Investigating classroom contexts for learning for pupils with special educational needs: Class size, groupings and interactions

Many countries follow policies of inclusion in which pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are, as far as possible, educated in mainstream settings. For the most part this...

A response to Komatsu and Rappleye: What if east Asia’s high achievement is not the result of long hours of study, cram schools, and exam pressure?

In their recent BERA Blog article (10 August), Komatsu and Rappleye raise the idea that the high achievement of Asian education systems – and specifically Japan’s educational achievements –...

Shared understandings of technology to support children’s digital citizenship

For young children, understandings of technology as a cultural tool are both ‘inherited and transformed’ (Rogoff 2003: 51), and often differ from previous generations’ perceptions of...

Open resources and accessibility

Open educational resources (OERs) are:   ‘[A]ny type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials...

Linking environmental science to the curriculum for Excellence on an initial teacher training programme

The focus of Scottish initial teacher training programmes on numeracy, literacy and child development has undergone change over the last few decades, primarily due to the requirements set out in...

Writing and iPads in the early years classroom

In a recent research project I was involved in, ‘Mobile Devices in Early Learning’ (Gray et al 2017), a teacher, when discussing children’s writing, told me,   ‘The iPad has...

Globalisation and individualism: Implications for the inclusion agenda

Highlights from the first 1,000 BERA Blog posts

It is known that, over recent decades, societies around the world have witnessed drastic transformations that have affected various facets of people’s lives. These changes have created...

Escape from the exam factory

Like so many of us, I became a teacher because I love my subject and wanted to inspire the same love in my students (a sentiment repeated every year in advertising for teacher training). I most...

Teacher–student dialogue: Why it matters for student outcomes

For at least two millennia, the dialogue that occurs during teaching has been spotlighted as critical for student outcomes, with many scholars proposing needs for: open questions; elaboration of...

Building Research in Primary Schools (BRiPS)

With the growing importance of securing a strong evidence base for teaching, there is considerable scope for exploring different ways in which teachers can be supported to engage in research....

What might a self-extending school system with research evidence at its heart look like?

This article is part of the BERA Blog special issue ‘Researching the Curriculum in schools and colleges: Practice, Professionalism and Innovation’ (read more). In 2010, David Hargreaves,...

The making of the RE-searchers approach: Close-to-practice theorisation and conceptualisation

This article is part of the BERA Blog special issue ‘Researching the Curriculum in schools and colleges: Practice, Professionalism and Innovation’ (read more). This is the tale of two...