Action research: Research into action

A number of BERA events between 2020 and 2022 enabled researchers to come together from a range of different education settings (primary, secondary, tertiary and higher education). These events...

Editorial: Spotlight on language and literacy

Spotlight on language and literacy

Findings from studies captured in this special issue make for compelling reading about the direction of language and literacy research in the UK and further afield. Ian Collen, from Queen’s...

Meta-thinking and meta-talk in English and mathematics lessons in the primary school

Spotlight on language and literacy

An interest in neurolinguistics and the idea that children’s development of thought and language is interdependent (Vygotsky, 1962; Bloom, 2000) has led to my research about how classroom talk...

The politics of ‘scientifically-based’ teaching: Phonics for reading and grammar for writing

Spotlight on language and literacy

The teaching of reading and writing understandably attracts attention from researchers, teachers and policymakers because of the importance of literacy for children’s educational development....

Spotlight on language and literacy

This special issue of the BERA Blog places a spotlight on educational research in the field of language and literacy. Covering a range of topics from modern language learning to language as an...

The change in science language as a result of transition from primary to secondary school

Spotlight on language and literacy

When students move from primary to secondary school, one of the numerous challenges that they encounter is language. The language of school academic activity is importantly different from the...

Language trends Northern Ireland 2021

Spotlight on language and literacy

Speaking an international language is crucial to understanding another culture and for long-term growth and prosperity (British Academy et al., 2020). So, no matter how many people around the...

Developing a systems-based approach to research use in education

While it is not always easy to see the tectonic plates moving, a culture shift appears to be occurring in English schools towards widespread engagement with research (DfE, 2022). Yet, when we...

Teacher agency in the reform of universal primary education in Uganda

Uganda launched universal primary education (UPE) in 1997 in line with Education for All’s reform programme for basic education (Penny et al., 2008). Introducing a system of universal,...

If maths anxiety could talk: What do maths-anxious ex-pupils want to say to the teaching profession?

Having recently completed a small exploratory study (124 respondents) of the way that maths-anxious undergraduates in the UK make sense of their maths anxiety (MA), I was prompted to consider: had...

School transitions and adjustment of children with neurodevelopmental conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic: Who was caught up in a whirlwind?

Covid-19, education and educational research

Transition from primary to secondary school is considered a key milestone in children’s education. During the Covid-19 pandemic, children experienced additional changes in their lives...

Winter 2022/23

Research Intelligence issue 153: Off the cutting room floor: Learning from research when things do not go as planned