By Dr Rafael Mitchell, Senior Lecturer in Comparative & International Education, University of Bristol, UK
What does professional development provision look like for teachers in African schools? What patterns exist across the region in terms of the focus and forms of provision? Who is able to access professional development opportunities, and who is being left out? What are teachers’ experiences and outcomes from provision?
The peak of the cost-of-living crisis may have passed, but millions of families are struggling to buy enough food to feed their children. Experiencing food insecurity can be deeply damaging for children and negatively affects their achievement at school.
My research, alongside other studies, shows that schools are operating their own food banks and providing charitable food aid to families. This shows how the education system – from early years to secondary schools – is increasingly at the front line in responding to child poverty, food insecurity, and destitution. (more…)
By Lala Ismayilova, School of Education, University of Bristol
Greetings! I’m Lala Ismayilova, a graduate of the University of Bristol’s Master’s programme in Educational Leadership and Policy. I’m currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Education, driven by a deep passion to enhance the quality of education through research and advocacy.
During my time at Bristol, I delved into the diverse academic landscape, gaining valuable insights into the challenges faced by international students. Specifically, my research focused on understanding international students’ perceptions of formative feedback and its impact on their learning journeys. Through this research, I explored how cultural differences and educational backgrounds influence students’ engagement with formative feedback.
By Loz Hennessy, School of Education, University of Bristol
Colleagues across the GW4 have teamed up to form the new Climate Justice Education Research Network (CJERN). This is a new initiative, which loosely builds on the work of the previous CCERN network, but takes an explicitly justice-centred approach. The activities of the new network involve bringing together a core group of researchers from across the GW4 to explore potential collaborations in the field of climate justice education.
By Dr Lorna Smith (Associate Professor in Education), Dr Jessie Abrahams (Lecturer in Education), Jo Carrington (Assistant Head of Literacy and English at Clevedon School) and PhD student, School of Education, University of Bristol.
We are in an era where top-down prescription in English secondary schools is greater than ever. This often results in students’ voices being diminished and opportunities to talk suppressed. For example, some schools virtue-signal their strict ‘no-hands up’ policy – meaning that students speak in class only when they are invited to. Therefore, although high-quality talk has long been established as a vital component of learning (Alexander, 2020; Bleiman, 2018; Littleton and Mercer, 2013), there may be few opportunities for students to experience ‘natural’ conversation – listening and contributing according to the ebb of the discussion. (more…)
If you have a passion for your subject and you want to inspire the next generation, teaching could be the career for you.
Our PGCE programmes for secondary teaching here at the University of Bristol are rated ‘Outstanding’ in the most recent Ofsted review. The PGCE is demanding and hands-on, but you’ll be supported and guided to become an excellent qualified teacher, opening up a wealth of career possibilities. (more…)
By Leon Tikly, International Ambassador for Bristol, Professor in Education, University of Bristol & UNESCO Chair.
In a world marked by conflict, there is much that Bristol schools, colleges and universities can do to foster peace in the city and around the world. 24 January marks UNESCO International Day of Education, an annual event meant to highlight the importance of an Inclusive and Quality Education available to all across the lifespan. The theme for this year is Learning for Lasting Peace. This is highly relevant given the number of conflicts currently going on around the world from Gaza to Ukraine, to Afghanistan to Syria, and in the Horn of Africa. (more…)
By Nick Gray & Tot Foster, School of Education, University of Bristol
In this blog post, Connecting Through Culture (CTC) Researchers Nick Gray and Tot Foster from the School of Education, University of Bristol, reflect in conversation on their participatory film work in CTC and discuss how they are planning to carry this forward. (more…)
How to record and represent the non-verbal sounds of the School of Education? This was the challenge we set ourselves in an experimental research project recently funded by the TLC Research Centre.
Several constraints were explicit in the brief, for example to avoid identifiable human speech, to spend a certain number of hours on production, ethically to make people aware of when and where and why we were recording, to use only the relatively modest equipment budgeted for, and to produce a short podcast-length soundfile of up to 20 minutes. (more…)
During the recent international AI Safety Summit held in the UK, the government announced a further £2 million to be invested in Oak National Academy – a publicly funded classroom resource hub – to develop artificial intelligence tools to help reduce teachers’ workloads.
Generative AI, such as Open AI’s ChatGPT, responds to prompts from users to produce content. It has become a hot topic in education.
While there isn’t much up-to-date research on how teachers are using AI, we know from our work with schools that teachers are experimenting with AI to create lesson plans, classroom resources and schemes of work. For example, a teacher might ask ChatGPT, “make me a lesson plan on river flooding in Tewkesbury for year seven”. Within seconds, a plan will be available containing learning objectives, materials, activities, homework, assessments and more. (more…)