If you have a passion for education and creative learning, want to research to improve your own practice and enjoy sharing educational conversations about what really matters, you will enjoy this exciting opportunity to develop and contribute new theory and practice with other enthusiastic, creative educators.

To give you a feel for the accounts being created which are contributing to our knowledge:

• Key Stage 1 Claire Formby's How do I sustain a loving, receptively responsive educational relationship with my pupils which will motivate them in their learning and encourage me in my teaching?

• Key Stage 2 Ros Hurford's How does the Writing of a new Gifted and Talented Policy enable me to reflect upon and evaluate my Personal values about Gifts and Talents? In what ways am I living my values in this area?

• Key Stage 3/4/5 Sally Cartwright's Understanding Learning and Learners

This programme supports educators working on 'Gifts, Talents and Education', 'Understanding Learners and Learning', 'Research Methods', and 'Educational Enquiries'.

For more information contact Jack Whitehead (University of Bath), or Marie Huxtable (Coordinating and developing APEX) - apex@bathnes.gov.uk , or come and join us on Tuesday or Thursday evenings at the University of Bath, 1WN 3.8, 5.15pm to 7.00pm. You are most welcome to come and sample the coffee and conversations to get a feel as to whether you want to register for this or any other module.

Teachers can also register and complete accredited assignments if they are fully participating in the leading programme

The Gifts, Talents and Education unit.

This is a unique and new unit which is of particular interest to those who are leading on improving gifted and talented education in their school and want to develop inclusive practice. It will address the following issues:

• Theoretical perspectives and practical understandings of the gifted and talented education.
• School, local authority and government policies on gifted and talented education.
• The value judgments implicit in different perspectives on the education of gifted and talented children particularly in relation to inclusional approaches to education.
• Systemic influences on the learning of pupils developing gifts and talents
• The use of action research methodologies in the improvement of educational practice and the development of educational knowledge.

In the unit, participants will be required to undertake a small-scale action research project in which they will research an attempt to improve the education of pupils developing gifts and talents with the overall aim of producing validated explanations of the educational influences on the learning of pupils developing gifts and talents.

The aims of this unit are to critically analyse and evaluate:

• different perspectives on the concepts of gifts and talents in educational contexts
• school and central and local government policies on gifted and talented education and inter-related policies and strategies such as personalisation of learning, inclusion and Every Child Matters.
• the validity of an inclusive and inclusional approach to gifted and talented education
• the basis on which valid judgments on the educational influence on pupils developing gifts and talents can be made
• the educational influences of teachers with responsibility for gifted and talented education on the development other teachers and on the learning of their pupils
• an attempt to contribute to the knowledge base of effective practice in the field through action research..

Having studied the unit, students will be able to:

• Analyse different theoretical perspectives and practical understandings of gifted and talented education.
• Analyse the educational implications of school and central and local government policies on the education of children in relation to the concepts of equality of educational opportunity and the development of gifts and talents.
• Critically evaluate research on gifted and talented education in terms of educational influences in the learning of pupils.
• Collect, analyse and interpret data with colleagues and pupils in order to make valid judgments on the educational influence on pupils developing their gifts and talents
• Produce a validated account of their educational influence in the development of pupils’ gifts and talents.