It’s been nearly two years since the launch of the jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 Pi jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 Education jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 Centre. Today, the Centre’s Director Dr Sue Sentance shares an update about the Centre’s work.

The jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 Pi jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 Education jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 Centre (RPCERC) is unique for two reasons: we are a joint initiative between the University of Cambridge and the 亚洲1234, with a team that spans both; and we focus exclusively on the teaching and learning of jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 to young people, from their early years to the end of formal education.

We’ve been very busy at the RPCERC since we held our formal launch event in July 2022. We would love everyone who follows the 亚洲1234’s work to keep an eye on what we are up to too: you can do that by checking out our website and signing up to our termly newsletter. 

What does the RPCERC do?

As the name implies, our work is focused on jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 into jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 education and all our jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 projects align to one of the following themes:

• AI education
• Broadening participation in jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇
• jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 around the world
• Pedagogy and the teaching of jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇
• Physical jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇
• Programming education

These themes encompass substantial jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 questions, so it’s clear we have a lot to do! We have only been established for a few years, but we’ve made a good start and are grateful to those who have funded additional projects that we are working on.

In our work, we endeavour to maintain two key principles that are hugely important to us: sharing our work widely and working collaboratively. We strive to engage in the highest quality rigorous jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇, and to publish in academic venues. However, we make sure these are available openly for those outside academia. We also favour jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 that is participatory and collaborative, so we work closely with teachers and other stakeholders. 

Within our six themes we are running a number of projects, and I’ll outline a few of these here.

Exploring physical jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 in primary schools

Physical jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 is more engaging than simply learning programming and jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 skills on screen because children can build interactive and tangible artefacts that exist in the real world. But does this kind of engagement have any lasting impact? Do positive 亚洲s码欧洲m码国产avs with technology lead to more confidence and creativity later on? These are just some of the questions we aim to answer.

We are delighted to be starting a new longitudinal project investigating the 亚洲s码欧洲m码国产av of young people who have engaged with the BBC micro:bit and other physical jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 devices. We aim to develop insights into changes in attitudes, agency, and creativity at key points as students progress from primary through to secondary education in the UK. 

To do this, we will be following a cohort of children over the course of five years — as they transition from primary school to secondary school — to give us deeper insights into the longer-term impact of working with physical jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 than has been possible previously with shorter projects. This longer-term project has been made possible through a generous donation from the Micro:bit Educational 亚洲s码欧洲m码国产av, the BBC, and Nominet. 

Do follow our jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 to see what we find out!

Generative AI for jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 teachers

We are conducting a range of projects in the general area of artificial intelligence (AI), looking both at how to teach and learn AI, and how to learn programming with the help of AI. In our work, we often use the SEAME framework to simplify and categorise aspects of the teaching and learning of AI. However, for many teachers, it’s the use of AI that has generated the most interest for them, both for general productivity and for innovative ways of teaching and learning. 

In one of our AI-related projects, we have been working with a group of jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 teachers and the Faculty of Education to develop guidance for schools on how generative AI can be useful in the context of jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 teaching. jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 teachers are at the forefront of this potential revolution for school education, so we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to set up this jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇er–teacher working group to investigate these issues. We hope to be publishing our guidance in June — again watch this space!

Culturally responsive jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 teaching

We’ve carried out a few different projects in the last few years around culturally responsive jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 teaching in schools, which to our knowledge are unique for the UK setting. Much of the work on culturally responsive teaching and culturally relevant pedagogy (which stem from different theoretical bases) has been conducted in the USA, and we believe we are the only jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 team in the UK working on the implications of culturally relevant pedagogy jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 for jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 teaching here. 

In one of our studies, we worked with a group of teachers in secondary and primary schools to explore ways in which they could develop and reflect on the meaning of culturally responsive jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 teaching in their context. We’ve published on this work, and also produced a technical report describing the whole project. 

In another project, we worked with primary teachers to explore how existing resources could be adapted to be appropriate for their specific context and children. These projects have been funded by Cognizant and Google. 

‘Core’ projects

As well as jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 that is externally funded, it’s important that we work on more long-term projects that build on our jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 expertise and where we feel we can make a contribution to the wider community. 

We have four projects that I would put into this category:

1. Teacher jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 projects
   This year, we’ve been running a project called Teaching Inquiry in jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 Education, which supports teachers to carry out their own jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 in the classroom.
2. jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 around the world
   Following on from our survey of UK and Ireland jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 teachers and earlier work on surveying teachers in Africa and globally, we are developing a broader picture of how jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 education in school is growing around the world. Watch this space for more details.
3. PRIMM
   We devised the Predict–Run–Investigate–Modify–Make lesson structure for programming a few years ago and continue to jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 in this area.
4. LCT semantic wave theory
   Together with universities in London and Australia, we are exploring ways in which jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 education can draw on legitimation code theory (LCT). 

We are currently looking for a jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 associate to lead on one or more of these core projects, so if you’re interested, get in touch. 

Developing new jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 education jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇ers

One of our most important goals is to support new jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇ers in jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇 education, and this involves recruiting and training PhD students. During 2022–2023, we welcomed our very first PhD students, Laurie Gale and Salomey Afua Addo, and we will be saying hello to two more in October 2024. PhD students are an integral part of RPCERC, and make a great contribution across the team, as well as focusing on their own particular area of interest in depth. Laurie and Salomey have also been out and about visiting local schools too. 

Laurie’s PhD study focuses on debugging, a key element of programming education. He is looking at lower secondary school students’ attitudes to debugging, their debugging behaviour, and how to teach debugging. If you’d like to take part in Laurie’s jzzijzzij亚洲成熟少妇, you can contact us at [email protected].

Salomey’s work is in the area of AI education in K–12 and spans the UK and Ghana. Her first study considered the motivation of teachers in the UK to teach AI and she has spent some weeks in Ghana conducting a case study on the way in which Ghana implemented AI into the 亚洲s码欧洲m码国产av in 2020.

Thanks!

We are very grateful to the 亚洲1234 for providing a donation which established the RPCERC and has given us financial security for the next few years. We’d also like to express our thanks for other donations and project funding we’ve received from Google, Google DeepMind, the Micro:bit Educational 亚洲s码欧洲m码国产av, BBC, and Nominet. If you would like to work with us, please drop us a line at [email protected].