Invest in stopping ineffective things

Schools are hotbeds of innovation. In my role supporting schools to develop more evidence-informed practice, I always admire teachers’ creativity and dedication. However, I also see colleagues...

Learning loss or learning disruption?

Alarm has been expressed about the likely impact of Covid-19 on children’s academic achievement with terms such as ‘closing the gap’, ‘learning loss’ and ‘catch up’ permeating...

Has there really been a decline in happiness among young people in the UK?

The Children’s Society published its most recent edition of The Good Childhood Report in August (Children’s Society, 2020). Concerningly, it reported that even before Covid-19 there had been a...

The BERA Blog: Highlights of 2020

BERA Blog end of year highlights

A warm and wintery ‘welcome’ to all our readers, wherever you may be. This time last year I wished all of you a seasonal ‘yo-ho-ho’, blissfully unaware of how 2020 would play out. Today,...

Winter 2020/2021

Digital technology in education Keeping pace with innovation Research Intelligence issue 145 Just as practitioners are struggling to keep up with the onslaught of new technologies entering the...

Exclusion and the strategic leadership role of special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) in England: Planning for Covid-19 and future crises

Disproportionality (the overrepresentation of specific social groups) in school exclusion data is well documented (DfE, 2019). Similarly, time and funding pressures faced by special educational...

Do private schools make a difference to mental health?

Parents send their children to private schools for a range of reasons, and we know that British private schools are successful in terms of academic attainment and that their alumni tend to go on...

Rethinking class size: The complex story of impact on teaching and learning

The enduring argument over class size is one of the most contested in education. The argument is between many teachers and practitioners who feel that class size makes a big difference to teaching...

Curriculum integration can support the development of powerful knowledge in education

On 20th March 2015, an article published by the Independent (Garner, 2015) claimed that Finnish schools had scrapped school subjects and replaced them with topics. Ever since then Finland has been...

Taking a year out? The ambitious teleology of higher education for cultivating a self-aware society

In the much-quoted Heraclitean aphorism, ‘the road up and down is one and the same’ (see for example Russell, 2004, p. 51), the pre-Socratic philosopher introduces a radical relativism and...

Prioritising micro-level experiences of schooling: A policy prospect for addressing inequality in basic education access?

Ghanaian and Sub-Saharan African (SSA) governments are successfully implementing universal policy solutions to expand basic-school opportunities for children. Yet, a vital component of the basic...

Advancing posthumanist perspectives on technology-rich learning

Artificial intelligence in educational research and practice

Picture your favourite childhood toy. What was it? What did you learn from it? How did you know it was for you? These questions, and others like it, underpin the questions raised by posthumanist...