’ evening, governors' meeting, student council or school assembly A presentation for your local teacher education provider A presentation or workshop at a local or national (or even international!) teacher conference A report for the school newsletter or website A short report in a teacher publication or local newspaper

If you decide to use the slides template to report on your project, these are the topics you will be addressing:

1. A brief account of your context and your school
2. The issue, problem, or topic you identified and wanted to address, and your goal for the project
3. A brief project description alongside the short note on how you evaluated your project
4. The experience of implementing the project and results you have observed so far
5. A final reflection on your original goal and implications for further practice

If you found the experience of evaluating your project captivating, the EEF DIY Evaluation Guide offers you the chance to expand on the evaluation approach you have taken in your project, and perhaps test an even larger project. Alternatively, in the research references, you will find links to many papers which demonstrate how classroom (and staffroom!) talk can be analysed qualitatively to gain new insights.