The National Teacher Research Panel was set up about 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, has 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. This is one such example of that work.
For this TLA research summary we looked at a study about the effect of transfer from primary to secondary or middle schools on pupils' attitudes, progress and attainment. This is an area of great concern to teachers. Many studies have investigated this issue. The particular strength of this study is the longitudinal nature of the evidence base. Whilst all practitioners see every day evidence of the length of time it takes for educational change to happen we rarely have the opportunity to look at research that tracks effects over a long period. This study offers such an opportunity. Despite evidence of a commitment to improve pupils' experience of transition and transfer, and efforts to do so, in many cases progress over a long timescale has been relatively restricted. We offer this summary as an important and in some ways sobering context for current efforts to address transfer. The TLA research offers intelligence that will help practitioners and managers to guard against complacency as well as insight into what they can achieve. The researchers' interest in the effects of transfer started with a survey, some 20 years ago, called the ORACLE (Observation, Research and Classroom Learning Evaluation) project. By replicating the original study, theresearchers have been able to chart changes in practice over this time period. The later research (1995-1998),published in 2002, highlights where:
there have been changes for the better over that time period
there are still outstanding problems
national initiatives have had an impact for better and worse on the transition process.
The original study signalled a need to respond to deterioration in pupils' attitudes to learning and a hiatus in progress as they transferred to secondary schools. The authors note that current concerns about the effect of transfer are similar to earlier ones but the context has changed significantly, for example, with the introduction of the national curriculum. The researchers' findings suggest that pupils in the more recent study adjusted to their new social and academic conditions better than similar pupils did 20 years ago but that there remain concerns about pupils' attitudes, motivation and attainment, particularly with more able boys, at this critical stage in their careers.
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