BERA’s ‘50@50’ publication is a collection of landmark 50 studies from the last 50 years of educational research, to commemorate the organisation’s 50th anniversary. BERA selected research which they say have had a significant impact on educational policy, educational practice, research methodology and/or educational theory.
Their latest update adds ten studies from the past decade, which includes two studies from IOE:
- Learning disruption or learning loss: using evidence from unplanned closures to inform returning to school after Covid-19.
By Dr Sinead Harmey and Professor Gemma Moss, published in the Educational Review in 2021.
Harmey and Moss's research reframed the challenge of post-pandemic education as one of learning disruption rather than just learning loss, using other crisis-related closures as points of insight. Their work highlighted the need to go beyond assumed curricular deficits to address the developmental and wellbeing needs of children in a broader conception of the impact of pandemic closures. Five years after the Covid-19 pandemic started to directly disrupt education in England, BERA report that the lasting effects of lockdown are indeed more evident in the areas highlighted by Harmey and Moss than in the curricular domain.
Reading wars or reading reconciliation? A critical examination of robust research evidence, curriculum policy, and teachers’ practices for teaching phonics and reading.
By Professor Dominic Wyse and Professor Alice Bradbury, published in the Review of Education in 2022.
The research by Wyse and Bradbury critically examines the prevalent phonics and reading teaching methods used in English primary education. Their influential study demonstrated that these approaches lack sufficient grounding in research evidence to justify their dominance in what BERA calls ‘arguably the most influential pedagogical approach’ of this century. Their findings illustrate the need for research to guide educational policy and its power to reform teaching practices.
Earlier research by IOE academics and alumni also features in the earlier decades covered by the publication. In 2004-2013, BERA’s selected studies included IOE authors involved in work on:
The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) project: Findings from preschool to end of Key Stage 1,
Going to university from care,
Gender, schooling, and global social justice,
Education for all: The future of education and training for 14-19 year olds,
The Deployment and Impact of Support Staff (DISS) project,
Single-sex schooling and labour market outcomes.
Previous decades (1983-2003) highlighted IOE research and books on education systems and state formation, classroom assessment, education in economic growth, teacher training, education policy-making including during the Thatcher administrations, evaluating the 1980 Assisted Places Scheme, and more. This included work by two former IOE Directors, Geoff Whitty (2000-2010), and Peter Mortimore (1994-2000).
Links
BERA’s 50@50 publication – A portrait of 50 years of educational research through 50 studies
UCL Profiles: Professor Alice Bradbury, Dr Sinead Harmey, Professor Gemma Moss, and Professor Dominic Wyse
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A sticker representing the Sustainable Development Goal 4 for quality education. Credit: Prado via Unsplash.