Lesson study is a collaborative and contextualised approach to professional learning that involves small groups of teachers working together to design and reflect on the teaching of a research lesson. Although it is a well-established approach to professional learning in classroom-based subjects, research on its effectiveness within physical…

Purpose: This study evaluated the feasibility of the "Start to Move" (S2M) digital assessment of children's fundamental movement skills being implemented by primary school teachers within PE lessons. Methods: Nine primary school teachers in the United Kingdom trialed S2M weekly over a 6-week period. Posttrial surveys and interviews were…

Light is a topic that is often taught in year 3 (ages 7-8) in English schools, where children learn that light is needed for us to see, that it can be reflected from shiny surfaces and that shadows form when light is blocked by an object. They may also have some experience of how the size of shadows changes when the distance between a light source…

Jacob Olivey set out to design enquiries which would enable his pupils to reconstruct, using evidence, the perspectives of people in the past. In this article he shares in detail the planning and outcomes of two enquiries: one for Year 7 and one for Year 8. Olivey offers a example of 'the curriculum as the progression model', considering how to…

Current policy in England, informed by a version of cognitive science, enforces an absolute distinction between experts and novices, or teachers and learners; from this binary, operating in tandem with regimes of performativity instantiated in a curriculum shaped by high-stakes testing, are derived particular forms of pedagogy and particular…

Argumentation is widely recognised as a core practice of science, but the relation between argumentation in the teaching of science in contrast to the teaching of other school subjects has not been sufficiently addressed. In this study, we investigate science and religious education (RE) teachers' instructional practices related to argumentation…

Holly Hiscox was concerned that many of her A-level students -- asked to evaluate three different historical interpretations for their non-examined assessment task -- still tended to hold unhelpful misconceptions about the nature of interpretations. In this article she explains how she created an introductory scheme of work to help them understand…

Thinking together in primary classrooms has received much scholarly attention in recent years, with a focus on educational dialogue at the forefront of studies concerned with identifying what constitutes effective language for learning. Whilst the expression of explicit reasoning is often discussed, less attention has been given to the role that…

Comparative education scholars are often sceptical of teaching effectiveness research that compares 'teaching quality' using systematic classroom observation systems across nations. This article investigates how three international observation systems designed for comparative use, and studies that apply them, attend to three concerns intrinsic to…

In this paper we use novel data to test the direct and indirect paths between teacher self-efficacy and student outcomes. This includes how teacher self-efficacy is linked to student, teacher, and expert rater views of lesson quality. Our results illustrate how the link between teacher self-efficacy and instructional quality is sensitive to how…

Reflecting on her efforts to improve her trainee's lesson conclusions, Paula Worth decided to brush up her own. A journey of self-evaluation led her to revisit the Cambridge Conclusions Project. Through its lens, she found her own lesson conclusions wanting. Worth examines the way in which the final episode of a history lesson needs to do a great…

This case study demonstrates teaching and learning activities in the school laboratory, and employs talk moves for the direct assessment of practical task effectiveness. By adopting a sociocultural linguistic approach (SCLA), learning chemistry is understood to be a discursive process in which knowledge is constructed through social interaction…

In this article, Jacob Olivey describes his department's efforts to both diversify their Key Stage 3 curriculum and secure greater curricular coherence. Building on a large body of research and practice, Olivey sought new forms of curricular coherence through the selection and sequencing of substantive content across the curriculum. He reflects on…

There is substantial body of literature in science education focusing on students' understanding of the theory of evolution by natural selection. However, despite decades of research on the evolution versus creationism debate there is still widespread concern that particular misconceptions about evolution persist. The study aimed to recalibrate…

In currently dominant accounts, English as a school subject, its content and processes, are construed as an induction into a well-defined, already-established disciplinary discourse or set of discourses. In an attempt to challenge this version of English, I present some examples of autobiographical writing by secondary students and I tell the…