Education and Learning

Education and Learning Research Group

The research expertise of our Education and Learning Research Group is broadly situated in educational psychology, but with some insights drawn from cognitive science and neuroscience. We have specific expertise in the psychology of learning emotions, self-beliefs and motivation, and how these relate to academic attainment. Much of our research is done in partnership with secondary schools, particularly in relation to understanding how to support GCSE pupils and educational practitioners to thrive in their learning and performance in high-stakes exams.

Members

Key projects

Understanding the experience of literacy difficulties in relation to reading, writing and wellbeing

Dr Nicola Currie and Dr Emma Sumner

Reading offers a wealth of opportunities for children and young people to develop key skills such as language, comprehension and social cognition (E.g., Torppa et al., 2019; van der Kleij et al 2022a). However, recent research demonstrates that reading, particularly leisure reading, can also have a diverse range of positive effects on children and young people’s wellbeing (Currie et al., under review; Sun et al.,2023). Writing can also offer children and young people the opportunity to express their emotions and relax (Clarke et al., 2024).

Despite such benefits, a number of children and young people face barriers to literacy and therefore may be less likely to experience the potential positive effects of reading and writing on wellbeing. Further, recent large-scale surveys across the UK indicate a decline in the time that children and young people spend reading and writing for leisure (Clark et al., 2024; Clark et al., 2023). It is, therefore, critical that we seek to better understand the experiences of children and young people with literacy difficulties, how best to support them to have positive reading and writing experiences, and in doing so identify opportunities to support their wellbeing.

Featured projects

We should just be told to try our best

Dr Laura Nicholson and colleagues provide an overview of exam anxiety, its effects and what psychologists can do to help reduce it.

See Dr Laura Nicholson’s research

GCSEs: what to say and what to avoid if you want to help teenagers combat exam anxiety

Dr Laura Nicholson explores what messages are most effective when communicating with teenagers about high stakes exams

Read the full article on The Conversation

Stressed out: the psychological effects of tests on primary school children

Dr Laura Nicholson discusses the stress and pressure about forthcoming exams and how it can result in what education researchers have termed “test anxiety”.

Read the full article on The Conversation

Threats of failure motivate some students – but it’s not a technique to use on the whole class

Dr Laura Nicholson outlines the importance of recognising differences in students when motivating them towards examinations

Read the full article on The Conversation

How can challenging your beliefs make you feel more confident?

Dr Laura Nicholson shares how to use the ABC Model to change the way you prepare for exams.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses

Members of our Education and Learning Research group run CPD short courses for educational professionals, to support them to apply evidence-based psychology to educational practice.

What Is Test Anxiety and How Can We Reduce It?

How does test anxiety affect exam performance?
How does test anxiety relate to wellbeing?
What can be done to reduce test anxiety? Useful strategies will be taught.

Using Positive Psychology to help pupils thrive

Why Children Fail – new insights from Psychology
How Children Learn – new insights from Psychology

Get involved

There are various ways you can get involved in our Education and Learning research

Take part as a Research Volunteer as part of our Research Participation Scheme

If you’re a current student, you may be eligible to be a paid research intern

Apply for a MRes or PhD in Education and Learning

Contact

If you would like to find out more about our Education and Learning Research group, please get in touch with the group coordinator

Dr Emma Sumner

[email protected]