Education

Research Interests

• Scientific concepts held by pre-school children
• The elicitation and correction of science misconceptions by means of constructivist philosophy-driven conceptual change pedagogies
• Confirmation bias and its influence on science observation/ inference making (in both historical and contemporary contexts)
• The use of practical work to enhance achievement in school science
• Radio-assisted practice in Initial Teacher Education.

Peter's main interest is in school-based teacher education.

The members of the Physical Education team are active researchers, as well as being involved in the publication of materials for Initial Teacher Training and Newly Qualified Teachers.

Peter, Cathy and Julia have written chapters in "Learning to Teach Physical Education in the Secondary School", 1997, and 2004 editions.

Peter, Cathy, Anne and Julia have also written chapters for "Teaching Physical Education in the Secondary School - A Practical Guide" which is due for publication in 2005.

Peter, Anne and Julia are currently writing a paper for the Teacher Training Agency entitled 'Achieving Consistency in the Assessment of Students against the Standards for the Award of Qualified Teacher Status'. This is part of TTA project, due for publication in early 2005.

My research interests lie mainly in the sociology of education and education policy, and span three main areas: young people’s experiences of higher education; young adults and lifelong learning; and young people, citizenship education and political participation.

(i) Young people’s experiences of higher education

Building on my doctoral work which explored the influence of friends and peers on higher education decisions, I have conducted research on the impact of friends and peers on social and academic interactions within universities. I have also been working on a project which has investigated the motivations and experiences of UK students who choose to study abroad for the whole of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree (with Johanna Waters, Liverpool University, and funded by the British Academy). Our research has highlighted the very significant differences between the motivations and experiences of UK students who move abroad for their higher education and those of students from other countries. It has also demonstrated the ways in which international education can serve to exacerbate social inequalities amongst British students.

I am currently conducting a cross-national research project on the experiences of university students who have parental responsibilities for at least one young child. This is funded by the Nuffield Foundation and is based on in-depth interviews with students and higher education staff in the UK and Denmark.

(ii) Young adults and lifelong learning

My second main area of research has focussed on young adults and lifelong learning and, in particular, the interface between higher education and subsequent learning (funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the ESRC). This work has enhanced knowledge about the role of education and training in the lives of young adults and pointed to ways in which social inequalities are often perpetuated through the differential uptake of further learning opportunities.

(iii) Young people, citizenship and political participation

My third area of research interest is young people, citizenship education and political participation. I have conducted research on the impact of extra-curricular activities on young people’s understandings of citizenship (funded by a Brian Simon Educational Research Fellowship). This explored how young people’s voluntary, extra-curricular and peer-driven activities within schools and colleges affect their interpretation of the messages about citizenship they receive from the formal curriculum offered by educational institutions, and the extent to which they promote a critical analysis of society and a commitment to social justice. I have written about various other aspects of young people’s political participation, and am currently a co-investigator on an EU-funded FP7 project, ‘Processes Influencing Democratic Ownership and Participation’, which has a particular focus on young people.

I welcome applications for doctoral study in any of these areas.

Anne's teaching and research interests are in:

• Professional agency, identities and development;
• Autobiography, biography and narrative;
• Professional learning and development/Continuing professional development;
• Supporting learners and learning;
• Development of government and national policies for education and physical education;
• Inclusion and intersectionality;
• Learning and teaching;
• Safeguarding, health and safety and safe practice in education and physical education;
• Status of physical education and physical educators;
• Pupil experiences and perceptions of education and physical education;
• Effective continuity and progression of learning from ages 5-16;
• Primary physical education and the ‘skilling’ of generalist teachers;
• ‘Practical’ subject experience covers all areas of activity but with particular interests in dance, health related exercise, athletics and examination PE.

Sue has developed a range of research interests including:

• Science education at KS1,2 and KS3
• Assessment processes, procedures and outcomes in primary and secondary education
• Pupils’ attitudes towards science in primary and secondary schools
• Development of primary teachers’ practice through classroom-based research
• Every Child Matters ECM agenda: Localities Working to support pupils, parents/carers and communities
• Underachievement of pupils in primary schools

• Young People's use of On-Line Games
• Virtual Worlds and Learning Communities
• Young People and Fantasy Role Play
• Young People’s experiences of Manga, Anime and the Fantasy genre
• The 'dark-side' of the web
  

Harriet has worked on a range of research projects investigating the transitions of people in education, including from primary to secondary school, accreditation of prior learning, apprenticeships, progression from further to higher education and transitions into higher education and employment. She now co-ordinates year one of the BA in Contemporary Education and is keen to explore curriculum design for transition into higher education and lifelong learning.

Pedagogical approaches which promote the development of critical consciousness within initial teacher education partnerships.

Sarmin’s research interests lie mainly in the following areas: 1) Learning technologies and adoption of technologies in education, with a particular focus on tools for modelling and simulating such adoption contexts 2) Mathematics and Mathematics Teacher Education – with a focus on ‘understanding mathematics in depth’ 3) Engineering Education – with a focus on the uptake of engineering initiatives and progarmmes in school education and its impact on students’ engineering study/career choices. Further details of these interests and how they have been explored so far, details of relevant funding bodies, co-researchers/collaborators (both national and international) involved and publications/reports which have resulted from such works are as follows:

1) Learning technologies, adoption of technologies in education, modelling and simulation tools

Sarmin’s doctoral research resulted in the construction of a Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) model of ICT adoption in schools. The model was constructed in the mathematical programming language Matlab®. Her thesis is titled “Modelling Educational Software adoption in schools”. Her previous research in the area includes: Identifying and analyzing roles of stakeholders in the school educational domain. Identifying issues surrounding the problematic adoption of educational ICTs and conducting empirical studies, this resulted in her Masters Dissertation. 2. Exploration of applications of machine learning in simulation research for project titled ‘Machine Learning in Simulation Research: Methodology and Applications’. Her research subsequently focused on FCM and Simulation Modelling as tools for use within the Information Systems (IS) domain. This resulted in a report on the exploitation of FCMs in IS which was submitted to the Brunel Research Initiative and Enterprise Fund award.

Currently she is interested in extending her doctorate work to exploring and modelling digital technologies in the mathematics classrooms and exploring the integration of ICT across other curriculum subjects.

 2) Mathematics and Mathematics Teacher Education

Sarmin is currently involved with the QUANTUM-UK project, led by Professor Jill Adler (Kings College London and University of Witswatersrand). This scoping study has been funded by Kings College London. The study extends from a project in mathematics teacher education currently on-going in South Africa looking at the qualifications for teachers under-qualified in mathematics. The scoping study has been exploring the UK context and finds some similarity between programmes in South Africa (SA) and UK’s recently introduced Mathematics Enhancement Courses (MEC). This has led the research team to investigate the MEC as an alternative route into teaching and through this explore ‘Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching’ with a focus on Understanding Mathematics in Depth. The research team include collaborators from Liverpool Hope, Manchester University and University of East London.

Other research in the area includes- working on a scoping study funded by the Nuffield Foundation, led by Professor Mike Askew and Dr Jeremy Hodgen (Kings College London). The scoping project identified and provided an overview of research in countries with high mathematics attainment. This resulted in a report titled Values and Variables: Mathematics Education in High-Performing Countries which was submitted to the Nuffield Foundation.

3) Engineering Education

Sarmin is currently involved in working on a systematic review titled Systematic Review of Education for Engineering and Interventions for Engineering Education within STEM-related Developments in the UK, led by Professor Peter Kutnick (Hong Kong University) and Dr David Good (University of Cambridge). The review is funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering. It is concerned with examining studies which have evaluated existing/previous engineering education interventions; to systematically identify the qualities and outcomes of these initiatives (which promote engineering formally and informally among school-aged children); to identify a range of pedagogies used within engineering (educational) interventions.

She is also involved in the study/project titledA cross-sectional study of effects on perceptions and actions towards engineering education as a result of interventions within LEP schools. The other proposers of this study include Dr David Good (University of Cambridge), Professor Peter Kutnick (Hong Kong University) and Heather Hawthorne (Royal Academy of Engineering). The study is funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering. This is a tracking/cross-sectional study focusing on the number and type of engineering activities that have taken place in particular schools as part of the London Engineering Project. This study is concerned with exploring the extent of particular pupil involvement (as opposed to general number attending events) with these engineering initiatives; impact on pupils with regard to their age and involvement; teacher and staff views of particular aspects of the programme with regard to pedagogy and materials; identification of which parents have been involved; and relationships to technical/higher education career aspiration/choice.

Her main research area involves the exploration of the relationships between the incidence of connected mathematical thinking in children and trainee teachers of primary mathematics and their mental mathematics competence, confidence and strategy choices in the context of the Primary Mathematics. Her doctoral work used design-based research to design an intervention programme to develop the mental mathematics of trainee teachers for teaching.

My work covers both primary and secondary education.

My main research interests are:

• All aspects of Mathematics Education.
• Teachers’ responses to government policy.
• Aspects of talent development of students in urban areas and the role of their parents in their education.
• Effective classroom practices to address children’s special abilities and interests.
• Education of mathematically promising pupils.
• Assessment.
• The role of Action Research in continuing professional development of teachers.
• The use of Design Research for educational interventions.

Dawn works in conjunction with colleagues in The School of Engineering and Design and is currently involved with the CMS Detector on the Larger Hadron Collider at CERN, Geneva. She is particularly interested in combining her research in Physics and Engineering with her work in Education and often takes part in outreach events with the aim of encouraging students to continue their study of science-based subjects to A-Level and beyond.

Geeta maintains active links with primary and secondary schools through her research interests, student mentoring role and previous school governor positions. She sees this as an important dimension of her role.

Her research interests now focus on the theme of her PhD which is a narrative exploration of the cultural identities of twelve South-Asian adolescent girls in the secondary school context. Her PhD was inspired by her two daughters and the nature of her PhD has enabled her to engage in valuable inter-disciplinary work with academic colleagues from sociology and youth work.

Other research and teaching interests include: supporting the language needs of bilingual learners and the importance of the heritage language in maintaining a sense of identity. She is interested in the role of talk within the primary and secondary curriculum, with a particular focus on reflection through talk and drama techniques.

I am a sociologist who uses qualitative methods to examine the construction of masculinities and sexualities among young men in educational and sporting settings. My research examines how a zeitgeist of decreasing homophobia impacts on the gendered behaviours of young heterosexual men and the school experiences LGBT youth. My research also examines how language-use changes in response to these shifting attitudinal positions and behavioural patterns. While my focus is on how this impacts on youth in post-compulsory education, and the implications this has for school cultures, I also research how these changes are manifest in the institution of sport. Because both sport and education are considered to be socially conservative institutions, my research speaks to youth in the broader culture, too.

For nearly two decades I have devoted my career to understanding bullying in schools and, particularly, how bullying affects the mental health and well-being of adolescents. I am particularly interested in bias-based bullying and how its impacts upon those who experience it and witness it. In the 1990s the focus of my research was on the nature and long-term correlates of homophobic bullying. It was conducted at a time when Section 28 of the Local Government Act was in full force and also when few organisations (including LGBT organisations), other than a few key unions (NASUWT, NUT and UNISON), were willing to listen and acknowledge that this had been and continued to be an issue in British schools.

My more recent research, conducted with colleagues from various universities in the U.K. and U.S., has focus on text and-email bullying and the experiences of witnesses. Working collaboratively with local education authorities, our studies have shown that, across five years (2001-2006), text and e-mail bullying rose with the take-up of technology by young people transitioning to high school. We have also shown that students who witness bullying at school not only are affected by that experience but share a number of similarities with victims. Issues such as feelings of powerlessness, witnessing bias-based bullying and cognitive dissonance are associated with an increased likelihood of engaging in self-harming and destructive behaviours.

My research increasingly includes the integration of theories drawn from social and developmental psychology with aspects of cognitive psychology (particularly implicit and explicit reasoning) to better understand the train of thought that takes an individual form a position of safety to one of potential harm. I hope that this research can be applied to many contexts and fields of study.

Books

Rivers, I. (2011). Homophobic bullying: Research and theoretical perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN-13  9780195160536.

The voices of pain are powerful.The author presents poignant, evocative narratives in which victims express the  maelstrom of confusion that peer abuse etched on their memories. He integrates a rich review of pivotal investigations on the topic of bullying with primary quantitative and qualitative data as he introduces three original studies that focus on the victimization of sexual minorities. His insightful discussion of classic and contemporary theories from a multidisciplinary perspective will sharpen the reader's understanding of the complex set of psychosocial factors involved in this cycle of abuse. This is a powerful, timely reminder that there are no innocent bystanders in the "bullying circle." Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty/professionals. – CHOICE

Those seeking a better understanding of the problems encountered by victims of bullying will find...Homophobic Bullying by Ian Rivers, a useful work of scholarship. Rivers compiled data from numerous studies on the form and nature of the problem and created a curriculum to help eliminate bullying in schools, starting in kindergarten with the simple message that there are different types of families, and progressing all the way through high school with lessons on the consequences that follow from homophobic taunting and exclusions. Homophobic Bullying is an academic work, written with the emotional detachment of its genre. The personal accounts from victims, while gripping, are brief. However the curriculum and supporting data make this a treasure trove for anyone creating change in a school or workplace. Homophobic Bullying should be in the principal’soffice. – Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide.

Rivers, I., Duncan, N., & Besag, V.E. (2007). Bullying: A handbook for educators and parents. Westport: Greenwood/Praeger. ISBN 0-313-33850-2

Drawing on research conducted in the US, the UK, Scandinavia, and Canada, Rivers offers insight into the immediate and long-term impact that bullying can have on the lives of students, their families, and teachers. He gives parents tips for working proactively with school administrators to resolve bullying issues, and provides teachers with materials that facilitate a better understanding of the social dynamics of the classroom, hallways, and playground. Administrators will find a quick guide to recent state and federal statutes, directives, and legislation related to bullying and antisocial behavior in grades K-12. –Library Media Connection

Paula’s main research interest is to create Learning Pathways, which capture Reflective Practice for Professional Development in student, early career and experienced teachers within her innovative framework designed to structure evidence informed practice.
Other research interests include: Models of effective Partnership working in ITE; Mentor training, support and accreditation; Removing barriers to achievement; Interpersonal relationships and Communication skills; Management and Leadership skills; Continuing Professional Development; how to draw upon Advanced Skills Teachers’ [AST] effectively to support student teachers in their development of ICT skills and use of Web 2.0 technologies/resources.

Exemplars of recent/ongoing projects

• 2010-2011 [current] Links between AST’s and ITT, TDA learning grant
• 2010 [current] Scaling up Models of Teacher Education: Reflective Practice for Professional Development, UCET Research Collaborative Network
• 2010 Literature review: Effective ITE partnership working, TDA funded
• 2009 CPD Leadership in 21st Society, TDA funded MA module
• 2009 ICT for Future Teachers, workshops to create vision for the future, Becta funded
• 2009 Reviewing and developing the SEN portal and guidance for trainee teachers, TDA funded
  

• 2010 [forthcoming] Reflective Practice for the Professional Growth of student, early career and experienced teachers, UCET Annual Conference, November 11-13
• 2010 Effective Partnership Working, Annual Professional Coordinating Mentor [PCM] Conference, June 23, South West London Education Consortium [SWELTEC]: Kingston University.
• 2010 Reflective Practice for Professional Development: a framework for structuring evidence informed practice, 16th International Reflective Practice Conference, June 23-25, Putteridge Campus, University of Bedfordshire, UK
• 2009 Reflective Practice for professional development: a framework to guide student teachers within the context of action research, Besancon, France, May 27-29: AIESEP
• 2009 Reflective Practice for Professional Development: questioning personal theories and beliefs, 10th Annual Learning and Teaching Symposium, April 23-24, Learning and Teaching Development Unit, Brunel University, Uxbridge.
• 2007 Every Child Matters, Occasional conference for Multi professionals working with children and young people, May 1, University of Bedfordshire: Bedford.