Tes research series: volume five

The Tes Research series: volume five will provide you with the information you need to know about:

• The limitations of child-led learning, with Professor David Geary

Professor David C Geary explains his theory that children learn through primary and secondary knowledge. Primary knowledge will naturally evolve as long as children are in an environment that permits exploration, play and social interactions. But secondary knowledge requires working memory, attentional control and cognitive load – for children to learn these, the teaching environment has to organise their experiences.

• A joined-up approach to comprehension, with Professor Jane Oakhill

Reading is often taught as a process of decoding words, with understanding of the text coming second. But Professor Jane Oakhill, leading expert on the teaching of comprehension and inference, doesn't believe this is the right approach. She thinks schools need to teach all elements of reading together.

• Teaching the ‘unteachable’, with Dr Simon Edwards

Dr Simon Edwards has taught across the education spectrum, from mainstream to alternative provision. He is now a researcher working with children deemed too tough even for pupil referral units. Here he explains why there's no such thing as an “unteachable” child.

• Why counting isn’t as easy as 1, 2, 3, with Professor Daniel Ansari

Professor Daniel Ansari has focused on trying to unpick the origins of number and how we teach children to count. Here, he explains how a child’s development is not linear or universal, and that we have “to be very careful about putting children into certain categories at an early age”.

• The pros and cons of peer influence, with Professor Brett Laursen

Why are some children so much more easily influenced than others? Can you influence behaviour norms across an entire school? And can teachers be influenced by their pupils? Professor Brett Laursen discusses what the research says about the various ways peer influence plays out in schools.

• Minding the gap in primary mental health, with Dr Wendy Sims-Schouten

​Although understanding of mental health problems in young people, and what to do about them, is growing in secondary schools, primary teachers still lack the training and tools to identify the earliest warning signs of common childhood disorders, says Dr Wendy Sims-Schouten. She explains why primary teachers need more support. 

• How premature birth can affect learning, with Professor Samantha Johnson

We know much more than we once did about the potential impact of preterm birth on a child’s education. Professor Samantha Johnson explains how children born prematurely may be missing out on vital support owing to schools’ lack of knowledge about the challenges they might face. 

Order your copy of the Tes Research series: volume five.

Price: £9.99

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