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Faculty of Education and Language Studies > People Profiles > Dorothy Faulkner

Dorothy Faulkner

Senior Lecturer in Child Development

The Open University Faculty of Education and Language Studies Centre for Childhood, Development and Learning


Teaching Interests

My teaching interests are in the areas of devlopmental psychology and the psychology of education. I have contributed to Open University undergraduate and postgraduate psychology courses, Child Development (ED209), Child development in Families, Schools and Society (ED840) and Understanding Children's Development and Learning (ED841). I am currently Award Director for the undergraduate Psychology Award (B07) and the Advanced Diploma in Child Development. I have developed training packs for early years educators and have a special interest in children's development and learning during the pre school and early primary school periods. I also enjoy teaching research methods in psychology and education and have taught at and directed Open University Psychology residential schools for a number of years.                   

 

Research Interests

 

In recent years I have carried out a number of studies investigating how young children’s friendships and interpersonal relationships influence their thinking and problem solving in collaborative learning contexts. I am currently researching factors that influence creative teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools specifically whether training children and teachers to use structured dialogue and positive communication strategies affords greater possibilities for creative problem solving and collaboration. I am a member of the Children’s Research Centre (http://childrens-research-centre.open.ac.uk/) and am involved in various projects with young researchers. Together with colleagues Sara Bragg and Mathilda Joubert I am carrying out research on how schools and creative organisations working with schools understand the notions of pupil and youth ‘voice’. I am also interested in children’s literacy in the broad sense and, more specifically, the reading and comprehension strategies used by children with specific learning difficulties.

Current Research

Current and recent research projects and awards

2007 - 2009 'Youthvoice in the work of Creative Partnerships' funded by Arts Council England for Creative Partnerships, (with Dr Sara Bragg) £129K

2006 - 2007 'Student Voice' research consultancy with Creative Partnerships Merseyside (with Mathilda Joubert) £10K

2005 -2008 'Developing the research skills of Diana Award holders and evaluating the Young Ambassadors Programme', funded by ContinYou (Registered charity number: 1097596): (with Dr M. Kellett) £26K

2003 - 2004 ‘Excellence, Creativity and Innovation in Education’, (with Dr. D. Miell, Dr K. Littleton, M. Joubert, & Dr R. Searle and with Synectics Education Initiative, funded by Esmee Fairburn Foundation & DfES  (Registered Charity No. 1058304) £20K

Publications

Book Chapter
Faulkner, Dorothy (2011). Angels, tooth fairies and ghosts: thinking creatively in an early years classroom. In: Faulkner, Dorothy and Coates, Elizabeth eds. Exploring Children's Creative Narratives. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 39–62.
Faulkner, Dorothy and Coates, Elizabeth (2011). Exploring children's creative narratives: some theoretical, methodological and applied perscpectives. In: Faulkner, Dorothy and Coates, Elizabeth eds. Exploring Children's Creative Narratives. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 1–10.
Woodhead, Martin and Faulkner, Dorothy (2008). Subjects, objects or participants? Dilemmas of psychological research with children. In: Christiansen, Pia and James, Allison eds. Research With Children: Perspectives and Practices. London, UK: Falmer Press / Routledge, pp. 10–39.
Faulkner, Dorothy (2008). Research by children for children: How the Children's Research Centre at the Open University supports children to become active researchers. In: Kourti, Evangelia and Jacquinot-Delaunay, Genevieve eds. Des jeunes et des medias en Europe: Nouvelles tendances de la recherche. Les médias en actes. Paris: L'Harmattan.
Faulkner, Dorothy and Miell, Dorothy (2005). Collaborative story telling in friendship and acquaintanceship dyads. In: Littleton, Karen; Miell, Dorothy and Faulkner, Dorothy eds. Learning to collaborate: collaborating to learn. New York, USA: Nova Science Publishers.
Journal Article
Murphy, Suzanne and Faulkner, Dorothy (2011). The relationship between bullying roles and children’s everyday dyadic interactions. Social Development, 20(2), pp. 272–293.
Farrington-Flint, Lee; Canobi, Katherine H.; Wood, Clare and Faulkner, Dorothy (2010). Children's patterns of reasoning about reading and addition concepts. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28(2), pp. 427–448.
Whitelock, Denise M.; Faulkner, Dorothy and Miell, Dorothy E. (2008). Promoting creativity in PhD supervision: Tensions and dilemmas. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 3(2), pp. 143–153.
King, Bernardine; Wood, Clare and Faulkner, Dorothy (2008). Sensitivity to visual and auditory stimuli in children with developmental dyslexia. Dyslexia, 14(2), pp. 116–141.
King, Bernardine; Wood, Clare and Faulkner, Dorothy (2007). Sensitivity to auditory and visual stimuli during early reading development. Journal of Research in Reading, 30(4), pp. 443–453.
Farrington-Flint, Lee; Canobi, Katherine. H.; Wood, Clare and Faulkner, Dorothy (2007). The role of relational reasoning in children's addition concepts. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 25(2), pp. 227–246.
Faulkner, Dorothy; Coates, Elizabeth; Craft, Anna and Duffy, Bernadette (2006). Creativity and cultural innovation in early childhood education. International Journal of Early Years Education, 14(3), pp. 191–199.
Murphy, Suzanne M. and Faulkner, Dorothy (2006). Gender differences in verbal communication between popular and unpopular children during an interactive task. Social Development, 15(1), pp. 82–108.
Farrington-Flint, Lee; Wood, Clare; Canobi, Katherine H. and Faulkner, Dorothy (2004). Patterns of analogical reasoning among beginning readers. Journal of Research in Reading, 27(3), pp. 226–247.
Littleton, Karen; Faulkner, Dorothy; Miell, Dorothy; Joiner, Richard and Hakkinen, Paivi (2000). Editorial introduction. European Journal of Psychology of Education, XV(4), pp. 371–374.
Faulkner, Dorothy; Joiner, Richard; Littleton, Karen; Miell, Dorothy and Thompson, Linda (2000). The mediating effect of task presentation on collaboration and children's acquisition of scientific reasoning. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 15(4), pp. 417–430.
Murphy, Suzanne and Faulkner, Dorothy (2000). Learning to collaborate: Can young children develop better communication strategies through collaboration with a more popular peer. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 15(4), pp. 389–404.
Other
Bragg, Sara; Manchester, Helen and Faulkner, Dorothy (2009). Youth Voice in the work of Creative Partnerships. Creativity, Culture and Education, London.
Faulkner, Dorothy; Joubert, Mathilda and Kynan, Sally (2006). Project EXCITE!: Excellence, creativity and innovation in teaching and education Phase II: A longitudinal study of excellence, creativity and innovation in teaching and learning in primary education. Not Set, UK.
Miell, D.; Faulkner, D.; Henry, J.; Kynan, S.; Littleton, K. and Searle, R. (2004). Excite Project: Final Evaluation Report from The Open University Research Team. DfES and Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust.