Reviews: Teaching and research

28 reviews found for "Teaching and research"

Book Review: Teaching Literacy Through Drama: Creative Approaches: This book is divided into three parts: part one provides a convincing rationale for using drama as a teaching and learning tool in literacy. Here connections are made to national curriculum and national literacy strategy requirements with some references to the curriculum guidance for the foundation stage. Although the new framework for primary literacy has just gone live which might be seen as dating this book, the pedagogical ideas argued in...
Book Review: Teaching Adults ICT Skills (Further Education S.): In the introduction to the book, Alan Clarke describes it as being 'aimed at teachers, tutors and trainers of ICT user skills'. He goes on to suggest that the diverse range of adult learners who seek ICT courses, the extensive range of contexts and locations in which they take place, and the need for those learners to learn 'certain personal skills' all combine to produce a teaching situation which is full of challenges. One of those is that...
Book Review: Teachers as Researchers: Qualitative inquiry as a path to empowerment: This is a passionate as well as a practical book, but it's not so much a handbook for researchers as a guide to theorizing research in the field. Its declared primary audience is teachers, and particularly teachers in America. Teachers there, like their counterparts in the UK, have over the past dozen or so years been perceived by their government within an increasingly authoritarian vision to have an essentially technicist role to enforce rules...
Book review: Children, their world, their education : final report and recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review: This is a book review of Children, their World, their Education - Final report and recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review, edited by Robin Alexander and published by Routledge in 2009, ISBN 9780415548717. It was reviewed by Mark Jenkins of the University of Winchester on behalf of ESCalate. The Cambridge Review was a major research project on the future of primary education in England. It made 75 recommendations for the future of...
Book Review: University Students Behaving Badly: This is a timely and interesting book which deserves a wide readership. It is not a book about the types of bad behaviour which disrupt the daily business of most academics. And as such it is not comparable with more practical books on behaviour issues in different sectors of education such as those by Wallace (2002) or Rogers (2006) which focus on practice in the classroom or lecture hall. Instead this is a book written by a sociologist which...
Book review: Building classroom success: eliminating academic fear and failure: This is a book review of Building classroom success: eliminating academic fear and failure by Andrew Martin, published by Continuum in 2010, ISBN 9781847065605. It was reviewed by Szerenke Kovacs of ESCalate at the University of Bristol. The book focuses on success, fear and failure in the classroom, and what teachers can do about them. The book is divided into 4 parts and 21 chapters. The author discusses achievement evolution, academic...
Book Review: Lifelong Learning and the New Educational Order: ‘Lifelong learning’ is an old and well used learning model but it has never tired. This fresh look at lifelong learning in contemporary Britain explains why lifelong learning is here to stay. A valuable background read for teachers involved in delivering learning opportunities across the life span. The ‘academic’ style of writing is aimed at a higher education readership but is accessible nevertheless to a wider readership. I recommend...
Book Review: Educational Research Policy Making and Practice: Martyn Hammersley argues throughout his book that the relationship between research and practice, especially the practice of teaching, is not only far from simple but is also rarely safe. He is concerned, therefore, to suggest the best possible and most desirable relationship between research and practice or policymaking. However he also believes that the problem of defining the relationship is intractable since policymakers and practitioners...
Book Review: Inside The Literacy Hour: Learning From Classroom Experience: This book describes the impact of the first two years of the National Literacy Strategy on twenty teachers working in small rural schools and their classes. The research examines the effect of the imposed changes on the teachers’ practice, discusses the progress of target children in reading as measured by standardised tests and in writing, and gives relevant insight into how teachers were able to successfully accommodate the NLS within their...
Book review : A student's guide to methodology: This is a book review of A student's guide to methodology by Peter Clough, Cathy Nutbrown, published by Sage in 2007, ISBN 9781412929134. It was reviewed by Dr. Julie Anderson of ESCalate at the University of Bristol. It is divided into three main sections. Each contain between two and four chapters. Within each of these there are suggestions for activities, useful chapter summaries of the key points and suggestions for further readings. Part 1...
Book Review: Learning to Teach Drama 11-18: This textbook is aimed at a large audience including those who are considering applying for initial teacher training (ITT), those who have begun and are unsure of their subject, those who may be attending a module or some sessions on teaching drama within their subject area, but mainly those who will be “teaching drama in the context of secondary education”. As an enthusiast who has taught drama in a variety of situations including secondary,...
Book review : Developing teacher assessment: This is a book review of Developing teacher assessment by John Gardner et al., published by the Open University Press in 2010, ISBN 9780335237838. It was reviewed by Jonathan Tummons of the University of Teesside. The book takes the reader through debates concerning different, and sometimes contested, definitions of formative and summative assessment, before positing a series of ten principles of assessment practice. It recommends that teachers’...
Book Review: Teaching Design and Technology at Key Stages 1 and 2 (Achieving QTS S.): The content is exactly as the title describes since it focuses on enabling students to meet the standards for classroom teachers with a useful mapping document in the appendices. It also supports the Design and Technology Association (DATA) guidance Tier 1- competencies necessary to teach design and technology satisfactorily. Key features of the book are reflective activities, practical tasks and case studies. These features will support any...
Book Review: Reflective teaching of history 11-18: The book has been written as a core text for those beginning the profession of history teacher in England and Wales and is certainly a useful contribution to the education of new history teachers. It ought nonetheless to be of interest and use both to history teacher educators and teachers of history who wish to develop their reflection-on-practice and further their understanding of the research evidence for much of what they do in the classroom
Book Review: Becoming an Evidence Based Practitioner: A framework for teachers-researchers: A lucid and readable account of how a 'vision' of a community of researchers and teachers in a particular geographical area was translated into reality through addressing genuine classroom issues ranging from helping weaker readers through researching the teaching of mental arithmetic and primary science. The reader will find the grounding of this work firmly set in government initiatives supporting evidence-based practice (EBP), through a clear...
Book Review: Learning Power: A Guide for Teachers: This book, written for teachers, describes practical classroom applications of research undertaken so far as part of the Effective Lifelong Inventory (ELLI) project, carried out within the University of Bristol’s Graduate School of Education. The project was supported in its early stages by Professors Guy Claxton and Patricia Broadfoot. Claxton’s work on learning power in particular will be familiar to many readers and has greatly influenced the...
Book Review: The Theory and Practice of Teaching (2nd Ed): The Theory and Practice of Teaching is written for ‘anyone interested in the art of good teaching.’ On picking up the book, I decided not to be anyone - but someone, a student teacher to be precise. Reading the book from what I perceive to be a student teacher perspective, I looked for accessible pages, different styles of teaching and learning, practical hints to take into the classroom. It was all there. The eight different authors approached...
Book Review: The Enquiring University Teacher: This book makes a useful contribution to debate about the role of the university, and the relationship between teaching and research. The style of the book is unashamedly personal rather than 'academic' - with Rowland considering that the act of writing the book is a personal act of enquiry
Book Review: Schools on the Edge: Responding to Challenging Cirmumstances: ‘Schools on The Edge’ is written by a team of authors from the Faculty of Education at Cambridge University who were involved in a Dfes funded project ‘Schools Facing Exceptionally Challenging Circumstances’. This project (2001-2005) focused on an octet of schools, all in disadvantaged areas, which were constantly seen to be on the brink of success or failure, and which had a senior management team committed to school improvement. The book takes...
Book Review: Reconstructing Professionalism in University Teaching: Teachers and Learners in Action: I was inspired by this book. It is written by five academics from different disciplines researching an aspect of teaching and by Melanie Walker, an educational developer and researcher who convened and supported the group. In general, the six action research cases and the commentary by Walker are a critique of the predominance of the discourses and practices of 'quality culture' and 'managerialism'; and alternatives are promoted in the forms of...
Book Review: Developing Your Teaching - Ideas, Insight and Action (Key guides for effective teaching in Higher Education): Developing Your Teaching is another entry in the growing canon of literature relating to the development of learning and teaching in higher education. With a renewed impetus provided by the new Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education, published by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) earlier this year, this book is a timely addition to the literature of learning and teaching in higher education. New...
Book Review: Learning To Teach Drama 11-18: The target audience for this book ranges from young people considering training to become a drama teacher or students in training. The book provides guidance about applying for initial teacher training courses, the type of information to seek when exploring different higher education programmes and guidance for interview preparation. The book provides clear advice on lesson observation, shadowing teachers and/or pupils. Readers also learn how to...
Book Review: How to Teach Thinking and Learning Skills: A Practical Programme for the Whole School (Book & CD Rom): As the title implies, this book is a practical guide to teaching thinking and learning skills in the primary school, and contains a useful programme entitled Think! which provides structure and advice in introducing and developing these skills. A first glance at the contents page and the accompanying CD Rom provide the reader with a brief synopsis for the book, chapter titles providing the raison d’etre as to why thinking and learning skills...
Book Review: Reshaping Teaching in Higher Education - Linking Teaching with Research: In the first of a series of linked chapters we first gain insights into the basic tenet of the whole book, which is: - that to produce quality learning for the students we need to reshape our teaching by linking teaching and research in many new ways. Next we examine the proofs that such links really do relate to a quality student experience. In Ch 3 the student perspective is examined as to whether they are motivated or not by these links. Next...
Book Review: Innovating in Higher Education: Teaching, Learning and Institutional Cultures: Innovation is, by definition, novel and challenging – not always positive but forcing entities to reconsider ways and means of achieving their goals. It is to be hoped that an investigation of any phenomenon takes account, if not taking on, at least some of the characteristics of the matter under investigation. Sadly, in the present case, the somewhat leaden prose style reflects none of the energy and, indeed, enterprise, shown by innovators in...
Book review : The SAGE handbook of educational action research: This is a book review of The SAGE handbook of educational action research edited by Susan E Noffke and Bridget Somekh, published by Sage in 2009, ISBN 9781412947084. It was reviewed by Jonathan Tummons of the University of Teesside on behalf of ESCalate. The book is divided into sections, each of which has a core theme that then allows the authors of individual chapters to contribute in their own distinctive voices, from a variety of...
Book Review: Teaching and Learning History: This work forms part of a series of books aimed at both new and experienced lecturers, which are intended to act as core texts for those working towards membership of the Institute for Learning and Teaching. As such, it presents a valuable overview of both the recent and current state of undergraduate history teaching and learning as well as a nuanced discussion of specific aspects of the ways in which concepts such as benchmarking, transferable...
Book Review: The Complete Classroom: Although clearly work-related, I found this the perfect summer read. The Complete Classroom is a readable, interesting book which provides an up-to-the-minute overview of several key issues facing teachers in both primary and secondary schools today. Steven Hastings, a regular contributor to the Times Educational Supplement, writes regularly for the weekly series The Issue; a selection of these articles forms the basis of the twenty four short...