A collaborative approach to research-informed teaching
October 11, 2023
In this post, Rupert Knight offers examples of school-level collaborative inquiry as a teacher-driven form of research-informed practice. A broad and inclusive view of educational research A few years ago, in an early blog in this series, I considered ways that teachers might engage with research evidence. Back then, I made the case for teaching …
Playing with possibilities at the Nottingham Playhouse
October 25, 2022
On Thursday 11th October, Aisling Walters (Secondary English PGCE course lead at NTU) and Helen Victoria Smith (Primary PGCE Course Leader at UoN) joined some PGCE students and tutors to spend a fun-filled two hours at the Nottingham Playhouse. This marked the first in a series of enrichment events taking place across the city for …
Learning to be a subject advocate
October 13, 2021
In this blog post Anna Baker and Rachael Trott, supported by Catherine Gripton, reflect upon their experiences on the ‘Primary School Direct with Mathematics’ programme, summarising what supports beginning teachers to become advocates for a subject alongside developing their practice in the full range of primary subjects. Learning to teach Teaching is complex and learning …
What are the signature pedagogies of teacher education?
August 13, 2021
At a time when teacher education is under the spotlight, Rupert Knight revisits Lee Shulman’s idea of signature pedagogies as a way of developing shared, ambitious principles for the education of beginning teachers. Learning to teach in England In the last year, the process of learning to teach has come under renewed scrutiny in England. …
Teacher resilience in Covid times
May 10, 2021
How can we support teacher resilience in Covid times? In this blog Esther Fulton considers how the current pandemic has affected the resilience of beginning teachers and suggests how key support can be put in place to help with this. As part of the ITE curriculum here at the University of Nottingham, one of the …
Reconsidering the role of deliberate practice in teacher education
April 19, 2021
The disruption to schooling this year has led to some unusual learning experiences for beginning teachers. While they may have missed some face-to-face time in classrooms, they have nevertheless been able to experience aspects of creative thinking, teamwork, parental liaison and technology use that have not been as prominent in the past. All of this …
Planning for possibilities
February 17, 2021
In this post, Catherine Gripton considers planning and how ‘planning for possibilities’ might support beginning and early career teachers to plan more holistically for learning. Learning to plan One of the first challenges for beginning teachers on an initial teacher education course is learning to plan. Many beginning and early career teachers will be grappling …
Tuning in to expert teachers: seeing beneath the surface of classroom practice
November 13, 2019
In this post, Rupert Knight considers what we mean by teacher expertise and how we might get better at looking for this in action. Speaking in an October 2019 article in the TES about the current upsurge of interest in evidence-informed practice, Mel Ainscow advised caution in the use of evidence by teachers, arguing that: …
Building communities of engaged readers: an exciting opportunity for local primary teachers
September 9, 2019
In this post Helen Victoria Smith explores the idea of ‘reading for pleasure’ and how research-informed practice can build communities of engaged readers. She draws on research carried out by the Open University (OU) and United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) to discuss the importance of developing ‘Reading Teachers’, and offers the opportunity for local primary …
When Less is More: Learning from professional development opportunities
March 21, 2019
Past posts in this series have discussed ‘Teaching for Mastery’ and the Shanghai-England primary exchange. In this new post Catherine Gripton reflects upon what she learned from observing a Chinese teacher’s lesson and considers these in the light of teacher professional development. Learning from lessons The Mathematics Teacher Exchange, involving teachers from England and …
