A large scale observational study by educational psychologists of 141 UK primary classrooms used a partial interval time-sampling observational schedule to record the frequency and type of verbal behaviour of teachers and whether students were "on-task" (following the teacher's directions) or "off-task" (not following the…

This paper focuses on the use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) as a tool for encouraging and supporting classroom dialogue. The authors' concern here is with the promotion of "dialogic" communication between teachers and students, which is now widely recognised as educationally valuable. In this study they investigated how teachers…

Since 2002, Creative Partnerships, based at the Arts Council of England, has been investing time, energy, and resources to bring artists and schools together. Their goal is to "animate the national curriculum and to enrich school life by making the best use of the United Kingdom's creative wealth." This article concentrates on the…

This article introduces a project, School Leadership for Quality Global Learning, which focuses on the relationship between leadership at different levels within educational institutions and quality global learning. The article outlines briefly the changing societal context within which education is operating currently before exploring key ideas,…

The debate in the UK about gender equity and equal opportunities for girls and boys has been "captured", in the last two decades, by an overriding concern with the issue of boys' apparent under-achievement. More recently, however, there has been a reaction to essentialist approaches related to "boy-friendly" pedagogies and…

Primary school teachers generally have to teach several subjects. Their training, however, is often fairly short and it is tempting to force-feed them with everything they need to know to teach these subjects. It is more realistic to accept that a short course cannot do everything. Instead, it would be better to equip these students with skills…

This paper reports on the approaches undertaken to support the development of teachers' uses of interactive whiteboards in the Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion project. Mixed methods were used to identify practices and staff perceptions about the extent and impact of professional development through surveys (initially from 528 schools),…

This paper analyses the experience of a teacher and her Year 6 class (10-11 year-olds) over a school year, while participating in a pilot project introducing Personal Digital Assistants as a learning tool. The intervention was initiated and supported by the local City Learning Centre, which was concerned with how best to use technologies for…

The Training and Development Agency sets national standards in the UK for qualified teacher status. These standards set out the areas of knowledge and skills that aspiring teachers should acquire during their training. One of these areas of knowledge and skills concerns the identification and teaching of pupils with special educational needs, yet…

This paper presents a case study of a primary school which was seen as using ICT effectively to support teaching and learning. Research was carried out over two years (2003-2005) and included observation of lessons, document analysis, interviews, and questionnaires with staff at the school. It was found that "fitting ICT in", rather than…

A project conducted in a primary school explored the hypothesis that student teachers could reflect upon feedback to improve their use of emotional intelligence in the classroom, thereby making consequent improvements to their teaching as defined by the required professional teaching standards. The small body of literature on the emotional…

This article outlines how a group of primary school teachers from a cluster of nine schools in a networked learning community enquired into their classroom teaching. The teachers each identified an area of practice that they were developing in their classroom and wanted to evaluate, such as the benefits of pupils working in teams, or the creation…

Few men choose to become primary school teachers. Those who do move into a world often thought of as feminized and contend with a publicly-voiced rhetoric which simultaneously idealizes and demonizes them. This paper turns a spotlight on one student's stories of being a man and a student primary school teacher. It considers how he negotiates the…

Concerns about the recruitment and retention of teachers have prompted recent studies into the status of teaching in several different countries. This paper analyses the findings of a survey designed to investigate public perceptions of the teaching profession in the UK. It was undertaken as part of a broader DfES-funded longitudinal project that…

This article describes a four-year project undertaken to develop a set of performance tasks that could be used for assessing hands-on science in Irish primary schools. It begins by considering some of the literature on performance assessment and concludes with a discussion on the potential of the tasks to support teaching and learning in science.…