The English Geography National Curriculum encourages primary teachers to focus on similarities and differences when teaching distant places. The issues this raises are particularly acute when teaching geography in the context of the Global South. In this article I argue that comparisons based on object-based thinking can lead to views of the…

The teaching profession continues to struggle with defining itself in relation to other professions. Even though public opinion positions teachers second only to doctors and nurses in terms of their professional status and prestige research in the UK suggests that teachers still believe that they have much lower status than other professions. With…

This paper presents a critical analysis of literature relating to why males choose to become primary school teachers. Discussion within the paper concentrates on identifying and exploring connections between what is currently known about being a male primary school teacher and what motivates these men as they both pursue and practice within the…

The work reported in this article is part of a wider project that aims to develop and implement a web-based, pan-European, in-service professional development platform for teachers to enhance their role in promoting education through science. This article aims to evaluate the implementation of the e-module on Assessment of Children's Learning in…

A training course of two after-school sessions was run for teaching assistants (TAs) in a UK inner city primary school. The subject of the training was classroom use of a version of differential reinforcement of alternative behaviours (DRAs) known as Fair Pairs. The training introduced the concept of "Three Part Praise" within Fair…

The outcomes of a school improvement programme were measured in 26 primary schools over one year. Authorised pupil and staff absences and staff turnover decreased, and unauthorised pupil absences significantly increased ("p" < 0.05). Fixed-term exclusions significantly decreased ("p" < 0.001). The self-esteem of 316…

This paper explores how educational psychologists working in a training/consultative way can enable teachers to manage challenging pupil behaviour more effectively. It sets out a rationale which encourages schools to embrace a group based teacher peer-support system as part of regular school development. It then explores the usefulness of the…

This article draws on a study which investigated the interpretation and use of Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) in primary schools in the UK (the authors gratefully acknowledge Studentship funding from the Economic and Social Research Council for this study). The paper focuses on school staff members' perceptions about the…

Teachers in the UK and elsewhere are now expected to foster creativity in young children (NACCCE, 1999; Ofsted, 2003; DfES, 2003; DfES/DCMS, 2006). Creativity, however, is more often associated with the arts than with mathematics. The aim of the study was to explore and document pre-service (in the UK, pre-service teachers are referred to as…

Assessing creativity is commonly believed to be difficult but there is evidence that an intuitive, holistic assessment is easy and reliable. Given that children can engage in creative activity and teachers are expected to foster it, some assessment of it could aid planning and optimise support. Assessing creativity intuitively and holistically…

This article describes a novel UK school/university partnership, the "Plymouth Model" designed to encourage young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to aim for higher education (HE) study. The model incorporates the activity of university students, researchers and teachers working together to improve aspirations and outcomes for…

This paper reports on the work of a teacher-researcher collaborative group in the UK, who explored the idea of 'a dialogic approach' to classroom interaction and examined its relationship to use of the interactive whiteboard (IWB) in orchestrating classroom talk. We focus on how the co-inquiry process within this group led to the articulation of…

Background: Treatment trials that enquire into parents' and teachers' views on speech-language interventions and outcomes for primary school-age children are relatively rare. The current study sought perceptions of the process of intervention and value placed on outcomes resulting from a trial of intervention, the Social Communication Intervention…

School leaders are under considerable pressure to demonstrate the contribution of their work to school improvement, which has resulted in the creation of a wide range of literature which addresses leadership in the context of school improvement. This review pays particular attention to issues including transformational leadership,…

This article aims to explore the issues that face primary school teachers when responding to children's drawings. Assessment in art and design is an ongoing concern for teachers with limited experience and confidence in the area and, although children's drawings continue to be a focus of much research, the question of what it is that teachers say…