Unlocking Research: “Reimagining Professional Development in Schools”

This is the first in a series of seminars, hosted by the Chartered College of Teaching, that will inspire and enable new thinking about the benefits and viability of developing research-informed and research-generating practices. Inspired by the innovative series of books ‘Unlocking Research’ (series editors Dr James Biddulph and Mrs Julia Flutter, Routledge) each seminar will focus on each book in the series, with teachers, teaching assistants and academics presenting ideas and ways in which research influenced practice and how practice influenced research.

Participants will hear from our panel of speakers:

Sarah Seleznyov, Luke Rolls FCCT, Annabel Sharman, John-Mark Winstanley, Julia Flutter, Dr James Biddulph FCCT FRSA, Professor Dame Alison Peacock

Keynote address from Professor Eleanore Hargreaves, ‘Developing Professional Teacher Communities’

Resources

• Download presentation: Professor Eleanore Hargreaves
• Download presentation: Annabel Sharman
• Download presentation: Sarah Seleznyov & Luke Rolls
• Download presentation: Julia Flutter
• Panel Q&A
• Motivation for learning 
• Teaching and assessing creativity in schools in England  
• Building a culture of evidence and research use: Selected reading
• Evidence informed pedagogy 
• Further reading & resources: Professional learning 
• Further reading & resources: Lesson Study
• Further reading & resources: Intrinsic Motivation 
• Researching play-based pedagogies in Year 1 by Sarah Seleznyov
• Making it seem possible: Supporting improved ethnic diversity in school leadership by Sarah Seleznyov 
• Research thrives: Embedding a culture of practitioner-led research
• Webinar watchback – Graham Chisnell ‘Irresistible Learning: Embedding a culture of research in schools’
• Creative collaboration: Teachers and writers working together
• Applying research in special educational needs to the classroom
• Effective leadership for professional development: a literature review
• Further reading & resources: Mentoring & Coaching

Our Speakers

Eleanore Hargreaves is Professor of Learning and Pedagogy at the UCL Institute of Education and Academic Head of Research for the Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment department.  Her research focuses on integrating children’s voices into Continuing Professional Development models in schools, both in UK and internationally.  She has authored Children’s Experiences of Classrooms (Sage, 2017) and co-edited The Sage Handbook of Learning (2015) and Reimagining Professional Development in Schools (Routledge, 2020).

Sarah Seleznyov is Co-Headteacher of School 360, Big Education New Primary School, PhD student at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and a Trustee of the Collaborative Lesson Research UK group.  Sarah also sits on the British Curriculum Forum and is a member of the British Educational Research Association Council.

Sarah has worked in London schools for over 25 years. She has been a Deputy Head, a School Improvement Consultant and a School Improvement Partner, across both primary and secondary schools. Before starting at School 360, she led the London South Teaching School Alliance, supporting a network of schools in South London with teacher development and school improvement and worked at The London Centre for Leadership in Learning, UCL Institute of Education, where she designed and led a range of research-informed programmes for school leaders and teacher enquiry projects. She has also worked for the Fischer Family Trust and the National Literacy Trust. She is a specialist maths tutor on the Let’s Think (Cognitive Acceleration) research project from King’s College University.

Luke Rolls FCCT is the Associate Headteacher of the University of Cambridge Primary School. His main areas of interest are in developing primary curriculum, pedagogy and assessment through high-quality professional development as an entitlement for all teachers. Luke has previously taught in a variety of schools in London, Japan, China and Ghana. Luke has co-edited the books Reimagining Professional Development in Schools (Routledge, 2020) and Unleashing Children’s Voices in Democratic Primary Education (Routledge, 2022). Luke is a Specialist Leader of Education, member of the primary contact group at the Royal Society for the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education and strategy group member for the U.K. Japanese Lesson Study Collaborative Lesson Research group

Annabel Sharman is a Year 6 class teacher and ECT mentor at the University Of Cambridge Primary School. She is currently completing a coaching qualification through The Coaching Academy and is responsible for the leadership and oversight of a new coaching programme in the school, allowing every member of staff to be coached regularly.

John-Mark Winstanley is an Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge where he is Deputy Course Manager of the Primary PGCE. At the Faculty, he leads on Professional Studies and teaches on the English, Language & Literacy course. His research interests surround literacy, teacher education and languages. 

Julia Flutter has worked in education research for 30 years and her focus has been on supporting teachers as researchers and approaches to student voice.  She was a Director of the Cambridge Primary Review Trust, a not-for-profit organisation promoting excellence in primary education, and a contributing author to the Cambridge Primary Review final report, Children, Their World, Their Education (edited by Professor Robin Alexander), published by Routledge in 2010. Currently she is undertaking a professional doctoral study on phronesis and teacher professionalism at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge”.  

Dr James Biddulph FCCT FRSA, following a degree in English and Music from Durham University, James won a travel scholarship and volunteered in two schools in Nepal.  After this, his passion for education evolved and in 2001 he started his career following a PGCE at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.  In 2002, his creative approach to teaching gained him Advanced Skills Teachers (AST) status in Music and in 2003 he was awarded Outstanding New Teacher of the Year for London.  He is now the first Headteacher of the University of Cambridge Primary School, the first primary University Training School in the UK, which was recently graded as Outstanding by Ofsted.  Concurrently with opening two new schools, he completed his PhD which focused on creative learning in ethnic minority immigrant children’s homes and is now the series editor of a series of books aimed to unlock educational research for school leaders and practitioners.  James is a founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching. 

Professor Dame Alison Peacock, Chief Executive of the Chartered College of Teaching, a Professional Body that seeks to raise teacher status through celebrating, supporting and connecting teachers to provide expert teaching and leadership.  Prior to joining the Chartered College, Dame Alison was Executive Headteacher of The Wroxham School in Hertfordshire.  Her career to date has spanned Primary, Secondary and advisory roles. She is an Honorary Fellow of Queens College Cambridge and UCL, a Visiting Professor of both the University of Hertfordshire and Glyndŵr University and a trustee for Big Change.  Her research is published in a series of books about Learning without Limits offering an alternative approach to inclusive school improvement.

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