Secondary

Gaining and Sustaining Momentum: accelerating progress in schools

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CUREE has, in collaboration with Teach First, concluded a research project continuing on from our previous work on characteristics of high-performing schools. As an extension of that project, CUREE has spent a year exploring characteristics shared by schools which are struggling to establish and/or continue momentum in their progress towards reaching high-performing status, and investigating how these schools’ individual contexts and circumstances relate to the broader evidence base around what exactly makes schools successful in making progress.

Read more about the publication here, and Philippa's blog about the report can be found here.

(Smith) Engaging Learners Through Use Of Questioning And Feedback

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This UK-based study investigated the role teachers can play in facilitating interactive classrooms through the use of feedback in lessons. The researchers found that feedback designed to open up thinking and discussion involves engaging with responses to questions and offering students opportunities to express themselves.

(Ross) Disengagement From Education Among 14-16 Year Olds

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http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DCSF-RR178.pdf
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It is estimated that between one fifth and one third of all young people aged 14-16 are disengaged from education. This has well documented implications for the young person and the wider society, including poor labour market opportunities and the risk of being not in education, employment or training (NEET). Other associated negative outcomes are teenage pregnancy and drug use. Engagement is crucial because of recent legislation raising the participation age for education, first to 17 by the year 2013, and then 18 by 2015.

Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE), the researcher carried out a quantitative analysis of disengagement from education among 14-16 year olds. They identified four different kinds of engagement and explored when as well as why some young people disengaged.

The study will be of interest to teachers, leaders, parents and policy makers wishing to explore the issue of disengagement amongst 14-16 year olds. In particular it will help them consider the factors contributing to disengagement and the strategies which might help to encourage continued engagement in school.

(Knippels) Using Fiction To Help Students Form Opinions About The Applications Of Science To Society

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Identifying a moral or social issue and developing and presenting an argument is an important skill that learners are expected to develop in different areas of the curriculum in England. It is, for example, a key part of scientific literacy which enables students to form judgements about the science-based issues which affect their lives.

This study from the Netherlands aimed to test whether fictional film can help students to develop skills in opinion-forming with regard to issues that impact on our day-to-day lives. The particular focus for this study was learning debate issues related to human genetics, such as Huntingdon’s disease, cystic fibrosis, use of stem cells, and therapeutic cloning. The approach described in the study was found to be effective in encouraging year 11 students to develop better strategies for achieving more balanced and better founded opinions and to provide more arguments when explaining their position. Specifically the study findings showed that using clips from fiction films was more effective than using factual news reports, and students involved in both these approaches made greater improvements than a control group of students.

(Gainsburg) Real-World Connections In Secondary Mathematics Teaching

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While the mathematics education community has placed a great deal of emphasis on the need to connect mathematics in the classroom to the real world, there is evidence that in practice this happens infrequently. Research shows that teachers often:

 regard issues around behaviour and learners’ poor reading skills as obstacles to discovery learning

 have difficulties in recognising the mathematics that arises in the workplace, and

 only introduce real world connections in a cursory way rather than as an integral part of the curriculum materials and activities.

However, while there is a consensus in the findings of researchers investigating this topic, the actual volume of research is rather sparse.

The author of this study conducted a survey of 62 secondary mathematics teachers to find out about whether and how they used real-world connections in mathematics lessons. The author then explored the findings from these interviews by observing teachers making real-world connections in the classroom and comparing the outcomes from the survey with the observations.

(Clark) What Impact Does Socio-Economic Status Have On Children's Reading?

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Children from low socio-economic backgrounds have a range of barriers to overcome to become proficient readers. This UK study investigates how socio-economic status influences children’s engagement with and enjoyment of reading. Over 8,000 pupils aged between 12-17 years were involved in this study into their reading.

The study found that pupils who received free school meals (used in the study as an indicator of low socio-economic status) held more negative attitudes towards reading, rated themselves as less confident readers, and gained less enjoyment from reading than their peers. Pupils also reported having fewer books at home, more limited access to educational materials (books, computers, magazines), and receiving low levels of encouragement from parents to read.

(Avramidis) What In Practice Does Inclusion Mean?

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Government policy in the UK supports the principle that children with SEN should, where possible, be educated in mainstream schools. The paper summarised here examines an LEA-identified ‘excellent’ inclusive school to see what ‘inclusivity’ is taken to mean. It also looks at who and what inclusivity covers, what constraints may bound it, whether it is effective, and whether such research can act as a blueprint for other schools.

Leadership of Professional Development and Learning

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"Over the next five years implementing the curriculum, assessment and qualification reforms will present significant challenges to teaching and learning. Schools will need to:

  • develop teacher capability to deliver reformed GCSEs and A levels, including a focus on preparing pupils
  • for the new style of examinations
  • develop teachers’ ability to undertake assessment that evidences pupil progress in learning
  • build capacity in middle and senior leadership related to curriculum design and development"

 

So says the Guidance Paper recently published by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) - with CUREE and TDT – setting out why its members should be as aspirational about the development of their professional colleagues as they already are for their students