Staff Profiles

Supervision

Research Students

Polly Bell - Exploring the nature of creativity in relation to teaching and learning in primary school science with consideration of potential insights form the arts disciplines.

Clare Fenwick - Further Education Practitioners use of Twitter as their institutions respond to the COVID19 pandemic

Jen Gadd - An Exploration of the Intended and Implemented Design Technology Curriculum in English Primary Schools

Associate Researcher for three externally funded PSTT projects, one internally funded Impact case study (ICS) and an internally funded Research Excellence Award (REA) project                                                                                                                              

• PSTT projects: - Examining and exemplifying Creativity in science, Science through story-telling and Using Ipad in primary science classrooms.
• ICS project: - Innovative Pedagogy in Primary Science Education.
• REA project: - STEM through stories.

 

Research group membership

Active member of (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) STEAM research group at Oxford Brookes University. Additionally, I convene the monthly writing group: ‘Think, articulate, edit….’, which takes place on the same university campus (Harcourt Hill).

Further information

STEAM@Brookes and ESERA summer school 2020 websites.

Journal articles

• McGregor D, Frodsham S, Wilson H, 'The nature of epistemological opportunities for doing, thinking and talking about science : Reflections on an effective intervention that promotes creativity.'
  Research in Science and Technological Education Online first (2020)
  ISSN: 0263-5143 eISSN: 1470-1138
  Abstract

  Background: Randomised Control Trials (RCT) involving large numbers of schools, teachers and pupils, can provide statistically significant evidence that an intervention ‘works’, or makes a difference to learning. However, often the quantitative data collected to illustrate the extent of impact is insufficient to illustrate exactly ‘how’ the intervention was enacted, what was done and ‘why’ it was successful. This paper collates a range of forms of data from an innovative professional training programme to indicate the nature of the promoted strategies that comprise the ‘intervention’ and consider how they worked in practice.  
  Purpose: To illustrate how a mixed methods approach is required to substantiate the nature, as well as the extent of impact, of an educational intervention. Namely, Thinking Doing and Talking Science (TDTS). 
  Sample: The project reported on here involved 42 schools in a south east county in England, UK. 21 were the ‘experimental’ schools and 21 were ‘control’ schools. 
  Design and Methods: The project was an Educational Endowment (EEF) Funded RCT, designed to assess the impact of the TDTS intervention. 
  Results: Quantitative data showed TDTS had a statistically significant impact on the academic attainment of nine and ten-year olds, by an average of 3 months. The addition of the different forms of qualitative data provided here offer evidential insights illustrating how and why the intervention had the impact it did on thinking and attainment. 
  Conclusions: Designing research projects that examine both the nature and extent of impact on pupils’ learning requires a mixed methods approach. This necessarily involves the statistical comparison of quantitative evidence from both the experimental and control school groupings. However, in addition to the quantitative data, qualitative evidence is required to elicit the precise nature of the intervention. This included observations during the professional development sessions, lesson transcripts, evaluative questionnaire data and interviews (with teacher and pupils) after in-service training each contributing to capturing a more comprehensive ‘picture’ of the key characteristics of a successful science learning intervention. 
  

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  Website 
• McGregor D, Frodsham S, 'Epistemic insights: Contemplating tensions between policy influences and creativity in school science'
  British Educational Research Journal 45 (4) (2019) pp.770-790
  ISSN: 0141-1926 eISSN: 1469-3518
  Abstract

  Creativity and the way it could be supported in schools is understood differently by policy makers, practitioners and scientists. This article reviews, with a chronological lens, the development of policies that include teaching creativity and teaching for creativity. The epistemic tensions between the intentions of government and the nature of creativity as it emerges in learning or scientific work is introduced and reflected upon. There have been more than nine key educational policies that have been introduced over the last 50 years. Each of these are considered in this article and related to the ways that creativity is understood and expected to be taught, supported or enacted in schools by policy makers. In light of the need to support creativity as a key twenty‐first‐century skill, to ultimately enable current students (who will become the next generation of scientists) to develop the capabilities to address global concerns, this article highlights issues related to this issue. Epistemic insights are offered that relate to the development of aspects of creativity, including questioning, developing alternate ideas, ‘seeing’ things differently, innovation, curiosity, problem solving and evaluating. The ways that policy related to creativity in science appears not to recognise how creativity can be reified in these ways in schools suggests the need for rapid review, especially in light of the upcoming international creativity tests in 2021.
  

  Website 
• Frodsham S, McGregor D, Wilson H, 'Young children’s views of creativity in science : exploring perspectives in an English primary classroom'
  Journal of Emergent Science 2014 (8) (2014) pp.31-41
  ISSN: 2046-4754
  Abstract The importance of creativity in the classroom has long been debated, as well as the ways in which it might be supported and evidenced in primary schools. This is despite the lack of a clear and universally agreed definition of creativity. Nurturing ingenuity and inventiveness in young children (and subsequently young adults) is essential, due to an unpredictable future (in life after school) with unknown challenges. Encouraging more creativity in the classroom requires the student to be an active thinker, recognise opportunities to be imaginative and utilise ways of being creative when appropriate. It is only by being attentive to the student’s social, historical and cultural understandings (voice and actions) that teachers may begin to appreciate what children understand by creativity in the classroom. However, it has been suggested that the current education system may be constraining teachers’ efforts to foster creativity but, despite this, some teachers have managed to embed creativity into their practice. The realisation of creativity in learning is of great interest, especially if the unforeseen challenges of the future are to be met. This study, based on a small sample of pupils in Key Stage 1 (ages 5-7), in an Oxfordshire school rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, explores children’s views of creativity. It examines the opinions of these pupils and their perspectives of originality in and out of the science classroom. The findings suggest that young children can recognise and appreciate creative characteristics and how these might be utilised to further develop and augment individual creativeness, through generating original ideas, relating science to fresh contexts and thinking independently. Website 

Book chapters

• McGregor D, Wilson H, Frodsham S, Alexander P, 'Practical Theorising in the Professional Development of Primary Teachers: Outcomes of the "Thinking, Doing, Talking Science" Project' in Burn K, Mutton T, Thompson I (ed.), Practical Theorising in Teacher Education: Holding Theory and Practice Together. , Routledge (2022)
  ISBN: 9781032025674 eISBN: 9781003183945
  Abstract

  In this chapter we apply the concept of practical theorising to the context of primary teacher education, focusing specifically on the ways that teachers develop subject knowledge alongside critical engagement with creative approaches to pedagogy. We begin by framing critically the concept of practical theorising in the context of primary teacher education. Then we move on to explore a successful example of practical theorising through the Thinking, Doing Talking Science (TDTS) project. TDTS draws on research that identifies key features of a creative pedagogy that supports cognitive development in science (McGregor 2007; McGregor and Gunter 2006; Davies and McGregor 2017) and focuses on teachers applying theoretical propositions related to a constructivist approach to learning science in a practical and inclusive way. A key component of the programme is the nurturing of ‘adaptive expertise’ (Berliner 2001) or the capacity to adopt a flexible, research-informed approach to the teaching of Primary Science. Through participation in the programme, teachers are encouraged to develop creative and challenging science lessons that encourage pupils to develop higher order thinking skills. Teachers enable their pupils to think and talk about scientific concepts through open discussion and through creative investigation and problem solving. In so doing, teachers model practical theorising as well as organising teaching and learning in a way that is underpinned by this concept. Results from the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) funded  efficacy trial (Hanley et al 2016) indicated that school pupils (aged 9-10) using the approach made approximately three additional months’ progress in science. The EEF research also presented evidence that there was a positive effect on girls and those pupils with lower prior attainment. There were also indications that the approach had most impact on pupils eligible for free school meals. With this in mind, we argue that the ‘practical theorising’ approach adopted by teachers engaged with the TDTS pedagogy provides more equitable opportunities for all pupils and has clear benefits for them, both in terms of learning outcomes and positive attitudes towards science. In terms of professional learning for teachers, TDTS provides clear guidance for them to practically theorise ways of affecting change in pupils’ learning in their science classes.  

  Website 
• McGregor D, Frodsham S, Bird J, 'Messing with maltesers and magnets : Toward a theorisation about affordances using tablet technology in inquiry teaching and learning.' in Stamatios Papadakis, Michail Kalogiannakis (ed.), STEM, Robotics, Mobile Apps in Early Childhood and Primary Education, Springer (2022)
  eISSN: 2196-4971 ISBN: 9789811905674 eISBN: 9789811905681
  Abstract

  This chapter is focused on discussion about the ways that tablet technology can support teaching and learning in inquiry contexts within STEM. The discussion about the nature of inquiry teaching and learning with digital technology is drawn from a series of case lessons in elementary science within the topic of ‘Properties of Materials’ in the UK. The research project informing this chapter examined teacher, young learners and non-participant observer’s perspectives of the same events, namely two sequential science lessons one with and the other with-out the use of tablet technology. A socio-cultural perspective of learning was adopted. Reflections on these three contrasting viewpoints of the processes of teaching and learning informs a theorisation about practice that utilises digital technology. As Clarke and Svanaes (Tech knowledge for schools. An updated literature review on the use of tablets in education, 2014), Geer et al. (Br J Educ Technol 48:490–498, 2017) and more recently the OECD (Digital strategies in education across OECD countries, 2020) report, there is still no ‘clear line’ about which devices best support education, or indeed, how digital devices can be most effectively used. This chapter, therefore, offers suggestions about the ways that affordances or opportunities for young learners should be noted and pedagogically promoted more effectively in science inquiry situations.
  

  Website 
• McGregor D, Frodsham S, Deller C, 'From slavery to scientist: Dramatising an historical story to creatively engage learners in resolving STEM problems' in Murcia K, Joubert M, Wilson S (ed.), , Springer (2021)
  ISBN: 9783030947231 eISBN: 9783030947248
  Abstract

  The involvement of children in dramatic inquiry, through activities that introduce how scientists and technologists have worked in the past can ‘set-the-scene’ to engage them in practising STEM skills within a problem-solving situation. Historical stories can potentially provide rich, authentic contexts that engage children in imaginatively and creatively STEMbased challenges. In this chapter we describe how a sequence of dramatised activities enabled children to think about scientific and technological issues that were pertinent in the life and work of George Washington Carver (GWC), an American born into slavery. The children worked in-role, as GWC in dramatised inquiry activities, designing their own methods to investigate soil quality and plant growth and to explore how different plant parts might be mashed, ground, dissolved, sieved, mixed and heated to make different products including ink, paints, pastes, creams and drinks. We describe how an Action Research approach was adopted, using a mixed methods to collect the impact data. Data collected included field notes, informal discussions, interviews and questionnaires. Scrutiny of the data suggested that by participating in dramatised activities, learning became more meaningful for the children as they became inquirers through empathising with Carver’s situation as a scientist and technologist. The impact of the creative pedagogy, immersing children in an alternate, historical context, extended the STEM inquiry affordances made available to them. The interventional project not only increased pupils’ engagement, learning about science and generating original ideas but it also demonstrated how teachers could be creative in STEM teaching. Outcomes from the project suggest seven distinctive affordances which can support creative inquiry in STEM learning contexts.
  

  Website 

Other publications

• Frodsham S, 'Developing creativity within primary science teaching. What does it look like and how can classroom interactions augment the process?'
  (2017)
• McGregor D, Bird J, Frodsham S, 'Mixtures, maltesers and magnets : Augmenting the enquiry process through tablet technology in Primary Science'
  (2016)
• Frodsham S, 'Interpreting teacher observations (concerning creativity) through visual representations'
  (2015)

PhD thesis

Frodsham, S. (2018) ‘Developing creativity within primary science teaching. What does it look like and how can classroom interactions augment the process?’. Unpublished PhD thesis. Oxford: Oxford Brookes University.

 

Journal articles

McGregor, D., Frodsham, S., & Wilson, H. (In press) The nature of epistemological opportunities for doing, thinking and talking about science : Reflections on an effective intervention that promotes creativity.. Research Science & Technology Education.

McGregor, D,, & Frodsham, S. (2019) ‘Epistemic insights : Contemplating tensions between policy influences and creativity in school science’. BERJ. 45(4). P.770-790.

Frodsham, S., McGregor, D., & Wilson, H. (2014) ‘Young children’s views of creativity in science: exploring perspectives in an English primary classroom’, Journal of Emergent Science, (8), pp.31-41.

  

 

Membership of professional bodies

Committee member on externally funded (European Science Education Research Association) ESERA summer school 2020 board.

Conferences

Paper presentations

McGregor, D. & Frodsham, S. (2019) ‘Scientists’ narratives of their school science experiences : Implications for policy and practice (so far)’. Presentation at British Educational Research Association (BERA), Newcastle, UK, September 10^th-12th 2019.

McGregor, D. & Frodsham, S. (2019) ‘Scientist views of scientific originality: Opportunities and constraints in school science’. Presentation at European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) conference. Bologna, Italy, 26^th-30^th August 2019.

McGregor, D. & Frodsham, S. (2019) ‘Storytelling and inquiry practical work in school science: why bother?’. Presentation at European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) conference. Bologna, Italy, 26^th-30^th August 2019.

Frodsham, S. (2019) ‘Graphical representations of creativity in the primary science classroom: Illustrating innovation and originality through three visual displays’. Presentation at Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT) conference. Edinburgh, Scotland, June 6-8^th 2019.  

Frodsham, S. & Deller, C. (2019) 'Researching your practice from different perspectives'. Presentation at Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT) conference. Edinburgh, Scotland, June 6-8^th 2019.   

Frodsham S. & McGregor, D. (2019) ‘School science: Scientists stories’. Presentation at The Association  for Science Education (ASE), Birmingham, England, Jan 10th 2019.  

McGregor, D., & Frodsham, S. (2018) ‘Learning through Storytelling: Reflections on its use as a science teaching practice’. Presentation at International Organisation for Science and Technology Education (IOSTE), Malmo, Sweden, August 13-17th 2018.

Frodsham, S. (2018) ‘Discussant: Learning Science Through Drama’. Presentation at International Organisation for Science and Technology Education (IOSTE), Malmo, Sweden, August 13-17th 2018.

McGregor, D., & Frodsham S. (2018) ‘Storytelling in Science: The impact of pedagogic variations’. Presentation at British Educational Research Association (BERA), Newcastle, UK, September 11^th-13th 2018.

McGregor, D., & Frodsham S. (2018) ‘Exploring views about the nature and influence of creativity-in-school-science: the qualified scientist’s perspective’. Presentation at British Educational Research Association (BERA), Newcastle, UK, September 11^th-13th 2018.

Frodsham, S. (2018) ‘Demonstrating Creativity-in-Learning Through Classroom Talk: Towards A Fresh Theoretical Framework’. Presentation at British Educational Research Association (BERA), Newcastle, UK, September 11^th-13th 2018.

Frodsham, S. (2016) ‘Generating representations of creativity in the primary science classroom’. Presentation at British Educational Research Association (BERA) conference. Leeds, UK, September 14^th 2016.

McGregor, D., Bird J., & Frodsham, S. (2016) ‘Mixtures, maltesers and magnets : Augmenting the enquiry process through tablet technology in Primary Science’. Presentation at British Educational Research Association (BERA) conference. Leeds, UK, September 12^th 2016.

Frodsham, S. (2016) ‘Teachers’ Perspectives on Creativity and ways it can be Supported and Developed in Primary School Science Lessons’. Presentation at Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT) conference. Belfast, Ireland, June 11^th 2016.

Frodsham, S. (2015) ‘Interpreting pedagogical practices (concerning creativity) through visual representations of primary science lessons’. Presentation at European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) conference. Helsinki, Finland, 31^st August 2015.

Frodsham, S. (2015) ‘Interpreting science teacher’s practice (related to creativity) through visual representations of their actions’. Presentation at British Educational Research Association (BERA) conference. Belfast, Ireland, September 16^th 2015.

 

Poster presentations

Frodsham, S. (2017), ‘Evidencing Creativity in Talk: Toward a Fresh Theoretical Framework’. Poster presentation at Association of Science Education (ASE) Annual Conference. Reading, UK, January 11^th 2016.

Frodsham, S. (2016), ‘Developing creativity through formative assessment for learning (AfL)’. Poster presentation at Association of Science Education (ASE) Annual Conference. Birmingham, UK, January 9^th 2016.

Frodsham, S. (2016) ‘Interpreting pedagogical practices (concerning creativity) through visual representations of primary science lessons’. Poster presentation at Association of Science Education (ASE) Annual Conference. Birmingham, UK, January 9^th 2016.

Frodsham, S. (2015) ‘Interpreting teacher observations (concerning creativity) through visual representations’. Poster presentation at Association of Science Education (ASE) Annual Conference. Reading, UK, January 10^th 2015.

 

Further information

@STEAMBrookes

@ESERA2020ss