Tag: research informed pedagogy
Improving children’s reading, what does the research say?
A series of short videos summarising some key research into children’s reading.
Fewer books, more engagement..
Find out about the small test of change undertaken in P2/1 at Westquarter Primary School.
Building a Reading Culture
Our Reading Culture network met yesterday for the fourth of our professional network events. We took the opportunity to consider the role of storytelling as part of pedagogy, to share progress in our classrooms so far and to consider our next steps.
Psychology and Numeracy Research 2019
The Four Educational Psychology Services of the FVWL Regional Collaborative have combined their research efforts to produce this ground breaking report on the psychological factors of numeracy.
We found a parallel with the national GIRFEC practice model and the Ecological System theory by Bronfenbrenner. The 94 factors were categorised into 20 clusters and then three categories.
Individual factors
Intersubjective Factors
Contextual factors
RECOMMENDATIONS
This meta-study finds that, given the complexity and multitude of factors that influence numeracy development and mathematical attainment, Councils, the Regional Collaborative and Scottish Government need to find ways of:
- promoting long term duration of teacher pupil relationships,
- promoting whole school consistency and beyond in the teaching of mathematics
- consider the impact that relationships and attachment style may have on pupils’ numeracy development
- ensure that teacher led innovations occur in a culture of learning, knowledge and research and with reference to the existing evidence base on effective interventions
- Encouraging parents to become more involved in contributing to the development of concepts skills and knowledge which are fundamental to math but not necessarily math specific such as risk-taking behaviour, metacognition, self-regulation and beliefs about intelligence and mastery.
- Actively encourage collective teacher efficacy in a context that promotes sustainability of improvement in evidence based ways.
This highlights the need for a cultural change with regard to numeracy education to include funding, employment and training arrangements that promote the long term relationship with staff and pupils in schools, effective mathematics teaching, and recognise the impact of relationships and attachment style on pupils’ numeracy development. Implementing improvement needs sustainability and implementation of improvement to be considered as important as the specific mathematic concepts and knowledge in encouraging children to learn maths.
Our final recommendation is that there is a need for debate about practice and improvement at a strategic and practice level within the Regional Collaborative and the four education authorities.
Building a Reading Culture
Our Reading Culture network met today for the third of our professional network events. Our focus was on the model for improvement, sharing our test of change plans and progress to date and time to reflect with colleagues on the network so far. We were joined by Jen Harwood from the Scottish Booktrust who was able to share a national perspective and join us for our discussions
Building a Reading Culture
Our Reading Culture working group met recently to plan the third of our reading professional network events in February. So far, we have had the opportunity to engage in professional dialogue around developing a reading culture with colleagues from across the Regional Improvement Collaborative and also benefitted from the expertise of Dr Sarah McGeown, Senior Lecturer Developmental Psychology, University of Edinburgh. Dr McGeown joined us for a workshop looking at promoting positive reading motivation and engagement. We considered the research in this area; the relationship between reading motivation, reading frequency and reading skill; some key factors which influence differing reading motivation and attitudes; and implications for practice.
Some of the research shared can be accessed here.
Raising attainment in literacy and closing the poverty related attainment gap
Why is this being prioritised?
Each local authority recognises that by improving attainment levels in reading, young people will be able to achieve more. By working across and through the Collaborative, combining resources, creativity and expertise, we will be empowered to transform learning.
Overarching Aims
To develop collaborative learning approaches which build staff capacity to deliver high quality literacy learning experiences for all.
What do we want to achieve?
To directly support practitioners to develop their knowledge, understanding and application of research informed pedagogy that is proven to improve outcomes for children and young people.
Develop face to face and digital collaboration between practitioners within and across local authorities and health boards to promote leadership at all levels.
To raise literacy attainment for all and close the poverty related attainment gap by supporting reflection on the performance of learners to enable continuous improvement.
Actions and Indicators of Progress
Short term (February-June 2018)
1. Identify leads from each authority (Literacy Team) to work with the literacy QAMSOs to develop a plan based on feedback from teachers and practitioners
2. Analyse baseline data and information from across the RIC
3. Identify common areas for targeting interventions
4. Identify drivers for improvement (Literacy Strategic Plan Appendix 2)
5. Establish sub group work-streams for agreed areas to research, develop and support: Accurate practitioner judgement of CfE levels in reading
Practitioners’ skills in pedagogies required to engage learners in building a reading culture
Sharing skills in pedagogies required in vocabulary development
6. Develop a professional learning programme for reading moderation
Medium term (August 2018 – June 2019)
1 Literacy QAMSOs will work with the lead team to develop a high quality moderation pack for Reading
2. Develop a digital sharing space to support pedagogy CLPL
3. Develop power-points and holistic assessments to support professional judgement in confirming CfE levels in Reading
4. Identify best practice to share across the RIC
5. Initiate practitioners groups supported by librarians and researchers who will build practitioner skills in developing a reading culture
6. Discuss and agree baseline measures to use to gauge progress (use information provided by the Performance Improvement Team)
7. The Literacy Team will discuss measurement of progress and analysis of data with the Performance Improvement Team
8. Create a Literacy data pack demonstrating tracking progress and improvement
9. Engage with the Communications Team to design a strategy to share practice and develop a practitioner network for literacy
10. Literacy QAMSOs will work with practitioners, schools and clusters within their own local authority to build confidence in professional judgement on CfE levels in reading
11. Provide input to the Autumn FV & WL RIC Consultation on the ‘Ask and the Offer’
12. Review Literacy plans in light of the outcomes of the consultation
13. Develop partnerships with Scottish Booktrust and other identified literacy partners.
Longer term
1. Evaluate the effectiveness of staff development approaches
2. Review progress at identified level(s) of literacy in reading
3. The Literacy team will explore and facilitate sharing best practice from PEF strategies across the RIC
4. A wider collaboration strategy will be developed with partners and stakeholders including CLD, ASN groups and parents
5. Design a scaling up of the project to all levels throughout the BGE
Intended Impact of the Literacy Plan
The measures of success will be:
To be confirmed in consultation with the Performance Workstream – January 2019
Interim progress will be gauged by
- Sampling of moderation shows consistency of practice
- Practitioner feedback demonstrates quality collaborative activity
- Assessments from speech and language therapy service demonstrate improvement
- Practitioner feedback demonstrates improved confidence in reading level CfE judgements
- Take up and evaluative feedback of collaborative CLPL opportunities
- Engagement and participation with the digital communication platform
Research Informed Pedagogy in Numeracy
What does data help us plan?
Numeracy Hub Champions across the Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative will directly support practitioners to develop their knowledge, understanding and application of research informed pedagogy which is proven to improve outcomes for children and young people. In addition, an inter-authority, teacher driven, professional network in First Level Numeracy will be established.
Research Informed Pedagogy
Manipulatives
Manipulatives can be key in providing effective, active, engaging lessons in the teaching of mathematics. To gain a deep understanding of mathematical ideas, children need to be able to integrate and connect a variety of concepts in many different ways. The effective use of manipulatives can help children connect ideas and integrate their knowledge so that they gain a deep understanding of mathematical concepts.
Over the past four decades, studies done at all different levels and in several different countries indicate that mathematics achievement increases when manipulatives are put to good use (Canny, 1984; Clements and Battista, 1990; Clements, 1999; Dienes, 1960; Driscoll, 1981; Fennema, 1972, 1973; Skemp, 1987; Sugiyama, 1987; Suydam, 1984).
The numeracy group believes that teachers need to learn how to successfully use manipulatives in the maths classroom and encourage student exploration, related discussion, and reflection about the prospective concepts being taught. Practitioners need to be knowledgeable with children’s exploration of the math concepts and not assume that when children use manipulatives they will automatically draw the correct conclusions from them.
The numeracy group believes that learning, teaching and assessment and the quality of what goes on in classrooms is core to this work stream and will therefore need to provide CLPL that supports practitioners in this area.
Embedded Classroom Model
The Embedded Classroom Model is based on the principals of developing a culture of collaboration and collective responsibility in schools. It involves teachers working in a spirit of openness and critical reflection, sharing their experiences, ideas and expertise with each other and engaging in an ongoing process of inquiry that promotes deep team learning. The work of teams is guided by a clear and systematic model of problem-solving and learning, one that encompasses a learning → application → refinement → application cycle.
