School of Education and Lifelong Learning

The working atmosphere in the classroom is an important variable in the process of education in
schools, with several studies suggesting that classroom climate is an important influence on pupil
attainment. There are wide differences in the extent to which classroom climate is considered to be
a problem in English schools. Some ‘official’ reports suggest that behaviour in schools is ‘satisfactory
or better’ in the vast majority of schools; other sources have pointed to behaviour being a serious
and widespread problem. The paper details four studies conducted over the past decade which
aimed to explore these disparities. The aim of the research was to gain a more accurate insight into
the extent to which deficits in classroom climate limit educational attainment and equality of educational
opportunity in English schools. The findings question the suggestion that behaviour is satisfactory
or better in 99.7% of English schools and the concluding section suggests ways in which
deficits in classroom climate might be addressed. Although the study is limited to classrooms in
England, OECD studies suggest that deficits in the working atmosphere in classrooms occur in
many countries. The study therefore has potential relevance for education systems in other
countries.

The article examines the enduring popularity of a form of school history which
is based predominantly on the idea that the transmission of a positive story about the
national past will inculcate in young people a sense of loyalty to the state; a reassuring and
positive sense of identity and belonging; and a sense of social solidarity with fellow
citizens. England is one of the countries which has to at least some extent moved away
from this model of school history; but the past few years have seen suggestions for a move
back to a history curriculum which focuses predominantly on the transmission of
‘Our Island Story’; and which presents a positive rendering of that story. The history
curriculum in England is currently under review; and public pronouncements by
politicians; academic historians and newspaper editorials suggest strong pressures towards
a restoration of what is often termed ‘traditional’ school history; which was prevalent in
English schools before the advent of what has been termed ‘New history’ in the 1970s.
The paper questions some of the arguments which have been put forward in order to justify
a return to a history curriculum based on a positive and unproblematic narrative of the
national story and suggests that such a course of action is based on some unexamined
assumptions and a limited understanding of pedagogy and learning. The final section of the
paper outlines several weaknesses and flaws in the arguments for reverting to a traditional
(i.e. ‘nation-based’ and celebratory) form of school history; and some of the dangers
inherent in such a project.

On 28 September 2010, the Department for Education (DfE) hosted a 'Development day for education researchers in the UK'. The stated objectives for the day were to provide researchers with opportunities to consider the value of their research for policy and practitioner audiences, to provide researchers with insights into ways of structuring research outputs so that they are useful to practitioners and policymakers and to encourage researchers to consider the principles for writing summaries for policy and practitioner audiences. Speakers at the conference, including DfE officials, researchers from higher education and teacher researchers, discussed the tensions between 'academic rigour' and policy-makers' need for 'crisp summaries' , with at least a suggestion that many journal articles did not represent 'crisp summaries' for policy-makers. A teacher researcher outlined the factors which would incline her to read a journal article (clear abstract; succinct, readable style; impact on children's learning clear; clarity about methodology and context. . .), and another speaker suggested that the time span for readers to decide whether to read an article was 10 seconds in terms of whether to start reading and a further 20 seconds to decide whether to read the whole article. As someone who had recently moved into higher education from working in a secondary school, I remember being asked what price reduction might induce schools to purchase the academic journal in question, and responding that it was more about format than price.

The paper reports on a Department of Culture, Museums and Sport (DCMS) funded project which provided modest amounts of time for teachers to be freed from their classroom teaching to explore the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in their subject teaching, and to meet up together to discuss their use of new technology. The funding was sufficient to provide a day of supply cover for two groups of secondary teachers in different curriculum subjects (history and science) to meet towards the start of the academic year to discuss their use of ICT, a day of supply cover to work on their ideas and interests, and a day to meet together again towards the end of the year to share ideas and experiences.

The paper reports on the outcomes of a British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTa) funded study which explored the views of teacher trainees and their mentors in two different school subjects on what strategies, interventions and resources had a positive impact on their ability to use ICT effectively in their subject teaching.

This paper reports the experience of a group of university-based academics in supporting teachers' engagement in research in and across a cluster of secondary schools in the Norwich area. It takes the form of a discussion constructed from e-mail interactions about the ways in which the academic context of their work shaped their interactions with teachers in schools.

1. Context The past decade has seen unprecedented investment in the use of new technology in UK schools and politicians of all parties have waxed lyrical about the potential of ICT for improving teaching and learning in school subjects. In particular, attention has focused on the multimedia dimensions of new technology and the claims that new technology offers the potential to provide interactive modes of teaching and learning which will be more effective than traditional modes of pedagogy. It is important to keep in mind that not all countries have the same attitude to the use of ICT in education. Whereas some have adopted an enthusiastic espousal of putting large numbers of computers into schools, and seen the technologisation of education as a crucial 'weapon' in terms of international competitiveness in education, others have been more relaxed or restrained in this area, and have not viewed computer to pupil ratios, or quality and quantity of internet connectivity in s...

The paper examines the views of history teachers in the United Kingdom on the potential of new technology for enhancing teaching and learning in history, including their views on which new technology applications are most helpful to teachers of history, what factors are most influential in limiting their use of new technology, and what forms of investment in the use of new technology they regard as most useful. These views are set in the context of considerable enthusiasm and financial investment in new technology on the part of politicians and policy makers, and research evidence which suggests that there is a 'rhetoric-reality' gap between the claims made for the use of new technology in education, and what is current practice. The paper suggests that at least some aspects of the use or non-use of ICT are related to the nature of the subject discipline involved, and that there is a need to take into account subject discipline issues rather than treating new technology as...

The paper reports on the outcomes of a Department of Culture, Museums and Sport (DCMS) funded project which provided resources for three groups of teachers in different subjects and age phases to have some time where they were freed from their teaching responsibilities, and also given time to meet together with other teachers to share ideas. The idea underpinning the project was to explore a model of continuing professional development for teachers which was different in approach to recent Department for Education and Skills (DfES) 'strategy' and training based approaches.

The paper reports on the outcomes of a British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTa) funded study which explored the views of teacher trainees and their mentors in two different school subjects on what strategies, interventions and resources had a positive impact on their ability to use ICT effectively in their subject teaching.

The paper reports on a Department of Culture, Museums and Sport (DCMS) funded project which provided modest amounts of time for teachers to be freed from their classroom teaching to explore the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in their subject teaching, and to meet up together to discuss their use of new technology. The funding was sufficient to provide a day of supply cover for two groups of secondary teachers in different curriculum subjects (history and science) to meet towards the start of the academic year to discuss their use of ICT, a day of supply cover to work on their ideas and interests, and a day to meet together again towards the end of the year to share ideas and experiences.