I’m Dr Beth Nolen, researcher, educator and capacity builder!

For my PhD research, I had the joy of working with teachers and educational leaders from four schools. We worked together over a year to investigate the challenge of how to enable teachers to feel confident about teaching Scripture. We explored the reasons why teachers lacked confidence. We considered what we could do to change this situation and identified what we could try to make a positive difference. We analysed the impact of each trial, and soon, we discovered some keys for building teacher confidence to teach Scripture in engaging, meaningful ways. And, it wasn’t only the teachers who experienced change. A school survey showed that learners valued religious education learning at a whopping 20% higher level than in previous years!

So now I’m passionate about designing professional learning journeys that lead to capacity building, which leads to increased teacher confidence and self-belief. Most importantly, this leads to higher achievement levels, enjoyment and meaning-making for teachers and learners.

This website is a place where my research can be shared, where stories of success, challenge and inspiration are published, and where teachers and educational leaders can find the keys, confidence and insights they may need for building capacity in a complex area. After all, at the heart of this work is a core belief that storytelling is a powerful way of learning.