Interventions

Here is a short description of each of the interventions selected by the Teaching Schools Council R and D Group for trialling:

Achievement for All

 

AfA is a whole school improvement framework focused on the 20% of vulnerable and SEND learners. It works through 4 dimensions: Leadership of Achievement for All, Teaching & Learning, Parental Engagement and Wider Outcomes. Schools identify and champion who is an SLT member & target year groups.

 

Schools are supported with initial needs analysis, action planning and evaluation through training, a structured conversation with parents and fortnightly visits from an Achievement Coach and a School Handbook.

 

The coach and School Champion develop a programme which meets the school’s needs building on existing successes. Initially AfA focuses on 2 target groups of pupils but then the practice is expanded to the whole school.

 

First class at number

 

First Class at Number is delivered by trained teaching assistants to small groups of children who have fallen behind at mathematics. Teaching assistants work from detailed lesson plans, adapting them according to information gained from structured assessments. They help children to think and talk about their mathematics. First Class at Number has a Post Office theme: children use letters, parcels, postcards and house numbers to support their mathematics and write postcards to tell their class teachers about their achievements. Teaching assistants are supported by a link teacher, who may be the Numbers Count teacher or another teacher chosen by the school.  The resources for the lessons are all provided in a sturdy box and the school will only need to find a few items of mathematics equipment such as some cubes and coins.

 

Growth Mindsets

 

  • Approaches to teaching and learning aimed at creating ‘growth mindsets’ have developed from the research by Carol Dweck, which shows that teacher and student beliefs about intelligence impact on learning. Where students believed intelligence was innate they were less likely to persist in the face of challenge, where they believed ability on a task could be improved, they saw difficulty as a natural part of learning and persevered with tasks. Strategies for developing growth mindsets include:
    asking open-ended questions to solve a problem
    using specific feedback to identify what the student has accomplished
    encouraging students to take a risk
    teachers modelling persistence themselves
    emphasising the learning to be gained from mistakes and when things don’t go well.

 

Inference training

Inference training helps students make meaning as they read. This involves learning vocabulary, using their background knowledge, making inferences and building up meaning. It helps weak readers to get the full message from the text, making reading more enjoyable for them. In each session students: consider their prior knowledge; define and elaborate on words; ask questions; fill in a missing sentence; create images of their reading; and summarise and predict. Teachers need to choose a variety of texts for the sessions which are engaging for pupils, and at an appropriate level of difficulty.

 

 

National Teacher Research Panel


Welcome to the National Teacher Research Panel (NTRP) landing page

The National Teacher Research Panel was set up over 15 years ago by CUREE supported by a group of national education agencies (most of which no longer exist). It had three main goals:

  • To ensure that all research in education takes account of the teacher perspective
  • To ensure a higher profile for research and evidence informed practice in government, academic and practitioner communities
  • To increase the number of teachers engaged in and with the full spectrum of research activity.

Over the several years of its existence, the Panel, supported by its expert advisers in CUREE, helped and encouraged dozens of teachers and school leaders to do high quality but practical research. The Panel also helped them report their findings succinctly, in plain English and focused on relevance to other practitioners. The results of that work can be viewed on or downloaded from this NTRP section of the CUREE website. With the advent of the Coalition Government, support for the Panel from government and other 'official' sources ceased. The Panel no longer meets but CUREE has maintained the legacy of its work on the NTRP website and, now, here on its own website

It is the nature of research that it usually has a pretty long shelf life so a large fraction of the material here remains useful and valid especially in the international context where most other jurisdictions (certainly in Europe) are only now waking up to the value of practitioner focused research. Much of the teacher originated but high quality research reported here remains unique. You can also use this site as a link to research resources located elsewhere.

To get started, click here and view the available teacher research in the publications section. 

A NOTE about usage restrictions: the material here is free for use by education practitioners and leaders for informing and improving their educational practice. It may be downloaded and reproduced but it must be used in its existing format; no marks, logos, copyright notices or attributions may be removed or added without prior, written and explicit permission from CUREE. These materials may not be used for or incorporated in commercial products (i.e. anything destributed for a fee) without a license from CUREE.  If you have any feedback for the Panel, please contact us. 

Numicon

The Numicon approach is built on the work of Catherine Stern, using multi disciplinary/ multi-sensory, using apparatus and focusing on Action, Imagery and Conversation. The programme of activities with Numicon Shapes and rods helps children understand number relationships, spot patterns and make generalisations. The Numicon Shapes and rods help teachers and children to communicate their ideas. Children are encouraged to work together on activities which emphasise applying understanding to solve problems. It is helpful to all pupils and particularly beneficial to those with short term learning problems e.g. Down’s syndrome

Research Lesson Study

Lesson Study is a structured professional development process in which teachers systematically examine their practice and work together to improve it. Teachers work collaboratively on a small number of "study lessons", in a plan-teach-observe-critique cycle. Teachers select an overarching goal and related research question that they want to explore to provide focus and direction to this work. For Test and Learn it would be possible to consider specifying particular lesson foci catered for teaching approaches e.g. differentiation, content, year group, ability group, or improving the quality/depth of teaching.

 

 

RTI

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier approach to the early identification and support of students with learning and behaviour needs. The RTI process begins with high-quality instruction and universal screening of all children in the general education classroom. Struggling learners are provided with interventions at increasing levels of intensity to accelerate their rate of learning.  A variety of staff are engaged in the process, including classroom and specialist teachers. Progress is closely monitored and decisions about the intensity and duration of interventions are based on individual student response to instruction.