Spotlight speakers 2008
Professor Martyn Rouse, University of Aberdeen
Martyn Rouse is Professor and Director of the Inclusive Practice Project at the University of Aberdeen. Previously he was a senior lecturer in education at the University of Cambridge and Director of Studies for Education at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.
He was a teacher for 16 years in London and also worked for a local authority advisory service. He has undertaken commissioned research and development work for local authorities in the UK and for several national and international agencies, including the European Agency for Special Needs Education and UNICEF.
Recent international work includes the Schools for All Project in the Republic of Latvia for the British Council/European Social Fund and the Inclusive Practice Project in the Republic of Georgia for UNICEF as well as work in Armenia. He co-ordinated a Department for International Development (DFID) project with the Kenyan Ministry of Education designed to build educational capacity at the local level so that more disabled children can attend school and has worked with colleagues from the Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh and Oxford on RECOUP a five year project funded by the British Government looking at the ways in which education can help to reduce poverty in Ghana, India, Kenya and Pakistan. He has carried out research on the role, identity and status of teachers of special educational needs and is chair of the steering group for the HMIE review of provision for pupils with dyslexia in Scotland.
He has published widely on additional support needs and inclusion and is a well-known speaker on these issues nationally and internationally. He is the co-author of Achievement and Inclusion in Schools published by Routledge in 2007.
Further information for seminar: Inclusion, Exclusion and Underachievement: What Might be done in Scotland? that took place on Wednesday at 9.30.
Ian Smith, Learning Unlimited
Ian Smith has worked in Scottish education for over 30 years at school and national level at the Scottish Council for Educational Technology (SCET) and the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum (SCCC).
In 1998 he founded Learning Unlimited which has been described as Scotland’s most successful teacher development agency. Ian is an accomplished speaker, workshop leader and author. In the past twelve years he has run workshops with over 40,000 of Scotland's teachers face-to-face - over half the profession. He is the principal author of a set of training materials on Assessment for Learning which have been sold to more than half the schools in Scotland. One in every three teachers in Scotland has a personal copy of his booklet 'Assessment for Learning : Mark Less to Achieve More'.
Ian writes a monthly feature for the Times Educational Supplement in Scotland and is currently involved in developing training materials for teachers on motivation.
In recent years he has been asked to run workshops on classroom methodology in Hong Kong and in the United States. He worked in New Jersey to develop a training programme on assessment for learning which is being rolled out across the state.
Further information for seminar: Why: Understanding What We Need to do Differently to Motivate Students to Learn that took place on Wednesday at 12.30.
Ruth Sutton, Ruth Sutton Ltd
Ruth Sutton began her teaching career in 1972. After three years as Deputy Head of an inner city secondary school she was Director of the Manchester Assessment project for two years, and then the first Director of Manchester LA’s Assessment Development Unit from 1984-87. After two further years as an LA senior adviser, she embarked on independent consultancy in 1988, working first on assessment issues in England and Wales. Since then her interest in assessment has developed to include the evaluation of students, teachers and schools, and the wider issues of sustainable change in education settings. The scope of her work has also expanded over twenty years: she works frequently in the USA and most Canadian provinces, including a major contract with Winnipeg School Division culminating in the publication of ‘Creating Independent Student Learners’ in 2006. She consults regularly with the Assess to Learn (ATOL) programme in New Zealand, supports student assessment development in various international schools, and has acted as ‘school improvement adviser’ in several English secondary schools.
Further information for seminar: It Ain’t What You do, it’s the Way that You do it: That’s What Gets Results that took place on Wednesday at 13.30.
Gill Robinson, Learning and Teaching Scotland
Gill is Chief Professional Advisor, Curriculum for Excellence. After research in chemistry, Gill taught in school, university and further education. She was Director of the East of Scotland Consortium of the Scottish Wider Access Programme, which aimed to widen access to Higher Education for adult returners to education. She joined HMI in 1992 and has held a range of posts including, most recently, Chief Inspector with responsibility for early years, residential schools and independent schools.
She was seconded to the Scottish Executive Education Department in January 2004 as Head of Curriculum, Qualifications and Curriculum. She was a member of the Curriculum Review Group and Programme Director for Curriculum for Excellence. She is currently seconded to Learning and Teaching Scotland.
Further information for seminar: Glow and Curriculum for Excellence: Lighting up Learning and Teaching that took place on Wednesday at 15.45.
Further information for seminar: Curriculum for Excellence: The Next Phase – Learn about the latest developments around Curriculum for Excellence and the shape of the next phase that took place on Thursday at 09.30.
Marie Dougan, Learning and Teaching Scotland
Marie Dougan, the Programme Director for Glow began her teaching career as a biology and science teacher in both the secondary and special school sectors. She also worked as a teacher in a variety of hospital and home settings. Marie became interested in the potential of computer technology to enhance access to the curriculum for children with a variety of additional support needs. She completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Specific Learning Difficulties and was a tutor for this course for the University of Edinburgh. Marie subsequently moved to supporting teachers in introducing the use of ICT.
She then managed the information Technology Support Unit (ITSU) which provided support and advice to teachers in 150 schools within the City of Edinburgh. From 2002 until 2006 Marie managed the masterclass project in LTS.
Further information for seminar: Glow and Curriculum for Excellence: Lighting up Learning and Teaching that took place on Wednesday at 15.45.
Alan McLean, Glasgow Psychological Service
Alan McLean is a Chartered Educational Psychologist. He is a Principal Psychologist in Glasgow but has been deployed for the last five years in an Engaging Learners Strategy, where he has developed the SELF, the Social and Emotional Learning Framework. He taught Modern Studies in a secondary school and a Special Unit for children with emotional and behavioural problems.
He is the author of the staff development packs- Promoting Positive Behaviour in the Primary School, Promoting Positive Behaviour in the Secondary School and the award winning Bullyproofing Our School.
He has served on the Advisory Groups of four recent government projects on Bullying, Truancy, Indiscipline and Social Competence.
He had a weekly column in The Scotsman for several years and has been a regular contributor to the Times Educational Supplement Scotland.
His latest production is a training programme on Motivation, commissioned by the Scottish Executive and a book - The Motivated School, published by Paul Chapman, Sage Publications, London in 2003. This has recently been translated into Chinese. He is currently completing a book on Motivating Every Learner. Recent highlights of his work include a seminar for the Education Committee of the Scottish Parliament and a presentation to the Edinburgh International Book Festival and a keynote address to the annual HMIE conference.
Further information for seminar: Motivating Every Learner that took place on Thursday at 10.30.
Professor Kari Smith, University of Bergen
Kari Smith (PH.D.) is a Professor of Education and head of Teacher Education at the University of Bergen, Norway. She is also affiliated to Oranim Academic College of Education in Israel. Professor Smith has served as the co-ordinator of the special interest group on Testing, Evaluation and Assessment in the International Association for Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), and as a joint co-ordinator of the Testing SIG in the European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction (EARLI).
Her main publications and research interests are in areas of professional development, educational assessment, portfolio and self-assessment.
Further information for seminar: Professional Development of Teachers and Teacher Educators that took place on Thursday at 13.00.
Frank Crawford, HM Inspectorate of Education
Frank started his education career as a science teacher in St Mungo’s Academy and St Andrew’s Secondary in the East End of Glasgow, coincidentally the part of Glasgow where he was born and went to school. Frank had a period of secondment to Glasgow City Council in science education, a post funded through additional money for deprived areas. He was appointed to the Inspectorate in 1985 from a senior management post in Holy Cross High School, North Lanarkshire.
In 1992, Frank joined the new Audit Unit within the Inspectorate and headed up the team that produced the first national Standards and Quality Report for Scottish Schools (the forerunner of Improving Scottish Education) and another team which rationalised performance indicators into the first How good is our school?
Frank became Chief Inspector as head of the Audit Unit at the time of the introduction of the setting-targets initiative. Frank has taken on a range of remits within the Inspectorate, including involvement in international projects, and is currently responsible for secondary inspections, special school inspections, quality systems developments, educational futures and The Journey to Excellence project. (He likes driving fast cars, motorbikes and ride-on lawnmowers.)
Further information for seminar: The Journey to Excellence: How it all Fits with Curriculum for Excellence that took place on Thursday at 14.00.