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Archive for the 'Research matters' Category

EdTech. A solution looking for a problem?

By IOE Blog Editor, on 17 September 2024

Children in a classroom wearing VR headsets and using digital tablets. Credit: pressmaster via Adobe Stock.

Credit: pressmaster via Adobe Stock.

17 September 2024

By Wayne Holmes

This commentary is adapted from Wayne’s contribution to the ESRC Education Research Programme event, More or less technology in the classroom – the value and purposes of technology use in schools. Watch the event recording on UCL Mediacentral.

Technologies have long been designed for use in education. However, the ‘potential’ of this EdTech, especially AI-enabled EdTech, has been frequently overstated and its limitations underexplored. In any case, while EdTech offers ‘solutions’ to a variety of educational problems, not only do they rarely actually ‘solve’ the problems that they target, it isn’t even clear whether they are the ‘right’ problems in the first place. (more…)

How do we know what young children think about their playtime outdoors?

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 6 August 2024

Two girls playing on wooden mushrooms in a leafy forest. Credit: MNStudio via Adobe Stock.

Credit: MNStudio via Adobe Stock.

6 August 2024

By Emily Ranken

At a time when one in ten primary school-age children is thought to have a probable mental health disorder, there are related concerns that opportunities for young children to engage in outdoor play and physical activity are declining, to the detriment of their mental as well as physical wellbeing. If we are to design effective interventions to address these problems, we need measures that take into account children’s own views. Unable to find an existing example of such a tool, we have created our own. We hope this new means of capturing young children’s feedback on the immediate wellbeing impacts of play interventions will be of wider utility to projects aiming to improve outcomes for children. We are keen to hear from people interested in developing the tool and related measures. (more…)

Intelligence, Sapience and Learning, part 3 – Testing for intelligence

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 26 July 2024

Silhouette of a human head with multicolored gears inside against a blue background. Credit: Metamorworks via Adobe.

Credit: Metamorworks via Adobe.

26 July 2024

By David Scott and Sandra Leaton Gray

This blog post is Part 3 of a series relating to our newly published book: Intelligence, Sapience and Learning: Concepts, Framings and Practices.

A number of claims about human intelligence are made by the neurobiological community. The first of these is that the brains of some people seem to be more efficient than those of other people. In addition, a claim is made that specific genes have been identified which generate cellular properties associated with intelligence. These cellular properties have been found to be more in abundance in people who have been shown to be more intelligent. (more…)

Intelligence, Sapience and Learning, part 2: Dark Science – the deathly (mal)practice of Francis Galton and Cyril Burt

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 25 July 2024

Grainy black and white photographs of Francis Galton (left) and Cyril Burt (right) in profile

Sir Francis Galton in 1912 (left) and Sir Cyril Burt (right). Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

25 July 2024

By Sandra Leaton Gray and David Scott

This blog post is Part 2 of a series relating to our newly published book: Intelligence, Sapience and Learning: Concepts, Framings and Practices.

Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) and Sir Cyril Burt (1883-1971) were two pioneers of differential psychology who had close connections to UCL and IOE respectively. They worked at a time when a theistic philosophy in education was on the decline, and the new discipline of Psychology was in the ascendancy. The lives of Galton and Burt provide us with a cautionary tale about the dangers of working unchallenged in the field of science, with little accountability. (more…)

From Kabul to Crawley: using collaboration to understand Afghan resettlement across England

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 1 July 2024

Afghanistan flag on a vintage suitcase.

Afghanistan flag on a vintage suitcase. Credit: Sezerozger / Adobe Stock.

1 July 2024

By Caroline Oliver, with Mustafa Raheal, Mursal Rasa; María López, Louise Ryan, London Metropolitan University; and Janroj Keles, Middlesex University

The national conversation around immigration often gets caught up in slogans, but sat behind this are complex realities of displacement and resettlement. Our research aims to capture the intricate stories beyond the headlines, focusing on Afghan resettled populations in England. This necessitates a collaborative approach, using novel methods. (more…)

Helping social science undergraduates to navigate their first piece of qualitative research

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 20 March 2024

Credit: AS Art media / Adobe

20 March 2024

By Jon Swain

Many social science undergraduate programmes include modules where students are asked to carry out a small piece of qualitative research. This usually takes the form of interviews with real people. Although sample sizes are usually quite small (2-5 people), getting to grips with the resulting data can nevertheless be daunting for a novice researcher.

This blog post outlines the guidance I use with my own BA students, which, they tell me, is a clear and an effective method of showing them how to organise and begin to analyse interview data. The beauty is in its simplicity. (more…)

Policy relevant social research – looking to the future at TCRU

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 9 November 2023

Small boy pointing on woman's lap, in front of white blossoming bushes

Credit: Culture Creative / Adobe.

9 November 2023

By Alison Lamont and Alison Koslowski

This is the third in a series of blog posts celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU) and launch of Social Research for our Times. Following Peter Moss’s reflection on the founding directions of TCRU under its first director, Jack Tizard, and Claire Cameron and Eva Lloyd’s post showing some current strands of its work, we look to the future. In particular, we examine some of the ongoing challenges facing TCRU as we continue to work on delivering research with the strategic aim of informing policy. New, but quickly familiar challenges emerge: the slippery question of ‘impact’ and how to get research findings into the right hands at the right time, as well as the age-old fight to secure funding, now in a ‘post-Brexit’ landscape. In the conclusion to Social Research for our Times we consider these in connection with the local challenge of sustaining our research identity and our research. We focus on a) how we communicate our research findings, and to whom; and b) how we strengthen links with existing and prospective partners, especially now with European partners.

This post explores two modes of working that are already in action among TCRU colleagues and are promising avenues for building the Unit’s policy relevance. (more…)

The Thomas Coram Research Unit at 50: looking back to look forward?

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 31 October 2023

Group photo at a garden party celebrating TCRU's 50th anniversary. Credit: Mary Hinkley for UCL.

Credit: Mary Hinkley for UCL.

31 October 2023

By Peter Moss

In a contemporary context of profound transitions and converging crises, it seems time to reconsider and reprioritise the role that social research can play in creating public policies, including services, that are relevant to rebuilding a world that is more just, more democratic, more sustainable and more caring. In this scenario, strategic social research, including an element of experimentation, may have a major part to play in what has been described by one commentator, Geoff Mulgan, as ‘expand[ing] our shared possibility space, the options for our societies… to populate our fuzzy pictures of the future with complex, rich, plausible [i]deas, pictures of the possible’.

Such concerns and such an approach are not new; they were founding principles of the Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU). They have, though, not always been easy to sustain. As TCRU marks its 50th anniversary, it is an important moment to reiterate that broader (more…)

Can we level the social sciences playing field? Reflections from CLS’s first-ever summer school

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 24 October 2023

Blurred figures of football players in red and yellow kit on a sunny green sports field.

Credit: Annanahabed / Adobe.

24 October 2023

By Charis Bridger Staatz

The year 2023 marked many things: the coronation of the UK’s new King, the coinage of the term “Barbenheimer”, and, perhaps most importantly, the inaugural Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) Year 12 Summer School ‘Harnessing the power of longitudinal research for policy impact’.

Our motivations behind the summer school were twofold: to contribute to widening participation efforts in general across the higher education sector, and to support greater diversity in the social science researcher pipeline. Our experience showed the real potential of programmes that give under-represented school students the opportunity to work directly with university departments on scholarly research, especially when that is over an extended period. Such programmes can make a distinct contribution to showcasing that university is a realistic, and hopefully desirable place for young people to be. They can also be incredibly rewarding for the academics who lead them. (more…)

How should research, policy and practice interact in the interests of education?

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 16 October 2023

What Matters in Education series from the ESRC Education Research Programme.

16 October 2023

By Gemma Moss

In the run-up to the next general election, each of the political parties is beginning to set out what they see as the key issues in education and what they would like to change. This is a good moment to review the extent to which party-political priorities reflect concerns widely shared by the general public, the practitioner community and the research community – and the role the research community might have in helping to shape that debate. Just how research, policy and practice can best interact are live questions for the social sciences. (more…)