This article examines the teaching of creation in a year six and a year three Religious Education (RE) class in schools in the south of England with a focus on the type and role of teacher questioning in relation to classroom discussions. The nature of knowledge, curriculum content and the relationship between RE and other subjects is currently…

This article utilizes a framework for classifying different scientific methods suggested by a philosopher of science (Brandon "Synthese," 99, 59-73, 1994) called Brandon's Matrix. It presents findings from teachers who took part in a funded project in England that looked at the nature of scientific methods in science investigations.…

In considering how to bring joy back to education and the curriculum in England, I argue that it is also necessary to bring the joy of teaching back to classroom practitioners. A fundamental contribution to this may be leadership typologies employed by schools' senior leadership. As an experienced secondary English teacher, over the last 20 years…

From 2006 the British government strongly favoured synthetic phonics as the principal approach for the teaching of initial literacy in state-funded primary schools in England, and since 2010 has made it mandatory. In 2007-2013 just over 100 commercially published phonics schemes were available, and in that same period the government maintained a…

This paper summarises a new method of grouping postgraduate taught (PGT) courses introduced at Oxford Brookes University as a part of a Portfolio Review. Instead of classifying courses by subject, the new cluster approach uses statistical methods to group the courses based on factors including flexibility of study options, level of specialisation,…

Background: Children's interest in science is known to decline around the upper primary age, and botanical topics are unpopular with students. Drama in education has the potential to increase motivation and interest in school science. Purpose: The study examined the impact of immersive drama on knowledge about biological classification and…

Most beginners are introduced to plant diversity through identification keys, which develop differentiation skills but not species memorisation. We propose that mnemonics, memorable "name clues" linking a species name with morphological characters, are a complementary learning tool for promoting species memorisation. In the first of two…

This paper explores the approaches and strategies used by secondary school learners of different languages in England completing Asset Languages reading tasks at levels A1 and A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Assessments across languages at the same level of proficiency were designed to a common specification and at…

The paper highlights problems surrounding the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check that has accompanied the legislative framework for synthetic phonics in English primary schools. It investigates the inclusion of pseudowords and raises questions regarding their generation and categorization, the rationale for their inclusion and the assumption that the…

In an increasingly multilingual world, the question of how to improve foreign language speaking skills of pupils in British schools is of paramount importance to language teachers and policy-makers today. This paper examines how an explicit focus on metacognitive strategy use within secondary school foreign language lessons impacts pupils'…

As part of a wider qualification reform at upper secondary level in England, the assessment of practical work is changing, following concerns that the legacy model of assessment was having a negative impact on teaching and learning. The OCR examination board is running a longitudinal survey of teachers' views on practical work, focusing on the…

Previous research identifies the importance of feminist knowledge for improving gender equity, economic prosperity and social justice for all. However, there are difficulties in embedding feminist knowledge in higher education curricula. Across England, undergraduate sociology is a key site for acquiring feminist knowledge. In a study of four…

Policy and practice responses to diversity and difference in pupil populations continue to challenge education systems around the world. This paper considers how teachers' understandings of diversity and difference and their pedagogical responses at the local level are influenced by, and can be reconciled with, policy at the general level with its…

Beliefs influence how learners construe what they experience in the classroom and their learning behaviour. Understanding the nature of such beliefs is therefore important if teaching is to be as effective and responsive as possible. This paper reports the representations of young learners' beliefs about foreign language learning as identified…

The study analyses teenagers' e-mail requests during academic cyber-consultation, exploring how the performance of request modifiers is influenced by participants' perceptions of the degree of imposition of the speech act and social distance with the recipient. A total of 295 e-mail requests, 145 produced by British English speakers (BES) and 150…