THERESE ANDREWS, THOMAS’S LONDON DAY SCHOOLS, UK Abstract This paper explores the ethics of teachers and leaders researching their own workplaces and practice. Much has been written about bridging the gap between research and practice, particularly in England since the Department for Education commissioned a 2014 study to assess progress towards an evidence-informed teaching system (Coldwell […]
Kathryn Taylor, EdD Candidate, IOE, Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, UK As an experienced secondary practitioner, I have engaged in a lot of professional development (PD) and become fascinated by the dynamics of teacher professional learning (PL). In my doctoral research, I have developed an analytical framework for the exploration of perspectives […]
DR CHRIS BAKER, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAD, THE CABOT LEARNING FEDERATION, UK Using research in schools to improve levels of understanding and drive better decision-making should be a goal for us all, but it is not without its challenges. For many of us, engaging with research can be a daunting and uncomfortable experience, as we wrestle with […]
Scott Buckler and Harriett Moore, Holy Trinity School, UK Introduction For anyone involved in educational research, there will be characteristic traits throughout the process. Such traits include the excitement of making a start, making wrong turns, encountering obstacles and the thrill of uncovering something new. Indeed, research is a transformative process, irrespective of whether a […]
SEAN HARRIS, TEES VALLEY EDUCATION & TEESSIDE UNIVERSITY, UK STUART MAYLE, BRAMBLES PRIMARY ACADEMY, TEES VALLEY EDUCATION, UK Teachers continue to be championed through research studies as a critical lever for success with regard to pupil outcomes (Harris and Sass, 2007; Hattie, 2003; Spada et al., 2023). Research reminds school leaders and teachers of their value, but […]
HELEN CARRINGTON AND PIPPA GILBERT, PUTNEY HIGH SCHOOL, UK Perhaps the most elusive goal in teaching is creating ‘renaissance students’: students who are curious and reflective, who make connections across different disciplines, who are intrinsically rather than extrinsically motivated and who see their learning as a lifelong journey rather than a sprint to the next assessment. […]
LINDA LLOYD JONES, DEBORAH OUTHWAITE AND EMMA RAWLINGS SMITH, CLIMATE CHANGE ALL CHANGE, UK Introduction The climate crisis is a significant threat to children’s lives and futures. We live in a warming world, with rising sea levels, more extreme hydrological disasters and declining biodiversity. Recent school climate strikes illustrate that children and young people are not […]
Professor Bill Lucas, Director, Centre for Real-World Learning, University of Winchester, UK; Co-founder, Rethinking Assessment, UK Since 1918, success at school in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has been largely judged by means of high-stakes, standardised examinations at the end of secondary education, with the School Certificate for 16-year-olds and the Higher School Certificate two […]
SHIREEN BABUL LALJI, TEACHING AND LEARNING, BIGLAND GREEN PRIMARY SCHOOL, UK ELENA HUNN RODIGAN, INCLUSION LEAD AND ASSISTANT HEADTEACHER, BIGLAND GREEN PRIMARY SCHOOL, UK CHARLOTTE MOSEY, ASSISTANT HEAD OF PRIMARY ITT/E, UNIVERSITY OF DERBY, UK JACK BRYNE STOTHARD, SENIOR LECTURER IN POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF DERBY, UK Introduction Adaptive teaching as a concept is a key part of the […]
ALISTAIR CRAWFORD, NATIONAL NETWORK OF SPECIALIST PROVISION (NNSP), UK This article explores aspirations and meaningful outcomes beyond the school gates through the perspective of ‘experts by experience’. … this problem of deficit framing is located within the wider societal issue of the meritocracy, life’s “sorting principle” which has narrowed what we perceive a “good life” […]
DR FRAN WILBY, RETHINKING ASSESSMENT, UK Internationally, there has been some challenge in recent years to the efficacy of exams as the sole measure of a young person’s life and work readiness. In some regions, learner profiles are garnering particular interest as an alternative. Student-owned digital records may offer an opportunity to highlight learning, strengths […]
Alex Tomkins, Headteacher, Greenside School and EdD student, University of Derby, UK Assessment of students with SEND has been under debate for a long time, with several significant changes over the past few years. This article shares the journey on which special schools have been in terms of guidance on assessment, as well as how […]
CHRIS LARVIN, HEAD OF EVALUATION & IMPACT, TEACH FIRST, UK The term ‘assessment literacy’ describes teachers’ knowledge and use of classroom assessment approaches. Over the past decade, assessment literacy has evolved from being viewed as a singular set of knowledge and skills into a multidimensional construct encompassing a wide range of competencies and dispositions. Early […]
JOZEF BENDIK AND FABIO DI SALVO, SINGAPORE Assessments used in schools often involve teachers administering end-of-unit or -semester tests with questions selected from question banks. The assignment of grades usually relies on either a teacher-determined scale or grade boundaries taken from previous terminal examinations. These methods can introduce inconsistencies into the evaluative process. Furthermore, students […]
SEUNGAH LEE, ART & DESIGN TEACHER, NO FRAME ART & EDUCATION, SOUTH KOREA LOUISA HORNER, LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT LEAD, CATS GLOBAL SCHOOLS, UK Studying art can be a culture shock. In fact, it should be a culture shock. Art students in the UK are faced with expectations to create original artwork and not imitate, but […]
ALEXANDRA GREENFIELD, HEAD OF ENGLISH, ST ALBANS HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, UK There is no more valuable resource than time, and there is likely no aspect of teaching that takes disproportionally more time than it has impact than giving ineffective feedback. (Hill, cited in Donarski, 2020, p. 37) Getting feedback ‘right’ is, arguably, one of the […]
DR JENNIFER MARSHALL, INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF DERBY, UK Introduction This article examines how phonics teaching in compulsory schooling may contribute to a ‘vocabulary gap’ that has repercussions in terms of reading comprehension for disadvantaged students, as seen in SATs and subsequent GCSE exam scores. Reading in primary education The findings from a meta-analysis […]
ERIC A WALTERS, MARYMOUNT SCHOOL OF NEW YORK, USA Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic required teachers to experiment with new approaches to teaching and learning in fundamentally new settings. Teachers, in general discovered that we did not need to be in the same space at the same time as the students in order for learning to […]
LYDIA MARSH, CHRIST THE KING CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND SIXTH FORM CENTRE; MA STUDENT, LIVERPOOL HOPE UNIVERSITY, UK Introduction As with other A-level subjects, psychology students require learning strategies that help them to both remember and effectively apply large volumes of complex course content to unseen questions, as their learning is ultimately evaluated by their […]
GRAHAM CHISNELL FCCT, EDUCATION CONSULTANT AND AUTHOR, UK Classroom talk that engages students in dialogue to stimulate and extend thinking, knowing and understanding can have a powerful and positive impact on student learning (Alexander, 2020). In this reflective piece, I examine how embedding a culture of dialogic teaching in school impacts on teacher engagement and student […]
