Ben Looker
Senior Lecturer in Secondary Education: Sciences
Secondary and Post Compulsory Education
email: b.looker@worc.ac.uk
tel: 01905 54 2841
Ben studied his for his undergraduate degree at the University of Birmingham and went on to complete his PGCE there. Ben has taught in a range of different and contrasting comprehensive schools where he gained a lot of valuable experience, including working as Head of Science and subsequently as an Assistant Headteacher.
It was during his time as Assistant Headteacher, with responsibility for Teaching and Learning and Continued Professional Development, that Ben found his love of training teachers. He set up and facilitated a variety of professional development programmes and is an accredited OLEVI facilitator.
Ben has a particular interest and passion for the impact of effective coaching strategies which can be used to develop teachers capacity and to develop new and aspiring middle and senior leaders. In addition to running the Science PGCE course, Ben also facilitates the Chemistry Subject Knowledge Enhancement Course for post graduates. This course allows prospective trainee science teachers to develop and hone their KS3-5 subject specific knowledge and understanding, enabling them to be effective practitioners.
Ben has developed and runs the Aspiring Leaders enhancement activity for the PGCE at the University of Worcester. This programme is unique to the university and aims to develop trainee teachers who have aspirations of leadership by talking about the roles and characteristics of school leaders and issues currently facing middle and senior leaders.
In addition to his teaching at the University of Worcester, Ben is an active researcher and is currently studying for his Doctorate in Education. Ben's research focuses on effective relationships between teachers and pupils and inclusion.
Qualifications
- Doctor of Education University of Worcester (currently studying)
- Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education- University of Worcester (2017)
- PGCE in Secondary Science University of Birmingham (2007)
- BSc Hons in Biological Sciences University of Birmingham (2006)
Teaching & Research
Teaching
Secondary Science PGCE (all three sciences)
Interest in teaching outside of specialism
Masters dissertation supervision
Research
Teacher/pupil relationships
Alienation in secondary school education
Teacher Identity
Professional Bodies
Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Publications
Looker, B. and Kington, A. (forthcoming, 2020) The influence of experience: How teacher-pupil relationships can change throughout a career. In: A. Kington and K. Blackmore (Eds) Developing Social and Learning Relationships in Primary Schools. London: Bloomsbury
Looker, B., Vickers, J. and Kington, A. (forthcoming, 2019) The Case for a Critical Realist Grounded Theory Methodology
Conference Presentations
Does The Use Of Video Recording Lead To An Improvement In Trainee Teachers’ Confidence? Ben Looker and Janinne Delorenzo - University of Worcester Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, June 2017, Worcester
Fifty Shades Of Science: Experiments To Capture The Imagination Of Pupils. Ben Looker and Janinne Delorenzo – Association of Science Education Annual Conference, January 2017, Reading
Fifty Shades Of Science Revisited: Even More Experiments To Capture The Imagination Of Pupils. Ben Looker and Janinne Delorenzo – Association of Science Education Annual Conference, January 2018, Liverpool