Institute of Teaching and Learning
Institute Publications
The Journal of the Institute of Teaching & Learning
Innovate is our annual journal sharing the research and development work of our staff and students. The journal is reflective of our active engagement with research practice, and encourages the development of a teacher and learning culture that is driven by evidence.
Engagement in research and development work is organised in relation to the following themes : wellbeing and flourishing, character education, learning to learn and digital learning. We invite you to read more about each area of research and view recently published articles.
Wellbeing and Flourishing
Our research and development in this strand is reflective of our holistic approach to education, in which affective experience and personal, emotional development are just as prominent as aspects traditionally referred to as cognitive or ‘academic’.
Work in this area is helping us to identify strategies we can use to help students become more mindful of themselves and their identity in relation to local and global contexts, and to support our students to find the means to flourish.
We are delighted to be working with Research Schools International’s (RSI) and researchers from the Harvard Human Flourishing Program to carry out research and professional development, on the concept of student flourishing. This research project started in December 2020 and is ongoing. It is helping us to reflect on:
- To what degree our students are flourishing
- Which research-based practices we are using regularly to support students’ flourishing
- Which research-based practices we could implement more often to further support students’ flourishing.
These are some examples of projects in our wellbeing strand, described in articles for Innovate:
What really underpins positive student relationships and flourishing?
Laughter, yoga and palming in the classroom
What does it mean to flourish? Student research fellow reflections
Character Education
Character education focuses attention on the ways in which students’ qualities as intellectually curious, responsible, compassionate human beings can be nurtured. Projects in this area are exploring ways in which character education can be successfully delivered and embedded through the curriculum.
These are some examples of character education projects, described in articles for Innovate:
Learning to look: attention, relationality and spirituality in modern education
Learning to Learn
Our Learning to Learn research strand is concerned with the diverse initiatives that encourage students to be more aware of themselves as independent learners. Projects in this strand are focusing on areas such as: feedback strategies; self-reflection; critical thinking; discussion-based learning; formative assessment; metacognition and teaching for mastery.
Examples of projects in this strand published in Innovate include:
How can we find meaning a purpose in the taught curriculum
Digital Learning
Digital Learning examines the many and varied means through which meaningful learning can be supported through the use of digital technology.
Research and development projects in this strand have been concerned with the learning impact of portable digital devices in the classroom and the impact of AI on education.
Examples of work in this area published in Innovate include:
Resistance to AI in secondary education
Further ITL Publications
Research Schools International (RSI), the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard, and Sevenoaks School have created a booklet to share evidence-based practices that support student flourishing in school which can be viewed below.
