University of Buckingham

The challenge

The University of Buckingham is the country’s leading provider of teacher training and professional development.

It sought out leading educational thinkers to contribute to a new online MA in education.  One of these was Doug Lemov, author of "Teach Like a Champion".  Doug Lemov is renowned in education circles for promoting highly effective teaching techniques that demand high levels of engagement and participation from students. For this reason he had never previously agreed for his techniques to be taught in an online course.

How could the University of Buckingham create a suitably engaging environment to teach these techniques online?

Doug Lemov – Educator and author

The solution

The University of Buckingham worked with Learning with Experts to deliver a 12 lesson course on ‘Building a Writing-Intensive Classroom’ which is designed to be completed by teachers over one school term.

Doug Lemov approved the course and the effectiveness of the learning platform and approach.

Each lesson introduces a new technique using a combination of theory, footage filmed in real life classrooms and role plays / practical exercises.

The teacher is required to use that technique in their classroom and reflect on the results, prior to completing the following week’s lesson.

By the end of the course, participants have introduced a new way of working into their classrooms and completed a critical evaluation of the effectiveness of the approach in their setting.

The course is now used as part of the University of Buckingham Masters degree.