The complexity of scientific concepts requires contextual knowledge that is often beyond the experience of young children. As someone new to the teaching profession, Georgie Orme sought out ways to make science more relevant and meaningful to children's lives. This article outlines an action research project that explored how she could use stories…

Developing student's confidence with qualitative research methods presents a challenge to many educators and is even more of a challenge when the 'educator' themselves are unfamiliar with such methods. This paper offers a three-way reflective account of bringing one such colleague 'into the fold'; their journey to the 'dark side.' It documents the…

Many study abroad programs promise students self-knowledge through adventure. Those that involve intense study seem at first sight not to offer adventure nor to entail risky dislocation nor to offer new insights into self. However, evidence from study abroad students at the University of Oxford reveals that they describe intellectual endeavor as…

Recent reforms to Initial Teacher Education in England are a continuation of a decades-long political project, aiming to change the whole social complex around teachers' professional education. But the most recent frameworks present some new inflections to the construction of learning, pedagogical relationships and difference. Positivist versions…

The growing interest in the role of student agency within schools, as well as the need for effective professional learning, supports further investigation into initiatives aiming to develop meaningful and sustainable student involvement in school improvement approaches. This article explores the role of student leadership in professional learning…

Background: Undergraduate research is evident in many forms across higher education: in journals, at conferences and on research placements. It is widely reported that undergraduate research can encourage the development of discipline-specific and transferable communication skills and, in some cases, a more complex development of higher-order…

Frustrated by the generic statements that her Year 12 students were making about sources, Jacqueline Vyrnwy-Pierce resolved to undertake a research project into how her students were approaching sources about the French Revolution. Fascinated by the research of American educational psychologist Sam Wineburg, Vyrnwy-Pierce decided to use Wineburg's…

This paper discusses the benefits and threats of promoting and reinforcing a research-based education environment to STEM undergraduate students. The paper explores the rationale for research-based education as a pedagogical driven approach, where undergraduate students learn through enquiry and discovery. Research evidence of a STEM case study…

Background: A diverse range of opportunities for high school students to undertake Independent Research Projects (IRPs) in science and this is a beneficial aspect of high school science provision. In Higher Education, the importance of students undertaking research as part of their learning, including presenting at authentic, academic conferences,…

Engaging in a final year project is required in most undergraduate degree programmes. However, the student research experience often differs from the academic experience due to a lack of opportunities for research dissemination. We present the Student Thesis Conference as an innovative research dissemination model used in Sports Science degrees at…

This article analyses an approach to student researchers of their curriculum as a module in an undergraduate initial teacher education programme. It shows the rationale for bringing such curriculum research into a taught programme to widen the range of possible participants. Rather than the outcomes of the student researcher project, the article…

The complexity of many children's lives can result in their ideas being neither understood nor included in mainstream opportunities for learning, particularly children who are living with disadvantage. With a focus on developing ethical and inclusive principles for participatory research and pedagogy, this paper reports on a pilot project where we…

Our paper consists of two parts. First, we review the history of the Royal United Service Institute (RUSI) museum, its collections, its closure and the dispersal of its collections. Second, we synthesize this analysis with a summary and reflection on the challenges of undertaking a collective memory project that represents the rise and fall of…

Chloe Bateman recognised the value to her Key Stage 3 pupils of developing rich subject knowledge, but wanted to find a way of encouraging them to value that knowledge for themselves. In this article she explains how she provided that inspiration by setting her Year 7 class the challenge of writing convincing and engaging historical fiction set in…

A team of six children (13-14 years old) developed and conducted an experiment to assess the behaviour of the planarian flatworm, an invertebrate animal model, before, during and after exposure to chemicals. The aim of the project was to engage children in pharmacology and toxicology research. First, the concept that exposure to chemicals can…