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The research in this impact case study has affected discourses concerning professional development and pedagogy from early years classrooms to higher education. By challenging orthodoxies, researchers have delivered new and generative understandings of teacher knowledge that have influenced debate in educators' communities and professional associations. Consequently, these bodies have used our research to guide their approach to the advancement of policy, practice and professional development in all education sectors. The impacts of our research have reached out to a range of national contexts including the UK, Australia, Cyprus, and South Africa.
Our research on curriculum and teacher agency has shaped curriculum policy and teacher development in two Scottish local authorities and a third had embarked on this route at the end of the period. Secondly, the research is informing the national curriculum review being undertaken by Education Scotland. Consequently, it is being used in teacher development programmes that are promoting improvements in the classroom. It has also informed scrutiny of policy among a wider professional audience and raised awareness of complex processes of curriculum reform within the broader public discussion in Scotland.
The IOE researchers featured in this case study have had a major and sustained impact on education in the Indian sub-continent. Geeta Kingdon has shaped UK government policy on educational aid to India. She has also helped to ensure that millions of poor children in Uttar Pradesh — India's most populous state — qualify for free places in private schools. Angela Little's work in Sri Lanka has raised the profile of primary education, which has been hampered by low status and inadequate funding. She has also done much to improve the life chances of the country's disadvantaged children — particularly those growing up on tea plantations.
Research conducted at Queen's has shaped significant changes to the revised Northern Ireland Curriculum which became statutory in 2007. There are two main research areas that led to these changes: teaching children to think across the curriculum, which has affected, and will continue to affect, the experiences of all children between 4-14 years in Northern Ireland schools (estimated 230,000 children annually); and a play-based early years curriculum, which affects all children between 4-6 years (estimated 48,000 children annually). The research on teaching thinking continues to influence curriculum developments elsewhere in the UK, specifically Wales and Scotland, as well as internationally, including the Republic of Ireland and Thailand. The research has even wider reach through current advisory work with the International Baccalaureate Organisation. The play-based learning research has specifically influenced policy and the professional development of teachers in the Republic of Ireland.
This study was undertaken for the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), undertaken by The University of Northampton in collaboration with the Australian Special Education Principals Association (ASEPA) and the University of Adelaide, Australia. It comprised a review of literature and current policy and practice in curriculum, assessment and reporting (CAR) for students with disabilities (SWD). It has informed ACARA's development work for the Australian Curriculum, which will see the full implementation of the first nationally consistent approach to curriculum in all states and territories by 2014. Focus on CAR for SWD highlighted underfunding for this group of students in all government initiative focusing on rolling out the implementation of the Australian Curriculum. $A200m was announced in 2011/12 Federal budget with an additional $A100m in 2013/14. This $A300m is to support many of the themes articulated in the research. The impact on SWD is to ensure comprehensive access to school curriculum, assessment and reporting thus contributing to their more widespread inclusion within schools and society at large
The IOE's Centre for Holocaust Education has transformed the way that this disturbing historical event is taught in many English schools. The Centre's highly regarded research-informed professional development programme has benefited thousands of teachers and ensured that an estimated 1m pupils experienced a deeper emotional and intellectual engagement with this difficult subject. The Centre has established a group of `Beacon Schools in Holocaust education' which have developed programmes of study that are now being shared with their own school networks throughout England. It has achieved international `reach' by producing educational materials for the UN and providing advice, training and consultancy for organisations such as Yad Vashem, Jerusalem's international Holocaust memorial museum.
In 2008, Professor Frank Hardman led a baseline study of pedagogic practices in Tanzanian primary schools to inform the design of a national school-based in-service education and training (INSET) programme. In February 2011, a pilot of the programme was launched and in August 2012 Hardman was commissioned to lead on an evaluation of the pilot, building on the 2008 baseline. Based on the findings of the 2012 evaluation, the Tanzanian Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) and Prime Ministers' Office-Regional Administration and Local Government (PMO-RALG) are currently planning a national scale-up of the INSET programme.
Research conducted by Stranmillis University College (SUC) and Queen's University Belfast (QUB) has made significant changes to the Foundation Stage (FS) of the revised Northern Ireland Curriculum which is now statutory for all children aged 4-6 in the first two years of primary school, embodied in the Education Order (2007). This play-based curriculum will continue to change the experiences of approximately 50,000 children per year for the next 10-15 years. The research created frameworks, pedagogical strategies and assessment instruments which have impacted on policy and practice both in the contexts of primary and pre-schools in Northern Ireland (NI) and in the Republic of Ireland (RoI).
The mode and structure of initial teacher education (ITE) is an instrumental factor in the quality of pupil learning and educational attainment. University of Glasgow research had a direct role in re-shaping ITE by substantially influencing Teaching Scotland's Future: Report of a review of teacher education in Scotland, the government's most comprehensive and radical review of teacher education and professional learning for the last 20 years. The final government report specifically called for a `hub model' of teaching schools, similar to a model being piloted at Glasgow, to be introduced across Scotland, effecting a transformation in the way that Scotland's 49,000 teachers are initially taught and trained.
Engineering is central to ensuring economic growth in the UK and making sure the country remains competitive in the global economy, yet there is a persistent lack of engagement with the subject in schools. Addressing this challenge, researchers at the University of Glasgow led a collaborative project to achieve sustainable educational change. Working with engineers at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde — as well as with industrialists, teachers and policy-makers — they raised the profile of engineering within the Scottish school curriculum and embedded engineering in teaching and examination.