Directors: Judy Sebba, Jo Boaler
The Centre for Inquiry & Research in Cognition, Learning and Teaching (CIRCLETS) at Sussex examines the nature of learning - both for students and professionals working with children and young people. It explores the socio-cultural nature of learning and considers the classroom processes that establish deep and transferable learning skills - such as problem-solving, interpretation and analysis.
Current and recently completed research focuses on pupil grouping (Jo Boaler, Mairead Dunne & Judy Sebba), student voice and children's rights (Carol Robinson, Judy Sebba & Carol Taylor), mathematics education (Pat Drake, Jo Boaler, Clare Tikly, and Lori Altendorff), reading (Jo Westbrook), pupils as scientists (John Parry) and personalised learning, including student-led use of ICT (Carol Robinson, Duncan Mackrill, Judy Sebba, Barbara Crossouard, Fran Hunt, Lori Altendorff & Jae Parsons).
The centre also focuses on improving the classroom experience through professional learning. Research in this area includes the development of teachers' skills in encouraging higher order thinking skills (Julia Sutherland), history teachers' craft knowledge (Simon Thompson), supporting science teaching through InSTEP (a teaching observatory - Peter Adamczyk & James Williams), pair mentoring of trainee teachers (John Parry), evaluation of the Graduate Teacher Programme (Viv Griffiths & Sally Dudley) and the development of sociocultural approaches to formative assessment (John Pryor and Barbara Crossouard).
The centre sets out to support student and professional learning through high quality research published in accessible forms. A recently completed ESRC seminar series with the University of Oxford looked specifically at issues of how users of research can contribute to research design and dissemination. Our close partnership with schools in the region through the PGCE, GTP, MA in Educational Studies and professional doctorate provide extensive opportunities for us to integrate our research and teaching. These also provide a natural progression for professionals to develop their research skills.
Our research is funded by a wide range of organisations including ESRC, DCSF, Becta, QCA, TDA, UNICEF and the European Union. We have close links with other universities, many of the projects involving collaborations between ourselves and, for example, the Universities of Cambridge (pupil grouping, personalised learning), Nottingham (mathematics), the Institute of Education, the University of London (personalised learning, mathematics), Manchester (pupil grouping, mathematics) and Oxford (user engagement in research).