![[The University of Leicester]](unilogo.gif)
Dr Sylvia Wolfe
Lecturer in Primary English Education
BA Hons (Nottingham); PGCE (Hertfordshire);
MEd Research (Cambridge); MPhil (Cambridge); PhD (Cambridge)
Tel: 0116 252 3707
Email: sw308@le.ac.uk
Sylvia joined the University of Leicester In July 2011 as a Lecturer on the Primary PGCE course, and co-ordinator for the Masters in Learning and Teaching courses:
- Language Development in the Early Years
- Issues in English Education
Sylvia previously worked for 16 years as an early years/primary teacher and early years’ co-ordinator in a regional language support service (Minority Ethnic Curriculum, Support Service), before entering Higher Education as a teacher and researcher.
Following her PhD (2006) Sylvia worked as a course tutor for the Open University (Educational Enquiry) and Cambridge University. In Cambridge Sylvia was a member of the EY and Primary PGCE team, and tutor for the Masters course 'Researching Practice'. From 2009 Sylvia was involved in developing the ‘ResPrac Med’ as an online course and honing her own specialist module 'Learning and Teaching through Dialogue'. Sylvia also worked as a distance tutor for Argentinean teachers who sought to examine and develop their own assessment practices (CIADER).
Whilst employed as a teaching associate, Sylvia worked part-time as an educational researcher. At the Open University (OU) she participated in a study which extended her interests in dialogic teaching in an exploration of the role of new media in young children’s language and literacy development. Most recently in Cambridge Sylvia was involved in a project which sought to develop web-mediated professional development resources to extend the principles of dialogic teaching into secondary schools. In addition researchers sought to develop theory by investigating the relationships between form and function of language in subject teaching.
Research
Teaching interests
Sylvia teaches on the following courses at the School of Education:
Masters in Learning and Teaching:
- Language Development in the Early Years
- Issues in English Education
Selected Publications
Wolfe, S. and Flewitt, R. (2010) New technologies, new multimodal literacy practices and young children’s metacognitive development, Cambridge Journal of Education 40 (4) 387-400.
Wolfe, S. (2009) Learning through Dialogue in an English Primary Classroom in R. Barnard, R. & M. Torres-Guzman (Eds.) Creating communities of learning in primary schools: International case studies and perspectives. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
Wolfe, S with Alexander, R.J. (2009) Argumentation and dialogic teaching: Alternative pedagogies for a changing world BCH Review for Futurelab.
Hargreaves, L. and Wolfe, S (2007) Seeing Clearly: Observation in the Primary Classroom, in J. Moyles and G. Robinson (Eds.) Beginning Teaching, Beginning Learning. Buckingham, Open University Press.
Journal of Early Childhood Literacy: Book Review - Bearne, E. and Wolstencroft, H. (2008) Visual Approaches to Teaching Writing (London, Paul Chapman Publishing).
