Dr Ben Looker

Senior Lecturer

Secondary and Post Compulsory Education

Contact Details

Ben has taught in a range of different and contrasting comprehensive schools where he gained a lot of valuable experience, including working as Head of Science and subsequently as an Assistant Headteacher.

It was during his time as Assistant Headteacher, with responsibility for Teaching and Learning and Continued Professional Development, that Ben found his love of training teachers. He set up and facilitated a variety of professional development programmes, is an accredited OLEVI facilitator and continues to work with schools providing research-informed CPD.

In addition to teaching on the Science PGCE course, Ben also facilitates the science Subject Knowledge Enhancement Courses for postgraduates. These allow prospective trainee science teachers to develop and hone their KS3-5 subject-specific knowledge and understanding, enabling them to be effective practitioners.

Ben’s educational research interests are focused on social psychology of education, including examining the various manifestations of alienation pupils might experience while at secondary school and exploring effective pupil-teacher relationships. Having a background in natural sciences, but now researching in social sciences, Ben is particularly interested in the intersection of these two research disciplines. He has formulated a critical realist approach to grounded theory with a focus on how this can be effectively used in educational research. In addition to this, Ben has recently co-edited a special edition of Education Sciences and has a book contract with Routledge for a new grounded theory methodology text.Ben is currently supervising three PhD education students

Qualifications

EdD, University of Worcester, 2022
PGCert, University of Worcester, 2017
PGCE, University of Birmingham, 2007
BSc (Hons), University of Birmingham, 2006

Teaching & Research

Teaching Interests

Secondary Science PGCE (all three sciences)
Education studies
Masters dissertation supervision
PhD/EdD supervision

Research Interests

Teacher/pupil relationships
Alienation in secondary school education
Teacher Identity

Professional Bodies

Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Member of ASE
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Publications

Forthcoming/in press

Looker, B., Vickers, J. & Kington, A. (forthcoming, 2025). The Emergence of Critical Realist Grounded Theory. London: Routledge

Recent publications

Kington, A. & Looker, B. (Eds) (2024). Education Science: The Nature, Quality and Dynamics of Teacher-pupil Relationships. MDPI

Looker, B. and Kington, A. (2023). The Self-efficacy of Non-specialist physics teachers. Final report. London: Ogden Trust

Looker, B, Kington, A. & Vickers, J. (2023). Close and Conflictual: How Pupil–Teacher Relationships Can Contribute to the Alienation of Pupils from Secondary School. Education Sciences. 13(10), 1009.

Maulana, R., Kington, A.. Ko, J., Feng, X., Helms-Lorenz, M., Looker, B., Hibbert-Mayne, K. & Blackmore, K. (2023). Observing secondary school teachers’ effective teaching behavior in the Netherlands, England, and the United States using the ICALT observation instrument. Frontiers in Education. 8.

Looker, B., Kington, A., Hibbert-Mayne, K., Blackmore, K. & Buckler, S. (2023). The Illusion of Perspective: Examining the Dynamic Between Teachers’ Perceived and Observed Effective Teaching Behaviour. In: Maulana et al (Eds), Effective Teaching around the World: Theoretical, empirical, methodological and practical insights. The Netherlands: Springer

Looker, B. (2022). The discovery of the implicit pupil‐teacher social contract. Review of Education. 10. rev3.3378.

Looker, B, Vickers, J and Kington, A (2021) The Case for a Critical Realist Grounded Theory Research Design. In: Dealing with Grounded Theory: Discussing, Learning, and Practice. Pisa University Press, Pisa, pp. 139-168.

Koller, J., Looker, B and Delorenzo, J (2021) A Bitter Pill to Swallow: Is Tablet Technology the Answer to a Catch-up Curriculum? Science Teacher Education, 89. pp. 15-20.

Looker, B and Kington, A (2020) Developing Teacher-Pupil Relationships in the Classroom: The Influence of Primary Teachers' Career Phase and Experience. In: Social and Learning Relationships in Primary Schools. Bloomsbury Academic, London

Conference Presentations

Looker, B., Vickers, J. & Kington, A. (2024). Discovering the Real: Re-examining grounded theory methodology in education through the lens of critical realism. BERA Annual Conference and WERA Focal Meeting 2024, The University of Manchester, 8-12 September 2024.

Kington, A. & Looker, B. (2023) Tales from the watershed: Peer relationships and the construction of mid-career primary teachers’ professional identity. In: BERA Annual Conference 2023, September 12-14 2023, Aston, Birmingham.

Kington, A., Weaver, T., Looker, B. & Blackmore, K. (2023) 'There’s no place I’d rather be!’ The importance of peer relationships in early career teachers’ decisions to remain in the profession. In: BERA Annual Conference 2023, September 12-14 2023, Aston, Birmingham.

Kington, A., Blackmore, K., Looker, B. & Weaver, T. (2023) Mapping primary teachers’ peer relationships across a career. In: University of Worcester, Institute of Education Research Conference, 17.05.23, University of Worcester.

Maulana, R., Kington, A., Looker, B., Hibbert-Mayne, K. & Blackmore, K. (2023) Students’ perceived psychosocial learning environments across countries. In: International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement, January 2023, Chile.

Looker, B. (2021) Using Critical Realist Grounded Theory for Educational Research. In: BERA Annual Conference 2021, 13-16 September 2021.

Looker, B., Kington, A., Hibbert-Mayne, K. (2021) The Illusion of Perspective: Examining the dynamic between teacher effectiveness and self-efficacy. In: ICALT Final Project Meeting - University of Groningen, The Netherlands, 26-28 July 2021, Online/University of Groningen ICALT Annual Conference.

Looker, B. and Delorenzo, J. (2018) Fifty Shades of Science revisited. In: Association for Science Education (ASE) Annual Conference 2018, 4-7 January 2018, University of Liverpool.

Looker, B. and Delorenzo, J. (2017) Fifty Shades Of Science: Experiments To Capture The Imagination Of Pupils. In: Association for Science Education (ASE) Annual Conference 2017, 4-7 January 2017, University of Reading.

Looker, B. and Delorenzo, J. (2017) Does the Use of Video Recording Lead to an Improvement in a Trainee Teacher's Confidence Both in Assessing Pupil Progress and Behaviour Management? In: University of Worcester Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, 16th June 2017, University of Worcester.

Howarth, S., Delorenzo, J., Looker, B and Scott, L. (2016) Super! Cool! Science. In: Association for Science Education (ASE) Annual Conference 2016, 6-9 January 2016, University of Birmingham.