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Dr Pinky Jain

Head of Teacher Education

Pinky Jain is Head of Teacher Education in the Carnegie School of Education. She has research interests in trainee teachers, exploring how they can be developed and supported to attain criticality, to be reflective and to become research-informed practitioners.

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About

Pinky Jain is Head of Teacher Education in the Carnegie School of Education. She has research interests in trainee teachers, exploring how they can be developed and supported to attain criticality, to be reflective and to become research-informed practitioners.

Pinky Jain is Head of Teacher Education in the Carnegie School of Education. She has research interests in trainee teachers, exploring how they can be developed and supported to attain criticality, to be reflective and to become research-informed practitioners.

Pinky taught in a range of schools and HEIs all over the world before joining the University in 2021 where she leads an enthusiastic, dedicated and committed team within the Department for Teacher Education.

Pinky completed her PhD in Primary Mathematics Education from the University of Nottingham where she developed a model to support the understanding of children's prior knowledge in the primary maths classroom.

Pinky trained as a Secondary Economics and Business Studies teacher and started her teaching career in Stoke-on-Trent. She then had the opportunity to move to USA for two years. She developed trainer training materials and trained New York Police Department emergency call handlers to use the new 911 system. She qualified as an Educational Psychologist at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City. While at Columbia, she taught in New York City and worked on research projects which involved the use of ICT to support primary age children in developing mathematical skills. She then moved back to UK and has taught in primary schools in Birmingham and Worcestershire. Following her experience in schools, she has worked in HEIs within Primary Initial Teacher Education.

Pinky's areas of expertise are international teacher education development, undergraduate/postgraduate teacher education and mathematical pedagogies, and she serves as an active member on various international and national forums in these areas.

Research interests

Pinky's research interests are in the areas of mathematics pedagogy, teacher education, how children learn, and diversity in the teaching workforce.

Pinky is leading on a project through the UCET Research Group to collection data nationally on teacher demographics. The aim of the project is to support diversification of the teacher workforce in the UK by understanding the current demographics and devising initiatives to increase diversity.

Pinky is interested in mathematics and the use of talk and language and developing confidence in all children and trainee teachers in teaching and learning methods.

Pinky is collaborating with a range of international partners from eight different countries to study the impact of Covid on teaching and learning. This will result in a documentary, book and series of papers and conference presentations.

Publications (3)

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Journal article
Judging Student Teacher Effectiveness: A Systematic Review of Literature
Featured 16 July 2024 British Journal of Educational Studies72(5):1-33 Informa UK Limited
AuthorsAnderson SK, Ozsezer-Kurnuc S, Jain P

This paper reports on a systematic literature review to understand better methodologies and data collection tools used to judge student teaching effectiveness, ways in which validity and reliability are considered, the processes involved in assessing new teaching effectiveness within teacher education programmes, and how evaluation and results are used to judge readiness to teach. The accurate and consistent judgement of teaching competence during and at completion of preparation continues to be an area of increasing interest and concern. The PRISMA review process identified 45 key papers. An in-depth analysis underscored several crucial factors, such as the challenge of ensuring the reliability of judgements within dynamic educational environments and the need for broader understanding and applications of reliability and dependability when making judgements. The findings of this systematic literature review hold implications that merit consideration by teacher education programmes for processes to judge teaching effectiveness. The analysis also highlighted the intricacies inherent in evaluating teaching effectiveness, alongside ongoing discourse regarding the criteria and measures for judging competence of student teachers.

Journal article
A Comparative Analysis of Professional Teacher Standards Across the UK Home Nations of England, Scotland, and Wales
Featured 24 May 2025 The Teacher Educator60(4):1-40 Informa UK Limited
AuthorsAnderson SK, Davies AJ, Lofthouse R, Phillips D, Ozsezer Kurnuc S, Jain P

This paper presents a comparative analysis of professional standards for newly-qualified teachers across England, Scotland, and Wales, following the 1999 devolution of educational policies. By aligning national frameworks with UNESCO’s Global Framework of Professional Teaching Standards (2019), this study critically assesses how teacher competencies are articulated within each jurisdiction. Utilizing critical policy analysis and crosswalk methodology, this research offers the first systematic cross-national comparison of professional teaching standards providing novel insights into devolved educational standards. The findings reveal ideological distinctions: England emphasizes measurable outcomes and accountability, Scotland prioritizes holistic development and social justice, while Wales integrates performance metrics with cultural values. These variations influence teacher preparation, professional development, and student outcomes. This study underscores the need for nuanced, context-sensitive policy approaches that support teacher agency and educational quality, fostering a more coherent and informed debate on the future of teacher education in the UK.

Journal article
Understanding the Outcomes of the China–England Mathematics Teacher Exchange: Observations of a Shanghai Teacher
Featured 07 September 2021 ECNU Review of Education6(2):209653112110187 SAGE Publications
AuthorsShi (史加祥) J, Jain P

Highlights

This study examines the China–England Mathematics Teacher Exchange program to identify and evaluate the differences in Chinese approach to mathematics education. There are numerous differences in terms of national mathematics curricula, organization of mathematics teaching, and evaluation objectives and methods due to different educational and learning cultures. China has made great achievements in mathematics education and student academic performance but has much to learn from England.

In January 2019, Sheffield Hallam University published Longitudinal Evaluation of the Mathematics Teacher Exchange: China-England Final Report. Commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) in England, the systematic and comprehensive report evaluated the outcomes of the Mathematics Teacher Exchange (MTE), 1 a program involving teacher exchanges between England and Shanghai and the implementation of “maths mastery pedagogy.” Initiated in 2014, the MTE sought to combine the strengths of English and Chinese mathematics education into a single, “unbeatable” system.

The Sheffield study discusses the background and progress of the MTE program in identifying the differences between English and Chinese approaches to mathematics education. In doing so, the study revealed that the gap between advanced and poor mathematics education in Shanghai and English primary schools is not due to the developments in education, but other factors such as the different approaches adopted by individual teachers in the classroom, choice of assessment methods, and educational and learning cultures. Evaluating these differences provides greater insight into both the MTE and mathematics education in China. Accordingly, this article briefly summarizes a series of evaluation reports on the MTE and examines the literature, media coverage, and experiences of the teachers involved.

Teaching Activities (1)

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Research Award Supervision

An enquiry into teachers’ perceptions on the use of pre-planned schemes of learning in the primary classroom

01 October 2024 - 30 September 2030

Joint supervisor