“Reading wars or reading reconciliation? A critical examination of robust research evidence, curriculum policy and teachers’ practices for teaching phonics and reading”, was published by University College London researchers Dominic Wyse and his co-author Alice Bradbury in January 2022.
The two drew on a systematic, qualitative meta-synthesis of 55 randomised controlled trials, a new survey of more than 2,000 teachers and analyses of data from the Programme for International Student Assessment tests and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study.
The research concluded that while synthetic phonics approaches underpin much early reading teaching, changes to current practice are desperately needed.
However, some were critical of the findings. For example, Julia Carroll, professor of child development and education at Coventry University, argued that before dismissing the use of systematic phonics in classrooms, the research needs further analysis.
“Can guidance during play enhance children’s learning and development in educational contexts? A systematic review and meta-analysis”, was published by researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development, and Learning in January 2022.
A systematic review and meta-analysis “considered evidence of guided play compared to direct instruction or free play to support children’s learning and development”. The team found that, in some instances, guided play could be at least as effective, or even more effective, than direct instruction.
For literacy and numeracy, the development of executive functions (cognitive skills) and social-emotional skills, there was no difference in terms of guided play being better or worse. The research also found that guided play was more effective than direct instruction at improving some areas of children’s maths ability, such as shape knowledge.
However, some challenged these findings: Thomas Martell, a secondary biology teacher and research school director, argued that the research was limited in the number of studies included in the meta-analysis and in its definition of play.
”Characterising effective teaching”, was published by Professor Simon Burgess and other researchers at the University of Bristol in April 2022.
It was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and analysed the GCSE results of about 14,000 students from 32 secondary schools, and compared them with classroom observations of 251 teachers in the academic years of 2014-15 and 2015-16.
The research concluded that what teachers do in class does matter. In English, the research found that the most important activity is facilitating interaction and discussion between classmates; more time spent on this tends to raise English GCSE scores. Conversely, for maths teachers, the key activity is making time for students to practise questions individually in class; again, more time on this increases GCSE marks.
“School-based mindfulness training in early adolescence: what works, for whom and how in the MYRIAD trial?”, was published by the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter, King’s College London, University College London and Pennsylvania State in the US, in July 2022.
The research involved more than 28,000 children, aged 11 to 14, and 650 teachers, from 100 schools, and took place over eight years.
It concluded that mindfulness training for secondary school students has no impact on their wellbeing and is no more effective than teachers’ other efforts to support mental health, and most children were not interested enough to practise mindfulness at home.
The Surrey Communication and Language in Education Study has been running for more than a decade, through the University College London.
In a new study, published in October 2021, Courtenay Norbury, a professor of developmental language and communication disorders at UCL, looked at how language might affect the skills that you need to maintain wellbeing.
The research found that early language difficulties can lead to social, emotional and behavioural problems, and have an impact on mental health.
