Cooperative learning in science: intervention in the secondary school

The use of cooperative learning in secondary school is reported – an area of considerable concern given attempts to make secondary schools more interactive and gain higher recruitment to university science courses. In this study the intervention group was 259 pupils aged 12–14 years in nine secondary schools, taught by 12 self‐selected teachers. Comparison pupils came from both intervention and comparison schools (n = 385). Intervention teachers attended three continuing professional development days, in which they received information, engaged with resource packs and involved themselves in cooperative learning. Measures included both general and specific tests of science, attitudes to science, sociometry, self‐esteem, attitudes to cooperative learning and transferable skills (all for pupils) and observation of implementation fidelity. There were increases during cooperative learning in pupil formulation of propositions, explanations and disagreements. Intervened pupils gained in attainment, but comparison pupils gained even more. Pupils who had experienced cooperative learning in primary school had higher pre‐test scores in secondary education irrespective of being in the intervention or comparison group. On sociometry, comparison pupils showed greater affiliation to science work groups for work, but intervention pupils greater affiliation to these groups at break and out of school. Other measures were not significant. The results are discussed in relation to practice and policy implications.     

Research on Baseline Assessment in Mathematics at School Entry

This paper presents findings from research investigating the skills and knowledge in Mathematics of Cypriot pupils entering primary school (Average age=5.92 (decimal years)). A performance test, which was designed to assess skills and knowledge in Mathematics identified in the Curriculum of Primary Education in Cyprus, was administered to a representative sample of pupils in Year 1 (n=835). Teachers were also asked to complete a report for each pupil. The most important findings were as follows. Firstly, the skills included in the curriculum were differentiated into those which more than 75% of pupils entering primary schools had achieved and those which more than 30% of pupils entering primary school had not achieved. Secondly, significant differences among the skills and knowledge of the whole group of pupils entering primary school have been identified. Thirdly, cluster analysis revealed five relatively homogeneous groups of pupils according to their different knowledge and skills in Mathematics. Fourthly, a correlation was identified between findings gathered from the performance test and from teachers' assessment of pupils' skills in Mathematics. Implications for the development of a national policy on baseline assessment are drawn.     

The Catholic school advantage and common school effect examined: a comparison between Muslim immigrant and native pupils in Flanders

This study investigates the impact of Catholic schooling on academic achievement of native Belgian and Muslim immigrant pupils. The distinctive characteristics of Catholic schools in Belgium (Flanders) form an exceptionally suitable context to study this. Multilevel latent growth curve analyses are conducted with data from approximately 5,000 pupils across 200 primary schools. No support was found for the Catholic school advantage hypothesis as the overall achievement growth for math and reading was not significantly better in Catholic schools than in public schools. Likewise, no evidence was found for the so-called “common school effect” hypothesis: The learning growth of Muslim pupils was not significantly better in Catholic schools. In fact, the initial achievement gap was found to be higher in Catholic schools than in public schools. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Inequality in language achievement growth? An investigation into the impact of pupil socio‐ethnic background and school socio‐ethnic composition

This paper investigates how pupils' growth trajectories in three language domains (reading fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension) are related to their own socioeconomic and ethnic background and to the socioeconomic and ethnic composition of their primary school. Using multilevel piecewise growth curve analysis, the growth trajectories of approximately 5000 pupils from 170 primary schools were estimated. The results indicate that a pupil's socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds have the largest impact on achievement and growth in reading comprehension and the smallest impact on reading fluency. Furthermore, school ethnic composition—but not socioeconomic composition—was related to pupils' achievement in all three language domains at the first measurement occasion, though none of the types of school composition was related to growth. The research findings therefore imply that to combat the deficits in language proficiency often found in ethnic minority pupils, priority should be given to investments in individual intervention programmes over policy plans to desegregate schools. Moreover, our study identifies the specific points in time during primary school at which intervention programmes are needed the most.     

试论高校图书馆员阅读与专业能力构建

高校图书馆员阅读是学校教学科研发展的需要,图书馆员阅读对专业能力构建起决定性作用。图书馆员的阅读,促进图书馆员专业能力构建和提高,推动图书馆工作的开展,图书馆员要注重阅读,馆员的阅读普及、提高要靠图书馆的引领。     

Differences in Effectiveness Between Primary Schools and their Impact on Secondary School Recommendations

In school effectiveness research differences between schools are mainly expressed in percentages of the variance in cognitive test scores. This article focuses on the impact these differences in effectiveness have on the school career of pupils. The analyses were executed on the data of a school effectiveness study carried out in 1987 and 1988. Two groups of outlier primary schools were selected. The pupils were divided into four categories based on their IQ-score, and into four categories based on their SES-score. Four dependent variables were used: test scores on language, test scores on mathematics, expectations for the follow-up secondary school type based on these test scores, and the actual secondary school recommendation given by the teacher. For all groups of pupils the average scores on mathematics, language and the total standard test score differ significantly for both low- and high-effective schools. The actual recommendation for type of secondary education does not differ significantly. This leads to the conclusion that the recommendations given to the other pupils in the same grade seem to be important; schools tend to recommend a secondary school type according to a normal distribution. High-effective schools tend to recommend beneath, while low-effective schools tend to advise above the expectations.     

Lower secondary school teachers' judgements of pupils' problems

Lower secondary school teachers from six different schools in one Norwegian municipality reported on the prevalence of problems among pupils entering lower secondary school and types of problems among pupils in Grades 8–10. Teachers report that the transition from Elementary to Lower secondary school is problematic for approximately 30% of the pupils. About 70% of the teachers report that 25% or more of pupils transitioning to Grade 8 lack academic experiences and skills and have problems following directions. There is also a tendency for teachers who report higher values on professional (un)certainty about pupils' learning and on two efficacy variables included in the study, to be more favourably inclined towards inclusion of children who are perceived as having learning or behaviour problems. Additionally, teachers who report higher values on efficacy scales tend to report lower values on problems among pupils, and teachers who are less favourable towards inclusion report higher numbers of pupils having problems. The results are discussed in relation to schools as workplaces and professional development for pre‐service and in‐service teachers.     

School type and academic culture: evidence for the differentiation–polarization theory

Several decades ago it was shown that the differentiation of pupils into tracks and streams led to a polarization into ‘anti‐school’ and ‘pro‐school’ cultures. Support for this differentiation–polarization theory is mainly based on case studies. This paper presents findings of a quantitative study in Belgium (Flanders). Attention is given to the conceptualization of the polarization component of the differentiation–polarization theory. The findings suggest that the culture of pupils is less study‐oriented in technical/vocational schools than in general (grammar) schools. The differentiation–polarization theory also applies to school staffs: the staff culture is less academically‐oriented in technical/vocational schools than in general schools. Moreover, staffs' attitudes towards pupils—their judgements on the teachability of pupils and the trust they place in pupils—are different.     

THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH‐‐II

Recent work aimed at involving parents more in the teaching of reading by encouraging parents to hear their children read school reading books at home has created a great deal of interest. But to what extent does it depart from normal school practice?

Little is known about schools’ attitudes to parental involvement in home‐based, as opposed to school‐based, educational activities. Therefore a study was made of a sample of 16 infant and first schools. Interviews were carried out with head teachers, all teachers of seven‐year‐olds, and some of their pupils. It was found that whilst there was general support for the idea of parental involvement in the teaching of reading this stopped short of helping parents hear their own children read at home. An examination of the schools’ practice suggested that at present comparatively few children regularly take school reading books to read at home.     

Home and Parental Influences on the Achievement of Lower Primary School Children in Singapore

This study investigated the effects of home environment and parental involvement in the achievement of pupils in the lower primary classes in nine schools found in four zones in Singapore. In total, 3,759 pupils and their parents participated in the study. The study was designed to answer four main questions relating to the effects of the home environment (SES, time engaged in television viewing, reading, school work and ethnicity of parents) and parental involvement in the children's school work and in other school matters. The findings indicated that significant differences in achievement were found for all combinations of SES categories and between most ethnic groups. A higher percentage of high-achieving pupils spent more time on television viewing, reading and school work. Parents of high-achieving children were more anxious about maximising every opportunity for their children including those not directly related to school work.     

How can children with mild literacy difficulties be supported at the transition to secondary school? A small‐scale quasi‐experimental study

There is evidence that pupils with weak literacy skills struggle on transition to secondary school. Many experience a drop in attainment in the summer break between the two. A British government‐funded programme of rigorously designed research on boosting literacy at transition had (by 2015) found only four of 15 interventions evaluated had positive effects. This small‐scale quasi‐experimental study investigated the effectiveness of support for pupils with mild literacy difficulties on transition to secondary school. Thirty‐two pupils in three schools were involved; half received the programme. Pairs were matched on reading, spelling, age and gender. Intervention was designed around the individual needs of each pupil, focusing variously on language skills, writing, reading and spelling. The group receiving the programme made modest gains in spelling, reading efficiency and single word reading. The comparison group lost ground, relatively, in all three areas. The results suggest a promising line for more rigorous investigation.     

School Subject Preferences of Pupils in Single Sex and Co‐educational Secondary Schools

Rankings of school subject preferences were obtained from 321 male and 327 female pupils aged 11‐12 years, and 245 male and 240 female pupils aged 15‐16 years, from both single sex and co‐educational secondary schools. Overall rank orders showed an effect of school type for younger pupils only, in which evidence for less gender stereotyping of school subjects in single sex schools was found. The rankings of the older pupils, while not affected by school type, did show a clear effect of gender, with higher rankings being given to mathematics, science and physical education by boys and to art by girls.     

Computerised formative assessment of reading comprehension: field trials in the UK

Increased curriculum time allocated to reading might not be effective in raising achievement. Teachers need to closely monitor and manage both the quality and quantity of individualised reading of all their pupils for optimal effectiveness. ‘Learning information systems’ (LIS) for reading such as the ‘Accelerated Reader’ (AR) enable this through individualised computerised assessment of pupil comprehension of ‘real books’, with feedback to both pupil and teacher. This study explored the impact of AR on reading achievement in 13 schools of different types spread across the UK, the majority socio‐economically disadvantaged. Participating pupils were aged 7–14 years. Pre‐post norm‐referenced gains in reading achievement were measured by group paper‐reading tests and a computer‐based adaptive reading test. The implementation integrity of AR was assessed by direct observation by researchers and through data generated by the programme itself. On both paper and computer‐based reading tests, on aggregate pupils in the 13 schools gained in reading at abnormally high and statistically significant rates. Boys tended to show larger gains than girls on the paper test. However, implementation integrity was very variable. In particular, some teachers failed to intervene in response to AR data indicating that pupils were reading ineffectively. AR appears to have potential for raising reading achievement, but only if implemented appropriately.     

The Effect of Increasing Conceptual Challenge in Primary Science Lessons on Pupils' Achievement and Engagement

This paper reports research into the effect on 11‐year‐old pupils of introducing more cognitively challenging, practical, and interactive science lessons. Our hypothesis was that such lessons would increase the children's enthusiasm for science and their engagement with the scientific process, thereby improving educational performance. Schools in England are under pressure to raise achievement, as measured by the results of national tests. This has an impact on teaching, where revision of subject knowledge often dominates and can be particularly detrimental to more able pupils. The research was a controlled trial which took place in thirty‐two English primary schools as part of a project “Conceptual Challenge in Primary Science”. Teachers from 16 intervention schools participated in continuing professional development (CPD) and developed science lessons that had more practical work, more discussion, more thinking and less (but more focused) writing. The proportion of pupils achieving the highest level (level 5) in the national science tests at age 11 was compared in the matched‐school pairs before and after the intervention. Focus group interviews were also held with a group of pupils in each intervention school. There was a 10% (95% Confidence Interval 2–17%) increase in the proportion of children achieving the top score in the intervention schools. The pupils and teachers reported greater engagement and motivation. These findings suggest that moving from rote revision to cognitively challenging, interactive science could help improve science education. They merit replication in other international settings to test their generalisability.     

Antecedents affecting science achievement scores in classrooms in Trinidad and Tobago

This paper initially notes the role of scientific education in a developing country and the need to enhance scientific education among the school population. Enhancement of science education for all pupils is dependent on the distribution of schools, quality of schools and pupil participation in any country. To understand how science education is advanced in a developing country it is also important to know who is currently succeeding in science education in schools and to understand how this success is distributed amongst the school population. Thus, this paper questions whether school-based science achievement may be predetermined by antecedent factors or whether there is an equal opportunity of success amongst all pupil participants. A review of the literature has found that many antecedent factors affect school and science achievement, and these factors may be more important than within-school processes thought to enhance science education. The antecedent factors refer to: social/home background; age, religion and sex of the pupil; school class level and size; type of school attended and its locality.This study assesses how antecedent factors affect science performance in a representative sample of pupils in primary and secondary schools throughout Trinidad and Tobago. The representative sample totalled 1998 children, aged 6–10 years. Pupils were selected from a geographic transect of Trinidad and Tobago, which fulfilled demographic criteria. Once pupils were selected, biographic data were obtained for each child. Science achievement was measured by an end-of-term science examination designed for each class by the class teacher and graded on a 100% scale (within each class). Within class pupil scores were ‘standardized’ for comparisons between classes, schools, etc. Results from the analyses are summarized as: science achievement scores decrease as pupils increase in age. Girls perform consistently better than boys, with a slight variation in the sex by religion by school level interaction. Pupils in private schools score higher than pupils in similar levels of state schools. Pupils from a middle class background perform better than pupils from a working class background. Differences in performance relate to the religion of the child, with Muslim pupils scoring higher than Hindu or Christian pupils. Pupils in single-sex schools perform at higher levels than pupils in co-educational schools, and this is true for girls-only and boys-only schools. At the secondary school level the type of school attended is related to science achievement performance with pupils in prestige (usually church controlled) schools performing better than pupils in the comprehensive (state controlled) schools.The results support, develop and refine the previous literature on school and science achievement. Unusually, girls are at the forefront of science achievement in both primary and secondary schools. Also, traditional prejudices of social class, school status and location are confirmed within the school system in Trinidad and Tobago. A number of directions for future research and classroom action studies are indicated which focus on the existence of these inequalities.     

School effects and ethnic,gender and socio-economic gaps in educational achievement at age 11

There are long-standing achievement gaps in England associated with socio-economic status (SES), ethnicity and gender, but relatively little research has evaluated interactions between these variables or explored school effects on such gaps. This paper analyses the national test results at age 7 and age 11 of 2,836 pupils attending 68 mainstream primary schools in an ethnically diverse inner London borough. The groups with the lowest educational achievement and poorest progress were both Black Caribbean and White British low SES pupils. White British middle and high SES pupils made substantially more progress than White British low SES pupils, significantly increasing the SES gap over time. However low and high SES Black pupils made equally poor progress age 7–11. School effects on pupil progress were large, but there was no evidence of differential school effectiveness in relation to SES, ethnicity or gender. Low SES pupils in the more effective schools performed significantly better than high SES pupils in the less effective schools, but all pupils (both low and high SES) benefit from attending the more effective schools and so these schools do not eliminate the SES gap. The limits to change that may be achieved by schools alone are discussed.     

家庭环境是怎样影响小学生学习表现的——基于对新教育实验“家校合作共育”行动效果的调查

通过构建家庭环境影响小学生学习表现的基本机制并运用结构方程模型、多元线性回归分析等方法对770名参与新教育实验“家校合作共育”行动和726名未参与这一行动的小学生进行配对抽样并分析,结果发现:家庭环境通过学生学习投入、学校环境等中介变量对小学生学习表现产生显著作用,学校环境能够直接对小学生的学习投入和学习表现产生显著的正向作用,家校合作共育能够显著改善小学生学习表现。新教育实验学校学生的家庭藏书量显著高于非新教育实验学校的学生,新教育实验学校学生在阅读表现和数学表现上存在显著优势。学校参与新教育实验“家校合作共育”行动的时间越长,其学生的阅读表现和数学表现明显更好。为强化家庭环境对小学生学习表现的积极影响,在兼顾学生性别、年龄以及学校所在地区等因素的同时,可通过打造家庭书屋、创建书香校园、推进每月一事、优化家校合作等方式强化家庭环境对小学生学习表现的积极影响。     

Reading Intervention for Poor Readers at the Transition to Secondary School

This study evaluated two 20-week reading interventions for pupils entering secondary school with reading difficulties. The interventions were delivered by trained teaching assistants (three 35-min sessions per week). 287 pupils (ages 11–13) from 27 schools were randomly allocated to three groups: reading intervention (targeting word recognition and decoding skills), reading intervention plus comprehension, or a waiting list control group. Neither intervention produced statistically significant gains in word reading but the reading intervention plus comprehension intervention produced significant gains in reading comprehension (d = 0.29) and vocabulary (d = 0.34). Further evaluations of methods to improve word reading in this population are needed.     

Can Schools Offer Solutions to Small-scale Farmers in Africa? Analysis of the Socioeconomic Benefits of Primary School Agriculture in Uganda

Abstract

This paper discusses the factors influencing application of school gardening knowledge and skills by pupils at school and household level; and whether pupils are effective sources of information to their parents. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare cohorts of 30 pupils randomly selected from eight schools in Kumi and Tororo districts of Uganda. In each school, 15 pupils were randomly assigned to either a home or school supervised gardening group. The groups were guided and evaluated by teachers and members of agriculture advisory committees drawn from local communities. Findings show that application and learning transfer of agriculture knowledge and skills depend on opportunities availed to pupils at school and homes to practice what they learn. Pupils' performance depended on willingness of parents and teachers to offer support such as availing land for home gardens. Contrary to existing literature pupils effectively passed gardening information to their parents despite language constraints, timidity and usefulness of the messages. In Uganda, agriculture is a fully-fledged subject in primary schools. Findings show that if schools are to contribute to farming at village level, existing curricula should include supervised home gardening and that parents can be targeted through school gardening outreach programming. The paper contributes to the debate about the value of school agriculture as a solution to unemployed school-leavers rather than a dead end that competes with the priorities of basic Education for All.