Overview

I am a Senior Lecturer in Education the Graduate School of Education at the University of Exeter, Programme Leader of the MA Technology, Creativity and Thinking, and Director of
Thinking Schools @Exeter.

In my research, I am interested in the process by which people learn, think and engage in creative processes together through collaboration and dialogue, both with and without technology. I also have a wider interest in the role of technology for teaching, learning and thinking, in particular in relation to AI and education futures.

In the past, I have been involved in research on the role of Interactive Whiteboards for teaching and learning, the use of wikis in primary school science and computer supported collaborative learning in primary education. I have also studied Dialogic Teaching in science classrooms and was involved in an ongoing research programme called 'Thinking Together', aimed at improving children's skills in communicating, learning and reasoning (with researchers in Cambridge and other universities). I co-led the pedagogic development and evaluation of a programme to teach data analytical and coding skills to humanities and social science students in a HEFCE funded programme called the Institute of Coding (IoC) and was involved (with Taro Fujita and other colleagues) in a project to test group thinking with iPads.

Recently, I co-led a university-wide project to understand the perceptions of university lecturers and students on the ways in which ChatGPT may change teaching, learning and assessment in Higher Education. I am also involved in a 2 year project to study the role of technology to support narrative writing in primary education (led by Clare Dowdall).

Qualifications

MA Educational Studies (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands)

PhD Social Sciences (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands)

Career

University of Cambridge: Senior Research Associate

The Open University: Research Fellow

Radboud University Nijmegen: Research and Teaching Fellow

Research group links

• Centre for Research in STEM Education (CRISTEME)
• Language and Education Network

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Research

Research interests

• Collaborative processes around learning, thinking and creativity
• The role of language for teaching and learning
• The role of technology for teaching and learning processes
• Dialogic approaches to teaching and learning
• Speaking, listening and learning
• Technology and education futures
• Sociocultural theories of learning
• Teaching and learning in science education
• Methods for analysing dialogue and joint activity
• Classroom ethnographies

Research projects

Teaching Narrative Writing with Digital resources and Apps (2022- ). Co-I, with C. Dowdall, PI. British Academy/Leverhulme

AI and Higher Education: Developing best practices for universities dealing with the rise of text generative AI (2023). Co-Lead, with Barrie Cooper. The project aimed to understand the potential benefits and challenges of the proliferation of AI text generators for higher education. Exeter University Incubator, Exeter University.

Developing teacher agency and expertise around AI and inequality in education (2022). PI, with G. Tarling, Exeter University, E. Denessen & A. Korneef, Leiden University. Global Partnerships Development Fund, Exeter University

HEFCE: Institute of Coding (2018-2021). With partners around the UK and within Exeter University: developing and evaluating a summer school to teach data analytics and coding to humanities and social science students. Also developing a cognitive career coach for students to develop skills in data analytics and science.

Daiwa Anglo-Japanese foundation (2017-2018): Measuring Group Thinking with iPads (Led by Dr Taro Fujita, with other partners in the UK and Japan).

Metafora (2010-2013). European Union 7th Framework Programme for R&D (FP7). Co-I, With Rupert Wegerif (PI), Yang Yang and other (international) partners. This project aimed to develop a computer environment in which students use a visual language to help them to learn to learn together in science and mathematics.

Interactive Whiteboards and Collaborative Pupil Learning in Primary Science (2007-2009). ESRC. Co-I, With Paul Warwick, Neil Mercer (PI) and Ruth Kershner, all University of Cambridge. This project aimed to study children's semi-authonomous use of interactive whiteboards in primary science lessons.

Dialogic Teaching in the Science Classroom (2004-2007) ESRC
 Coordinator: Neil Mercer (University of Cambridge), with Phil Scott (Leeds University) Project description: This project studied the incidence, nature and functions of teacher-student dialogue in science education in upper primary and lower secondary classrooms.

Interactive Whiteboards as Pedagogic Tools in Primary Schools (2005-2006) ESRC. Co-I, With Julia Gillen, Karen Littleton (Open University) and Neil Mercer (University of Cambridge, PI)
 Researcher: Alison Twiner (OU). 
This project studied the impact of interactive whiteboards on teaching in primary schools.

Thinking Together, Clapham Park Project (2005-2006) 
Clapham Park Project, London.
 This interventional project introduced the Thinking Together approach in primary and secondary schools, as part of a community renewal and development programme in south London.

Interaction Processes and Collaborative Learning in Primary School CSCL practices (2000 - 2005) NWO,
 University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. This project, which accumulated in a PhD thesis, studied collaborative processes and student interaction in a Computer Supported Collaborative Learning environment in a primary school in The Netherlands.
 

Research networks

ISCAR

EARLI

AERA

Research grants

• 2023 Exeter Education Incubator
  AI and Higher Education: Developing best practices for universities dealing with the rise of text generative AI
• 2022 British Academy Small Grants
  Teaching Narrative Writing with Digital resources and Apps
• 2021 University of Exeter Global Partnership fund
  Developing teacher agency and expertise around AI and inequality in education
• 2018 HEFCE
  The Institute of Coding is a UK-wide partnership between universities and Industry to influence government policy in data science, AI and the digital skills agenda, and guide public engagement with social and ethical issues arising from developments in data science and AI, amongst others. The University of Exeter's involvement is led by staff from Computer Science, the Graduate School of Education, the Q-Step Centre and the Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDSAI). Exeter will lead initiatives on digital skills education for students in disciplines outside Computer Science and on machine learning technologies for giving advice on skill acquisition personalised to individual students.
• 2010 European Union
  METAFORA - Learning to learn together: A visual language for social orchestration of educational activities.
• 2007 ESRC
  The project will investigate the use of IWBs as tools for primary children's group learning in science. A series of science activities will be agreed with the participating teachers, enabling children to consider options, plan activities and make joint decisions. The activities will exploit features of IWBs known, from our previous research, to offer distinctive support to pupils' learning. Twelve teachers will be involved, based in schools in Cambridgeshire. Data will consist of (a) video recordings of children's joint activity at the IWB; (b) interviews with children about their perceptions and use of IWB facilities in the context of collaborative work; (c) teacher assessments of the success of the activities in terms of children's motivation and learning outcomes. Analysis will focus on patterns of children's interaction during the activities. Of particular interest will be whether children's interaction at the IWB enables the expression and sharing of differing ideas on scientific topics and how the IWB is used to address such differences. In highlighting ways in which specific features of IWBs can be fully exploited and developed for children's science learning, the research outcomes will be important to IWB designers and software producers, as well as to teachers and research audiences.
• 2006 British Council/ Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Res
  UK/NL Partnership in Science programme
• 2004 ESRC
  Interactive Whiteboards as pedagogic tools in primary schools, ESRC: RES-000-22-1269

Links

• Interactive Whiteboards and collaborative pupil learning
• Thinking Together
• Metafora project
• Institute of Coding
• Thinking Schools @Exeter

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Publications

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External Engagement and Impact

Editorial responsibilities

Co-Editor (with Karen Littleton and Claire Wood) of The International Handbook of Psychology in Education. Published by Emerald Publishing Group Limited, June 2010.

2010-2017: Member of Editorial Board International Journal of Early Years Education

2018-current: Member of Editorial Board Digital Culture and Education

Competitively won research fellowships

RCUK Academic Fellowship, The Open University (won, but not taken up due to relocation)

International recognition, such as international research collaborations, visiting research posts in overseas institutions, involvement at senior levels in international research associations, acting as referee for national and international research councils.

Visiting lecturer, University of Lleida, Spain

Visiting Research Fellow, The Open University (2004-2005)

Invited lectures & workshops

2018: Technology for teaching thinking. Invited talk at University of Lleida International Week

2011: Qualitative Analysis of Classroom Dialogue. Invited workshop at the EARLI Jure Conference, Exeter 2011.

2006: Analysing Classroom Interaction. Invited seminar at the University of Lleida, Spain

2006: Sociocultural Analysis of Classroom Dialogue (with Neil Mercer). Invited seminar for the EARLI Social Interaction in Learning and Instruction Special Interest Group at Leiden University, The Netherlands

Research-based contributions to practitioner and academic conferences

Kleine Staarman, J., & Piffare, M. (2011). Dialogic interaction among primary pupils in a wiki-  environment in science. Paper presented at the European Association for Research in Learning and  Instruction (EARLI) 2011 conference, Exeter, UK.

Kleine Staarman, J., Warwick, P., Mercer, N. & Kershner, R. (2008). Interactive whiteboards and collaborative pupil learning in primary science. Paper presented at the ISCAR 2008 conference, San Diego.

Mercer, N., Kleine Staarman, J. & Dawes, L. (2008). Time for talk in the science classroom:  the dynamics of teaching through dialogue. Paper presented at the ISCAR 2008 conference, San Diego.

Kleine Staarman, J. (2006). Learning to collaborate: Interactions in a in a primary school learning environment with ICT. [ Leren samenwerken: Interacties in een ICT leeromgeving op de basisschool]. Paper presented at the Educational Research Days 2006, Amsterdam, The    Netherlands.

Gillen, J., Kleine Staarman, J., Littleton, K., Mercer, N., Twiner, A. (2006). A “learning revolution”? Investigating pedagogic practices around Interactive Whiteboards in British Primary classrooms. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), San Francisco, USA.

Kleine Staarman, J. (2005). Analysing the long conversation in the classroom: Collaborative learning trajectories in primary school children’s computer supported literacy practices. Paper presented at the First ISCAR Congress (International Society for Cultural and Activity Research), Seville, Spain.

Mercer, N. & Kleine Staarman, J. (2005). Dialogue and Activity: A methodological gap that needs to be filled. Paper presented at the First ISCAR Congress (International Society for Cultural and Activity Research), Seville, Spain.

Kleine Staarman, J. (2005). Learning to collaborate: the role of intertextuality in the joint               construction of meaning in a primary school CSCL project. Paper presented at the EARLI                  2005 conference, Nicosia, Cyprus.

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Teaching

I am Programme Leader of the MA Technology, Creativity and Thinking/ MA Technology and Education Futures and module leader for the Digital Futures and Teaching Thinking in the Internet Age modules within this programme. I also teach on the MA Education Dissertation module, Developmental Psychology module, and I teach research methods on the MSc Education programme. I currently supervise a large number of MA, MSc, EdD and PhD students and have supervised more than 25 PhD and EdD students to completion.

For prospective PhD students: I only consider exceptional applications that are very closely related to my research area: the role of dialogue in education, in particular in collaborative learning, both in and around technology in education, as well as without technology. I am also interested in supervising projects related to the role of AI in education, in particular in the ways in which generative AI may impact (digital) literacies.

Please email me your IELTS scores and an academic CV, along with your proposal. I will not consider email requests without a proposal/ IELTS scores/ CV.

You can apply via the university application system directly, but unless you have emailed me prior to your submission, there is no guarantee I will receive your application. Please note that emailing me your proposal before application does not guarantee that I will be your supervisor either - as this is dependent on availability and competition for places at the point of starting your PhD.

Potential research topics include: Collaboration; Dialogue; Intersubjectivity; Digital/multimodal literacies; Chronotopes; Dialogic Teaching; Dialogic Learning; Teaching Thinking

Within these topics, I welcome proposals using the following research methods and methodologies: Design-Based Research; (Socio-cultural) Discourse Analysis; Educational/ Classroom Ethnography; Social Network Analysis; Multimodal Interaction Analysis; Temporal Analysis of Meaning Making/ Learning

Please note that I check similarity scores for post-graduate proposals using Turnitin.

Modules

2023/24

• EFPM294 - Technology and Education Futures
• EFPM330 - Technology, Learning and Pedagogy
• EFPM916 - Thinking Skills and Creativity in the Internet Age

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Supervision / Group

Postgraduate researchers

Alumni

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Office Hours:

I work part-time, Monday to Thursday. I am mostly working from home at the moment and can be contacted using Email, TEAMS or Zoom.

My office hours are online via Teams, on Monday and Thursday between 12 and 1, but please email me beforehand to make sure I am actually there. 

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