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Research-Led Approaches to Increasing Pupil Learning. Robert Coe Capita Conference: Implementing the Pupil Premium Newcastle, 8 July 2013. Outline. How can we use school resources to get the biggest increases in learning?
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Research-Led Approaches to Increasing Pupil Learning Robert Coe Capita Conference: Implementing the Pupil Premium Newcastle, 8 July 2013
Outline • How can we use school resources to get the biggest increases in learning? • What can research tell us about the likely impact of different strategies? • How do we implement these strategies? • What else do we need do to make it likely that attainment will rise? Improving Education: A triumph of hope over experience http://www.cem.org/attachments/publications/ImprovingEducation2013.pdf
Toolkit of Strategies to Improve Learning The Sutton Trust-EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit http://www.educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/
www.educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit Impact vs cost Promising 8 May be worth it Feedback Meta-cognitive Peer tutoring Early Years Homework (Secondary) 1-1 tuition Effect Size (months gain) Collaborative Behaviour Small gp tuition Phonics Parental involvement Smaller classes ICT Social Summer schools Individualised learning Notworth it After school Mentoring Homework (Primary) Teaching assistants Performance pay Aspirations 0 Ability grouping £0 £1000 Cost per pupil
Key messages • Some things that are popular or widely thought to be effective are probably not worth doing • Ability grouping (setting); After-school clubs; Teaching assistants; Smaller classes; Performance pay; Raising aspirations • Some things look ‘promising’ • Effective feedback; Meta-cognitive and self regulation strategies; Peer tutoring/peer‐assisted learning strategies; Homework
Clear, simple advice: • Choose from the top left • Go back to school and do it For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong H.L. Mencken
Why not? • We have been doing some of these things for a long time, but have generally not seen improvement • Research evidence is problematic • Sometimes the existing evidence is thin • Research studies may not reflect real life • Context and ‘support factors’ may matter • Implementation is problematic • We may think we are doing it, but are we doing it right? • We do not know how to get large groups of teachers and schools to implement these interventions in ways that are faithful, effective and sustainable
Four steps to improvement • Think hard about learning • Invest in good professional development • Evaluate teaching quality • Evaluate impact of changes
www.educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit Impact vs cost Promising 8 May be worth it Feedback Meta-cognitive Peer tutoring Early Years Homework (Secondary) 1-1 tuition Effect Size (months gain) Collaborative Behaviour Small gp tuition Phonics Parental involvement Smaller classes ICT Social Summer schools Individualised learning Notworth it After school Mentoring Homework (Primary) Teaching assistants Performance pay Aspirations 0 Ability grouping £0 £1000 Cost per pupil
Which strategies/interventions are very surprising (you really don’t believe it)? • Which strategies/interventions can you explain why they do (or don’t) improve attainment? • Which strategies/interventions o you want to know more about?
Poor Proxies for Learning • Students are busy: lots of work is done (especially written work) • Students are engaged, interested, motivated • Students are getting attention: feedback, explanations • Classroom is ordered, calm, under control • Curriculum has been ‘covered’ (ie presented to students in some form) • (At least some) students have supplied correct answers (whether or not they really understood them or could reproduce them independently)
A simple theory of learning Learning happens when people have to think hard
Hard questions about your school • How many minutes does an average pupil on an average day spend really thinking hard? • Do you really want pupils to be ‘stuck’ in your lessons? • If they knew the right answer but didn’t know why, how many pupils would care?
How do we get students to learn hard things? Eg • Place value • Persuasive writing • Music composition • Balancing chemical equations • Explain what they should do • Demonstrate it • Get them to do it (with gradually reducing support) • Provide feedback • Get them to practise until it is secure • Assess their skill/ understanding
How do we get teachers to learn hard things? Eg • Using formativeassessment • Assertive discipline • How to teachalgebra • Explain what they should do
What CPD helps learners? • Intense: at least 15 contact hours, preferably 50 • Sustained: over at least two terms • Content focused: on teachers’ knowledge of subject content & how students learn it • Active: opportunities to try it out & discuss • Supported: external feedback and networks to improve and sustain • Evidence based: promotes strategies supported by robust evaluation evidence
Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better. Dylan Wiliam
Identifying the best teachers Sources of evidence: • Colleagues (peers, SLT) observing lessons • Trained outsiders observing lessons • Pupils’ test score gains • Progress in NC levels (from teacher assessment) • Pupils’ ratings of teacher/lesson quality • Teacher qualifications • Tests of teachers’ content knowledge • Parents’ ratings • Ofsted ratings • Colleagues’ (including SLT) perceptions • Teachers’ self-evaluation
Next generation of CEM systems … • Assessments that are • Comprehensive, across the full range of curriculum areas, levels, ages, topics and educationally relevant abilities • Diagnostic, with evidence-based follow-up • Interpretable, calibrated against norms and criteria • High psychometric quality • Feedback that is • Bespoke to individual teacher, for their students and classes • Multi-component, incorporating learning gains, pupil ratings, peer feedback, self-evaluation, … • Diagnostic, with evidence-based follow-up • Constant experimenting
Mistaking School Improvement (1)(Coe, 2009) • Wait for a bad year or choose underperforming schools to start with. Most things self-correct or revert to expectations (you can claim the credit for this). • Take on any initiative, and ask everyone who put effort into it whether they feel it worked. No-one wants to feel their effort was wasted. • Define ‘improvement’ in terms of perceptions and ratings of teachers. DO NOT conduct any proper assessments – they may disappoint. • Only study schools or teachers that recognise a problem and are prepared to take on an initiative. They’ll probably improve whatever you do.
Mistaking School Improvement (2) (Coe, 2009) • Conduct some kind of evaluation, but don’t let the design be too good – poor quality evaluations are much more likely to show positive results. • If any improvement occurs in any aspect of performance, focus attention on that rather than on any areas or schools that have not improved or got worse (don’t mention them!). • Put some effort into marketing and presentation of the school. Once you start to recruit better students, things will improve.
Key elements of good evaluation EEF DIY Evaluation Guide • Clear, well defined, replicable intervention • Good assessment of appropriate outcomes • Well-matched comparison group
Summary … • Think hard about learning • Invest in good CPD • Evaluate teaching quality • Evaluate impact of changes Robert.Coe@cem.dur.ac.uk @ProfCoe www.cem.org