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Dr Benjamin Knight's Outputs (18)

Personality-sensitive pedagogies: A study of small group interactive behaviours among 9- to 10-year-olds (2024)
Journal Article

The learning and social development benefits associated with pupils collaborating in small groups have been well documented over recent decades; however, research exploring personality as a mediating factor in small group learning is sparse. In this... Read More about Personality-sensitive pedagogies: A study of small group interactive behaviours among 9- to 10-year-olds.

Personality-sensitive pedagogies: A mixed-methods study of small-group interactions among 9–10-year-olds (2024)
Digital Artefact

This pilot study sought to identify relationships between primary pupils’ personality profiles and their patterns of interaction during small group collaboration. In UK classrooms, pupils often collaborate in small groups, which has considerable lear... Read More about Personality-sensitive pedagogies: A mixed-methods study of small-group interactions among 9–10-year-olds.

‘It's like a compass which I use to find direction’: Findings and learning from an evaluation of an App designed to support the teaching of reading comprehension in rural and township schools in South Africa (2024)
Journal Article

South Africa has low literacy levels and teachers face multiple challenges in their endeavours to elevate levels of literacy. This is especially prevalent in rural and township schools where teachers face the additional challenges of isolation, limit... Read More about ‘It's like a compass which I use to find direction’: Findings and learning from an evaluation of an App designed to support the teaching of reading comprehension in rural and township schools in South Africa.

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.

Professionalism under fire: Whatever happened to teacher autonomy, judgement and intuition? (2012)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

The article is an overview of a study examining teacher action in the moment; teachable moments (TMs). Literature on teaching is dominated by the organisation of learning and general principles of classroom management and can easily overlook the det... Read More about Professionalism under fire: Whatever happened to teacher autonomy, judgement and intuition?.