Spotlight on: Dr Sarah Earle

I was a primary school teacher in Bristol for 13 years, teaching all subjects, but I became particularly interested in science. In 2003 my headteacher saw an advert for a science subject leadership course at Bath Spa which I then chose to take onto Master’s level. It really got me started in the world of supporting teachers with science and led to my decision to specialise in science.

By 2008 I was teaching part-time at school and had a visiting lecture role on the Bath Spa Primary and Early Years PGCE. Jumping between the two roles was interesting - it was a bit of a challenge going from children in the morning to adults in the afternoon. In 2012 I took a full-time role at Bath Spa as a PGCE tutor working with the primary science team and Bath Spa teachers.

In 2013 I joined a research project called Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) and that has grown to take over my whole role. We’ve had research funding from the Primary Science Teaching Trust which has grown into a large randomised controlled trial with the Education Endowment Foundation. I’ve now moved from the PGCE tutor role to a Reader in Education and haven’t taught on the PGCE for a few years.

From 2013 to 2018, I was also doing a part-time PhD which developed as part of the TAPS project. Doing the PhD part-time meant that I was able to continue teaching on the PGCE, but also further develop my research interest in primary science teacher assessment. In the end I've become Dr TAPS!

My research is so collaborative that most of the time I’m still working with teachers. The pandemic obviously made it much more difficult because in primary science you’re usually there face-to-face exploring things together.

In my head I split my job into two parts - doing the research and development side and then the training sessions with practising teachers. The continuing professional development (CPD) side has become a bigger part of my role as we have lots of resources to support the teachers, but then we decided we also needed the training to go alongside that. Meaning I still get to have that hands-on experience with teachers.

When I was doing teaching and research at the University we started bringing my research into our teaching. I still work closely with the primary science team at Bath Spa so that what we’re developing is then passed onto the students. Basically they get a first look at it all. This means that primary science at Bath Spa is really strong because it’s research-informed by current research.

I see the trainees as part of the group that we’re talking to so some of the research has been developed with them. They’re often invited to collaborate if they want to try out some activities and give us feedback.

I’m now being invited to talk to other universities about primary science and explain what we’re doing. TAPS is already embedded in primary science training at Bath Spa whereas it’s just starting at other universities.

Bath Spa teachers, our graduates, have the opportunity to keep in contact with us about these projects and get involved. Another project I work on is Thinking, Doing, Talking Science. It’s run by Science Oxford but I deliver it around the country. I’ve been recruiting teachers for the programme from North Somerset and I’ll probably end up working with teachers that did their PGCE at Bath Spa. The last time I ran the trial I’d only just stopped teaching on the PGCE and about three of the people in the group had studied at Bath Spa and then went on to take part in the research project.

There’s one trainee for example, who did the science specialist route about eight years ago, he’s kept in contact and is taking part in TAPS research. There are always ongoing opportunities to stay involved with research and development with primary science at Bath Spa.

There’s also the opportunity for Bath Spa teachers to be involved in CPD long after they graduate. It’s really important as you don’t just do your one year of training and then you’re done. Teaching is something that evolves over time so you’re always learning, trying new things and developing. Until recently, these opportunities would have mainly been available to Bath Spa teachers that stayed local, but due to the growth in online CPD they can get involved from wherever they are.

I actively advertise these opportunities on my Twitter. @prisciearle seems to have become a big part of actually recruiting schools for projects and disseminating training and resources.