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It is becoming clear that in the 21st century, a focus on skill development in education is necessary to complement the curriculum, particularly with regards to creative problem solving. The emerging Pedagogy of Play seems to provide a framework to facilitate this but is not easily applicable in the mainstream UK due to difficulties in empowering teachers to use it on an everyday basis. In response to this, a simple methodology was developed to encourage teachers to implement a Pedagogy of Play approach in the secondary UK classroom, and a control experimental Student Focused method was explored in a similar way. A classroom evaluation of the two methods was undertaken along with a control teaching as usual group. This was done in a classroom timeframe collecting pre- and-post measurements of creative thinking using the Widening, Connecting and Reorganising model of creativity, in addition to teacher generated attainment at the same time points. Results indicated that teachers showed clear appreciation of, and engagement with, the approach for both innovative methods. The use of Pedagogy of Play led to significant enhancements of creative thinking while the Student Focused method did not, although this group did show a significant improvement in subject attainment. This indicates it is possible to enhance creativity within the school curriculum and that Pedagogy of Play may be a way of doing this. Future research should focus on the exploration of a hybrid methodology to enhance both creative thinking and increase subject attainment.

The benefits of peer mentoring in school settings are well-documented, however, the focus has been on the perceptions of teachers, as opposed to teaching assistants, who report distinct beliefs about their professional development. A mixed methodology was used in which 304 primary school teaching assistants completed questionnaires regarding their views of their professional development while undertaking training on a mathematics intervention for underachieving pupils. Open-ended questions elicited the perceived benefits of the peer mentoring aspect of the training. We utilized Lave and Wenger's (1991) community of practice framework to inform the qualitative analysis and the principles of grounded theory to arrive at three themes representing the perceived benefits: an opportunity to discuss and share experiences; increased confidence; and a safe space to test teaching plans and resources. Findings were used to reframe the benefits of peer mentoring for teaching assistants undertaking intervention training, which can inform further research and future training programs.

The moral foreign-language effect (M-FLE) translates into more utilitarian choices, even when given the option of self-sacrifice. We explore the M-FLE in 85 children, who were presented with seven moral dilemmas varying in utilitarianism, aversiveness, and whether they allowed the option of self-sacrifice; 42 answered to the dilemmas in their native language (Spanish), and 43 in a foreign language (English). Participants were more utilitarian and willing to sacrifice themselves when using their foreign language. Educational and developmental implications are discussed, especially in the context of bilingual education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the properties of foreigner talk through word reduction. Word reduction signals that the speaker is referring to the same entity as previously and should be preserved for foreigner talk. However, it leads to intelligibility loss, which works against foreigner talk. Pairs of speakers engaged in a task where native speakers talked either to a native or non-native listener. Natives talking to non-natives performed foreigner talk for duration and intensity. Duration and intensity were reduced for native and non-native listeners equally. These results suggest that word reduction is insensitive to communicative adjustments in the context of foreign talk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]