Beng Huat See
Biographic Data
| ID | 2092453 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Beng Huat See |
| GIVEN NAMES | Beng Huat |
| FAMILY NAME | See |
| SIGNATURE | SEE B H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Durham University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7500-379X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Do Coding Club After-School Activities Improve Pupils’ Non-cognitive Skills and Performance in Coding?
The development of coding skills is considered important for a digital age, linked to broader learning and non-cognitive abilities. Schools in England integrate coding into the curriculum, perhaps supplemented by after school activities. “Code Club” is a structured learning programme offered as an after-school activity for pupils aged 9 to 13. This study evaluates Code Club using a quasi-experimental design assessing the impact on student attitud…
Leadership for teacher retention
Teacher retention has been a persistent challenge globally. School leadership plays a central role in retaining teachers. Drawing on a major review of 355 research outputs, this article develops and discusses an international empirical evidence base specifically on the potential effects and leadership practices of promoting teacher professional autonomy, development, and voice in relation to teacher retention. The evidence suggests that promotion…
Making teaching more attractive
Addressing teacher supply has been a persistent and longstanding concern across diverse education systems, spanning both high-income and lower-income countries. Over the past 50 years, the pages of the British Educational Research Journal (BERJ) have repeatedly returned to questions of teacher recruitment, retention and, crucially, the status of the profession. As we mark the 50th anniversary of BERA's flagship journal, it is both timely and fitt…
A structured review of the potential role of school leaders in making teaching more attractive
Some attempts to address the worldwide shortage of teachers focus on raising the prestige of teaching, and making the occupation more appealing. Teacher job satisfaction and well-being have been identified as important factors linked to the status of teachers, with school leadership reportedly playing a key role. This paper is part of a larger review of 96 studies about teacher retention. Here we present the findings from 28 studies on effective …
Divided we fall? Exploring the association between school segregation and post-16 pathways in England
Young people’s educational and occupational outcomes are stratified according to their socio-economic origins. Such background factors are difficult to change, they are presumably not the only determinants of stratified outcomes, and anyway they could be mediated by institutional contexts, particularly who goes to school with whom. This study explores the association between school segregation and post-16 outcomes, using national evidence from En…
Digital innovations in teacher recruitment
Teacher shortages are a serious challenge in many countries, made worse by declining enrolments in initial teacher education (ITE) programs and growing competition for talented young people making career decisions. To address this challenge, we developed and tested two digital interventions—a persuasive game (TeachQuest) and a realistic job preview (RJP)—designed to enhance undergraduate students' teaching interest, teaching self-efficacy, and pe…
What are the key predictors of international teacher shortages
Recurrent teacher shortages have been a long-standing problem for many countries. Popular strategies to attract and retain teachers, used over several decades across the world, include bursaries, scholarships, performance-related pay, professional development and reducing workload. Governments in England have invested heavily in such policy responses, but none have been shown to be particularly effective. Such policies have tended to be based on …
Making teaching an attractive profession
This paper explores the challenges and opportunities surrounding the recruitment and retention of minority ethnic teachers in England. Drawing on interview data from 33 teachers and school leaders of diverse ethnic backgrounds, it investigates whether racialised barriers identified in earlier research have shifted in the current context of teacher shortages and workforce diversification efforts. The findings suggest that participants generally di…
Does school matter for children's cognitive and non‐cognitive learning? Findings from a natural experiment in Pakistan and India
This paper reports on the findings of a natural experiment based on a sample of 1123 children aged 4–8 from the provinces of Punjab in Pakistan, and Gujarat in India. It looks at the impact of attendance (or not) in early schooling on the cognitive and social–emotional development of young children. The role of school attendance was assessed over 1 year. Children and their families were assessed twice, in or near their village homes. The study co…
Do academically selective school systems strengthen the link between students’ family backgrounds and the likelihood of higher education participation
Proponents of academic selection argue that academic selection helps children from disadvantaged backgrounds have better lifelong outcomes. However, the evidence needs to be clarified since selections by performance could be a proxy for selection by socioeconomic class. Based on the unique situation in England, where both selective and non-selective systems coexist, we evaluate whether students from selective schools are more likely to continue h…
Insights into UK Teachers’ Wellbeing and Workload during the Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown
This paper presents the findings of a national survey of over 3400 teachers across all phases of education in England, 10 weeks into school closure. In this paper we report on the teachers’ experiences and their testimonies of the effects of the lockdown on their wellbeing as they navigate the situation, trying to cope with teaching and adjusting to the use of new technology to deliver lessons in the confines of their home. We present their voice…
Do School Exclusions and Attainment Outcomes Disproportionately Impact Minority Ethnic Pupils? Analysis of Pupil Characteristics, Segregation, and Outcomes in England
Large-scale administrative datasets show disproportionate figures for attainment outcomes and school exclusions for pupils in some ethnic groups in England. This surface gap in attainment and school exclusion is concerning, and we consider whether ethnicity is really the driver here. In this paper, we present the findings on KS2 and KS4 attainment and exclusion outcomes for the cohorts in 2019, which are available from the National Pupil Database…
Can a code-based approach to marking and feedback reduce teachers’ workload? An evaluation of the FLASH marking intervention
Teacher workload is an important policy concern in many education systems around the world, often considered a contributory factor in teacher attrition. One aspect of workload that could be addressed is reducing the amount of written marking and feedback that teachers do. This article reports on the results of an evaluation of FLASH Marking, an intervention aimed at reducing teachers’ marking workload. FLASH Marking is a code-based feedback appro…
How institutional resources affect university students’ learning outcomes
Evidence shows that students’ learning outcomes are associated with institutional resources. Whether this phenomenon is universal needs to be tested, as there are cultural differences between countries. We analyse the relationship between resources in higher education institutions and students’ learning outcomes using data from a national survey of 1,142 Chinese undergraduate students. The results indicate that institutional resources can predict…
Can We Teach Non-Cognitive Outcomes? A Quasi-Experimental Study of Philosophy for Children
Non-cognitive learning taking place at school helps form dispositions that can be as important as cognitive outcomes in terms of lifelong relevance. There are diverse interventions and school-based programmes targeting non-cognitive skills, but the evidence of their impact is, so far, unclear. To help increase the evidence bases, we conducted a quasi-experimental study involving 486 pupils in 18 primary schools in North Yorkshire, England, wherei…
How to Get More People into Teaching? Comparing Undergraduates’ and Teacher Trainees’ Motivation and Perceptions of a Teaching Career
Understanding people’s perceptions of teaching as an occupation, and their motivation or otherwise to teach, can help identify which initiatives/policies are most promising in improving teacher recruitment. Previous studies have often sought only the views of teachers/teacher trainees to understand why people choose teaching as a career. Recruitment strategies based on evidence from such research are therefore only appealing to those who are alre…
Is technology always helpful
While education technology has been widely used in classrooms, and considerable investments have been made to support its use in the UK, the evidence base for many such rapidly changing technologies is weak, and their efficacy is unclear. The aim of this paper is to systematically review and synthesise empirical research on the use of technology in formative assessment, to identify approaches that are effective in improving pupils’ learning outco…
Assessing the impact of Pupil Premium funding on primary school segregation and attainment
Using funding to improve educational outcomes is a common policy approach, usually assumed to be effective; but it is less commonly agreed how the money should be routed, and what it should be used for. This paper examines the possible impact of one approach wherein extra funding is provided by the state to schools, rather than teachers, families, or students. Pupil Premium funding has been provided to schools in England since 2011, to help overc…
Delivering Music Education Training for Non-Specialist Teachers through Effective Partnership
A priority area identified by the Department of Education (England) and the Economic Social and Research Council is the development of teachers, especially in primary music education where the limited opportunities for training offered by teacher training providers have raised concerns. This paper reports on an evaluation of a collaborative partnership training of non-specialist teachers, using a Kodály-inspired pedagogy to teach music in a class…
The difficulties of judging what difference the Pupil Premium has made to school intakes and outcomes in England
Pupil Premium funding has been provided to schools in England since 2011, to help overcome socio-economic segregation between schools, and reduce the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers – nationally, regionally, and within individual schools. Yet there is little international evidence that such a funding system can raise attainment directly. Some important stakeholders are now considering whether Pupil Premium should cease…
Teacher Recruitment and Retention
Background: A raft of initiatives and reforms have been introduced in many countries to attract and recruit school teachers, many of which do not have a clear evidence base, so their effectiveness remains unclear. Prior research has been largely correlational in design. This paper describes a rigorous and comprehensive review of international evidence, synthesising the findings of some of the strongest empirical work so far. Methods: The review s…
Effective classroom instructions for primary literacy
What works in attracting and retaining teachers in challenging schools and areas
This paper describes a systematic review of international research evidence identifying the most promising approaches to attracting and retaining teachers in hard-to-staff areas. Only empirical studies that employed a causal or suitable comparative design and had robust measurements of recruitment and retention outcomes were considered. Studies were assessed for strength of evidence taking into account threats to trustworthiness which may bias th…
Why don’t we have enough teachers
There is widespread concern about the shortage of secondary school teachers in England. Recruitment to initial teacher training regularly fails to meet its intake targets. The secondary school pupil population is increasing. Teacher vacancies have risen, and more teachers are reportedly leaving the profession prematurely. Despite considerable investment in a wide range of initiatives, costing millions of pounds, the government has acknowledged th…
Does explicit teaching of critical thinking improve critical thinking skills of English language learners in higher education? A critical review of causal evidence
Beliefs and accounts of illness. Views from two Cantonese-speaking communities in England
This paper examines lay accounts of illness and health gathered - by means of eight focus groups - from people living in two Cantonese-speaking communities in England. The authors concentrate on the manner in which Cantonese speakers recruit and mobilise various agents - such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), spirits, demons, food and the weather - to describe and explain aspects of their bodily and mental wellbeing. As well as providing inf…
Why don’t we have enough teachers
There is widespread concern about the shortage of secondary school teachers in England. Recruitment to initial teacher training regularly fails to meet its intake targets. The secondary school pupil population is increasing. Teacher vacancies have risen, and more teachers are reportedly leaving the profession prematurely. Despite considerable investment in a wide range of initiatives, costing millions of pounds, the government has acknowledged th…
How can we enhance enjoyment of secondary school? The student view
This paper considers enjoyment of formal education for young people aged 14 to 16, largely from their own perspective, based on the view of around 3000 students in England. The data include documentary analysis, official statistics, interviews and surveys with staff and students. Enjoyment of school tends to be promoted by factors such as successful social relationships, small classes, variation in learning and students having some control of the…
What are the problems with teacher supply
The difficulties of judging what difference the Pupil Premium has made to school intakes and outcomes in England
Pupil Premium funding has been provided to schools in England since 2011, to help overcome socio-economic segregation between schools, and reduce the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers – nationally, regionally, and within individual schools. Yet there is little international evidence that such a funding system can raise attainment directly. Some important stakeholders are now considering whether Pupil Premium should cease…
An evaluation of the ‘Switch‐on Reading’ literacy catch‐up programme
This paper is based on one of the first completed studies funded by the Educational Endowment Foundation ( EEF ). EEF was set up in response to repeated demands for clearer evidence on school improvement. The paper presents the results of an intensive 10‐week literacy intervention called Switch‐on Reading. This was trialled in England as part of a government initiative to assist children below Level 4 literacy while at age 10 to catch up with the…
Assessing the impact of Pupil Premium funding on primary school segregation and attainment
Using funding to improve educational outcomes is a common policy approach, usually assumed to be effective; but it is less commonly agreed how the money should be routed, and what it should be used for. This paper examines the possible impact of one approach wherein extra funding is provided by the state to schools, rather than teachers, families, or students. Pupil Premium funding has been provided to schools in England since 2011, to help overc…
What are the key predictors of international teacher shortages
Recurrent teacher shortages have been a long-standing problem for many countries. Popular strategies to attract and retain teachers, used over several decades across the world, include bursaries, scholarships, performance-related pay, professional development and reducing workload. Governments in England have invested heavily in such policy responses, but none have been shown to be particularly effective. Such policies have tended to be based on …
What works and what fails? Evidence from seven popular literacy ‘catch-up’ schemes for the transition to secondary school in England
There are concerns that too many young people, from disadvantaged backgrounds, are moving into secondary education in the UK, and elsewhere, without the necessary literacy skills to make progress with the wider secondary school curriculum. A large number of interventions have been proposed to reduce this poverty gradient. This paper summarises the evidence from randomised controlled trials of seven popular interventions, giving a different compar…
Can explicit teaching of knowledge improve reading attainment? An evaluation of the Core Knowledge curriculum
In England, as elsewhere, there is a tension in primary schools between imparting knowledge and teaching basic skills like literacy and numeracy. State‐mandated programmes are generally concerned with structure and skills. However, a number of ministers and advisers across administrations have sought to expand the explicit teaching of world knowledge (culture, geography and science) as advocated by E. D. Hirsch in the Core Knowledge curriculum. T…
Can ‘Philosophy for Children’ Improve Primary School Attainment
There are tensions within formal education between imparting knowledge and the development of skills for handling that knowledge. In the primary school sector, the latter can also be squeezed out of the curriculum by a focus on basic skills such as literacy and numeracy. What happens when an explicit attempt is made to develop young children's reasoning—both in terms of their apparent cognitive abilities and their basic skills? This paper reports…
What can we do to strengthen the teacher workforce
This paper considers recurrent alarms in England, Wales and other developed countries concerning shortages of teachers. It summarises the conclusions from a mixed‐methods international study of teacher supply, quality and retention. The research used large‐scale secondary data sets from a variety of sources, at both the individual and aggregate level, and analyses conducted for regional, national and international comparisons. These were suppleme…
Beliefs and accounts of illness. Views from two Cantonese-speaking communities in England
This paper examines lay accounts of illness and health gathered - by means of eight focus groups - from people living in two Cantonese-speaking communities in England. The authors concentrate on the manner in which Cantonese speakers recruit and mobilise various agents - such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), spirits, demons, food and the weather - to describe and explain aspects of their bodily and mental wellbeing. As well as providing inf…
What are the problems with teacher supply
What can we do to strengthen the teacher workforce
This paper considers recurrent alarms in England, Wales and other developed countries concerning shortages of teachers. It summarises the conclusions from a mixed‐methods international study of teacher supply, quality and retention. The research used large‐scale secondary data sets from a variety of sources, at both the individual and aggregate level, and analyses conducted for regional, national and international comparisons. These were suppleme…
How can we enhance enjoyment of secondary school? The student view
This paper considers enjoyment of formal education for young people aged 14 to 16, largely from their own perspective, based on the view of around 3000 students in England. The data include documentary analysis, official statistics, interviews and surveys with staff and students. Enjoyment of school tends to be promoted by factors such as successful social relationships, small classes, variation in learning and students having some control of the…
Best practice in conducting RCTs
Does intervening to enhance parental involvement in education lead to better academic results for children? An extended review
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to summarise the results of a review of the literature linking parental involvement in their child’s education to attainment at or before primary school. Design/methodology/approach – The search involved nine electronic databases supplemented by other sources, and yielded 4,898 apparently relevant reports. Of these, 127 were reports of attempted evaluations to see whether enhancing parental involvement led t…
An evaluation of the ‘Switch‐on Reading’ literacy catch‐up programme
This paper is based on one of the first completed studies funded by the Educational Endowment Foundation ( EEF ). EEF was set up in response to repeated demands for clearer evidence on school improvement. The paper presents the results of an intensive 10‐week literacy intervention called Switch‐on Reading. This was trialled in England as part of a government initiative to assist children below Level 4 literacy while at age 10 to catch up with the…
Can ‘Philosophy for Children’ Improve Primary School Attainment
There are tensions within formal education between imparting knowledge and the development of skills for handling that knowledge. In the primary school sector, the latter can also be squeezed out of the curriculum by a focus on basic skills such as literacy and numeracy. What happens when an explicit attempt is made to develop young children's reasoning—both in terms of their apparent cognitive abilities and their basic skills? This paper reports…
What works and what fails? Evidence from seven popular literacy ‘catch-up’ schemes for the transition to secondary school in England
There are concerns that too many young people, from disadvantaged backgrounds, are moving into secondary education in the UK, and elsewhere, without the necessary literacy skills to make progress with the wider secondary school curriculum. A large number of interventions have been proposed to reduce this poverty gradient. This paper summarises the evidence from randomised controlled trials of seven popular interventions, giving a different compar…
Can explicit teaching of knowledge improve reading attainment? An evaluation of the Core Knowledge curriculum
In England, as elsewhere, there is a tension in primary schools between imparting knowledge and teaching basic skills like literacy and numeracy. State‐mandated programmes are generally concerned with structure and skills. However, a number of ministers and advisers across administrations have sought to expand the explicit teaching of world knowledge (culture, geography and science) as advocated by E. D. Hirsch in the Core Knowledge curriculum. T…
Some basic observations on conducting a systematic review
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a response to Goldstein et al.’s (2017) attempted rebuttal of the authors’ prior paper in this journal (See and Gorard 2015). Design/methodology/approach The prior paper reported a systematic review of interventions to involve engaging parents more in their children’s education in order to raise school attainment. Goldstein et al. make a large number of unwarranted claims about its quality. They rep…
Does explicit teaching of critical thinking improve critical thinking skills of English language learners in higher education? A critical review of causal evidence
Can learning beyond the classroom impact on social responsibility and academic attainment? An evaluation of the Children’s University youth social action programme
Teacher Recruitment and Retention
Background: A raft of initiatives and reforms have been introduced in many countries to attract and recruit school teachers, many of which do not have a clear evidence base, so their effectiveness remains unclear. Prior research has been largely correlational in design. This paper describes a rigorous and comprehensive review of international evidence, synthesising the findings of some of the strongest empirical work so far. Methods: The review s…
Effective classroom instructions for primary literacy
What works in attracting and retaining teachers in challenging schools and areas
This paper describes a systematic review of international research evidence identifying the most promising approaches to attracting and retaining teachers in hard-to-staff areas. Only empirical studies that employed a causal or suitable comparative design and had robust measurements of recruitment and retention outcomes were considered. Studies were assessed for strength of evidence taking into account threats to trustworthiness which may bias th…
Why don’t we have enough teachers
There is widespread concern about the shortage of secondary school teachers in England. Recruitment to initial teacher training regularly fails to meet its intake targets. The secondary school pupil population is increasing. Teacher vacancies have risen, and more teachers are reportedly leaving the profession prematurely. Despite considerable investment in a wide range of initiatives, costing millions of pounds, the government has acknowledged th…
Delivering Music Education Training for Non-Specialist Teachers through Effective Partnership
A priority area identified by the Department of Education (England) and the Economic Social and Research Council is the development of teachers, especially in primary music education where the limited opportunities for training offered by teacher training providers have raised concerns. This paper reports on an evaluation of a collaborative partnership training of non-specialist teachers, using a Kodály-inspired pedagogy to teach music in a class…
The difficulties of judging what difference the Pupil Premium has made to school intakes and outcomes in England
Pupil Premium funding has been provided to schools in England since 2011, to help overcome socio-economic segregation between schools, and reduce the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers – nationally, regionally, and within individual schools. Yet there is little international evidence that such a funding system can raise attainment directly. Some important stakeholders are now considering whether Pupil Premium should cease…
Can We Teach Non-Cognitive Outcomes? A Quasi-Experimental Study of Philosophy for Children
Non-cognitive learning taking place at school helps form dispositions that can be as important as cognitive outcomes in terms of lifelong relevance. There are diverse interventions and school-based programmes targeting non-cognitive skills, but the evidence of their impact is, so far, unclear. To help increase the evidence bases, we conducted a quasi-experimental study involving 486 pupils in 18 primary schools in North Yorkshire, England, wherei…
How to Get More People into Teaching? Comparing Undergraduates’ and Teacher Trainees’ Motivation and Perceptions of a Teaching Career
Understanding people’s perceptions of teaching as an occupation, and their motivation or otherwise to teach, can help identify which initiatives/policies are most promising in improving teacher recruitment. Previous studies have often sought only the views of teachers/teacher trainees to understand why people choose teaching as a career. Recruitment strategies based on evidence from such research are therefore only appealing to those who are alre…
Is technology always helpful
While education technology has been widely used in classrooms, and considerable investments have been made to support its use in the UK, the evidence base for many such rapidly changing technologies is weak, and their efficacy is unclear. The aim of this paper is to systematically review and synthesise empirical research on the use of technology in formative assessment, to identify approaches that are effective in improving pupils’ learning outco…
Assessing the impact of Pupil Premium funding on primary school segregation and attainment
Using funding to improve educational outcomes is a common policy approach, usually assumed to be effective; but it is less commonly agreed how the money should be routed, and what it should be used for. This paper examines the possible impact of one approach wherein extra funding is provided by the state to schools, rather than teachers, families, or students. Pupil Premium funding has been provided to schools in England since 2011, to help overc…
Insights into UK Teachers’ Wellbeing and Workload during the Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown
This paper presents the findings of a national survey of over 3400 teachers across all phases of education in England, 10 weeks into school closure. In this paper we report on the teachers’ experiences and their testimonies of the effects of the lockdown on their wellbeing as they navigate the situation, trying to cope with teaching and adjusting to the use of new technology to deliver lessons in the confines of their home. We present their voice…
Do School Exclusions and Attainment Outcomes Disproportionately Impact Minority Ethnic Pupils? Analysis of Pupil Characteristics, Segregation, and Outcomes in England
Large-scale administrative datasets show disproportionate figures for attainment outcomes and school exclusions for pupils in some ethnic groups in England. This surface gap in attainment and school exclusion is concerning, and we consider whether ethnicity is really the driver here. In this paper, we present the findings on KS2 and KS4 attainment and exclusion outcomes for the cohorts in 2019, which are available from the National Pupil Database…
Psychology (31 works) · Political science (22 works) · Pedagogy (19 works) · Mathematics education (17 works) · Medicine (17 works) · Medical education (14 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Teacher Professional Development and Motivation (10 works) · School Choice and Performance (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works)