Dr. Naomi Flynn (Associate Professor of Primary English Education, University of Reading) has been awarded a Fulbright Visiting Scholar Award to undertake a three-month research study in the USA.
Deferred from last year because of the pandemic, Dr. Flynn’s Fulbright project, with Professor Annela Teemant of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, will explore the potential of a US-tested approach to teaching multilingual learners between July and October 2021. This teaching approach – The Enduring Principles of Learning – has been used successfully by US teacher educators for teacher professional development. It is founded on a talk-rich approach to classroom instruction and activity design which works particularly well for pupils whose home language is not English.
Dr. Flynn will be observing and analysing teachers’ practice, and interviewing educators, with a view to evaluating how to adapt this method for use by teachers in England in linguistically diverse classrooms.
The Fulbright US-UK Commission has a range of awards for postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Funds support a period of residence in the US to undertake collaborative projects that promote ‘joint ventures for mutually constructive and beneficial purposes’ and which address societal challenges. You can read about some of the pilot work underpinning Dr. Flynn’s research here.
To learn more about Dr. Flynn’s research interests, click here. She tweets at @naomiflynn61.