This paper is about a design-based research project which evaluated the novel use of Lesson Study for assessment (LSfA) purposes. It starts by explaining the principles and design of LSfA procedures based on a Lesson Study model and dynamic assessment principles. It outlines the training and support provided to six Lesson Study teams in three…

The article explores the use of a classroom-based investigation at Masters level to support pre-service teachers (secondary English PGCE trainees) in focusing on the need for explicit teaching and assessment of speaking and listening skills. With reference to specific case studies, it explores how the module encourages trainees' use of Socratic…

The spread of ICT is arguably one of the greatest changes that compulsory education has witnessed in the last twenty years. However, to what extent are prospective secondary English teachers on a PGCE course effectively equipped to use ICT to work in a multiliterate curriculum, and how well prepared are their ITE tutors to support them? Here, I…

This article investigates the needs and challenges of a group of Chinese secondary school teachers in their transition to postgraduate studies in the UK in the context of a British-Chinese partnership. The strategies and efforts of the host institution, local community and the Chinese students themselves to help ease the transition and promote a…

In this article, the author explores her personal views on mathematics and how she solves problems. She experiences some personal revelations while attending a "Mathsjam". Organised by some of the more prominent names in the popularisation of mathematics, "Mathsjam" was billed as the UK's first Gathering for Gardner, an event…

This paper investigates the personal epistemologies of teachers in relation to the place of linguistic and literary metalanguage in the teaching of poetry writing. The data draw on 93 interviews with 31 secondary English teachers in the UK, following lesson observations, and the data are a subset of a larger study investigating the impact of…

This paper uses figurational sociology to explain why Secondary Physical Education teachers' engagement with Health Related Exercise (HRE) is often limited. Historically-rooted concerns surround the teaching of HRE, and these have recently been linked to teachers' limited continuing professional development (CPD) in HRE (HRE-CPD). A two-phase,…

This article aims to offer an alternative to traditional participation frameworks used to analyse teacher/pupil talk in the classroom. Within curricular areas where learners are encouraged to articulate their own meaning and be creative in their use of language, a traditional participation framework, such as Initiation, Response, Follow-up, may…

In this essay I explore the constraints and opportunities confronting me as a newly qualified teacher and how these affect my pedagogy. I have reflected on my own development from beginning to newly qualified teacher and considered how such forces have shaped my identity as a teacher, my values and my approach to the job. As part of my exploration…

There have been significant advance in educational technology but they have not always brought about measurable shifts in user behavior. This study examined the relationship between teachers' knowledge about a tool and their use of that tool. In many secondary schools use of a Learning Platforms (LPs) is no longer optional although the degree of…

Background: Physical education has long been caught in a time of "innovation without change". Yet, despite a wealth of pedagogical innovations and policies, which encourage a reconsideration of the "traditional pedagogy", teachers rarely move beyond the honeymoon period of implementation. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is…

This article explores the current demands that teachers engage in year-on-year continued professional development (CPD) as a means of showing their ongoing competence to teach. In particular it highlights two types of CPD: the talked about notion of the "reflective practitioner" and the actioned reality of CPD as a measure of technical…

"Nativeness" has been recognised for two decades now as a problematic concept within applied linguistics, yet other areas of language analysis have been slow to question it, with some continuing to treat it as a primordial fact of nature. This paper briefly examines the history of the "native speaker" and the shifts in thinking…

Telecollaboration for Intercultural Language Acquisition (TILA), is an EU-funded project within the Lifelong Learning Programme that will run between January 2013 and June 2015. TILA's overall objectives are: (1) to innovate, enrich and make foreign language teaching programmes more attractive and effective by encouraging the implementation of…

This article explores the relevance of school design in providing an important social-spatial context for promoting citizenship in young people. Drawing on a small-scale study that investigated the perspectives of pupils and teachers, it contrasts the ways in which the social control and monitoring of pupils differed in two secondary schools.…