Teachers are becoming increasingly engaged in research, says GTC Chief Executive Carol Adams.

'Love to be involved but just can't spare the time'; 'It's the domain of the select few' - once these may have been the standard responses to the notion of teachers embarking on their own research, but times have changed.

Since we began, the GTC has sought to promote and support teaching as a research-informed profession. In practice, we're eager to help teachers benefit more directly from others' research, as well as assisting those who want to initiate their own projects. Our belief is that encouraging teachers to become researchers has huge benefits for teaching and learning - and it's a view that's becoming progressively popular with teachers.

For instance, it's encouraging to see that the area of our website that attracts most visitors is our regular Research of the month www.gtce.org.uk/ResearchOfTheMonth. Each month we select a different topic that we believe will interest teachers, respond to their needs and reflect the GTC’s priorities. For example, in May 2003, we featured the results of a school-based research initiative, funded by the then Teacher Training Agency and the Centre for British Teachers. The results were intriguing, demonstrating some important changes in the attitudes of those teachers taking part. Rather than regarding research as being about abstract notions, participants saw it as an effective and practical way of boosting their knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning processes.

And significantly, the teachers' involvement in research was highly infectious. As the project developed, previously cautious or even sceptical colleagues became active participants. In some schools, the enthusiasm transmitted to pupils too, which led to them helping in some of the research and development activities, such as maintaining learning logs or helping to prepare a questionnaire.

More recently, the website has focused on topical issues such as parental involvement in their children's learning. This research reveals that the key activity for parents to enhance their child's achievement is the conversations they have with them at home. The study also asks some crucial questions about how we might use research to help close the social class achievement gap.

Of course we also put our money where our mouth is, often working in partnership with other organisations to commission and fund a variety of different projects, including one that is featured in this term's magazine. Developing Pedagogies for E-learning Resources (PELRS) is an in depth research and development project, based on an action research model with teachers and pupils, which aims to generate more innovative approaches to teaching and learning through new technologies. Find out more in chapter 7.

Other work includes:

- An exploration of LAs' policies and strategies for supporting the education of young refugees and asylum-seekers, working with Cambridge University, the NUT and the Refugee Council

- A six-year longitudinal study of new entrants to teaching, co-funded with the DfES and the TDA

- A qualitative study of the contribution that older teachers make to the profession.

One area where the GTC has been able to play a major role is that of teachers' continuing professional development (CPD). Now part of the Government’s five-year strategy, the GTC has been instrumental in securing its place on the education agenda. A series of systematic reviews on the impact of sustained and collaborative CPD has been highly influential, in both our own and Government's policy and strategies. We’re also working to transform perceptions, particularly about what makes CPD effective. For example, another research project, co-funded with the DfES and National College for School Leadership, has produced a detailed report on how schools create and sustain themselves as effective professional learning communities.

In addition, there is a pack of resources, downloadable from: http://www.ncsl.org.uk/networked/networked-research.cfm

Finally, last term we sent all schools the sixth leaflet in our Teachers' Professional Learning Framework series, Using research in your school and teaching. Copies are still available free by phoning 0870 001 0308. The leaflet sets out many of the advantages for teachers, pupils and schools of engaging in research. But perhaps they are best summed up by one primary school teacher, who says: "Research puts the ‘wow’ moments back into teaching."