July

Following the publication of her successful and controversial book ‘Educating Against Extremism’, Lynn Davies has appeared twice in the Times Educational Supplement and was interviewed on BBC 4 radio’s ‘The Learning Curve’.  She has been invited to work with the DCSF and Youth Justice Board on their toolkit for schools on Preventing Violent Extremism.

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June

PGCE Ofsted success

Following a very full inspection week in January, the ITE secondary course has received a grade 1 "outstanding" for Management and Quality Assurance from Ofsted, the official body for inspecting schools.

The report identifies many areas of strength, in particular, the Masters level provides excellent academic and professional challenge for trainees; the strong emphasis on research "significantly enhances the quality of the training"; there is a "very high level of professional dialogue"; trainees are "articulate and intellectually curious"; there are high calibre tutors, many with a national reputation in their subject area.

In addition, inspectors also commented on the "excellent communication and strong professional relationships in the partnership". The full report is available online from the Ofsted web page.

May

Clive Harber was recently interviewed by The Independent:

Against The Grain: 'There are schools that preach violence'

Interview by Nick Jackson, Thursday, 15 May 2008

Clive Harber is professor of education at the University of Birmingham. He argues that education is not always a good thing

When you listen to academics and politicians, there's an assumption that education does good, for individuals and for society as a whole. Obviously, there's a lot of truth in that, but there are other truths that are not talked about so much. Some individuals do benefit from formal education, but the appearance of social mobility is often a smoke screen.

Read the whole article

April

Research Activities

Congratulations to Karen Guldberg who has successfully obtained funding from the TLRP Technology Enhanced Learning call. She will be co-investigator on the ECHO project for 3 years and she will be the only representative from Birmingham. Her other colleagues are based at Edinburgh, Brighton, IOE, Dundee, Strathclyde and Cardiff.

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Sportive and professional success

The UoB Golf 1^st team have just been crowned National champions after beating St Andrews in the final of the BUSA Championship. The UoB Golf 4^th team have also become the national shield champions having beaten Liverpool University 1^st team.

Both teams are made up entirely (or at least 99%) of Applied Golf Management Studies students - proving that victory on the course can go hand in hand with academic achievement and success in job related endeavours too! (as an example see Lucinda Davies' employment accomplishment - Lucinda is flying back for her final exams, so is employed even before she has finished.)

Congratulations to the PGCE Secondary Team

In a glowing report Ofsted awarded the PGCE Secondary Team a grade 1 which is 'Outstanding'.

March

Ann Lewis has been appointed to the The Lamb Inquiry (2008-9),  established as part of the Government�s response to the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee Report: 'Special Educational Needs: Assessment and Funding'. The Lamb Inquiry, under the chairmanship of Brian Lamb, will investigate a range of ways in which parental confidence in the SEN assessment process might be improved. As part of their work, the Inquiry will commission and evaluate relevant innovative projects. For more information and expression of interest forms re. projects please see the website: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/lambinquiry/index.shtml

February

Research Activities

Nuffield

Jodi Tommerdahl has been awarded �7,125 for her research project entitled "How long does a spontaneous language sample need to be? Testing the relaibility of 4 different sample lengths in grammatical analysis." The project will run from March to December 2008.

RNIB

RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) are funding VICTAR (Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research) �105,000 for a research associate to be employed within the School of Education for three years to carry out a series of projects related to visual impairment.

West Midlands Strategic Health Authority

Hywel Thomas, Ian Davidson and Sarah Burke have been awarded �25,500 for a "GP Public Health Posts Evaluation". The work started in February and will run for 18 months.

January

Research Activities

COPDEND

Alison Bullok and Vickie Firmstone have been awarded �46,500 by the Committee of Postgraduage Dental Deans and Directors  (COPDEND) for a new research project which started in Jannuary 2008. The research will last for six months and is entitled "Developing Standards for Dental Educators.