Transcript Probes - Curee Ltd

Building the Evidence Base
Overview and key findings from year 1
Philippa Cordingley and Paul Crisp
CUREE
Building the Evidence Base
Research reviews
The map of research reviews
• We started by mapping the relevant reviews of
research
• The map identified 6 key trends:
– The effectiveness of learning that is context based
– The importance of connecting curriculum with home
and community experiences; also parental
involvement in children’s learning in the home
– The impact on pupil motivation and learning of
structured dialogue in group work and of collaborative
learning
Six Key Trends
– The need to create opportunities to identify
and build on pupils’ existing conceptual
understandings
– The need to remove rigidity – to allow time
and space for conceptual development
– The need for excellence and professional
development in subject knowledge for
curriculum innovation, especially in relation to
context-based learning
The second review
• Several thousand studies covered by the
reviews in the map
• 233 covered by the reviews that focussed in
depth on 6 findings from the map
• These were then filtered (twice) for evidence
re: student impact, relevance to the six
themes and/or the themes underpinning the
new secondary. Seven were simply
unavailable.
• Resulting in 63 remaining studies in this
review
The second review
• Provides rich detail on the 6 key trends and several
claims made by QCA for the secondary curriculum
• Establishes the maturity of the evidence base in
relation to collaboration, context based learning,
home/school links and building on students’ existing
understanding
• Highlights effectiveness, in particular, in the context
of science, maths, MFL and independent learning
• Identifies a need for further research into curriculum
flexibility and cross-curricular learning
The Second review – context
based learning an example
• 8/17 studies re: real world contexts – science
• Mechanisms for making connections in science:
– Drama and role play
– Situating learning in everyday challenges e.g. ethics of
genetics technology, traffic and safety, energy at home
– Simulation of science in context via ICT
• Mechanisms in other subject areas
– community service based learning, real world
problems, students contributing their own
information and contexts from home
The Second Review: QCA Claims
The curriculum needs to:
• better reflect the world that young people are growing up in –
well illustrated through evidence re: context based learning
• be more than a revision to the subject programmes of study
– well illustrated by evidence of the importance of connecting
the curriculum with home and community based learning
• enable progression – well illustrated by detailed evidence
about how teaching has to build on existing understanding
• personalise learning – richly illustrated picture of curriculum
initiatives in personalisation which have been successful to
varying degrees in promoting student learning and
achievement
The Second Review: QCA Claims
• reflect the aims and values of the school – moderately well
illustrated
• emphasise key concepts as a means of enabling subject
teachers to develop more flexible, inclusive and appropriate
learning experiences – moderately well illustrated
• emphasise key subject-based processes – moderately well
illustrated
• reflect interdependencies between content, teaching and
learning – moderately well illustrated
• provide contexts for learning (linked to map finding that the
curriculum needs to be flexible and to enable cross curricular
learning) – scant illustration because the review is more
subject based
The Second review – implications for content,
learning and teaching via structuring talk and
group work – an example
• A mature evidence base – studies with strong evidence
were extensive re: structuring group work and talk and
offered high quality evidence in a range of contexts:
–
–
–
–
Thinking skills – 9
Science – 7
ICT – 3
Maths – 3
• Key features included
– Teaching group work skills explicitly
– Structuring tasks for interdependence
– The allocation of a range of structured and specific roles
• Plus a range of other strategies including reaching
consensus, use of protocols including for Socratic dialogue
and for open and probing questioning
The pupil survey
What were we interested in?
Concerned with 4 curriculum domains derived from
QCA policy interests:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Challenge and inspiration
Flexibility and choice
Student lifestyles and health
Motivational influences
• ‘Mile wide, inch deep’
• ‘Take the pulse’
• Provisional and illustrative
Method of Data Collection
• Web bases survey in March and April 2008
• Over 3,000 participants from a representative sample
of schools
• 8 focus groups used to:
– Explore issues which could not effectively be dealt
with via a survey
– Explore in greater depth interesting/ambiguous
findings from the survey
– Draw out the views of some students who were
unlikely to participate in the survey
Taking the pulse
• A majority of students (primary and secondary)
feel positive about the curriculum they
experience
• There were no significant differences in
satisfaction between genders, ethnic or age
groups
• Primary pupils were generally more satisfied
with their school experience than secondary
• Older secondary students wanted more
influence over and choice about their
curriculum experience than:
a. they felt they got, and
b. younger students
An Example
60
Secondary - experience of autonomy and influence
34 I don’t have a say in how
much homework I get
35 I get to choose who to work
with in lessons
50
Number of responses (%)
36 I can choose to do some of
my learning online
40
37 I don’t have much choice of
subjects in this school
30
38 I sometimes get to mark my
own and/or other pupils work at
school
39 Teachers often ask me about
what I am finding difficult
20
40 I have a say in how I am
taught
10
41 I have to be at school all the
time during the school day
0
Agree a lot
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Disagree a lot
42 I have a say in what I learn
about in lessons
An Example 2
Do I eat healthily at school?
I’ve never been told about healthy eating at school
I’ve been told about healthy eating at school
I have started eating more healthily because of what I have
learned at school
I already eat healthily
Some of my friends are eating more healthily because of
what they have learned at school
Disagree
95.3
44.0
57.8
Agree
4.7
56.0
42.2
47.0
69.0
53.0
31.0
What have I learned about exercise?
Disagree
Agree
Teachers don’t encourage us to take exercise
88.0
12.0
In my school we have a lot of encouragement to take
exercise
Some of my friends have started to do more exercise
outside of school because of what they have learnt about
it in school
21.5
78.5
62.3
37.7
Some interesting points
• More students (primary and secondary) feel that their
lessons are too easy than feel they are too hard
• Secondary students thought that maths was both the
hardest and third easiest subject
• Focus group generally critical of the teaching of maths
but recognised the importance of the subject
• Apart from maths, no strongly perceived correlation
between the subject and the manner of its teaching
• Some of the secondary curriculum reforms being
implemented formally in 2008 are already experienced
by significant numbers of students
Some interesting points 2
• Drugs, alcohol and healthy eating education is well established in
both primary and secondary schools
• But, for secondary students, the sight of overweight people on
television and on the street had greater impact than school activities
• Dealing with stress was the least developed aspect of lifestyle and
personal wellbeing education
• Secondary schools were felt to be more pressured environments
than primary but parental expectations were high in both
• Substantial minorities of students felt they were under too little
pressure from teachers or parents, although parents (at 24.5%) did
worse than teachers (17%)
• Few significant differences in responses when examined by gender
or Key Stage level. Age had a bigger impact – but still not a very big
one – particularly in the areas of choice and autonomy
An example – Challenge and
Inspiration – Primary
• 50% think lessons present the right amount of
challenge, but:
– 31.1% said they were too easy
– 17.1% said they were too hard
• The level of challenge in the primary curriculum may be
less than the students expect or are capable of
• 60% thought their friends wanted them to do well at
school, rising to 85% for parents expectations
• Around 30% felt that parental pressure was a bit/lot too
much while 22% felt that parents put too little pressure
on them
An example – Challenge and
Inspiration – Secondary
• More than 50% felt that:
–
–
–
–
They did a lot of practical activities
They often used what they learned at school outside of school
They did a mix of different things in lessons
They used the internet often at school
• The biggest gaps (>20%) between student
experience and aspiration were:
–
–
–
–
Opportunities to link lessons to experience
Amount of practical activity
Mix of activity
Use of AV resources and the internet
The probes
The Work
• Multi site case studies of classroom level
curriculum development in nine schools
• Three areas/issues within curriculum
development identified:
Integration of assessment
Group work and discussion
Effective CPD
Methodology
• Videos of classes (probes 1 and 2)
• Observations of CPD or CPD planning sessions
probe (3)
• Interviews with teachers, head teachers and
pupils
• Interviews and analysis were structured around:
– Evidence base e.g. EPPI reviews plus
– Stimulated recall of videoed or observed incidents
• Attempts to reach a grounded definition of
curriculum development
Methodology
Selection of cases:
• Range of schools: Socio-economic
contexts, pupil entry level ability, school
composition
• For CVA and evidence of closing gap
• History of sustained curriculum
innovation
• History and/or trajectory of substantial
development in the targeted area
The probe questions
• How are teachers, who are developing the curriculum in
order to close the achievement gap while maintaining
standards, balancing the opportunities and demands of
different approaches to assessment?
• What challenges do teachers face when they try to get
students to engage in more effective group work and talk
while developing the curriculum?
• What are the characteristics of effective continuing
professional development (CPD) for teachers undertaking
curriculum development? What are teachers involved in?
Who supports them, how and with what results?
The Outcomes
• Three reports each:
– Contain vignettes and examples of practice
– Draw on existing evidence base to increase
explanatory power
– Identify key characteristics, main themes,
and illustrate good practice
– Identify implications and further sources of
information
The assessment case study illustrated
ways of:
• recognising the centrality of pupils in learning and
assessment processes
• providing clear curriculum and assessment structures
to create space for innovation and creativity
• embedding assessment in engaging and relevant
learning activities
• embedding assessment and feedback within a range
of learning relationships
• integrating varied assessment approaches to help
articulate, define and judge successful learning
• using the learning environment as part of the
assessment infrastructure
The case study on talk illustrated
ways of:
• prompting and supporting students in their use of language
and modelling productive and exploratory talk
• offering regular opportunities in different curriculum areas
to develop and reinforce collaborative skills
• structuring groups to give everyone chance to speak, and
managing the mix of personalities
• establishing and displaying ground rules for talk
• teaching students explicitly the skills to underpin the rules
• creating speaking, listening and ideas frames
• developing a clear rationale for linking group work, talk and
curriculum development
The CPD case study illustrated ways of
•
•
•
•
Making curriculum development a vehicle for
powerful professional learning via CPD support
Aligning professional learning, curriculum
development and performance management to
motivate teachers
Facilitating curriculum development groups of
practitioners – across groups of schools when there
is limited internal capacity
Identifying and mobilising teachers with specialist
curriculum expertise in new areas of the school
Assessment Regimes and
Curriculum Innovation
MYTH
REALITY
FUTURE
Pressure of
assessment
regimes
severely inhibit
curriculum
innovation
Requires a
‘safe’ creative
space within a
robust
curriculum
infrastructure
Develop these
robust
infrastructures
within low
capacity
schools
31
Strand 4
Dissemination and Diffusion
• Collection of tools and activities
• Creation of summaries and activities,
e.g.
• Practitioner summary of the map
• Summary and activity of the work
of Jerome Bruner
• Activities for consultation seminars
• Telephone interviews with policy
makers to map current activity
• Tasters and summaries – year 2
• CUREE website www.curee.co.uk
Evidence Taster
Tasters are:
• Nuggets of intriguing evidence
• Mini enquiry tools to interest people in
current realities for students
• Mini research and development tools for
trying out new approaches
• Links to further resources
Assessment Regimes and
Curriculum Innovation
MYTH
REALITY
FUTURE
Pressure of
assessment
regimes severely
inhibit curriculum
innovation
A robust
curriculum &
assessment
infrastructure
creates a ‘safe’
creative space for
innovation &
flexibility
Develop these
robust
infrastructures
within low
capacity schools
35
Personalisation and Curriculum
Reform
MYTH
REALITY
FUTURE
Personalisation
always requires
major school level
reforms to
curriculum offer
Pedagogic
approaches such
as dialogical
learning provide a
starting point
Some
pedagogical
approaches build
capacity and
space for
curriculum
innovation and
personalisation
36
CPD and Curriculum Design
and Implementation
MYTH
Range of recent
reforms have
developed
schools’ ability to
link CPD and
curriculum
innovation
REALITY
Few schools have
the capacity to
provide integrated
and holistic CPD
FUTURE
Developing
robust school
based
approaches to
curriculum redesign
37
Areas for development
• Which issues would you see as priorities
for development via
– Tasters
– Further probes
– Further surveys
– Further reviews?