Issue 26 - November 2007 (PDF, 1.69Mb) - ESRC

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8 F E ATURE ISSUE 26 | AUTUMN 2007 Which education system do you think today’s Britain has? The one beloved of the headline writers, in which children chat on their mobiles in class, regard school mainly as a base for crime or truancy, and learn next to nothing while growing obese on junk food? Or is it the one preferred by the government, where more exams are passed every year and a painless transition to university is increasingly the norm? In practice, there are schools that match either of these stereotypes, and every gradation in between. And whatever its style, school is one of the biggest influences on young people’s lives. COLLEGE DAYS The UK’s further education colleges are of growing importance. Well away from the attention of policymakers, whose own children tend to go into the school sixth form and then head straight for an ancient university, they are called on to sort out teenagers whose schools failed them, supply the skilled workforce for the British economy and be the cutting edge of lifelong learning, teaching work and leisure-related courses for people from adolescence to old age. Dr Martin Jephcote and Dr Jane Salisbury are researching FE colleges in Wales, using focus groups and diaries of FE students and teachers to find out how they really work. They find that teenagers are as keen to join Unless you become a teacher, you do not stay at school for ever. But research is pointing to ways in which schools and colleges can teach people more during their school years, and also help them become effective learners who will be more productive and fulfilled in later life. The ESRC’s Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) is the biggest initiative ever in UK education research. Much of its work has focussed on schools, and a new publication setting out its findings on school education, Principles into Practice, went to every school in the UK this term. Professor Mary James, TLRP Deputy a tribe in college as they are outside it. Within weeks of arriving, it is simple to tell the A-level students on their way to university (good jeans) from the hair and beauty crowd (white uniforms, abundant cosmetics) or the ‘large animal’ students (young women with an enthusiasm for horses). Children were issued with cameras to allow them to photograph anything maths-related that they encountered in everyday life Director, said: “We have carried out about 20 projects in schools and from them ten big principles for effective learning have emerged. They are explained in Principles into Practice. But even they can be summarised yet further. If pupils are taken seriously and involved thoughtfully as learners they will be better students and are more likely to emerge from school as self-empowered learners. The era is long past when people could leave school with all the knowledge they needed for the rest of their lives.” A striking example is the TLRP Home- School Knowledge Exchange project, set up to help reduce the barriers between home and school. Pupils’ home lives involve numbers and words, in ways that have not always been valued when teachers think how to teach numeracy and literacy. In the project, children were issued with cameras to allow them to photograph anything maths-related that they encountered in everyday life, and a ‘maths trail’ was set up around the school for parents and children to follow, solving number problems as they went. This work revealed that many cultures have their own customs about numbers and counting. Parents and teachers often discount them, but they have real educational value. The same goes for literacy, where parents kept a log of all the literacy activities their children took part in. Professor Martin Hughes, director of the project, said: “Children learn more about The era is long past when people could leave school with all the knowledge they needed for the rest of their lives
Children learn more about character, plot and genre from Harry Potter than they ever learn at school character, plot and genre from Harry Potter than they ever learn at school. This sort of activity connects school and home literacy in a way that promotes them both.” This work was promoted by displays of literacy materials in a supermarket to make sure it reached parents who are reluctant to enter a school. The project also showed that an awareness of pupils’ home backgrounds can help them get over a frequent crisis point, the transition from school to school. In the holiday between schools, children took photographs of their home lives which they showed to their new teachers, as part of a network of activity that also included holding small parents’ evenings for the families of the new arrivals within weeks of the start of term. This work was so successful in helping children in their new setting that it has continued with new funding after the TLRP project ended. It is perhaps the first ESRC project to be turned into a play, Ready or Not, performed by the Cardiff company Theatr Iolo. The message from this research is that people become more effective in school if it connects to the rest of their life. In the same way, the research has shown that pupils can become happier in school and achieve more if they are listened to in the right way. Partly as a result of TLRP’s work, ‘Pupil Voice’ is now a major movement in British schools. In the past, pupil consultation has been used to fill up spare days at the end of term, and has often been about issues which are important but not directly related to learning, such as school food or uniforms. But now it is seen as a major contributor to better pupil involvement, and even has high-level political support. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and other international agreements, state that children have the right to be listened to in a way appropriate to their age and maturity. People become more effective in school if it connects to the rest of their life The work on pupil voice has looked at classroom issues, such as what makes a ‘good piece of work’ as well as broader issues such as the qualities needed in a year tutor. It showed that properlystructured consultation lets students who are not confident, articulate or wellspoken have a bigger role. They can expand their self-worth and their selfimage as learners, and maybe avoid getting alienated from school and in later life. One of the most creative TLRP projects, led by Professor Carol McGuinness at Queen’s University Belfast, has looked at ways of helping children build their own thinking skills. Lessons in these skills helped children plan and work more effectively, and made them more willing to work harder. Anyone who routinely deals with teenagers might well wish that this initiative, which has been very influential in Northern Ireland, could be replicated nationally. Another project at Queen’s shows that pupils have strong views on the way they are assessed, normally an experience imposed on them from the outside without their having any chance to shape it. This project, led by Professor Ruth E S R C T H E E D G E | F E AT U R E Leitch, showed that assessment interacts strongly with learning, and not always for the better. Students learn most when they are feeling secure, when the class around them is supportive, and when they can make mistakes without being made to feel like failures. Good assessment processes do this. They tell students how to improve, they have a proper structure, and they give detailed information as well as a mark. But students feel that many assessment methods are more directed towards giving scores than genuinely advancing learning, and that in any case, school involves too many tests and exams Martin Ince is a science journalist. ESRC RESEARCH The Teaching and Learning Research Programme The programme aims to improve outcomes for learners of all ages in teaching and learning contexts across the UK. studies the acquisition of skill, understanding, knowledge and qualifications, and the development of attitudes, values and identities relevant to a learning society. Email: tlrp@ioe.ac.uk Telephone: +44(0)20 7911 5577 Website: h t t p : / / w w w. t l r p . o r g / Principles into Practice can be downloaded from: http://www.tlrp.org/pub/index.html 9
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Issue 26 - November 2007 (PDF, 1.69Mb) - ESRC

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