From Prague to Nottingham: Building on Best Practice Internationally
Aim: To adopt and adapt the best practice in mathematics teaching from the Czech Republic within classrooms in the City of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Education Authorities.
The Evidence People
Secondary
Girls, calculators and graphics concepts
Aim: To help students to improve their understanding of graphs with the use of a graphic calculator.
Can creative projects improve the language and literacy skills of our pupils?
Aim: The aims of this project were to improve the language and literacy skills of our pupils both written and verbal, extend pupils vocabulary, introduce pupils to a different way of learning, improve pupils confidence and self esteem and provide pupils with positive role models.
Every child matters: Empowering the student voice
Aim: The aim of this project was to involve students as researchers on classroom practice, as part of a wider school policy of increasing student voice, and including their views in school planning processes.
Reservoirs of Hope as a metaphor for spiritual and moral leadership in headship, and why some headteachers leave headship early 'when reservoirs run dry'
Aim: The study aimed to:
Describe the perceived spiritual and moral bases of headship in a range of heads;
Explore the use of the metaphor of reservoirs of hope in describing the preservation of individual values and institutional self-belief against external pressures;
Promote practitioner reflection on critical incidents when spiritual and moral leadership was tested;
Codify heads individual strategies for sustainability, replenishment and development; and
Analyse why some headteachers leave headship early due to the possible failure of their sustainability strategies when reservoirs of hope
Using Assertive Mentoring to counter laddishness
Aim: The study set out to explore the effects of a particular style of mentoring that aims to tackle issues of laddishness and macho image. It set out to provide ways for the students to opt out of laddish behaviour (prevalent amongst some girls as well as lads) without threatening their status in the eyes of their peers.
Use of Two-Dimensional Pepresentations to aid the Transition from Arithmetic to Algebra
Aim: To investigate the extent to which use of a teaching approach based on the concept of area would help students overcome key difficulties in the transition from arithmetic to algebra.
Debriefing: Pupils' Learning and Teacher Planning
Aim: To investigate what and how pupils learn from debriefed lessons and how teachers plan and support such lessons.
Improving science achievement by raising self-esteem
Aim: To assess whether students' performance in science could be improved by increasing their self-esteem and generating positive support and feedback from their follow students.
Developing student leadership in a networked learning community
Aim: This summary first reports on the pilot work undertaken as ESRC Project Breaking New Ground in the Geography, History and Religious Studies departments at Rivington and Blackrod High Schools with KS4 students. The initial research prepared the way for what has now become a borough-wide student voice movement entitled B.L.A.S.T. (Bolton Listens As Students Talk) under the Networked Learning Community banner. The schools subsequent involvement in this project is also reported.