Teachers
Research Topic
Language: English
This is a research topic created to provide authors with a place to attach new problem publications.
Research problems linked to this topic
- How can professional development be used to help teachers and school leaders to become more effective? What are the features of both the design and delivery of effective teacher and school leader professional development, at scale? Why are these features effective?
- What models of management and professional development of teaching and nonteaching roles support efficient and safe use of data and technology including AI?
- How can we best support and promote mental health and wellbeing in schools, colleges and higher education?
- How do device ratios impact students and teachers?
- How can the impact of digital technology be robustly measured, and implemented in a way that supports teachers and learners?
- What are the most effective approaches to upskilling the education workforce to use AI well? What impact could this have on productivity?
- What are the best ways to ensure that AI is used safely, ethically, and in ways that protect the data and interests of children, young people, teachers, and schools and colleges? What forms of regulation and enforcement may be appropriate?
- How do AI and other digital technologies support existing ways of working in schools and colleges? What are the main opportunities for the future?
- In what ways can AI and other digital technology reduce teacher workload and improve student outcomes? How can AI and digital technology impact on productivity?
- What are the potential impacts of AI, and how can new technologies be used safely and effectively within education?
- What are the characteristics of the SEND and AP workforce? What are the barriers to SEND and AP staff recruitment and retention, and how can we overcome these?
- How do we create a SEND and AP system that better meets the needs of children and their families? Building on the SEND and AP improvement plan, we would like to better understand local delivery, partnership working in the system, cost and financial stability. What does good provision look like and how can we share best practice?
- How can we improve the education experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND or in AP? How do we best identify needs and level of need, what are the benefits of early intervention, and what are appropriate outcomes to measure for this group?
- How can we best support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and those who attend Alternative Provision (AP)?
- What are the different ways that outdoor learning can affect young people and how can they be measured?
- What impact does accountability and inspection have on key outcomes for the education system, including internationally?
- What activities do school trust leaders prioritise to improve their schools' performance?
- Which school-wide (or school trust-wide) systems, processes, and interventions improve pupil attainment and narrow disadvantage attainment gaps? Applied research might explore, for instance, how leaders use behaviour systems, pupil setting, the length of the school day, and whole-school enrichment interventions.
- How can schools and school trusts use their resources (including staffing, estates and technology) more effectively and efficiently?
- How can we better integrate technical education into our schools?
- How do schools use in-school units such as SEN Units, Resourced Provision and in-school Alternative Provision to improve pupil outcomes?
- What knowledge and skills do all teachers and school leaders need to support pupils with SEND? How should this differ throughout the stages of a teacher’s career?
- What are the features of high-quality tutoring? Applied research might demonstrate how schools can use tutoring across phases and subjects to help pupils who are behind, or to stretch pupils.
- What are the barriers to learning experienced by pupils with SEND, and what strategies are effective in helping them overcome these barriers?
- How can we improve outcomes for all pupils, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with SEND?
- How can schools and local partners work together effectively to reduce persistent and severe absence?
- What are the drivers of pupil attendance and absence?
- What are the most valid and reliable assessment methods, and how are these used effectively in schools to support and assess pupil learning? Which ways of representing and sequencing curricula are most effective in supporting pupil learning and why?
- What teaching approaches are most effective in helping pupils to pay attention, grasp new ideas, develop skill (such as writing), retain knowledge, transfer knowledge, and be motivated to learn? Why are these approaches most effective? Applied research might include, for example: how various forms of retrieval practice can help pupils retain knowledge for longer periods, or how teacher instruction, teacher questioning, and in-class reading can be used to enhance understanding, and how these effects vary across different phases or subjects.
- What does evidence from the natural and cognitive sciences suggest about how schools might influence pupil motivation, behaviour, and learning? How can this be translated into teaching practices that reliably improve pupil attainment?
- How can we assess teaching quality and support schools in making valid and proportionate assessments of quality (e.g. comparing novice and expert practice; monitoring impact on pupil outcomes)?
- How can we improve teaching quality in ways that scale?
- What factors influence the recruitment and retention of teachers at all stages of their careers – particularly in schools that serve disadvantaged communities?
- What are the characteristics of successful initial teacher training candidates?
- What are the impacts of teacher workload on graduate career decisions and staff retention? What are the potential impacts of improved flexible working, pay and financial incentives for graduates?
- What are the barriers and opportunities for recruiting and retaining teachers, and how does this vary by subject, school type, area, and region?
- What works in improving youth outcomes?
- What is the social and developmental impact of culture and creative education at schools and higher education?
- What are the barriers to FE staff recruitment and retention, particularly in areas of existing shortage and predicted need?
- • How effective are trauma and resilience theory informed inputs for staff? Can teacher training about brain development, the stress response, co-regulation strategies and how to teach self-regulation improve student's behaviour in class and help children achieve and thrive?
- How can we work most effectively in partnership with others to ensure that additional needs (especially regarding Special Education Needs and Disabilities and mental health) are identified and addressed as early as possible?
- • What are the links between genomics and SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) conditions, and how might we best prepare educators, care-providers, parents, and children for increased genomics data?
- What are the most effective ways to provide robust and effective early education, to ensure sufficiency of provision with a motivated and good quality workforce?
- • Which approaches to school leadership, management and governance help create the right environment for all children to learn, and how can they be more widely embedded?
- • How can we limit administration to enable a focus on teaching and supporting children? (See also the section on Technology).
- • How can we ensure that supporting organisations and policies (such as Multi-academy trusts and Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence teams) enable schools to improve?
- • What are the barriers to learning experienced by children with SEND, and what universal and targeted strategies and interventions are effective in helping them overcome these barriers? How do they vary depending on type of SEND?
- "• What are the most cost-effective school and classroom practices to help children develop positive relationships and pro-social behaviour at school and increase school attendance – especially for those children with challenging behaviour? How do these vary for different groups (and for those students with SEND, for different types of need)? "
- • How are different careers portrayed to children? What careers advice is available, who engages with it, and what difference does the best possible careers advice make to the career paths they choose? How does this vary for different groups (such as by age and background)?
- How can careers advice have maximum impact in signposting people from disadvantaged backgrounds into further and higher education (including apprenticeships and T levels) and more rewarding careers? What is the optimum mode of delivery of information, advice, and guidance for disadvantaged groups and at what age should this start?
- • What works in driving successful HE participation and positive destinations post HE, for disadvantaged groups (including care experienced students), and other groups such as those with SEND?
- How can we best develop and inspire our workforces across all our sectors to improve children’s outcomes, informed by the best available evidence?
- How and when are our specialist and support workforces (such as Specialist Educational Needs Coordinators, Educational Psychologists, and finance professionals) deployed? How does this vary and why (for example across regions, for different specialist workers such as children’s home staff), and between the state and independent school sectors)?
- • What underpins and drives workforce performance across our sectors, including teaching quality, quality of leadership and quality of delivery by specialist staff?
- How can we best measure quality and effectiveness within our workforces (taking account of the range of outcomes we want to deliver)? How does this vary for different types of workers and at different stages in their careers?
- • What influence do practices such as professional supervision/reflective practice have on staff retention and how widespread are these practices?
- • What are the characteristics and motivations of returners to the education and social care workforces?
- • What are the features of the design and delivery of cost-effective professional development, at scale? Why are these features effective?
- What professional development is most appropriate at different career stages? How does it vary between different parts of the workforce and for different groups?
- • What new or additional knowledge and skills (including what level of knowledge and skills) do our workforces need (including in equipping our workforces to support children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities)?
- • What development opportunities are available for our workforces, how well do they meet our needs, and how attractive and accessible are they? Given the importance of professional development to retention, what are the best ways to ensure there are sufficient attractive and accessible development opportunities which engage the right people?
- • How do we best update our workforce skills and knowledge to reflect changing needs and evidence (for example regarding knowledge of climate change, and knowledge and skills in using technology)?
- What difference does professional development of our workforces (including for specialist and support workforces and early years practitioners) make to children’s outcomes?
- What can we learn from other parts of the public sector, other sectors, and other programmes (e.g. NHS, parenting programmes) about professional training to develop knowledge and skills (e.g. about child development, on behaviour management, on how to improve leadership skills, how to improve workforce wellbeing, and how to use evidence)?
- • Are there barriers affecting the availability of specialists (including for example, subject specialist teachers)? How might they be addressed?
- • In what ways can AI (artificial intelligence) and other digital technology reduce workload, improve teaching quality, help track progress and improve outcomes? How can AI and digital technology impact on productivity, efficiency, and costs?
- • How do device ratios impact students and teachers? What is the minimum effective ratio of devices to students? How does this vary according to student characteristics including age?
- • How can staff best be supported in dealing with challenging behaviour, in ways that reliably reduce disruption to peers, improve pupil wellbeing, behaviour and attainment, and aid staff retention?