If you’re a trainee or early career teacher, you know how important it is to build your confidence and skills.
Now’s your chance to take part in an innovative online simulator study: sharpen your skills, try out new approaches to reading instruction and get personalised feedback – all without the pressure of being in a real classroom.
By taking part, you’ll help us find out what works best to improve how we train teachers, benefiting you and future trainees.
What’s involved?
You’ll learn about and practise some new evidence-based techniques that you could try in the classroom to support pupils’ reading. Mastering reading can change a child’s future, so it’s vital all teachers know how to support pupils to develop this skill.
Over a Zoom call, you’ll support a simulated Year 2 pupil to read irregular words using techniques that are grounded in phonics best practice. The pupil responds to you in real time, just like a pupil in the classroom would. Their responses are controlled by a researcher and are not AI-generated.
You’ll practise the techniques in a safe space and get live, tailored feedback from an expert coach who will guide you to get the most from the session.
How to take part
- Take part entirely online, from anywhere, in a single session lasting just 30-45 minutes. You can even choose a date and time during the school holidays that suits you.
- You don’t need any prior experience or resources to take part, except for a laptop or desktop computer to join the Zoom call. After you take part, you’ll get a £20 Amazon voucher.
Who can take part
This research study is for all UK-based trainee and early career teachers in both primary and secondary settings. Learning how to support pupils’ reading is important for every teacher to know, as pupils continue to develop their fluency throughout primary and secondary school.
Why take part?
People who have taken part in our study so far have told us that it gave them useful strategies to use in their lessons. It also helped them practise applying what they learned without the pressure of being in a real classroom environment.
Here are more reasons to take part:
- Build your confidence and mastery in reading instruction.
- Get individual feedback to improve your practice.
- Build great experience to set you apart in future teaching interviews, showing your commitment to improving training for future teachers.
- If you’re a school or trust leader, this is a fantastic opportunity to support your trainees and early career teachers with innovative, research-informed development.
How to sign up
If you’re a trainee or early career teacher in a UK primary or secondary school and want to take part in this study, it’s simple to get involved. If you’re a school or trust, multiple teachers can also take part. Sign up today, or email [email protected] to find out more.
