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Primary Teaching
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Primary Teaching
Learning and teaching in primary schools today

Third Edition
Edited by:


April 2026 | 600 pages | Learning Matters
Primary teaching is challenging and rewarding in equal measure. Schools are diverse and ever-changing communities where children and teachers learn alongside each other. When learning to teach, practical experience in the classroom is essential, as is learning from others and being able to reflect on your own learning and performance. Equally important is the ability to critically evaluate learning and teaching and to look at current practice in schools and in the UK and to question it. In fact, in teacher training, the questions are just as important as the answers:

What is teaching?
How do children learn?
What is pedagogy?
Does curriculum really matter?
Should teachers 'manage' behaviour?
How do I support children with SEND?
What can AI tools do for teachers?

This core text from Learning Matters tackles these questions and more. It poses questions to encourage a re-thinking of the world of schools and learning. It challenges trainee teachers to ask why,to engage with research and to reflect on their own practice and the practice in their placement schools.

Primary Teachingis a core text for trainee teachers.

 
Part 1: Understanding primary teaching
Catherine Carden and Virginia Bower
1 What is teaching?
Ioanna Palaiologou
2 What matters in early childhood?
Sean MacBlain
3 How do children learn?
Di Swift
4 What is pedagogy?
Georgia Veness
5 Diversity, equity and inclusion in schools
 
Part 2: Essential principles for teaching
Glenn Stone
6 Why is teacher professionalism important?
Deborah Wilkinson and Lorna Earle
7 What matters in planning?
Mark Sackville-Ford
8 Does behaviour need ‘managing’?
Virginia Bower
9 What is oracy and why does it matter?
Mary Briggs
10 What is assessment?
Jonathan Glazzard
11 What can teachers do to raise outcomes for children with special educational needs and disabilities?
 
Part 3: Developing skills for teaching
Cara Broadhurst
12 How can I work to ensure a positive primary school placement?
Jon Audian, Julie Wharton and Lisa-Marie Martin
13 My space, your space, our space. Re-thinking the learning environment: is it fit for purpose?
Noel Purdy, Jill Dunn and Diane McClelland
14 How can we build positive relationships with children and parents?
Charlotte Mosey and Jack Bryne Stothard
15 Adaptive teaching: smashing through the glass ceiling?
 
Part 4: Teaching now
Adrian Bethune and Catherine Carden
16 Teacher Wellbeing: Are doughnuts in the staffroom enough?
Aleishia Lewis
17 How can teachers diversify the curriculum to ensure it reflects all of our children?
Matthew Tragheim
18 Techology, AI and primary teaching
Sarah Adams, Michelle O’Reilly and Khalid Karim
19 Why do teachers need to know about child mental health?
Louise Johns-Shepherd
20 What is the true power of reading?
Nicola Kemp and Stephen Scoffham
21 What is sustainability, why is it important and what does it mean for my teaching?
Evan McCormick and Vikki Chadwick
22 Talk in the classroom: what counts as ‘oracy’?
Bonnie Kerr and Kat Vallely
23 Relationship and Sex Education: How does getting to know ourselves, our children and their families create a recipe for an inclusive RSE learning environment?
Jon Rainford
24 How can our teaching embrace neurodivergent learners?
Sarah Watkins
25 Rewilding learning: an opportunity for meaningful inclusion
Catherine Carden and Clare Smale
26 What is coaching and how can I develop coaching approaches in my classroom?

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Hardcover
ISBN: 9781036209551
$179.00

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ISBN: 9781036209544
$151.00