- Good teachers reflect on their practice and are responsive to changes which might improve their teaching skills and the quality of learning they are able to provide for those they teach.
- They are busy people, disinclined to follow other people’s ideas slavishly, or to unthinkingly accept theories which emanate from academics who are at a remove from the classroom.
- The central principle of the NASC model of the ‘teacher as researcher’ centres on the idea of ownership. Teachers were invited to reflect further on issues relating to pupil disaffection that interested them and would be of use to them: participation in all schools was voluntary. Reflection developed into enquiry and investigation, based on the collection of evidence, often small-scale, to attempt to find out why pupils are disaffected and how that disaffection might be lessened or eliminated. Enquiry and investigation developed into research, papers were written and circulated among colleagues.
- Teachers met teachers from other schools and shared their findings: larger-scale cross-school research projects began. In some schools, policies and procedures were modified or changed radically as a result of the work of the teacher-researcher. These are positive outcomes which extend beyond the pedagogical concerns of the individual teacher.