Public Policy and Professional Practice

After graduating form the London School of Pharmacy, I undertook a Post Graduate Certificate in Education. Since qualifying as a Science teacher with a specialism in Chemistry I have taught in maintained secondary schools in Suffolk, East Riding of Yorkshire and Staffordshire. In addition I have worked as a science lecturer in a college of Further Education and an Associate Lecturer with the Open University. In addition to Science-related responsibilities, I also undertook several positions of pastoral responsibility.

Within this varied professional profile I developed particular interest and expertise in Thinking Skills and also the effective teaching of Science to pupils with learning difficulties. I initially developed my interests in educational issues by studying for an Advanced Diploma in Applied Educational Studies; I subsequently built upon this to obtain an M.A. in Education. I valued the academic study of my professional practice because I felt it helped me to become a more reflective and responsive teacher. Studying Educational Research at Masters level provided me with the challenge of understanding a research paradigm other than that of my graduate discipline, and made me look very critically at the sort of evidence upon which education policy and practice may be based.

Whilst in school I became involved in Initial Teacher Education as a mentor, and this subsequently formed the basis of my doctoral research into mentoring. I started the research as an Action Researcher seeking to improve practice in my own school and the notion of turning my passion for teaching, into a career as a teacher educator did not occur to me until the vacancy occurred at Keele in 2002. I subsequently completed my Ed. D. in 2005.

I am interested in all aspects of Science Education, with a major focus being on Chemistry Education and, more widely, interdisciplinary approaches to Science.  I have specialised in the study of the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Science, and how these issues can best be presented in school. I was awarded a Teacher Fellowship in Holocaust Education in 2008-9 by the Imperial War Museum to undertake work on the place of Holocaust Education in Science Teaching. In this field, I have recently undertaken research on the education of teachers in diversity and inclusion issues, which is being jointly undertaken with staff at Umea University, Sweden.

Another area of both teaching and research interest is skills development; I lead on the preparation of Science PGCE students and post-ITT Subject Knowledge Enhancement students for their written assignments and research activities and have published on the training of students in the information retrieval skills.

I am actively involved in several research communities, notably the Chemical Education Research Group and Education Division Council of the Royal Society of Chemistry, on whose committees I serve.  I have carried out reviews of submissions for Chemistry Education Research and Practice and of published resources for Education ion Chemistry. I also maintain professional links across the Initial Teacher Education networks through external examining work and active involvement in the West Midlands Consortium of Science ITE providers.

The nature of my job means that teaching and research are very closely related; this is well illustrated by my work with outside partners developing Science, Technology and Maths activities to use at visitor sites (See http://my.rsc.org/blogs/85/779 and http://my.rsc.org/blogs/85/803) such as the nearby Ecton Hill site (www.ehfas.org.uk).  In addition to providing consultancy services to these partner agencies, I have researched and written about the impact of these activities.

Accepted for publication in Science Teacher Education, “ Major Karl Plagge:  a moral scientist”

“Painting a brighter picture of Chemistry: using Art to enhance the learning of Chemistry”, Chemistry in Action (2012)  95, pp18-23

2012, “Behind the scenes at a Victorian pharmacy”, Pharmaceutical Journal, 289, 22-29 December, pp726-7.

• EDU-00008 - Foundation Chemistry
• EDU-00010 - Further Chemistry
• EDU-00012 - Philosophy and Ethics