School of Education

Improving practices for school children around the world

Better outcomes for children starting school

International interest in early childhood education has increased, with administrations acknowledging the importance of a good start to children’s future progress. The iPIPS project, conducted over 20 years by Professors Peter Tymms and Christine Merrell, has led to an assessment system that’s had significant impact on educational understanding, policy and practice around the world and has been used with over two million children.

The project has added an international element to the PIPS Baseline Assessment developed by Professor Tymms in 1994, assessing children in Brazil, Lesotho, Russia and South Africa. iPIPS uses a series of fun, interactive and adaptive activities to assess cognitive and physical development in children’s first few weeks of school, while their teacher measures their personal, social and emotional development. The assessment is then repeated at the end of their first year to monitor their progress.

The importance of iPIPS has been noted the OECD, and the assessment was introduced at the start of school in England. International policy changes include new educational instructional material and approaches in Rio de Janeiro, the use of data to inform policies in Kazan, and changes to educational practice in Brazil, South Africa, and Lesotho.

Teaching and Learning Toolkit

The Education Endowment Foundation’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit is an evidence-based guide schools on outcomes for learners, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Based on summaries of research evidence from evaluations and led by Professor Steve Higgins, it covers 30 different educational topics. It supports schools in spending their resources, particularly their Pupil Premium allocation in England, more thoughtfully and more effectively. Crucially, it estimates the impact of different approaches on pupil attainment, as well as the financial costs of adopting each approach. This cost/benefit guidance has proved highly beneficial to schools and policy makers in multiple countries.

Working with local partners, we’ve now developed customised online versions of the Toolkit for Scotland, Australia, Spain, Latin America, the Middle East and Cameroon. It’s directly influenced UK Government policy and spending on education and policy decisions of governments outside England. As the ‘What Works Centre for Educational Achievement’ it’s also influenced the development of other evidence centres in the UK. The Toolkit guides the work of the Education Endowment Foundation and its funding strategy to reduce inequalities in school outcomes and is now consulted by more than two thirds of all headteachers in England.

The Dyslexia debate

Professor Julian (Joe) Elliott’s research has led to international debate on the topic of dyslexia as he’s shown that its current conception, assessment, diagnosis and resourcing are scientifically and ethically problematic. Spanning the fields of genetics, neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, education and social policy, his work has highlighted the imperative to support all struggling readers, rather than that small population who have received a dyslexia diagnosis.

This research has gained significant international media attention. He’s been interviewed on the BBC Evening News, New Zealand Breakfast TV, Radio 4’s Today Programme, and many other television and radio outlets. In the UK, it’s influenced policy at both national and Local Authority level and led to changes in psychological and educational assessment and intervention. This work led to Professor Elliott’s receipt of the British Psychological Society’s 2020 Award for Outstanding Contribution to Educational Psychology.