Overview
I am a Senior Lecturer in Science Education and former Secondary School Chemistry Teacher. I believe that science is fundamentally concerned with questioning and experimentation with the world. This core belief drives my work as both a researcher and teacher. My current research in science education includes:
- Exploring how students interact with the natural world both physically and in dialogue with each other. I use a new materialist theoretical perspective to explore the relationship between classroom dialogue and practical science.
- Scientific creativity and how it can be developed using interdisciplinary creative pedagogies, as part of the EU funded Creations project.
- Assessment of open-ended, creative and inquiry science
I apply my interest in creativity, risk, adaptability and open-ended learning to exploring teacher development, recruitment and retention.
Methodologically, I use both qualitative and quantitative methods to engage with and understand the messiness and uncertainty of real classrooms, often informed by emergent theoretical perspectives.
I lead the Secondary PGCE Programme at the University of Exeter and the Secondary Science PGCE courses, teach across a range of Masters' level modules on the MA Education, including on research methods, educational leadership and science education. I enjoy using a range of approaches in my teaching, drawing on research evidence alongside my own experience as a teacher to inform my pedagogy and model different teaching approaches for my students.
I am interested in supporting and developing women who work in education, and am the HE link to the Women Leading in Education Network South West (WLEN SW).
PhD candidates interested in working with me are welcome to get in touch - but formal applications should be submitted centrally.
Qualifications
PhD Education, Exeter University, 2012.
M.Sc Educational Research, Exeter University; Distinction. 2007.
PGCE Secondary Science (Chemistry), Cambridge University. 2002.
MA, M.Sci Natural Sciences, Cambridge University. 2000.
Career
2016-Present. Senior Lecturer in Science Education, Exeter University
2011 - 2016. Lecturer in Science Education, Exeter University.
2007 - 2011. Ted Wragg Teacher Education Research Fellow, Exeter University.
2002-2007. Teacher of Science, Head of Chemistry, Deputy Head of Year 7 at Chew Valley School, Bristol.
2002. Explainer, @-Bristol, Anchor Road, Bristol.
Links
Research group links
Research
Research interests
I am interested in approaches to science education that engage with school science as a dynamic, questioning and creative practice, rooted in the belief that this is at the core of the discipline of science. This raises challenges in managing tensions between direct instruction with inquiry learning, balancing classroom dialogue, creating effective and engaging practical experiences, and assessment where outcomes may be unpredictable. I use theoretical insights from dialogic theory, new materialism and complexity theory to positively engage with these problems.
I am also interested in teacher education and problems of retention of teachers arising from their work with these tensions between classrooms as complex, creative places and the necessity of school structures.
Research projects
My PhD (completed in 2012) used Complexity Theory as a basis for a case study of the introduction of a cross-subject 'Opening Minds' curriculum in a UK school with a particular focus on the interaction between Opening Minds and the more traditional approach to teaching Science. The thesis argues that a complex, creative and responsive pedagogy is both feasible and desirable in enabling teachers to work positively with tensions that arise from the uncertainty of real-life classroom practice alongside the structured school settings.
Funded Research Projects include:
Science Education
- Science Education for Diversity (SED) Project (EU FP7, 2008-2012). This project sought to use international comparison between EU and non-EU countries where the popularity of Science varies to understand influences on pupils' and teachers' attitudes to Science, alongside a series of design-based research studies in which a dialogic, inquiry based approach to science education which aimed to engage diverse students with science was implemented and explored.
- INSTEM network (EU Comenius, 2012-2015). The INSTEM network communicated and disseminated research findings into Inquiry-based STEM Education across a range of EU-funded projects.
- CREATIONs (EU H2020, 2016-2019). The CREATIONs project has developed a pedagogical framework for creative science/arts education in which embodied dialogue, agency and empowerment, risk, and play are all key factors. We are using this to develop, implement and research approaches that aim to support teachers and students in creative science education.
Teacher Education and Professional Development
- Young Enquiring Minds (EU Regio, 2013-2015). I worked as a research support with teachers from the UK and Sweden in an exchange of practice/action research project aimed at developing student enquiry in primary settings.
- RETAIN (EU Comenius, 2013-2016). This project explored issues of teacher retention across 5 partner countries with distinct retention problems, developing and evaluating CPD for senior leaders and schools. For me, a particular interest was in exploring the importance of teacher agency and creativity in engaging positively with risk when faced with difficult contextual factors.
- PROTEACH (EU Erasmus+, 2016-2019). Building on the RETAIN project work, PROTEACH researches the induction of Beginning Teachers through a multi-agency design of bespoke induction programmes.
Research grants
- 2016 European Union
PROTeach
- 2013 European Union
The overall aim of the RETAIN Project is to create and develop an inclusive and creative school environment. An important precondition for this to happen, and thereby ensuring that the children and young people obtain the relevant key competences that are needed for them to thrive in today’s society, is the presence of highly qualified teachers and school managers.
- 2009 European Union
In this research project, we aim to understand how countries in both Europe and partner countries are addressing the issue of cultural and gender diversity in science education in regard to engaging young people in science education and we also aim to offer ways to help address this issue more effectively. We wish therefore both to understand the relationship between science education and culture and also to provide guidelines and programmes for effective intervention to improve the take up of science education where there is a problem.
Publications
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Key publications
Hetherington LEJ, Chappell K, Ruck Keene H, Wren H, Cukurova M, Hathway C, Sotiriou S, Bogner F (In Press). International Educators’ Perspectives on the Purpose of Science Education and the Relationship between School Science and Creativity.
Research in Science and Technological Education Full text.
Chappell K, Hetherington L, Keene HR, Wren H, Alexopoulos A, Ben-Horin O, Nikolopoulos K, Robberstad J, Sotiriou S, Bogner FX, et al (2019). Dialogue and materiality/embodiment in science.
Thinking Skills and Creativity,
31, 296-322.
Abstract:
Dialogue and materiality/embodiment in science
© 2019 the Authors This paper responds to recent calls to explore the nuances of the interaction between the sciences, the arts and their inherent creativity to better understand their potential within teaching and learning. Building on previous arguments that the science-arts-creativity relationship is dialogic and relational, this research focuses on the question: How are dialogue and material/embodied activity manifested within creative pedagogy? We begin with a fusion of Bakhtinian-inspired and New-Materialist understandings of dialogue drawing out the importance of embodiment in order to revitalize how we articulate dialogue within creative educational practice. We then take on the challenge of a materialist diffractive analysis to conduct research which complements the theoretical framing and offers our outcomes in a way that appropriately makes the phenomena tangible. We present the outcomes of the diffractive analysis including the constitution of matter as well as meaning in the dialogic space; and the emergence of new assemblages of embodied teachers, students, ideas, and objects within transdisciplinary educational practice. We conclude by arguing for the benefits of diffractive analysis: that we have fore-fronted the entangled relationality of trans-disciplinary creative pedagogy; avoided bracketing out aspects of education that are often side-lined; opened out the space of pedagogical approaches that might be attempted; and begun to challenge what education is for. In so doing, the article aims to open up new ways for teachers, students and researchers to experience seeing, doing, feeling and researching science|arts creative pedagogy and provoke conversations about how this might develop in the future.
Abstract.
Hetherington LEJ, Wegerif RB (2018). Developing a material-dialogic approach to pedagogy to guide science teacher education.
Journal of Education for Teaching,
44 (3)Abstract:
Developing a material-dialogic approach to pedagogy to guide science teacher education
Dialogic pedagogy is being promoted in science teacher education but the literature on dialogic pedagogy tends to focus on explicit voices, and so runs the risk of overlooking the important role that material objects often play in science education. In this paper we use the findings of a teacher survey and classroom case study to argue that there is a gap in the way that science teachers think about the role of materials and that this could be addressed by changes in the theory base of teacher training, augmenting the current constructivist and dialogic theory with the addition of new materialism in the form of Barad’s ‘Agential Realism’. Our findings suggests that science teachers do not regularly explicitly consider the relationship between the material resources they deploy and the dialogic learning taking place. We argue that science teacher training and professional development should pay more attention to the material-dialogic relationships in the learning that emerges in science classrooms.
Abstract.
Full text.
Publications by category
Journal articles
Chappell KA, Hetherington L, Ruck Keene H, Wren H, Alexopoulos A, Ben-Horin O, Nikolopoulos K, Robberstad J, Sotiriou S, Bogner F, et al (In Press). Dialogue and materiality/embodiment in science|arts creative pedagogy: their role and manifestation.
Thinking Skills and Creativity,
Special Issue Dialogic Pedagogies Full text.
Postlethwaite KC, Morgan A, Skinner N, Hetherington L, Mansour N, Wegerif R (In Press). Diversity in Science Education: integrating pupil characteristics, theoretical models and practical interventions in UK primary and secondary classrooms.
Hetherington LEJ, Chappell K, Ruck Keene H, Wren H, Cukurova M, Hathway C, Sotiriou S, Bogner F (In Press). International Educators’ Perspectives on the Purpose of Science Education and the Relationship between School Science and Creativity.
Research in Science and Technological Education Full text.
Hetherington L, Hardman M, Noakes J, Wegerif R (In Press). Making the case for a Material-Dialogic approach to Science Education.
Studies in Science Education Full text.
Chappell K, Hetherington L, Keene HR, Wren H, Alexopoulos A, Ben-Horin O, Nikolopoulos K, Robberstad J, Sotiriou S, Bogner FX, et al (2019). Dialogue and materiality/embodiment in science.
Thinking Skills and Creativity,
31, 296-322.
Abstract:
Dialogue and materiality/embodiment in science
© 2019 the Authors This paper responds to recent calls to explore the nuances of the interaction between the sciences, the arts and their inherent creativity to better understand their potential within teaching and learning. Building on previous arguments that the science-arts-creativity relationship is dialogic and relational, this research focuses on the question: How are dialogue and material/embodied activity manifested within creative pedagogy? We begin with a fusion of Bakhtinian-inspired and New-Materialist understandings of dialogue drawing out the importance of embodiment in order to revitalize how we articulate dialogue within creative educational practice. We then take on the challenge of a materialist diffractive analysis to conduct research which complements the theoretical framing and offers our outcomes in a way that appropriately makes the phenomena tangible. We present the outcomes of the diffractive analysis including the constitution of matter as well as meaning in the dialogic space; and the emergence of new assemblages of embodied teachers, students, ideas, and objects within transdisciplinary educational practice. We conclude by arguing for the benefits of diffractive analysis: that we have fore-fronted the entangled relationality of trans-disciplinary creative pedagogy; avoided bracketing out aspects of education that are often side-lined; opened out the space of pedagogical approaches that might be attempted; and begun to challenge what education is for. In so doing, the article aims to open up new ways for teachers, students and researchers to experience seeing, doing, feeling and researching science|arts creative pedagogy and provoke conversations about how this might develop in the future.
Abstract.
Hetherington LEJ, Wegerif RB (2018). Developing a material-dialogic approach to pedagogy to guide science teacher education.
Journal of Education for Teaching,
44 (3)Abstract:
Developing a material-dialogic approach to pedagogy to guide science teacher education
Dialogic pedagogy is being promoted in science teacher education but the literature on dialogic pedagogy tends to focus on explicit voices, and so runs the risk of overlooking the important role that material objects often play in science education. In this paper we use the findings of a teacher survey and classroom case study to argue that there is a gap in the way that science teachers think about the role of materials and that this could be addressed by changes in the theory base of teacher training, augmenting the current constructivist and dialogic theory with the addition of new materialism in the form of Barad’s ‘Agential Realism’. Our findings suggests that science teachers do not regularly explicitly consider the relationship between the material resources they deploy and the dialogic learning taking place. We argue that science teacher training and professional development should pay more attention to the material-dialogic relationships in the learning that emerges in science classrooms.
Abstract.
Full text.
Mansour N, Wegerif R, Skinner N, Postlethwaite K, Hetherington L (2015). Investigating and promoting trainee science teachers’ conceptual change of the nature of science with digital dialogue games “InterLoc”.
Research in Science Education Full text.
Hetherington LEJ (2013). Complexity Thinking and Methodology: the Potential of ‘Complex Case Study’ for Educational Research.
Complicity: an international journal of complexity theory and education,
10(1/2), 71-85.
Abstract:
Complexity Thinking and Methodology: the Potential of ‘Complex Case Study’ for Educational Research
Complexity theories have in common perspectives that challenge linear methodologies and views of causality, but in educational research, relatively little has been written explicitly exploring the implications of complexity theoretical perspectives for educational research methodology in general and case study in particular. In this paper, I offer a rationale for case study as a research approach that embodies complexity, and explore the implications of a ‘complexity thinking’ stance for the conduct of case study research that distinguish it from other approaches to case study. A complexity theoretical framework rooted in the key concepts of emergence and complexity reduction, blended using a both/and logic, is used to develop the argument that case study enables the researcher to balance the open-ended, non-linear sensitivities of complexity thinking with the reduction in complexity inherent in making methodological choices. The potential of this approach is illustrated using examples drawn from a complexity theoretical research study into curriculum change.
Abstract.
Full text.
Hetherington LEJ (2012). Enmeshing Interruption in Assessment of
Teacher Education: Response to Bernard Ricca.
Complicity: an international journal of complexity in education,
9(2), 62-66.
Author URL.
Full text.
Hetherington L (2010). Less interested after lessons? Report on a small-scale research study into 12- to 13-year-old students’ attitudes to earth science.
School Science Review,
91(337), 59-65.
Abstract:
Less interested after lessons? Report on a small-scale research study into 12- to 13-year-old students’ attitudes to earth science
Results of a small-scale research study conducted with year 8 (ages 12–13) students suggest that although these students have generally positive attitudes towards earth science, girls tend to be less interested in it than boys. Interest in earth science was found to separate into two dominant factors, labelled ‘scientific’ and ‘people and change’, with the greatest gender discrepancy for the scientific factor. Results also showed that interest decreased after studying ‘The rock cycle’ topic. It is suggested that this could result from students’ perception of repetition in the curriculum: greater cross-curricular communication in the new key stage 3 (ages 11–14) curriculum may help to address this.
Abstract.
Hetherington, L. (2007). Science: How does it work in schools?. Into Teaching, 17
Hetherington, L. (2007). Where next? Career options. Into Teaching, 20
Chapters
Wegerif R, Postlethwaite KP, Skinner N, Mansour N, Morgan A, Hetherington LEJ (2013). Dialogic Science Education for Diversity. In Mansour N, Wegerif R (Eds.) Science Education for Diversity: Theory and Practice, Springer.
Conferences
Hetherington LEJ (2012). The challenge of assessment in an emergent curriculum: a case study of teachers’ responses. AERA 2012. 12th - 19th Apr 2012.
Hetherington LEJ (2011). Enacting Curriculum: a Complexity Perspective on Teachers’ Descriptions and Interactions. AERA 2011. 8th - 12th Apr 2011.
Hetherington L (2009). Researching the Emerging Curriculum: is there a place for a Pedagogy of Emergence?. 3rd Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies. 7th - 10th Sep 2009.
Abstract:
Researching the Emerging Curriculum: is there a place for a Pedagogy of Emergence?
Abstract.
Internet publications
Hetherington, L. (2007). Views of Planet Earth: Systems Thinking in Earth Science Education Pilot Study.
Publications by year
In Press
Chappell KA, Hetherington L, Ruck Keene H, Wren H, Alexopoulos A, Ben-Horin O, Nikolopoulos K, Robberstad J, Sotiriou S, Bogner F, et al (In Press). Dialogue and materiality/embodiment in science|arts creative pedagogy: their role and manifestation.
Thinking Skills and Creativity,
Special Issue Dialogic Pedagogies Full text.
Postlethwaite KC, Morgan A, Skinner N, Hetherington L, Mansour N, Wegerif R (In Press). Diversity in Science Education: integrating pupil characteristics, theoretical models and practical interventions in UK primary and secondary classrooms.
Hetherington LEJ, Chappell K, Ruck Keene H, Wren H, Cukurova M, Hathway C, Sotiriou S, Bogner F (In Press). International Educators’ Perspectives on the Purpose of Science Education and the Relationship between School Science and Creativity.
Research in Science and Technological Education Full text.
Hetherington L, Hardman M, Noakes J, Wegerif R (In Press). Making the case for a Material-Dialogic approach to Science Education.
Studies in Science Education Full text.
2019
Chappell K, Hetherington L, Keene HR, Wren H, Alexopoulos A, Ben-Horin O, Nikolopoulos K, Robberstad J, Sotiriou S, Bogner FX, et al (2019). Dialogue and materiality/embodiment in science.
Thinking Skills and Creativity,
31, 296-322.
Abstract:
Dialogue and materiality/embodiment in science
© 2019 the Authors This paper responds to recent calls to explore the nuances of the interaction between the sciences, the arts and their inherent creativity to better understand their potential within teaching and learning. Building on previous arguments that the science-arts-creativity relationship is dialogic and relational, this research focuses on the question: How are dialogue and material/embodied activity manifested within creative pedagogy? We begin with a fusion of Bakhtinian-inspired and New-Materialist understandings of dialogue drawing out the importance of embodiment in order to revitalize how we articulate dialogue within creative educational practice. We then take on the challenge of a materialist diffractive analysis to conduct research which complements the theoretical framing and offers our outcomes in a way that appropriately makes the phenomena tangible. We present the outcomes of the diffractive analysis including the constitution of matter as well as meaning in the dialogic space; and the emergence of new assemblages of embodied teachers, students, ideas, and objects within transdisciplinary educational practice. We conclude by arguing for the benefits of diffractive analysis: that we have fore-fronted the entangled relationality of trans-disciplinary creative pedagogy; avoided bracketing out aspects of education that are often side-lined; opened out the space of pedagogical approaches that might be attempted; and begun to challenge what education is for. In so doing, the article aims to open up new ways for teachers, students and researchers to experience seeing, doing, feeling and researching science|arts creative pedagogy and provoke conversations about how this might develop in the future.
Abstract.
2018
Hetherington LEJ, Wegerif RB (2018). Developing a material-dialogic approach to pedagogy to guide science teacher education.
Journal of Education for Teaching,
44 (3)Abstract:
Developing a material-dialogic approach to pedagogy to guide science teacher education
Dialogic pedagogy is being promoted in science teacher education but the literature on dialogic pedagogy tends to focus on explicit voices, and so runs the risk of overlooking the important role that material objects often play in science education. In this paper we use the findings of a teacher survey and classroom case study to argue that there is a gap in the way that science teachers think about the role of materials and that this could be addressed by changes in the theory base of teacher training, augmenting the current constructivist and dialogic theory with the addition of new materialism in the form of Barad’s ‘Agential Realism’. Our findings suggests that science teachers do not regularly explicitly consider the relationship between the material resources they deploy and the dialogic learning taking place. We argue that science teacher training and professional development should pay more attention to the material-dialogic relationships in the learning that emerges in science classrooms.
Abstract.
Full text.
2015
Mansour N, Wegerif R, Skinner N, Postlethwaite K, Hetherington L (2015). Investigating and promoting trainee science teachers’ conceptual change of the nature of science with digital dialogue games “InterLoc”.
Research in Science Education Full text.
2013
Hetherington LEJ (2013). Complexity Thinking and Methodology: the Potential of ‘Complex Case Study’ for Educational Research.
Complicity: an international journal of complexity theory and education,
10(1/2), 71-85.
Abstract:
Complexity Thinking and Methodology: the Potential of ‘Complex Case Study’ for Educational Research
Complexity theories have in common perspectives that challenge linear methodologies and views of causality, but in educational research, relatively little has been written explicitly exploring the implications of complexity theoretical perspectives for educational research methodology in general and case study in particular. In this paper, I offer a rationale for case study as a research approach that embodies complexity, and explore the implications of a ‘complexity thinking’ stance for the conduct of case study research that distinguish it from other approaches to case study. A complexity theoretical framework rooted in the key concepts of emergence and complexity reduction, blended using a both/and logic, is used to develop the argument that case study enables the researcher to balance the open-ended, non-linear sensitivities of complexity thinking with the reduction in complexity inherent in making methodological choices. The potential of this approach is illustrated using examples drawn from a complexity theoretical research study into curriculum change.
Abstract.
Full text.
Wegerif R, Postlethwaite KP, Skinner N, Mansour N, Morgan A, Hetherington LEJ (2013). Dialogic Science Education for Diversity. In Mansour N, Wegerif R (Eds.) Science Education for Diversity: Theory and Practice, Springer.
2012
Hetherington LEJ (2012). Enmeshing Interruption in Assessment of
Teacher Education: Response to Bernard Ricca.
Complicity: an international journal of complexity in education,
9(2), 62-66.
Author URL.
Full text.
Hetherington LEJ (2012). The challenge of assessment in an emergent curriculum: a case study of teachers’ responses. AERA 2012. 12th - 19th Apr 2012.
2011
Hetherington LEJ (2011). Enacting Curriculum: a Complexity Perspective on Teachers’ Descriptions and Interactions. AERA 2011. 8th - 12th Apr 2011.
2010
Hetherington L (2010). Less interested after lessons? Report on a small-scale research study into 12- to 13-year-old students’ attitudes to earth science.
School Science Review,
91(337), 59-65.
Abstract:
Less interested after lessons? Report on a small-scale research study into 12- to 13-year-old students’ attitudes to earth science
Results of a small-scale research study conducted with year 8 (ages 12–13) students suggest that although these students have generally positive attitudes towards earth science, girls tend to be less interested in it than boys. Interest in earth science was found to separate into two dominant factors, labelled ‘scientific’ and ‘people and change’, with the greatest gender discrepancy for the scientific factor. Results also showed that interest decreased after studying ‘The rock cycle’ topic. It is suggested that this could result from students’ perception of repetition in the curriculum: greater cross-curricular communication in the new key stage 3 (ages 11–14) curriculum may help to address this.
Abstract.
2009
Hetherington L (2009). Researching the Emerging Curriculum: is there a place for a Pedagogy of Emergence?. 3rd Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies. 7th - 10th Sep 2009.
Abstract:
Researching the Emerging Curriculum: is there a place for a Pedagogy of Emergence?
Abstract.
2007
Hetherington, L. (2007). Science: How does it work in schools?. Into Teaching, 17
Hetherington, L. (2007). Views of Planet Earth: Systems Thinking in Earth Science Education Pilot Study.
Hetherington, L. (2007). Where next? Career options. Into Teaching, 20
Refresh publications
External Engagement and Impact
External Examiner Positions
External Examiner, PGCE Secondary Science, Bath Spa University 2012-2016
External Examiner, PGCE Secondary Science, Manchester University, 2017-
Journal and book series Editorships and Editorial board membership
Editorial Board Member, Journal of Research in Science and Technological Education
Research-based contributions to practitioner and academic conferences
Presentation at British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, September 2007.
Presentation at IAACS, September 2009
Presentation at AERA, April 2010
Presentation at AERA, April 2011
Teaching
I currently teach on the PGCE Secondary Science course, where I am the Chemistry specialist. Stemming from my time in school I am also interested in the pastoral side to teaching and value the chance to talk about this with student teachers as well as my role as a personal tutor for the PGCE students.
I also teach on the MEd and EdD programmes, and supervise PhD students. I am interested in supervising students in Science Education and also those using Complexity theory or related poststructural approaches.
Modules
2019/20
Supervision / Group
Postgraduate researchers
- Linzi McKerr
- Jill Noakes
- Asad Shafi
Alumni
- Katherine Evans
- Elsbieta Sowa
