Inside Classrooms: How Contexts and Relationships Shape Learning and Teaching

This compelling book explores the dynamics of learning in school classrooms, drawing on over 30 years of large-scale educational research.Through extensive, naturalistic, and systematic observations of pupils and teachers, it challenges traditional explanations for learning differences, arguing that factors like motivation, sociological influences, parental involvement and teacher effectiveness are insufficient because they overlook the immediate contextual and interactive processes that directly shape learning outcomes. The book introduces a new eco-relational approach with three key dimensions.The first focuses on the immediate classroom context, including factors such as the layout, group organisation, and the types of tasks and interactional settings.The second examines the interactions and relationships within the classroom, both between teachers and students and among students themselves.The third dimension explores how these contextual and relational elements align-or fail to al