There are many pressures on academics to "satisfy" students' needs for feedback, not least the inclusion of questions about feedback. Many have commentated on the lack of student engagement with summative feedback while most believe that feedback is necessary to improve individual student performance. Several have looked at a range of…

The study explores what happens to teachers practice and professional identity when they adopt a collaborative action research approach to teaching and involve external creative partners and a university mentor. The teachers aim to nurture and develop the creative potential of their learners through empowering them to make decisions for themselves…

In this paper I explore the concepts of voice and space as critical to the issues of widening participation, inclusive learning and teaching and academic engagement. Drawing on research conducted between 2006 and 2008 within two universities in England, and developmental work carried out with some of the teacher participants subsequently, I…

This article focuses on one strand of community engagement: community-based learning for students. It considers in particular Interchange as a case study. Interchange is a registered charity based in, but independent of, a department in a Higher Education Institution. It brokers between undergraduate research/work projects and Voluntary Community…

This article focuses on a Western Vocational Lifelong Learning Network (WVLLN) initiative aimed at supporting Level 3 vocational tutors in further education (FE) who have moved into a teaching career via professional experience rather than through higher education (HE), but who play a significant role in advising young people about progression to…

The Warwick REDCo community of practice was a group of religious education researchers operating in several contexts: English secondary schools and universities, English and European collaborations on religious education. The group undertook action research, seeking to illustrate and critically assess the interpretive approach to religious…

This article reports the development of the first two years of a three-year project that examines the effectiveness of adult-child interactions in the early years, and tracks the development of teachers' thinking and practice as they engage in practitioner-led action research. The Adult-Child Interaction Project involves practitioners who work…

Relatively little is known about the effect of adult interactive style on children's communication. The aim of this study, written by Lila Kossyvaki, Glenys Jones and Karen Guldberg, all from the University of Birmingham, was to explore the effects of adult interactive style on children's spontaneous communication. The study used an action…

This article presents an action research study into how trainee music teachers in England use a structured discussion process called "Collegial Consultation" to learn about teaching. The research shows that, in Collegial Consultation, trainees learn from each other by offering several solutions to a problem, offering reasons for their…

This article describes an action research project carried out in North West England that aimed to assist Children's Services Departments and Care Trusts in developing their strategies for supporting care leavers into employment and training. The study found a range of models and approaches that can be utilised to develop local and regional…

This paper describes and evaluates an action research project carried out by a teacher in an English comprehensive school, where a class of 13- to 14-year-olds was taught personal, social and health education and German through content-language integrated learning (CLIL) over a six-week period. The purpose of the study was to explore how CLIL…

It is important to recognise and capture the rich and complex knowledge, understanding and experience that comes with the day-to-day interactions of those immersed in the school and science classroom environment, so that policy-makers do not overlook those who practice in the classroom and theorists do not assign incorrect meaning to the actions…

Using an action research approach, e-PDP (electronically-supported Personal Development Planning) was embedded within an undergraduate psychology curriculum at an English university for more than two years. e-PDP was embedded in three ways: (a) information literacy micro-tasks, (b) blogs of learning activities, and (c) eportfolios submitted at the…

I have been delivering the flexible family work approaches outlined in this supplement at Aquarius for the past 8 years. Aquarius is an English Midlands-based addictions charity working with people who have problems with alcohol, drugs, or gambling and supporting their family members/concerned others. I have been a practitioner participating in…

The paper reports the findings of a small-scale qualitative investigation into academic staff perceptions of research cultures across 10 English and Scottish university education departments. The study sheds light on four interrelated issues: the nature of research cultures, perceived facilitators, perceived constraints and the emotional landscape…