Learning to Teach in the Primary School

How do you become an effective primary school teacher? What do you need to be able to do? What do you need to know?

Flexible, effective and creative primary school teachers require subject knowledge, an understanding of their pupils and how they learn, a range of strategies for managing behaviour and organising environments for learning, and the ability to respond to dynamic classroom situations.

The fifth edition of this bestselling textbook has been fully updated with the latest research and initiatives in the field, as well as the most recent curriculum and policy changes across the UK. It features two new co-editors and 13 new chapters and enhanced accessibility throughout. New or completely rewritten chapters have been included on:

• Reading curriculum
• Writing curriculum
• Maths curriculum
• Science curriculum
• Arts-enriched curriculum
• Humanities curriculum
• Adaptive teaching
• Education and wellbeing
• Education for sustainability
• Applying for jobs and preparing to be an ECT

A selection of extra tasks have been woven throughout, with an emphasis on innovative, reflective practice, and new ‘vivid examples’ bring each chapter’s argument to life in a classroom context.

Providing a comprehensive but accessible introduction to teaching and learning in the primary school, covering everything a trainee needs to know in order to gain QTS, this accessible and engaging textbook is essential reading for all students training to be primary school teachers.

This textbook is supported by a free companion website with additional resources for instructors and students and an accompanying series of books on Teaching Creatively across the curriculum.

Teresa Cremin is Professor of Education (Literacy) at The Open University, UK and Co-Director of the Centre for Literacy and Social Justice. She has served as President of the UKRA and UKLA, and as Board member of BookTrust, The Reading Agency and the Poetry Archive. Her research focuses on volitional reading and writing, creative pedagogies and teachers’ literate identities (https://ourfp.org/).

Helen Hendry is a Senior Lecturer in Primary Education at The Open University, UK and Co-Director of the Centre for Literacy and Social Justice. Her recent research focuses on teacher professional development for reading, informal book talk in the early years, and reading and writing for pleasure.

Anna Harrison is a Senior English Lecturer in ITE at Roehampton University, UK. Her research interests are young children’s engagement as readers and children’s literature within education. Her current PhD research at Cambridge University is focused on a newer area within children’s family literacy of siblings as independent peer to peer readers.