Search

A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Young children and multimodal learning with tablets

It has become increasingly apparent that being literate is a fundamental skill for citizens of the 21st century, just as it was in previous times, but also that new conceptualisations of what it...

Phonics ‘first and fast’… but at what cost?

Reading is one of life’s profound joys. According to reading expert Maryanne Wolf, reading changes the very structure of our brain and neural pathways; the act allows us to go beyond our own...

BERA Bites, issue 1: Early childhood

BERA Bites

The BERA Bites series presents selected articles from the BERA Blog on key topics in education, presented in an easily printable and digestible format to serve as teaching and learning resources...

Grammar and creativity in the English national curriculum

In November 2017 the Times Educational Supplement (TES) published an article under the headline ‘Teaching grammar does not improve children's writing ability, research finds’ (Bloom 2017)....

Connecting the dots: painting, thesis and writing

I am a newly minted PhD from the School of Education and Professional Development at the University of Huddersfield. Two months after graduation, I am still coming to terms with the ‘what...

The educational implications of Lionel Shriver’s attack on diversity ‘quotas’

‘[I]f an agent submits a manuscript written by a gay transgender Caribbean who dropped out of school at seven and powers around town on a mobility scooter, it will be published,...

Reading for Pleasure: What next?

A one day research symposium UKLA, BERA and OU The symposium seeks to enable information sharing in order to advance understanding of the concept of reading for pleasure, and to provoke debate...

The properly organised tuition of foreign languages and its contribution to the development of general literacy

‘It is not possible to train truly literate individuals (in the broadest sense), in whatever specialism they may pursue, by any means other than the properly organised teaching of foreign...

Living the dream through peer review

I remember reflecting on the experience of attending my first BERA annual conference as a doctoral student in 2008. More specifically, I can recall my initial perceptions of the educational...

The value of Literacy as a Social Practice approach to exploring young children’s experience of being taught to read and write in school

Over the last thirty years in English and Welsh State primary education, successive governments have placed increasing emphasis on ‘raising standards’ in literacy. Children’s attainment or...

Literature’s lasting impression: what makes shared reading of novels powerful?

The twelve-month research project Literature’s Lasting Impression⃰ investigates a defining convention of classroom literary study, shared novel reading. Most people remember ‘reading round...

Biscuits or Banquets?

Becoming a lifetime reader is dependent on developing a love of reading[1] and few would argue against the fact that the ability and motivation to read impacts on the life chances of all...