Assessment for learning in the early years foundation stage

throughout the book there are extensive practical examples from a range of early years settingsxv, 208 hlm; 24 c

Social Media and Young People’s Mental Health

Evidence suggests that social media can impact detrimentally on children and young people’s mental health. At the same time, social media use can be beneficial and have positive effects. This chapter outlines the detrimental and positive effects of social media use for young people. Schools play a critical role in educating young people about how to use social media safely and responsibly. However, schools cannot address all the issues and parents, social media and advertising companies also have a responsibility to protect children and young people from harm. This chapter outlines some of the potential solutions to the issues that are identified

Immersed in the Transitioning Higher Education Sector: The Impact of Transitions in the Higher Education Sector in England on Staff and Students.

The increasing marketisation of the UK higher education sector in recent years has resulted in multiple transitions for universities. Student evaluations of teaching and university league tables have placed greater importance on both the quality of teaching and student experience. Arguably, these have become regulatory mechanisms for holding lecturers and university managers to account. More recently, new metrics introduced by the Office for Students have resulted in continuation, completion and graduate employment rates being adopted as a proxy for the quality of teaching. These metrics regulate the sector and have resulted in changes to course availability, recruitment practices, course design, assessment practices and student placements. The UK higher education system operates within a discourse of performativity. The university experience, which was once a space for critical thinking and debate, has been transformed into preparing workers of the future who can enter the neoliberal market as oven-ready graduates who can make a contribution to the global economy. Universities have had to adapt to take their place within a neoliberal marketised society. However, these transitions have also resulted in transitions for university students who have been re-positioned as consumers and future workers. This paper draws on Multiple and Multi-dimensional transitions theory (Jindal-Snape, 2016) to explore the implications of these transitions

Developing Socially-Just Teachers Through A Proposed Alternative Curriculum For Initial Teacher Education

Problems of teacher burnout, low job satisfaction and high rates of teacher attrition are not specific to England but are also global concerns and symptomatic of a profession in crisis. In England, teacher education is a highly regulated sector and, in recent years, has become increasingly complex, fragmented and marketised. Increased government control over what pre-service teachers learn during their initial training phase has resulted in a centralised teacher training curriculum which is both reductionist and situates teachers as technicians. Universities have always played a distinctive role in teacher education, but the marketisation of the sector in recent years has led to a de-professionalisation and re-professionalisation of university teacher educators. The disappearance of universities from teacher training policy discourse and the tightening of government control over what is taught to pre-service teachers reflects a lack of trust in the university teacher education sector. Given this aggressive policy context, it is not surprising that some higher education institutions in England have withdrawn their teacher education courses. Courses which were once the ‘bread and butter’ of many institutions are now viewed as a reputational risk. Inspection regimes seek to enforce the government prescribed curriculum and there are heavy penalties that are imposed on institutions where the prescribed curriculum is not being delivered in its entirety or where it is not being taught in sufficient depth. The government curriculum is reductionist and produces teachers as technicians who believe in and can implement the prescribed approaches. This thesis presents 13 published papers. Implications to support the development of an alternative teacher education curriculum are drawn from the findings. The findings of the papers demonstrate that matters of inclusion and social justice need to be given greater emphasis in teacher education to enable pre-service teachers to respond to the professional challenges that they will face in classrooms. Key broad themes drawn from the papers include teacher identity, social justice and inclusion as critical components of a teacher education curriculum. These themes are used to develop a proposed curriculum framework for initial teacher education, which aims to situate teachers as critical thinkers who can challenge government policy, advance equality and prioritise both their own mental health and the mental health of their students. In addition, a framework for a mentor curriculum is also proposed to support the implementation of the teacher education curriculum in schools

Tuning into children’s voices:Exploring the perceptions of primary aged children about their education in one primary school in England

This small scale study examined children’s views about their education in one primary school in England. The research took place in a large primary school, situated in an area of relative social deprivation in a northern town. A focus group was used to elicit the views of children in Key Stage 2 (aged 7-11) about their teachers, the curriculum, assessment and school inspection. Although the findings cannot be generalised, pupils had mixed views about reading, writing and mathematics. However, they were unanimous in their dislike of science. The data also indicate that pupils felt that the processes of testing and school inspection both served important purposes and that external validation of the school’s performance was necessary. This study provides a springboard for further research into pupils’ perspectives of their primary education

Adopting a student-led pedagogic approach within higher education: The reflections of an early career academic

The current paper presents a reflective account of the adoption of a student-led pedagogic approach, based upon the first author’s experiences of working within a new academic institution. Carl Rogers’ writings around student-centred learning and the role of the facilitator provide the theoretical underpinning for the reflections put forward, and contextual information regarding the institution’s learning and teaching strategy, and the first author’s teaching background are also provided. Observations and reflections relating to ‘power’ within teaching and learning, and the challenges (and successes) encountered when adopting the role of a ‘facilitator of learning’ are considered from a critical standpoint. The paper closes with some key questions and considerations surrounding the first author’s ongoing exploration of this innovative pedagogic approach