Abstracts - Earli

P 1101 September 2007 11:00 - 12:20Room: 2.54 NovobátzkyPaper SessionSocial interaction in learning and instructionChair:Marcel Crahay, Universite de Geneve, SwitzerlandCourse taking and student achievements meta analysis and a critical review of the literatureBoaz Shulruf, University of Auckland, New ZealandDominic Keuskamp, The Flinders University of South Australia, AustraliaStudents choose subjects in secondary schools that can be major determinants for their futureeducational career. This study used aspects of realist synthesis integrated with systematic reviewmethodology to review the effect of secondary school course-taking on educational outcomes insecondary and tertiary institutions. We found a wide body of research on course-taking, yetrelatively few examples of peer-reviewed quantitative research on the review topic. The selectedstudies, however, concurred with previous research by concluding that course-taking predicts anumber of educational outcomes. The largest effect sizes were found for further course-takingoutcomes at secondary level (.50) or tertiary level (mean 0.29 to 0.67 depending on population andspecificity). A small effect size (.24) was found for the effect of course-taking on achievement (asmeasured by test scores or GPA). The nature of those effects however, was sometimes difficult todisentangle from the diversity of factors, such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES) and priorachievement that are co-correlated with course-taking and its outcomes. In addition, very few ofthe studies selected for the review covered course-taking from the last decade. Future coursetakingresearch should focus on contemporary data, to keep up-to-date with curricula changes, andwhen measuring effects of course-taking on student outcomes, analyses should control forprevious course-taking and achievements effects.Teacher coaching in English schools: A space for learning or tool for control?David Leat, Newcastle University, United KingdomElaine Hall, Newcastle University, United KingdomRachel Lofthouse, Newcastle University, United KingdomCoaching is an increasingly popular form of professional development, due to a range of factorsincluding the evidence indicating its effect on student attainment and its visibility in our widerculture (‘life’, sport and leadership). In England coaching is being tried in many schools but theimpact is very varied. The paper presents data from two projects. The first draws on semistructuredinterviews with 25 teachers reflecting on the experience of coaching and the seconduses the analysis of coaching sessions. The data suggests that teachers are very positive about theirface-to-face experience, both as coaches and ‘coachees’, detailing many positive aspects includingthe opportunity to revisit episodes in lessons and analyse them with the aid of video and the focuson formative improvement of teaching approaches rather than summative judgement of teachingperformance. However, in most schools there are many practical difficulties such as lack of timeand money, problems with technology for filming and more systemic problems of management,including indifference, misunderstanding or interference. This is interpreted as a clash of culturesbetween coaching, with roots in counselling, and management ideologies prevalent in Englishschools. There is considerable variation in the content of coaching conversations: for example the– 844 –