Dominic Wyse

Dominic Wyse FAcSS FRSA is Professor of Early Childhood and Primary Education at the Institute of Education (IOE), University College London (UCL). He is Founding Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy (0-11 Years) (HHCP), a research centre devoted to improving young children’s education. Dominic was President of the British Educational Research Association (BERA) from 2019 to 2022.

Dominic has made a leading contribution to research on curriculum and pedagogy, including national curricula, for more than 25 years. Dominic's main research is on effective teaching of reading and writing. His book ‘The Balancing Act: An Evidence-Based Approach to Teaching Phonics, Reading and Writing’ (co-authored with Charlotte Hacking. Routledge Publishing), and their research paper, advanced ‘The Double Helix of Reading and Writing’, a new theory and model for teaching. Dominic’s research on writing developed ‘the ear of the writer’ as a metaphor for effective writing across the life course, for novice and expert writers. This multidisciplinary research was published in the book ‘How Writing Works: From the invention of the alphabet to the rise of social media’ (Cambridge University Press). An original feature of the work was the comparisons made between language and music. Dominic’s research on grammar and writing, in the context of national curricula, has included seminal research papers and more recently a randomised controlled trial to examine a new approach to teaching grammar. The book ‘Teaching English, Language and Literacy’ - 5th Edition (with Helen Bradford and John-Mark Winstanley. Routledge) has been a leading text for teachers and teacher education for more than 20 years.