Research Projects
At the University of Reading’s Institute of Education, we actively engage various stakeholders at different stages of our research. Below are just a few examples of how we have attempted to achieve this aim.
(Projects are alphabetically ordered by the researcher’s last name)
Project Title: The Talk Rich Teaching project
Researchers: Dr. Naomi Flynn (Associate Professor of Primary English Education, University of Reading), Aniqa Leena (a PhD in Education student, University of Reading) and Professor Suzanne Graham (Professor of Language and Education, University of Reading)
Research group: Language and Literacy in Education
Nature of engagement: The research team are working collaboratively with the staff of three primary schools to explore whether a US-designed approach to teaching multilingual children can transfer to UK classrooms.
Project description: This project’s aim is to support primary school teachers with adapting their practice for teaching children whose home languages are other than English. It is centred on an approach to teaching multilingual learners – The Enduring Principles of Learning – that was developed and trialled successfully in the USA in linguistically diverse classrooms. It encourages teachers to intentionally design more talk-based activities in the classroom because all learners, but particularly English language learners, benefit from this in terms of raised academic attainment. The project has two parts: 1. Naomi is delivering professional development in three schools and working one-to-one with individual teachers in each school; and 2. Aniqa Leena has devised tests of language and literacy which are being used to assess whether the pupils make progress because of their teachers’ changes in practice. Test design and implementation is further supported by Professor Graham. The project findings will contribute to professional understanding about the ways in which practice for multilingual learners can be improved. This is significant because around 20% of primary school pupils in the UK are multilingual and teachers report feeling under-equipped to support these students’ language learning needs. You can find out more about Dr. Flynn’s project here.
Project title: ‘Marvellous Mums’: Building impact from the bottom to the top
Researchers: Professor Carol Fuller (Professor of Sociology of Education, University of Reading) and Dr. Maria Kambouri (Associate Professor of Early Childhood Care and Education)
Research group: Improving Equity and Inclusion through Education
Nature of engagement: As part of this project, Professor Fuller and Dr. Kambouri worked collaboratively with the local community and international companies (based in Reading) to develop a 10-week bespoke programme designed to promote greater self-confidence and targeted at women.
Project description: Parents support the development of the confidence and aspirations of their children; it is therefore important that developing these areas within parents are also included in initiatives that seek to develop in young people. A 10-week bespoke programme was designed to promote greater self-confidence and targeted at women of the local community, working with them and involving them is the process of tailoring and developing the content of the programme. The programme aimed to promote confidence and self-efficacy via a bottom up rather than top-down approach, and to promote change from within the individual as opposed to simply telling that individual what they need to change is key. The sessions were carried within the local community with small groups of 10-15 mums over the length of 3 years. The project offered weekly sessions featuring goal setting, skills auditing as well as practical support, such as interview techniques. Our key goal though was self-reflection.
Project title: Digital Education, Accessible Learning (DEAL)
Researchers: Principal Investigator – Professor Suzanne Graham (Professor of Language and Education, University of Reading); Co-Investigators Dr. Yota Dimitriadi (Associate Professor of Computer Science Education, University of Reading) and Professor Richard Mitchell (Professor of Cybernetics, University of Reading)
Research group: Language and Literacy in Education
Nature of engagement: Input has been sought from: students who use online learning materials and who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH), are neurodiverse, particularly for dyslexia (DYS), or speak English as a Second or Other Language (L2); and from a project Steering Group. This input guided the design of research materials, and in the dissemination of recommendations arising from the project.
Project description: The project team created two versions of online learning materials across two content areas using materials: Robotics; and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). One version of the materials was ‘unenhanced’. The other version was ‘enhanced’, that is, modified to try to offer greater support to those in the three participant groups, through, for example, the provision of Advance Organisers; pre-viewing explanations of difficult vocabulary; breaking some of the information down into smaller segments with summaries; adding British Sign Language to video clips. Participants (DHH, DYS, L2) viewed both sets of learning materials in either the enhanced or the unenhanced condition. Their learning of the content was assessed and their views on the presentation of the content explored. For both sets of materials, amounts of learning were very similar for both conditions. In the enhanced condition, DHH participants did have higher scores than in the unenhanced condition. Across all three participant groups, modifications made in the enhanced versions of materials were found helpful. There was however a lot of individual variation in respect of what was helpful and what was not. These findings have been used to make recommendations for practice, exemplified on the DEAL project website. Feedback on the recommendations is being sought from university practitioners and the project Steering Group.
Project title: Improving foreign language education
Researcher: Professor Suzanne Graham (Professor of Language and Education, University of Reading)
Research group: Language and Literacy in Education
Nature of engagement: Professor Graham’s research has highlighted some key challenges for teachers and learners of foreign languages, principally learner demotivation from poorly developed comprehension skills that leave them unable to understand interesting foreign language materials; and difficulties in learners gaining a clear sense of progress. She has then worked with language practitioners and cultural bodies to offer solutions to the issues her research has highlighted.
Project description: The Language Magician, an Erasmus+ collaboration led by the Goethe Institute involving 10 European partners including the University of Reading, sprang from Professor Graham’s research findings that learners need a sense of continuing progress to be motivated. The team developed a game-based assessment tool. Launched in 2018, it has provided diagnostic assessment for 34,000 learners in 838 schools across 121 countries in seven continents, including all 27 EU countries and the UK. In 2020, it gained the European Commission title of “success story”, reserved for “projects that have distinguished themselves by their impact, contribution to policy- making, innovative results and/or creative approach, and can be a source of inspiration for others”. Two further projects investigated ways of enhancing reading comprehension in the foreign language through different forms of instruction. Both showed that language learners are able to interact with authentic language on topics that have the potential to interest them, given appropriate teaching support, both at the start of secondary school and further into their education. Building on these findings, Graham and colleagues have worked with teachers to create banks of language learning materials that teachers can draw on to develop language and creativity, and which learners can access independently, through a collection of motivating and accessible online materials.
Project title: Developing parent-teacher partnerships to teach about LGBTQ+ matters in primary school
Researchers: Professor Richard Harris (Professor of History Education, University of Reading) and Dr. Maria Kambouri (Associate Professor of Early Childhood Care and Education)
Research group: Improving Equity and Inclusion through Education
Nature of engagement: As part of this project, Professor Harris and Dr. Kambouri work collaboratively with four university students, and four parents and two teachers at a local primary school to co-produce approaches to supporting LGBTQ+ youngsters. By including various participants in this project as research partners to address an area that is sensitive and would provide support to young people, it is anticipated that the project could have a significant longer term positive impact on the lives of LGBTQ+ young people.
Project description: Studies show that LGBTQ+ students who are supported in developing a strong sense of identity demonstrate greater resilience in the longer term. Yet most interventions cited in the literature are focused on secondary school students, which overlooks the fact that children typically develop the ability to recognise gender by the time they are 3 years old, and that children, who identity as LGBTQ+, often question their sexual and gender identity whilst in primary school. The fact that there is a gap between children questioning their identity at primary school yet often not coming out until some point in secondary school means children can be left isolated and without the support needed to navigate complex issues at this crucial stage in their identity development. Additionally, although there have been projects examining LGBTQ+ issues in primary schools, these overwhelmingly focused on teachers; this project is innovative in getting LGBTQ+ university students and parents involved in working with teachers as research partners. This project thus aims to: 1) to identify parents’ and teachers’ perceptions and concerns of a range of LGBTQ+ related issues; and 2) to develop approaches to provide support and training to parents and teachers to engage with young children more confidently and effectively around LGBTQ+ issues.
Project title: Tackling gender-based violence through education
Researcher: Dr. Karen Jones (Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Management, University of Reading)
Research group: Improving Equity and Inclusion through Education
Nature of engagement: Working with Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) to build capacity for co-designed research and build an evidence base of what works to prevent and tackle gender-based violence.
Project description: Dr. Jones has been working with Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) on a UK Research and Innovation’s Strategic Priorities Fund-funded project to build capacity for co-designed research and build an evidence base of what works to prevent and tackle gender-based violence. Focused attention has been given to Education, as this plays a critical role in violence prevention and early intervention. Tom Goodenough is the Education Lead for Thames Valley VRU and he has been supporting schools across the Thames Valley with the roll out of a programme known as ‘Mentors in Violence Prevention’ (MVP). MVP uses a peer-led leadership and bystander approach to deal with behaviour ranging from name-calling to sexting, bullying, controlling behaviour to sexual harassment, rape, and sexual assault. In 2021, Thames Valley VRU rolled-out MVP to secondary schools across the Thames valley and there has been early adoption of that programme, which Dr. Jones is evaluating. This evaluation seeks to established what worked with MVP, for whom, in what respects, in which circumstances and why, to enable MVP and similar interventions to be improved in future.
Project title: Ready to Read in Whitley
Researchers: Dr. Holly Joseph (Associate Professor of Language Education and Literacy Development, University of Reading) and Dr. Daisy Powell (Associate Professor in the Psychology of Written Language, University of Reading)
Research group: Language and Literacy in Education
Nature of engagement: A participatory research project involving local organisations working to design a short summer school for four-year-olds to support them in their transition to school
Project description:
Dr. Joseph and Dr. Powell are running a number of interconnected projects in the ward of Whitley in Reading, all focused on early reading. It is known that being familiar with books and having good pre-literacy skills is predictive of later school success and that parents who enjoy reading tend to have children who read. Given this, Dr. Joseph and Dr. Powell are running regular parent-toddler story reading sessions and a book club for adults. Families take a free book home with them each week to build a mini-library of their own, which we know is another predictor of reading in children. At the same time, a participatory research project involving the Whitley Community Development Association, the Whitley Excellence Cluster and Aspire2, is working to design a short summer school for four-year-olds to support them in their transition to school. The content of the summer school is a work in progress, but is likely to involve a lot of book reading. The summer school itself will be run by two University of Reading UROP students and it is hoped that it will be the first of many.
Project title: MathsThroughStories.org
Researcher: Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Associate Professor of Mathematics Education, University of Reading)
Research group: Improving Equity and Inclusion through Education
Nature of engagement: Co-creating with teachers from different countries a growing collection of story-inspired Mathematics lesson ideas for teachers new to the idea of integrating storytelling in mathematics teaching.
Project description: Drawing from the findings of his international survey project exploring primary teachers’ perceived barriers to and enablers for the integration of story picture books in mathematics teaching across different countries (e.g., in Malta, Ireland, Taiwan and Australia), Dr. Trakulphadetkrai found that a key barrier that prevents teachers from adopting this pedagogical approach is the lack of examples of what the integration would look like in Mathematics lessons. Dr. Trakulphadetkrai has thus been working with teachers from several countries to create a growing collection of story-inspired Mathematics lesson plans, and make them available for free on his research project’s website (MathsThroughStories.org), which to date has been visited over a million times by more than 300,000 teachers and parents across more than 210 countries. Through his popular Maths Through Stories workshops, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai has used these lesson plans as part of his training for over 1,400 in-service teachers and more than 2,100 pre-service teachers across the UK and abroad. The feedback from teachers who have since used this resource has been very positive, and the resource has clearly encouraged them to have a go at implementing this mathematics teaching approach. As a direct result of this resource (as co-developed by teachers), there are now teachers who teach Mathematics using this approach who otherwise would not have thought of this mathematics teaching method.