Teaching assistants are an integral part of classroom life, yet pioneering research by the authors has shown schools are not making the most of this valued resource. Evidence shows the more support pupils receive from TAs, the less academic progress they made. Yet the reason for this has little to do with TAs. It is decisions made about them by school leaders and teachers that best explain this provocative finding.The fully updated second edition of this book draws on the ...

Promoting Effective Group Work in the Primary Classroom, 2nd ed. is designed to enhance teachers’ and teaching assistants’ confidence in engaging their children in effective group work, allowing for more active participation, more on-task focus and higher levels of achievement.This accessible second edition is packed full of valuable strategies for teachers and fun activities for children, offering guidance on how to create an inclusive and supportive classroom by developi...

What is the nature of children’s social life in school?How do their relationships and interactions with peers, teachers and other school staff influence their development and experience of school? This book, written by leading researchers in educational and developmental psychology, provides answers to these questions by offering an integrated perspective on children’s social interactions and relationships with their peers and teachers in school. Peer interactions ...

Much debate, research and commentary about class sizes in schools is limited because of an exclusive concern with class size and pupil academic attainment, and a neglect of classroom processes, which might help explain class size effects (or lack of them). Very little is known about the central question: how can teachers make the most of class size changes? Much of the commentary on class size effects has focused on Western and English-speaking countries but there are promising development...

Breaktime in the school is a period when pupils learn social skills they will need in the world outside. But it can also be an occasion for aggression, harassment and bullying. Breaktime and the School gives an accessible account of the latest research into children's play and behaviour. The contributors show how an understanding of the area can inform practical action in designing an environment which encourages positive behaviour, in effective management and supervision, and in ...

Over the last decade, teaching assistants (TAs) have become an established part of everyday classroom life. TAs are often used by schools to help low-attaining pupils and those with special educational needs. Yet despite the huge rise in the number of TAs working in UK classrooms, very little is known about their impact on pupils.This key and timely text examines the impact of TAs on pupils’ learning and behaviour, and on teachers and teaching. The authors present the provocative f...

Are breaktimes really just a time of violence and bullying that could be better used for working? Based on a unique and fascinating longitudinal study of a group of pupils from primary to secondary school, the author of this timely new book proposes an alternative view. He believes that breaktime plays an important part in children's social development, and through his gathering of pupil's own views on breaktimes over a period of ten years, we see how breaktimes offer children time to play...

First published in 1988, this work reports on a major British study of children’s progress and behaviour in 33 infant schools. The research looks at children from nursery through to junior school and asks why some children had higher attainments and made more progress than others. Using observations not only in schools but also interviews with children and parents, the children’s skills on entering school were found to have an important effect on progress. In each school, black and white c...

This book offers a challenge to traditional approaches to classroom teaching and pedagogy. The SPRinG (Social Pedagogic Research into Groupwork) project, part of a larger research programme on teaching and learning funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), was developed to enhance the learning potential of pupils working in classroom groups by actively involving teachers in a programme designed to raise levels of group work during typical classroom learning activities. Int...

This key text covers the knowledge and skills that social workers need to get into practice with children and families.The book covers core components of child and family work such as building effective relationships, assessment, child protection practice and working with the law. Clear and accessible, this practical book features case studies, questions and exercises throughout. This third edition covers the very latest developments in child and family work, including changes in p...

In classrooms that operate as learning communities, the social and learning purposes advance together through all participants being involved and engaged in building knowledge. This book demonstrates a new way of seeing and managing classrooms through:an integration of what's best in learning and what's best in the social life of classroomsa vision of the role of the teacher that is more creative and more related to the commitments of teachersa more connec...

The authors of this comprehensive text discuss the root causes of disruptive behaviour, tackle assessment issues and develop effective intervention strategies that will be of practical use to teachers and other educators. Whilst theorising behaviour management from a range of perspectives: psychodynamic, behavioural and socio-cultural, the authors remain firmly focused on practical issues of policy making, assessment and intervention, and address a wide range of related issues, such as: