SCHOOL LIFE Staff Research Team
AGS. She has spent 25 fantastic years teaching pupils about literature, life and learning, still fascinated and amazed by the teenage mind. A book that has changed the
As teachers, the decisions we make in the classroom about what to teach and how to do it are necessarily a response to policy makers and professional politicians, often with an ideological agenda. However,
way she thinks about the human brain is Joshua Foer’s account of competitive memorisation at the 2005 US Memory Championship – ‘Moonwalking with Einstein: the Art and Science of Remembering Everything’.
significant advances in neuroscience Dr Adrian Twissell is head of
and greater mobilisation of education
Engineering, Design and Technology.
evidence has enabled classroom
His specialisms include electronics
teachers to develop a stronger voice.
and micro-control. Adrian’s research
At AGS, the Research Team takes
interests embrace teaching and
evidence informed practice and
learning pedagogies that utilise
trials it in our unique context to find
visualisation strategies and their
the best ways to help young people
application in the development of
learn. Ultimately, this will ensure
abstract conceptual knowledge. His
better outcomes for all pupils.
doctoral research explored the use of, and interplay between, multiple
Meet the team and find out about
representations as strategies for
the action research projects we have
learning about electronics within
conducted this year. Full copies of
applied skills contexts. Adrian’s
the findings are available from the
research has been influenced
school.
by the synchronous/sequential
Louise Pollard completed a BA in
cognitive processing theories of
Politics and an MA in History and
Pavio (Mental Representations: A
Politics at York University before teaching History and Politics at AGS. While teaching she completed a at Oxford University. This year
Words, 1987). Neil Gibbs is currently Head of
she has carried out a small action
Key Stage 3 PE at AGS and a self-
research project examining how
confessed technology nerd. Neil’s
well-being programmes can lower
passion is in the development and
stress levels in Year 11. The book
and Associate Assistant Head at
Simon and Larkin (Why a Diagram is (Sometimes) Worth Ten Thousand
further MSc in Learning and Teaching
Vanessa Beckley is Research Lead
Dual Coding Approach, 1986) and
refinement of the curriculum and
she has been inspired by is ‘Teen
his department and he is constantly
Yoga For Yoga Therapists: A Guide
looking for ways to enrich and enthuse
to Development, Mental Health and
the students in P.E. He has been
Working with Common Teen Issues’.
selected by the International Boys’
The Aylesburian 2018/2019
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