Skip to main content

Teaching and Learning Highlights

Explore the innovations and successes in teaching and learning in the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences.

Projects, awards, innovations

Our students' experience and the quality of teaching and learning is at the heart of what we do. We're constantly examining our practice and considering ways to improve. Given the disciplinary expertise in the School, as well as innovating in practice, colleagues, including our postgraduate research students, explore teaching and learning in higher education.

Here we present some of the highlights of our teaching and learning, including projects, awards and innovations.

VEO: Video Enhanced Observation

An innovative development in enhancing teacher training, now a successful spinout company.

VEO is now a commercial product and limited company. It was one of the first spinout companies emerging from the University's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Its origins draw upon years of experience and expertise in teaching, coaching and the use of video in teacher education from within the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences.

Newcastle University colleagues Jon Haines and Paul Miller brought these into focus. They secured funding from the Higher Education Innovation Fund to create this innovative and flexible tool. The tool supports teachers and the University's trainee teachers in improving their classroom practice.

Following an early proof of concept prototype, they secured further investment from the Vice Chancellor. VEO is now a commercial, and commercially viable product.

The company operates across the globe. It now supports not only teachers and school leaders, it also supports

  • medics and clinical practitioners
  • linguists
  • business leaders

They develop their interpersonal practices, coaching skills and technical skills through the use of this innovative video tagging tool.

Use of VEO at Newcastle University

At Newcastle University, VEO is embedded within the teacher education programme. It allows trainee teachers to reflect, alongside experienced professionals, on examples of classroom practice, and their own practices within the classroom. This innovation supports our students in becoming more effective teachers. They develop a deeper, co-constructed and shared understanding of effective classroom practices.

Visit the website for the full story of VEO and a variety of case studies showing its use in a variety of different educational and commercial contexts.

VEO is also discussed in this chapter, authored by Jon Haines and Paul Miller:

Haines J. & Miller, P. (2016) Video Enhanced Observation : developing a flexible and effective tool. In Reclaiming Lesson Observation: Supporting excellence in teacher learning by Matt O'Leary, Routledge