Staff profile

Dimitra is an associate professor at the School of Education. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate modules on the Arts in Education. She has been principal investigator or co-investigator in a number of research projects such as a systematic synthesis of the evidence on the cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes of arts education for school-aged children and a recent piece of research funded by the Nuffield Foundation about improving the primary-secondary transition in music education at the North East of England. She is one of the authors of the Sutton Trust-EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit and is currently the lead process evaluation researcher for the Calderdale writing intervention funded by the Education Endowment Foundation.

Completed Supervisions

Musical Progression in the English Primary School: what is it, what does it look like and how do teachers realise it?

A phenomenographic approach to understanding Taiwanese music teachers’ experiences of creativity in the classroom.

Teachers' experiences of working with children with life-limiting conditions in special schools

Exploring the Special-grade Teachers’ Professional
Development at Chinese Schools.

Developing International Mindedness through the Arts in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP): An International Survey Design Conducted across all Continents.

Primary teachers’ conceptions and approaches to using visual arts in writing in Saudi Arabia. 

Information for prospective doctoral research student supervisions

Dimitra would welcome applications from prospective doctorate students on teacher education and identity, music education, creativity in education and pupil engagement.

• Creativity
• Music Education
• Teacher Education
• Pupil Engagement

• 2017: Keynote Speaker: Invited to give two keynote speeches and share the findings of her research at music network meetings with primary and secondary music teachers ran by Durham Music Services (January 2017) and by the Bradford Music Education Hub (February 2017).
• 2016: Examiner: Examiner for a PhD thesis at the University of Aberystwyth. Thesis title: "The implementation of restorative approaches in education: an exploration of two case-studies".
• 2014: Examiner: For doctoral thesis at the Institute of Education in London.
• 2013: Inspiration for Government award: Dr. Kokotsaki received the Inspiration for Government award (awarded by the Institute for Government) for her work on the Sutton Trust - EEF Toolkit.
• Fellow: Royal Society of Arts