Reviews
BERA Reviews
In 1999 BERA began a series of national events on research findings in an attempt to create a map of current British educational research activity. Each event would lead to a review of the relevant literature. Subsequently the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) offered funding to support the idea of ‘user reviews’ – which would be a way of communicating academic findings to potential users of the research. A third initiative was putting on to the BERA website a listing of currently available research reviews, originally developed by the Economic & Social Research Council’s Teaching & Learning Research Programme (ESRC TLRP).
BERA Council has now adopted the idea that two main types of review of educational research be recognised and promoted, viz: academic reviews and professional user reviews.
Academic Reviews 
The aim of an academic review is to summarise recent and historical developments in an area which would be useful to students and academics without a specialist knowledge of the field. Academic reviews arising from BERA national events are being posted here on our web site (use the link on the right). Some of these reviews lead to scholarly summary reviews published in academic journals.
Education for Democratic Citizenship: a review of research, policy and practice 1995-2005
Audrey Osler and Hugh Starkey
Please contact the BERA Office if you wish to obtain a paper copy of this Review.
Early Years Research: Pedagogy, Curriculum and Adult Roles, Training and Professionalism
BERA Early Years SIG (2003). ISBN 0 946671 16 8
Pastoral Care & Personal-social Education
Editor: Ron Best (2002). ISBN 0 946671 14 1
Teaching and Learning in Primary Numeracy
A review of British research for BERA in conjunction with the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics. Editors: Mike Askew and Margeret Brown (2001). ISBN 0 946671 12 5
Mapping Music Education Research in the UK
BERA Music Education Review Group (2001). ISBN 0 946671 13 3
Professional User Reviews
The aim of a professional user review (PUR) is to critically inform the thinking of practitioners and/or policy makers about current, reliable research in a particular educational domain and to stimulate discussion and use of the research in educational practice. A professional user review may arise from an academic review but differs from the academic review in that:
- it is devised and written by researchers and practitioners working together;
- it has an additional criterion – that of worth whileness to the practitioners to establish inclusion/exclusion;
- it should be brief and written in an accessible style.
Our stocks of hard copies of the PURs is now very limited – please contact the BERA Office if you wish to obtain a copy. Alternatively you may download them as PDFs straight from this site.
Each in this series of seven booklets is a short, readable synthesis of trustworthy research findings that will inform education practitioners such as teachers and policy-makers.
Authors have been chosen from experts who are familiar with the literature and who can extract relevant and reliable evidence-based research findings and present these in an accessible and constructive way.
Each Professional User Review has had a group of teachers acting in a consultative role – this ensures that the outcome represents a genuine collaboration between researchers and practitioners that will meet the needs of the target audience.
Within each area, practitioners using this series will be able to assess accepted educational practices, take a view on innovative ideas and consider the implications of findings for their own field of work.
PDF versions of the Professional User Reviews can be downloaded free of charge by following the links below. Limited hard copy stocks may also still be available from the BERA Office – free of charge to members and £4 per copy to non-members.
How do we teach children to become numerate?
Mike Askew and Margaret Brown (2003) ISBN 0 946671 23 0
Paper Version available from the BERA office
How do we learn to become good citizens?
Liam Gearon (2003) ISBN 0 946671 20 6
Paper Version available from the BERA office
How is music learning celebrated and developed?
Graham F Welch and Pauline Adams (2003) ISBN 0 946671 22 2
Paper Version available from the BERA office
What do we know about teaching young children?
Tricia David (2003) ISBN 0 946671 21 4
Paper Version available from the BERA office
Does ICT improve learning and teaching in schools?
Steve Higgins (2003) ISBN 0 946671 19 2
Paper Version available from the BERA office
Connecting research and practice: Education for sustainable development
Mark Rickinson and colleagues (2003) ISBN 0 946671 18 4
Paper Version available from the BERA office
Connecting policy and practice: Research in geography education
Eleanor Rawling (2003) ISBN 0 946671 24 9
Paper Version available from the BERA office