Dr John Woollard BSc, PhD, MA(Ed), AdvDipIT, SEN, PGCE
Senior Teaching Fellow
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Dr John Woollard is Senior Teaching Fellow within Southampton Education School at the University of Southampton.
John's work at the University focuses upon the support of doctorate, PGCE, MSc and BSc students in the fields of:
- Inclusion: the affordances and challenges of technology including enfranchisement, engagement, collaboration and accessibility.
- Technology: e-learning, computational thinking and the developing computing curriculum.
- Psychology: psychology in the classroom, theories underpinning pedagogies and special educational needs and syndromes.
- Teacher Training: PGCE Curriculum Tutor for IT&CS
Following his PGCE and teaching at primary level in the East End of London, in 1975 John moved into secondary school special education needs work. He was teacher-in-charge and head of department (SENCo) in three different Hampshire schools before becoming a teacher advisor for IT and Special Education Needs. During the early 1990s John had a variety of positions as consultant, advisor and inspector. John was a Registered OFSTED Inspector for primary schools as well as team inspector for secondary ICT, mathematics and Special Education Needs. In 1997 John moved to LSU College, Southampton to coordinate the MSc in computer based learning course and teach Special Education Needs on the Initial Teacher Training programme. He also taught undergraduate computer science. John joined the School of Education in 1998 and has completed his PhD in 2004. His research focus was pedagogy and the teaching of difficult concepts in and with computers including e-learning and computer assisted assessment. John contributes regularly to the review of current academic and professional literature relating to initial teacher training, in-service training and computing through Computing At School (CAS), the British Computer Society and a range of consultancies. John was consultant editor of InteracTive - a professional magazine for teachers of ICT. He is an active member of ITTE (IT in Teacher Education Association) and contributes to the research conference on a regular basis. John is a CAS Board member, a member of the Academy Board of BCS and a member of the School Curriculum and Assessment Committee. He is chair of the CAS Assessment working group and chair of the BCS CAS Quality Review Panel. He has developing key stage 3 material to support computer programming, a guide for computational thinking and many teaching resources for computer science for primary and secondary pupils. John was the academic advisor to the CAS Barefoot project and project coordinator for Tenderfoot which supports the professional development of key stage computer science teachers.
John's consultancy has included work for: Microsoft Computers; Childnet International (a child safety charity); British Safety Council (through a KTP project); and the National Centre for Computer Education, Raspberry Pi Foundation and Google Education including projects on "diversity and opportunity", e-safety and the provision of training resources and case studies to support the "Professional Standards". John contributed to the GTP/OTP/Troops to Teachers initiatives as a subject tutor for ICT, a subject assessor for ICT and as an ICT across the curriculum assessor. John has advised on the development of ICT and computing GCE courses in Egypt and Kazakhstan. John is an assessor for the BCS Certificate in Computer Science Teaching. He is currently writing a paper for the DfE on the international use of textbooks to support the teaching of computer science.
John is a doctorate supervisor. Current and past student research has included: teacher attitudes to ICT; using chat and online facilities to support language learning and pastoral support; and developing alternative pedagogies to support e-learning and blended learning and more recently studies in special educational needs CPD and computational thinking. He has externally examined 12 EdD and PhD vivas. John has seen successfully guided 13 students through to their final doctoral viva.
John has been and remains external examiner for a number of universities including: the BEd programme at LSU College; the Masters CPD programme at the University of Huddersfield; the PGCE ICT programme at the University of Derby; the undergraduate Computing and IT programme under the University of Exeter; Learning, Technology and Research an online degree offered through the Ultraversity at Anglia Ruskin University, BA Joint Honours in IT at York St John University, Christ Church Canterbury University (SEN), Nottingham Trent University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, University of Sunderland, University of Brighton, University of Wolverhampton, Bath Spa University, Birmingham City University, the University of Bedfordshire...