Mary James

Position/Status

Professor and Associate Director of Research

Academic Groups

Leadership for Learning

E-mail Address

mej1002@cam.ac.uk

Qualifications

BEd (Hons) University of Sussex
MA Institute of Education, University of London
PhD Open University

Recognition

President, British Educational Research Association
Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences
Fellow, Royal Society of Arts
Fellow Commoner, Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.
Member of the Expert Panel appointed by the Coalition Government to Review the National Curriculum
Adviser, 2000 to 2009, to the Education Bureau, Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People´s Republic of China.
Standing Member of the panel of referees for large projects, National Institute of Education, Singapore.
Trustee of the British Curriculum Foundation and Editorial Board member of The Curriculum Journal.

Profile

Professor Mary James works part-time for the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education as Associate Director of Research. She is President of the British Educational Research Association. She also continues to do some consultancy on a negotiated basis.

From 2002 to 2008 she was Deputy Director of the UK-wide ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme and had responsibility for supporting school-based projects. In 2006 she was awarded an ESRC Programme Director's Fellowship to enable her to synthesise some programme findings and to disseminate outcomes internationally. From 2001-2005 she was also director of one of the largest TLRP projects: ´Learning How to Learn´ – in classrooms, schools and networks'. She was a member of the Assessment Reform Group from 1992 until it disbanded in 2010.

Her research interests encompass curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in schools, and implications for teachers´ professional development, school leadership and policy frameworks.

She was a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, then Reader in the University of Cambridge School of Education from 1989 until her move to a Chair of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London (2005-2008). Previously she was a Research Fellow at the Open University. She began her career by teaching RE, English and Social Studies in three secondary schools.

Research

Interests

Assessment, especially assessment for learning
Learning How to Learn
Teaching, learning and curriculum in schools
Teacher learning
Leadership for learning
Education policy with reference to the above
Educational research generally

Research Students

As she is formally retired she will not be supervising research students in the future.

Recent Research Projects

Teaching and Learning Research Programme (ESRC 2002-2009)
http://www.tlrp.org

Improving Teaching and Learning in Schools: towards coherence in a complex field (ESRC Programme Director"s Fellowship 2006-2008)

Assessment of Significant Learning Outcomes (TLRP 2006-2008) http://www.tlrp.org/themes/seminar/daugherty/index.html http://www.assessment-reform-group.org/ASLO.html

An Investigation of Approaches to Personalised Learning Used by Schools, (DFES 2005-2006)
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/Rb843.pdf

Representing Context in a Research Archive of Educational Evaluation Studies, (ESRC QUADS 2005-2006)
http://www.ensemble.ac.uk/projects/edeval/
http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/esrcinfocentre/viewawardpage.aspx?awardnumber=RES-346-25-3003

Assessment Systems of the Future (Nuffield Foundation 2003-2006) http://www.assessment-reform-group.org/ASF.html

Learning How to Learn in classrooms, schools and networks (ESRC TLRP 2001-2005)
http://www.tlrp.org/proj/pase11/phase2f.html http://www.learntolearn.ac.uk

Teaching

Topics

Mary James no longer has any contractual teaching commitments.

Courses

She no longer has course responsibilities

Recent publications

Books

James, M. and Pollard, A. (eds) (2012) Principles for Effective Pedagogy: International responses to evidence from the UK Teaching and Learning Research Programme (Abingdon: Routledge).

Articles in journals

James, M. and Pollard, A. (2011) ‘TLRP’s ten principles for effective pedagogy: rationale, development, evidence, argument and impact’, Research Papers in Education, 28(3): 275-328. (TLRP Special Issue) DOI:10.1080/02671522.2011.590007

Pollard, A. and James, M. (2010) ‘The UK’s teaching and learning research programme (TLRP): strategies and contributions to large-scale reform’, Z Erziehungswiss. DOI 10.1007/s11618-010-0157-0

James, M. and McCormick, R. (2009) ‘Teachers Learning to Learn’, Teaching and Teacher Education, 25 (7 ): 973-982 (TLRP special issue.) DOI:10.1016/j.tate.2009.02.023

Chapters in books

James, M. (2012) ‘Chapter 3: An alternative to the objectives model: the process model for the design and development of curriculum’. In N. Norris and J. Elliott (eds) Curriculum, Pedagogy and Educational Research; The work of Lawrence Stenhouse, (Abingdon: Routledge): 61-83.

James, M. (2012) ‘Chapter 12: Assessment in harmony with our understanding of learning: problems and possibilities’. In J. Gardner (ed) Assessment and Learning. Second Edition. (London: Sage): 187-205.

Pedder, D. and James, M. (2012) ‘Chapter 3: Professional learning as a condition for assessment for learning’. In J. Gardner (ed) Assessment and Learning. Second Edition. (London: Sage): 33-48.

James, M. (2011) ‘Chapter 2: Assessment for Learning: research and policy in the (dis)United Kingdom’. In R. Berry and R. Adamson (eds) Assessment Reform in Education (New York: Springer): 15-32.

Daugherty, .R., Black, P., Ecclestone, K., James, M. and Newton. P. (2011) ‘Chapter 12: Assessment of Significant Learning Outcomes’. In R. Berry and R. Adamson (eds) Assessment Reform in Education (New York: Springer): 165-183.

James, M. (2010) ‘Educational Assessment: Overview’. In E.Baker, B.McGaw & P.Peterson (eds) International Encyclopedia of Education: Third Edition, Volume 3: 161-171 (Oxford: Elsevier).

Pollard, A. and James, M. (2010) ‘Learning and teaching in primary schools: insights from TLRP’. In R.J. Alexander, C. Doddington, J. Gray, L. Hargreaves and R. Kershner (eds) The Cambridge Primary Review Research Surveys (Abingdon: Routledge): 525-547.

PDF of all publications for Mary James