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There are growing expectations in Australia and internationally that school educators will engage with and use research to improve their practice. In order to support educators to respond to such expectations, there is a need to be able to accurately assess the levels of educators' research engagement. At present, however, few psychometrically sound instruments are available. Drawing on two studies of Australian educators (n = 1,311) and utilising Rasch analysis, supported by confirmatory factor analysis, this paper reports on the development of a brief eight-item scale that demonstrates validity and reliability and evidenced unidimensionality in the second study. The scale is intended as a quick, easy-to-use tool for educators to gain insights into their beliefs about the value of engaging with research, their actions around using research, and their confidence in finding, interpreting, and judging the quality of relevant research. Notwithstanding the need for further testing, this paper argues that the scale has the potential to be applicable to other educational contexts and to contribute to future research into educators' research engagement and its assessment. The scale can also provide school and education system leaders, as well as evaluators and researchers, with data regarding educators' research engagement over time, allowing for research use supports and resources to be better targeted.

Background: This article comes in response to two gaps within the research use literature: a lack of work on quality of use as distinct from quality of evidence, and a lack of research use models based on practitioner, as opposed to researcher, perspectives. Aims and objectives: The study probes into the views of education practitioners about 'using research well', and explores: (1) the extent to which those views align with or differ from a conceptual framework of quality research use; and (2) whether and how practitioner views can provide deeper insights into quality use of research in practice. Methods: The article draws on open-text survey (n=492) and interview (n=27) responses from Australian teachers and school leaders, which were analysed in relation to components of the Quality Use of Research Evidence (QURE) Framework. Findings: There was considerable alignment between the practitioners' views and the QURE Framework, but greater recognition for certain enablers such as 'skillsets' and 'leadership', as compared with others, such as 'relationships' and 'infrastructure'. The practitioners' accounts provided nuanced descriptions and elaborations of different aspects of using research well. Discussion and conclusions: The findings suggest that: the QURE Framework has empirical validity as a way of conceptualising quality research use; practitioners' views on using research well can inform future capacity building efforts; and research use as a field needs far more work that is focused on the quality of use and the perspectives of users.

Background: There are growing expectations internationally that schools and systems will use research evidence to inform their improvement efforts. Such developments raise important questions about what it means to use research evidence "well" in education. Purpose: To date, there has been wide-ranging debate about what counts as quality evidence, but very little dialogue about what counts as "quality use." In response, this article presents a conceptual framework to define and elaborate what "quality use of research evidence" might mean in relation to education. Method: The framework is informed by a cross-sector systematic review and narrative synthesis of 112 relevant publications from four sectors--health, social care, education and policy. The review explored if, and how, quality of evidence use had been defined and described within each of these sectors in order to inform a quality use framework for education. Findings: Based on the cross-sector review, quality use of research evidence is framed in terms of two core components--(1) appropriate research evidence; and (2) thoughtful engagement and implementation, supported by three individual enabling components (skillsets, mindsets and relationships) and three organisational enabling components (leadership, culture and infrastructure), as well as system-level influences. Conclusions: There is potential for this framework to inform current approaches to the use of research in education. There is also an important need to test and refine its components through further empirical investigation, theoretical inquiry and intervention development.

Workforce insecurity has significant implications for the role of school leaders and teachers preparing students for changing worlds of work. For educators to better prepare students to enter an increasingly casualised labour workforce, there first needs to be an acknowledgement of how students perceive themselves in relation to post-school life. Drawing on a study of approximately 2500 secondary school students in the Australian state of Victoria, the figure of homo promptus is presented as a figure of youth to understand the real and imagined characteristics of students as workers-in-the-making. Homo promptus is entrepreneurial and strategic, yet on 'standby' as short-termism problematises future planning. This figure is overlaid onto students' perceptions of their own career identity relative to post-school aspirations and transitions. The emergence of homo promptus and the broader labour and education landscapes from which this conceptualisation has been developed have implications for school leaders, teachers and school-based careers advisors.

This article explores the significance of leadership in promoting the effective use of research in schools. It emphasizes the benefits of incorporating research into education and the challenges faced by educators in doing so. The article focuses on leadership practices such as modeling, involving others, and providing support, and offers examples of how these practices can be implemented in schools. It draws on the findings of the Monash Q Project, which aims to enhance the utilization of research in Australian schools. The article serves as a valuable resource for educators seeking to enhance their leadership skills in utilizing research. Additionally, it highlights the importance of support, access to research materials, and professional development opportunities for educators to improve their research skills and confidence. The article also provides a case study of a school that successfully implemented a research-informed teaching approach. Overall, it encourages educators to consider how they can model, involve others, and provide support for the effective use of research in their schools. [Extracted from the article]

This paper explores how students participating in a co-curricular scholarship programme in a large Australian university develop their employability. It seeks to add to recent literature regarding different approaches to graduate employability through examining how participating students' capital acquisition is shaped by and internalised within the structure and culture of the scholarship. The paper also offers an example of how comprehensive and integrated co-curricular scholarship programmes can facilitate graduate employability. It suggests that despite curricular intentions to promote comprehensive and processual approaches to employability, students' employability internalisations are influenced by possessive and positional messages and cultural cues within the scholarship programme. These insights serve as important considerations for higher education institutions seeking to instigate or improve their employability curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, there are expectations internationally that schools will use research to inform their improvement initiatives. Within this context, this paper brings together findings from two large-scale Australian studies – the Monash Q Project and the University of Newcastle's Quality Teaching Rounds Project – to explore educators' patterns of engagement with research. The combination of these studies provides data from a larger and more diverse sample (n = 774) than other recent Australian studies, and integrates insights from direct and indirect approaches to investigating educators' research engagement. The analysis highlights several common themes associated with educators' research use including: the perceived credibility of different sources; the relevance and usability of research; and affordances of access to research and time to use it well in practice. Newer and more nuanced insights include: the interrelationships between collaborative and directed research use; the need for research to be convenient in terms of access and usability; the role of trusted colleagues in helping to bridge gaps between research and practice; and educators' distrust of research itself. The paper argues that these insights provide important cues as to how systems and school leaders can help educators to increase and improve their use of research in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]