Lee talked about the importance of researching actual teaching practice if you are really interested in teaching and learning. However he also noted that there is a tendency to view situated research such as SOTL as a diminished form of scholarship when contrasted with the mainstream kinds of research published in social science or educational research journals.

Lee raised several points that we should all be using to make this view change. Teaching portfolios were seen as being particularly important in reflecting on practice and being a tool for peer review. They were a tool to be asking the questions we had and to follow through those thoughts until they form into a question for research or inquiry.

Gold Standard research is seen as involving random trials, often large numbers and an ability to generalise. Educational research however is small scale, often action research and mostly qualitative where generalisation is not possible but this is not what educational research is about it is about situated learning. Lee mentions Cronbach and the fact he is the greatest educational research methodologist. What is important about educational research is that there is factual detail provided, that data is outlined clearly and then analyse. The story must be clear to others.

Lee outlines three key items of evidence he believes are important for our research:

• Evidence 1 – results of studies already available
• Evidence 2 – Collect local data repeatedly
• Evidence 3 – product versus process approach where practical judgement ideas end up in the reasoning we do and combining our intuition

Generalisations are not useful in educational research because they decay as the context changes. This is why iterative research is needed. Powerful ideas come from how to improve teaching and learning and the importance of situated research cannot be under estimated.

Lee finished with his view that he undertakes inquiry “to know more when I’m done than when I started”.