The transition from primary to secondary school: Teachers’ perspectives

The transition from primary school to secondary school has long been recognised as one of the most challenging times in a young adolescent students’ education, particularly in regard to their academic achievement. Research evidence from the last 30 years has identified a consistent pattern in students’ academic achievement across transition, suggesting that student achievement stalls or even declines in the first year of secondary school. The focus of this research was to identify teachers’ perceptions of the best practices to prepare students for a successful transition to secondary school. The findings were based on 12 one-on-one interviews with primary (Year 6) and secondary (Year 7) teachers. Teachers’ responses were analysed qualitatively through a process of thematic analysis. Findings from the research identified three key methods which primary and secondary school teachers believed were essential for facilitating successful transition experiences for students: curriculum continuity and awareness, communication between primary and secondary schools, and adequate teacher support.     

Students’ views of environments for learning from the primary to the secondary school

Research on transfer has alerted us to the anxieties that students experience as they move from a smaller school to a bigger school, and how the sudden differences in space, size, and their own position within a large organization can affect their identities as learners. Drawing on interviews with students in their first year in secondary school, this chapter examines the differences that students see as important in moving from the primary school to the secondary school. Three topics are discussed: freedom of movement, seating, and classroom display.     

Psychological assessment and dyslexia: parents’ perspectives

The purpose of this paper is to explore parents’ perceptions of the process of having their child assessed for dyslexia by an independent Educational Psychologist and the affective impact on the child or young person. The research was carried out as part of an evaluation of the services offered by the Northern Ireland Dyslexia Centre (NIDC). The methodology involved the use of a postal survey questionnaire with both qualitative and quantitative outcomes. Findings are discussed in the context of strategies for promoting partnerships with parents and affective-academic pathways for learners with dyslexia.     

The decision to send local children to international schools in Hong Kong: local parents’ perspectives

This article reports the findings of a qualitative study that investigates why some local Hong Kong parents decide to give up local education and send their children to international schools in Hong Kong. Data were gathered from 25 parents across eight selected school sites grouped as four cases based on the continental origins of those international schools. Data were analyzed by applying the inductive data analysis model of Miles and Huberman (Qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook. Sage, London 1994). Ten propositions were developed within four emergent fields. The propositions developed led to recommendations for practice and for future studies, which may have the potential to influence changes to education policy to better meet the needs of local Hong Kong students.     

Learning mathematics in mainstream secondary schools: experiences of students with Down’s syndrome

The key questions are: is it true that persons with Down’s syndrome can study mathematics only at a very elementary level? Might it be possible that their difficulties are mainly restricted to some fields, such as numeracy and mental computation, but do not encompass the entire domain of mathematics? Is the use of a calculator recommended? Is non-elementary mathematics accessible at most for the brightest students with Down’s syndrome? Our experience with about 30 students with Down’s syndrome, attending Italian mainstream secondary schools, is that these students can solve mathematical problems, using simple algebraic equations, though they may have very poor numeracy skills and need to use the calculator even with the simplest computations. Moreover, a familiarity with more advanced topics, as algebraic computation and analytic geometry, can help to raise their self-esteem and improve their numeracy too. Surprisingly, these students can learn and apply mathematical procedures in a variety of other different contexts. For instance, Francesca, an Italian student attending a secondary mainstream school, with a mild impairment in numeracy and relatively good linguistic skills, started with algebra and then learned to solve problems in the areas of nutritional science and of business administration. In the same way, Martina, a student in a mainstream secondary school with severe linguistic and numerical impairments, learned to work with Cartesian coordinates and formulas in analytic geometry. She began connecting points on a Cartesian plane, given their coordinates, and colouring in the shapes, such as flowers and animals, that they define. Applying the two points distance formula and verifying the result, she learned to measure the distance of two points with a ruler and to understand the concept of ‘millimetres’. The role of the inclusion in mainstream Italian schools of every disabled student, regardless the severity of the disability, has been crucial for these results.     

Patriotism in British schools: teachers’ and students’ perspectives

Because there are good arguments both for and against loving one’s country, patriotism should be taught as a controversial issue in schools. But is this pedagogical approach practically viable in the British educational context? Here we report on a small‐scale survey of teachers and students in secondary schools and show that their perspectives and practices are highly compatible with our recommended approach.     

Health and wellbeing and wider achievement: An analysis of teachers’ practices and learners’ experiences in Scottish secondary schools

There is a heightened policy expectation in Scotland that a greater curriculum emphasis on health and wellbeing (HWB) will positively contribute to learners’ reflections on their wider achievements. However, in terms of policy enactment, relatively little is known on the interrelationship between HWB and learners’ wider achievements. To address this limitation, data was gathered from four secondary schools in East central Scotland via an online survey, eight learner group interviews and eight teacher interviews. Findings indicated that learners’ grasp of how HWB connects with their broader achievements was generally vague and imprecise. Despite many areas of positive self-reporting learners’ progress was hampered by their lack of confidence in speaking in front of others and modest sense of school belonging. In addition, the practice gains anticipated through making HWB a more central feature of all learners’ broad general education were constrained by teachers’ variable level of engagement with their new roles and responsibilities, and by logistical problems in recording learners’ achievements. Further research which collects more extensive data on the weaknesses identified and on understanding learners’ HWB experiences better would contribute to a more insightful analysis of how schools enact policy and record achievement.     

Educational professionals’ values: voices from secondary schools in England

Background:?Values continue to play an integral part in education across the globe, but the importance of teachers’ personal values is often overlooked (Klein, M.B., New teaching and teacher issues, Nova Science Publishers Inc., 2006; Aspin, D.N., and J.D. Chapman, eds, Values education and lifelong learning: Principles, policies, programmes, Springer, 2007). It has been argued that teachers need explicit opportunities to reflect on their own personal and professional values to enable them to model what they ask of their students with integrity (Palmer, P.J., The courage to teach, Jossey Bass, 1998; Atkinson, T., and G. Claxton, The intuitive practitioner, Open University Press, 2000). Professional development is still often narrowly defined within the bounds of skills and competencies. However, discussion of values could help contribute to professional development by building teacher commitment and resilience.

Objective:?The purpose of this research was to explore the intrinsic values of secondary school professionals and the publicly espoused values of the educational systems in which they work. This research is the result of a two-year funded empirical study carried out by the authors in secondary schools in England.

Research design:?Research was undertaken in five schools in a range of educational contexts. In each school, individual conversations were undertaken with six key professionals with different roles to elicit personal constructs or values. These values were discussed within schools and formed a school's ‘values footprint’. An interschool workshop completed the data collection. Data were analysed qualitatively.

Main outcomes:?Qualitative analysis suggested relationships between the professional roles of the participants and predominant values themes. There were also connections between school types and predominating values. Four key themes emerged from the individual and group conversations: importance of dialogue; recognition of the importance of self-awareness; the priority of learning for life and the influence of professional roles on an individual's values focus.

Conclusion:?This small-scale study supports the importance of dialogue and self-awareness in professional life and ongoing professional development.     

Students’ experiences of teaching at secondary school and university: sharing responsibility for classroom engagement

Recently much research has focused on student engagement, both at school and at university. This attention is motivated by the role that engagement plays in student learning and in the student experience. Acknowledging that student engagement is a multifaceted construct we focus on the contribution that teaching and teacher traits make to the quality of student engagement, from the student’s perspective. In this small scale study, we adopt a qualitative methodology to investigate students’ perceptions of what factors impact on their engagement and what role the students themselves have in fostering such engagement. Focus group and one-to-one interviews with students in the last year of school and at university were analysed to reveal four overarching themes related to engagement in classroom life including the importance of active listening on the part of both students and teachers. The resulting Refined Quality Teaching Initiatives Framework outlines how dual engagement and active listening can be viable pedagogical strategies both at school and university. The framework also brings to the fore the active role and responsibilities that students have, in their own perceptions, for engagement in the classroom. We conclude with a reflection on the implications of our findings for teaching and teacher training.     

What were the processes and outcomes of involving secondary school pupils transitioning from primary to secondary school in pre-arrival shared-reading? A case study

ABSTRACT

Coombe Boys’ School in New Malden worked with Kingston University to establish a ‘Big Read’, a scheme of pre-arrival shared-reading for boys transitioning from local primary schools into year 7 of the Coombe Boys’ secondary school. A novel was chosen for shared-reading, and all arriving pupils were given a copy at their Induction Day (at the end of the summer term). Copies were also made available to all staff. The book was the basis of group-based activities during the school’s Summer School (three weeks before of the start of the autumn term) and of cross-curricular individual and group-based activities during the early teaching weeks of the new school year. Outcomes were monitored using online surveys of pupils, staff and parents/guardians, and through face to face interviews with individuals from representative groups. Here outcomes are reported, both direct and indirect, comparisons made with similar schemes within higher education, and recommendations are made for how the scheme might be adapted for greater effectiveness in future.     

Transfer to and study at secondary school in Finnish school culture: developing schools on the basis of pupils’ experiences

This chapter is a based on a study that examined, first, Finnish comprehensive school pupils’ transfer to secondary school and, second, the ways in which pupils’ experiences of schooling can contribute to the development and planning of an undivided comprehensive school system. Traditionally, Finnish discourse on the flexibility of the transfer has concentrated on the teacher's role as the central transformative force in bridging the gap between primary and secondary school. The voice of the pupils, who experience the changes, has tended to be regarded as of minor importance. When moving towards a fuller understanding of the transfer experience, it is important not only to include the pupils’ perspective but to examine, first, the school community and the factors promoting and/or preventing its functioning and, second, the learning environment of the adolescent. The results of the study clearly show that the pupils are able to assess the qualities of their school as a learning environment and to cope with the changes that result from the transfer to secondary school. Pupils were also ready to participate in developing a more unified comprehensive school system, but expressed their school experiences in a manner reflecting their developmental stage of adolescence and the prevailing school cultures. Thus, it remains the professional task of the teacher to analyse and interpret these messages in order to identify the key ingredients needed for developing such a system.     

Interventions in schools’ curricula to achieve quality in learning: experiences from the Commonwealth Caribbean

Abstract

For some four decades governments in Commonwealth Caribbean (CC) countries have been introducing interventions in their school systems to provide quality education for all. Examples of these are learner-centred teaching pedagogy and the integration of technology into teaching and learning. The data for the paper is based on published research and evaluation studies of these interventions. How successful have these interventions been? Following a discussion of how quality in education and learning has been interpreted, this paper seeks to answer this question through a review of selected interventions in schools in three CC countries. Challenges that CC countries need to address as they pursue goals relating to quality education are: the intersection of quality with access and equity, limitations in teacher training which have militated against change in teaching pedagogy, and resources and infrastructure.     

Threshold concepts and the troublesome transition from GCSE to A-level: exploring students’ experiences in secondary school biology

Abstract

This paper draws on doctoral research exploring the lived experiences of secondary school students during their first year of A-level study, through the theoretical lens of the Threshold Concept Framework. A longitudinal design frame based on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is employed, thus providing an original use of this methodology in education research to address the paucity of inquiry exploring the difficulties experienced by students as they transition from the General Certificate in Secondary Education (GCSE) to A-level. In this context, I argue that students’ encounters with threshold concepts (TCs) are significant for them, posing a degree of cognitive and affective challenge which serves to exacerbate the difficulty of transition already caused by increased workload and pressure. The findings offer insights into students’ struggles adjusting to shifting identity and membership of communities further intensified by the integrative, discursive and transformative nature of TC acquisition. The longitudinal research design also surfaces positive aspects of growing awareness of the integrative power of TCs. Recommendations are made for further research involving students, teachers and academics to explore TCs in a range of other subjects and settings in secondary schools in the context of recent and significant changes to GCSE and A-level curricula.     

A funds of knowledge approach to examining play interests: listening to children’s and parents’ perspectives

Children’s interests are widely recognised as pivotal to meaningful learning and play in the early years. However, less is known about how children’s diverse interests may contribute to relationships and interactions within peer cultures. This article builds upon previous studies to argue that participation in sociocultural activity generates interests informed by funds of knowledge that children reconstruct in their play. It reports findings from an interpretive study that used filmed footage of children’s play as a provocation to explore the perspectives of children, parents and teachers. The article presents original insights regarding some ways in which mutually constituted funds of knowledge afford opportunities for children to co-construct meaning. The findings also indicate that interests arising from diverse funds of knowledge may contribute to the interplay of power, agency and status within peer cultures. This raises some issues regarding how matters of inclusion and exclusion are understood and responded to within early years settings. The article recommends that teachers and researchers engage critically with children’s individual and collective funds of knowledge in order to better understand the complexities of play cultures.     

Impact evaluation from quality assurance agencies’ perspectives: methodological approaches,experiences and expectations

Starting from the main objective of external quality assurance (EQA) procedures to assure and improve the quality of higher education institutions and its provisions, the paper examines expected impacts of EQA procedures on institutions from the perspectives of three European quality assurance agencies. First, the paper examines the expected impacts of different standard parts of a typical peer review procedure on higher education institutions and assesses when a procedure is most likely to have an effect on the institution. The second part presents the current practices of the three EQA agencies, AQU Catalunya (Spain), Evaluationsagentur Baden-Württemberg (evalag) (Germany) and the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (Finland) on assessing the impact of their EQA procedures.     

Problematising school space for Indigenous education: teachers’ and parents’ perspectives

This interpretive study explores the relationship between spatial qualities and school-parent engagement in three primary schools which serve low income periurban Indigenous families in north Australia. Drawing from interviews with educators and parents, school-based observations and community fieldwork conducted over the course of two years in two different towns, we found that educators are very concerned that schools, as western institutions, present cultural and physical barriers to effective engagement; but that this view is not shared by Indigenous parents. Rather than seeing this as a simple issue of cultural difference, our analysis seeks to unravel the curious way in which the otherness of school space is acknowledged in educator discourse. Only some place features of school are suggested as a barrier by educators while other aspects – such as the clear identification of insiders and outsiders through school routines and locales – remain unremarked. We conclude by suggesting that schools are inherently exclusionary, a foundational fact which both parents and educators accept and respond to, in ways which both explain the push for engagement within education policy and its irrelevance as a concern for parents.     

Students’ beliefs and experiences of interdisciplinary learning

This study explored senior secondary students’ beliefs and experiences of learning an interdisciplinary curriculum, Liberal Studies, in Hong Kong. Through the analysis of focus-group interviews with 168 students, most of the students were found to enjoy or at least not resist interdisciplinary learning, and preferred to study real-world contemporary issues. More than half of the students, however, expressed their relative lack of confidence in interdisciplinary learning because of the difficulties they encountered in Independent Enquiry Studies and the public examination. The students were also found to have undertaken examination-oriented activities when the public examination approached. The study sheds light on the realization of interdisciplinary learning in secondary education in contexts where teacher-centred pedagogy and an accountability agenda remain influential.     

Students’ experiences of learning with iPads in upper secondary school – a base for proto-TPACK

This research focuses on Finnish students’ (n?=?84) experiences of using personal iPads in their studies through 3 years of upper secondary schooling. It is based on results from one of the first schools in Finland where all the new students were provided with iPads at the start of their studies. Data consists of: (i) 127 short stories written by students about how they would advise a new teacher and a new student to use iPads in teaching and learning, and (ii) four group discussions on the same topics. Qualitative thematic analysis of the data was guided by the TPACK framework. Results suggest that: (i) teachers’ pedagogical approaches changed little in response to the new devices and remained largely teacher-centred, and (ii) students do not have the confidence to radically change learning styles to take advantage of the affordances of the devices. The value that iPads add to teaching and learning is difficult to quantify because of the complex and often conflicting factors involved. Overall, the findings imply that teachers’ TPACK is generally resistant to change and students’ proto-TPACK is insufficiently developed to initiate change. An approach that systematically develops both students’ and teachers’ TPACK is advocated.