The Class Size Debate: Is Small Better?

One of the most important debates in education in recent years has been about the effects of class size differences in schools. This book provides the most complete analysis to date of the educational consequences of class size differences, and sets out to solve the puzzling gap between professional experience and research findings.

Business & Money

Blatchford, Peter

Education & Reference

Open University Press

Based on a longitudinal study of children's academic progress over three years after entering into primary schools in England, this book examines whether pupil-adult ratios affect academic achievement and looks at related factors of class grouping practices, teaching, individual support for reading, pupil concentration, and peer relations. Blatchford (psychology and education, U. of London, UK) finds that class size does have an educational impact, but argues it is overly simplistic to talk about optimal class sizes. Distributed by Taylor & Francis. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Open Univ Pr

The Class Size Debate

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

The Child at School: Interactions with Peers and Teachers (Texts in Development Psychology Series)

School is an institution through which all children in modern industrial societies must pass, and it also has an important effect on their later lives. The authors present children's social interactive processes as a key dimension of their lives in school. The school provides a mileu for social interaction with both adults and peers and is important in the child's cognitive development and in their larger development as socially competent beings. This book focuses on children's experience of the two intersecting worlds in school, firstly, the world of peers, both within and outside the classroom setting, and secondly, the world of teacher-pupil interaction which normally occurs in the classroom. Various theories of child cognitive development are applied to children's school achievement. Additionally, children's social competence in school is examined in terms of their peer relations as indicated by friendship popularity, adjustment to school and aggression.

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Pellegrini, Anthony

Psychology & Counseling

Hodder Education Publishers

School is an institution through which all children in modern industrial societies must pass, and it also has an important effect on their later lives. The authors present children's social interactive processes as a key dimension of their lives in school. The school provides a milieu for social interaction with both adults and peers and is important in the child's cognitive development and in their larger development as socially competent beings. This book focuses on children's experience of the two intersecting worlds in school, firstly, the world of peers, both within and outside the classroom setting, and secondly, the world of teacher-pupil interaction which normally occurs in the classroom. Various theories of child cognitive development are applied to children's school achievement. Additionally, children's social competence in school is examined in terms of their peer relations as indicated by friendship, popularity, adjustment to school and aggression.

Mental Health

A practical and easy-to-read account of playtime, this book highlights many examples of good practice. It provides a series of recommendations that will be helpful to all those involved in primary education, encouraging the development within schools of a clear policy towards this neglected part of the school day.

Playtime in the Primary School: Problems and Improvements

Taylor & Francis Books Ltd

Offers a highly accessible account of the latest research into children's play and behaviour. Staff in primary and secondary schools, governors and advisers will all find the book essential reading.

Breaktime and the School: Understanding and Changing Playground Behaviour

Education & Teaching

Sharp, Sonia

Schools & Teaching

Routledge

Packed with valuable strategies for teachers and fun activities for children, this book is a must for any school wishing to make group work a more effective and successful way of learning. Teachers who have become more confident with the approaches developed for this book find that their classes are better behaved, children spend more time on task and they become less dependent on the teacher.  The book shows teachers how to create an inclusive and supportive classroom by developing the social, communicative and group working skills of all pupils. Tried-and-tested, step-by-step approaches encourage both children and their teachers to develop supportive relationships that have been found to facilitate academic performance, positive social behaviour and motivation. Strategies for setting up and running effective group work are a key feature of the book.    

Promoting Effective Group Work in the Primary Classroom: A Handbook for Teachers and Practitioners (Improving Practice (TLRP))

Ota, Cathy

Baines, Ed

Kutnick, Peter

Chowne, with Anne

Berdondini, Lucia

Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants: Guidance for school leaders and teachers

Russell, Anthony

Webster, Rob

Teaching assistants have become an integral part of classroom life, yet pioneering research by the authors has shown that school leaders and teachers are not making the most of this valued resource. Results from the Deployment and Impact of Support Staff (DISS) project showed that the more support pupils received from teaching assistants, the less academic progress they made. Yet it is not decisions made by the teaching assistants themselves, but decisions made by school leaders and teachers about how their support staff are used and prepared, which explains these provocative results. Prompted by the wake-up call the DISS project findings provided, this timely book of guidance will help school leaders and teachers in primary and secondary schools improve the way they use teaching assistants, and will add real value to what can be achieved in the classroom. Based on the authors’ collaborative work with schools in the Effective Deployment of Teaching Assistants (EDTA) project, this book provides essential, practical tools and classroom-tested strategies that will allow schools to conduct a fundamental review of current practice and provides a framework for reforming teaching assistant deployment and preparation, and the way they interact with pupils. Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants provides much-needed and well-informed guidance on how to unleash the huge potential of teaching assistants working in schools and is essential reading for all school leaders.

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Books by Blatchford, Peter