Building the Evidence Base Overview and key findings from year 1

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Building the Evidence BaseOverview and key
findings from year 1

• Philippa Cordingley and Paul Crisp CUREE

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Building the Evidence Base
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Research reviews
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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 childrens learning in the home
• The impact on pupil motivation and learning of
  structured dialogue in group work and of
  collaborative learning

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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The pupil survey
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What were we interested in?

• Concerned with 4 curriculum domains derived from
  QCA policy interests
• Challenge and inspiration
• Flexibility and choice
• Student lifestyles and health
• Motivational influences
• Mile wide, inch deep
• Take the pulse
• Provisional and illustrative

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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

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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
• they felt they got, and
• younger students

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An Example
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An Example 2
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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

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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

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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

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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 (gt20) 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

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The probes
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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Assessment Regimes and Curriculum Innovation
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Strand 4
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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

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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

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Assessment Regimes and Curriculum Innovation
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Personalisation and Curriculum Reform
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CPD and Curriculum Design and Implementation
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Areas for development

• Which issues would you see as priorities for
  development via
• Tasters
• Further probes
• Further surveys
• Further reviews?