The University of Edinburgh and Moray House teachers' college began to develop a new model of research and teaching, institutionalised in a combined university department and teachers' college, with a research laboratory and advanced research degree in the 1920s. This new institution was modelled on the innovative and influential Teachers College, within Columbia University, New York, and was driven by a strong Scottish demand for advanced practice in education. It benefited from, and was shaped by, its new head, Godfrey Thomson, and his capability and leadership produced a model of a school of education that would be radical today had it survived the 1950s.