Baseline Assessment

A new report from an expert panel convened by BERA sets out the case against the government’s proposal to use a baseline assessment test of pupils in reception to hold schools in England to...

BERA Blog Special Issues: BERA/TACTYC

To celebrate the launch of the BERA/TACTYC Early Childhood Research Review 2003-2017 we have a special edition of the BERA blog. Join the discussion. Influence the debate. #BERABlog

Encouraging educational research into nature, outdoor learning and play

BERA has a new Nature, Outdoor Learning and Play (NOLAP) special interest group (SIG)! It has the strategic aim of encouraging educational research into nature, outdoor learning and play across...

Developing readers, developing selves

The process of reading actually changes the neural connections in our brains, enabling new thought processes to form and develop our thinking (Wolf, 2008). Indeed, the experience and act of...

The competing discourses of school readiness

BERA’s 2019–2020 research commission on the early years – entitled Competing Discourses of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC): Tensions, Impacts and Democratic Alternatives across the...

March Of The Four Year Olds

On 25th April 2019 More than a Score organised a march from Parliament Square to 10 Downing Street to hand in a petition calling for a halt to statutory tests for four-year-olds. The petition had...

Five ways in which Edu-exit was the test run for Brexit

Brexit is the current and incredibly dangerous version of the ongoing and deeply rooted restructuring of UK health, welfare, security, and education services. Comparing the UK government reforms...

The Future of Educational Research in Wales

This report, published by BERA in partnership with the Welsh Government, presents the proceedings of and lessons from the Future of Educational Research in Wales conference. Held in Cardiff on 14...

Changing culture, changing early childhood curriculum in China

School-based curriculum development (SBCD) has been advocated in order to enhance the quality of early childhood education within the context of modernisation and globalisation (Li, 2005)....

BERA Bites, issue 3: Innovative methods for educational research

The BERA Bites series presents selected articles from the BERA Blog on key topics in education, presented in an easily printable and digestible format to serve as teaching and learning resources...

BERA Blog highlights from 2018

BERA Blog end of year highlights

A seasonal welcome to all our BERA Blog readers in the UK and around the world in this, our third end-of-year-highlights special edition. And what a year this has turned out to be. (I really will...

Researchers drawing on teachers’ tools: Picturebooks with migrant learners

This blog post springs from a symposium I convened at BERA Conference 2018 entitled ‘Using creative methods to explore complex topics with young participants’. The symposium reflected my...