Creative Thinking in a Community of Enquiry
Aim: The aim of this project was to investigate to what extent the thinking skills approach known as the Community of Enquiry could stimulate and support creative thinking in young children.
The Evidence People
Motivation
Raising boys' attainment in English through single gender teaching and assessment for learning strategies
Aim: The original aim of the project was to investigate ways to raise boys attainment in English. We were aware that our GCSE top sets were heavily weighted towards girls, with often less than ten boys in a group of thirty plus, and we wanted to address this imbalance. The main aim of the study was to close the attainment gap between boys and girls.
Is there truly a shirt of happiness or not? Developing thinking through a Community of Enquiry approach.
Aim: To consider whether a Community of Enquiry approach would improve the ability of Y5 and 6 pupils to discuss issues arising from texts by asking relevant questions. Individual teachers were keen to:
Develop written responses to comprehension texts; or
Improve the quality of questioning and discussion.
How does involving the children in classroom planning affect their learning?
Aim: We were aware of a number of children who were coasting or dipping in English in Key Stage 2. We wanted to find out whether we could motivate them, using innovative classroom strategies.
Boys will be boys? Raising boys motivation and achievement in Key Stage Three Design Technology
Aim:
Decrease the gap between boys and girls achievement at Key Stage Three.
Increase the number of level 5 and level 6 achieved by boys in DT in their Key Stage Three Standard Aptitude Tests (SATs).
Improve the behaviour and effort of boys during DT lessons.
Increase the number of boys opting for DT - possibly within food and textiles.
What are leaders, teachers and students learning from collaborative approaches to personalisation?
Aim: This research project set out to explore a collaborative learning journey towards what may now be recognised as the partnership-based component of personalisation. Specifically it explored the following key questions in relation to the development of partnership-based approaches to the delivery of personalised learning:
What has been the impact of the experience of partnership on the leaders' leadership?
What has been the impact of the experience of partnership on the teachers' teaching?
What has been the impact of the experience of partnership on the students' learning?
Motivation of sixth-form students
Aim:
To find out what motivates students in the sixth form. What stimulates them in lessons?
What motivates them to complete homework?
What features of their relationships with teachers and fellow students motivate them?
Which types of teaching motivate and demotivate them?"
Using Thinking Tools to enhance childrens ability to think and improve national test results
Aim: To discover the extent to which selected thinking tools could enhance childrens ability to think from a viewpoint other than their own and thus help improve their optional Year 4 reading and writing national test scores.
Can observation improve PE teaching
Aim: To see whether an increased awareness of observational strategies enhances effective teaching of physical education at Key Stage 2.
Teacher motivation in an international online collaborative learning community
Aim: The study set out to create a long term online action research activity involving collaboration between European teachers. We created a European project to look at the issue of Global Warming. We decided to monitor butterflies as indicators of climate change. This required a long term commitment to gain maximum value from the data collected. Hence teacher motivation was important. It was hoped from this to create a motivational checklist for teachers to help them when setting up online action research communities in the future.