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Dr Benjamin Knight's Outputs (13)

Complex adaptive system behaviours in small group interaction: A year 4 classroom case study of learning as ‘emergence’ (2022)
Thesis

Depictions of classroom teaching and learning in politics, policy and media tend to be over simplified and mechanistic. Insights from research on classroom learning draw largely on the ‘what works’ paradigm, which presents learning as directly caused... Read More about Complex adaptive system behaviours in small group interaction: A year 4 classroom case study of learning as ‘emergence’.

‘I wasn't worried because I wasn't being judged’: The development of pre-service teacher professional capital, pedagogical instinct and discretionary judgement during an overseas teaching placement (2022)
Journal Article

Assertions that experiences of teaching abroad encourage professional growth for pre-service teachers (PSTs) are discussed, with reference to reflections from 20 PSTs from a British university after a volunteer teaching placement in South Africa (SA)... Read More about ‘I wasn't worried because I wasn't being judged’: The development of pre-service teacher professional capital, pedagogical instinct and discretionary judgement during an overseas teaching placement.

The classroom as a complex adaptive system (CAS): Credible framing, useful metaphor or mis-designation? (2022)
Journal Article

This paper discusses the legitimacy of framing school classrooms as complex adaptive systems (CASs) with the aim of advancing discourse about the extent to which systems within education can be usefully designated as complex. Perspectives differ on c... Read More about The classroom as a complex adaptive system (CAS): Credible framing, useful metaphor or mis-designation?.

Difference as an essential teacher in a Them-Us international context: Pre-service teachers’ reflections on a university township teaching project (2021)
Journal Article

This article explores data from a group of British pre-service teachers (PST) following a teaching programme in South Africa. Their reflections are analysed in relation to assertions that such intercultural programmes do little to change hegemonic be... Read More about Difference as an essential teacher in a Them-Us international context: Pre-service teachers’ reflections on a university township teaching project.

The evolving codification of teachers’ work: Policy, politics and the consequences of pursuing quality control in Initial Teacher Education (2017)
Journal Article

This paper documents the evolution of attempts to codify and standardize teachers’ work in the United Kingdom (UK), with particular attention to how this phenomenon has impacted the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) sector. In recent decades the teach... Read More about The evolving codification of teachers’ work: Policy, politics and the consequences of pursuing quality control in Initial Teacher Education.

Room to breathe: Insights from pre-service teachers and NQTs on professional development through informal complementary placements overseas (2014)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Teaching is a complex affair in which teachers manage a range of classroom variables and dynamics in the pursuit of pupil learning. Teacher education and NQT probationary monitoring tends to focus attention on systems and protocols such as planning,... Read More about Room to breathe: Insights from pre-service teachers and NQTs on professional development through informal complementary placements overseas.