Where research meets the classroom: assessing evidence for change in practice
On 6th March 2018, the Oxford Education Deanery was delighted to host a Chartered College of Teaching (CCT) event in collaboration with the Oxfordshire Teaching Schools Alliance (OTSA), led by Professor Jane Mellanby (University of Oxford). The audience included a wide mix of teachers, both primary and secondary – many attending their first event at the Department of Education, and all excited by the Chartered College’s commitment to support teachers’ research engagement.
Jane Mellanby, Emeritus Academic Visitor in the University’s Department of Experimental Psychology, shared with the audience a range of insights from the book that she co-authored with Kate Theobald in 2014, Education and Learning: an evidence-based approach’ (published by Wiley Blackwell). Her lively and fast-paced presentation (which can be downloaded here) included a stimulating overview of historical approaches to education before tackling the question of ‘What we mean by evidence’ and then focusing in more detail on three particular aspects of learning, unpacking the main insights from psychology that she argued had important implications for classroom practice:
- Memory – the role of long-term and short-term memory
- Spoken language
- Hidden potential
The presentation was followed by questions and animated discussion.
Download Jane’s presentation here.
