How do teachers share their learning and practice from creative experiences with colleagues in their own schools and more widely between schools? What factors enable, hinder and sustain such sharing? How do teachers plan for and carry out effective sharing?

Creative Partnerships (CP) commissioned the NFER to research the sharing of practice generated through CP within and between schools locally. Based on 93 interviews with teachers and CP staff, the research explored the relationship between the well-resourced dissemination of the work of CP and the more informal means by which teachers learn directly from each other.

Key Findings

• Teachers learnt a lot from attending conferences and events about creativity, but they also engaged very directly with each other (e.g. in the classroom and in staff meetings), sharing their enthusiasm and their techniques.
• Informal approaches were an important stepping stone for teachers’ initial engagement with creative practice, as well as for their continued reflection and learning.
• The study formulates a four-step plan for appropriate sharing, and sets out a model to help ascertain when sharing is successful.

Downing, D., Lord, P., Jones, M., Martin, K. and Springate, I. (2007). Study of Creative Partnerships' Local Sharing of Practice and Learning. Slough: NFER.