Person-centred practices in education: a systematic review of research

Opportunities for children to be involved in the decisions made about them is a part of current statutory educational legislation. Person-centred planning (PCP) has been proposed as an appropriate method of meeting statutory requirements. However, there is a dearth of research into its application within education. The paper describes a systematic literature review of current research into PCP within education for pupils with SEMH and the associated outcomes. PCP appears to be an effective way of engaging children, young people and their families but research within education is currently limited and methodologically weak. More rigorous research is needed into PCP and its effectiveness and should include the use of standardised and/or observable measures, more varied ranges of contexts and participants, and longitudinal and child-led designs.     

‘I'm going to feel stressed,but now I know how to handle it’: reducing test anxiety and improving student well-being at GCSE

Test anxiety has become a widespread issue in many contemporary societies, having a significant detrimental effect on the attainment, health and well-being of many young people. This paper evaluates a school-based, multimodal test anxiety intervention framework, ‘Every Little Helps’ (ELH), developed by educational psychologists and delivered to small groups of GCSE students (aged 15–16) in two secondary schools in the North West of England. A quasi-experimental, mixed methods approach was adopted. Findings suggest that ELH is helpful in reducing test anxiety amongst GCSE students. Participants report a range of helpful outcomes including an increased sense of control and competence through increased academic attainment, enhanced control of emotions and more helpful ways of thinking. Participants also report beneficial wider impacts as a result of being able to generalise learnt skills and techniques to other aspects of their lives. Implications for educational policy and practice and future research are considered.     

Teachers,Arts Practice and Pedagogy

What are possible overlaps between arts practice and school pedagogy? How is teacher subjectivity and pedagogy affected when teachers engage with arts practice, in particular, theatre practices? We draw on research conducted into the Learning Performance Network (LPN), a project that involved school teachers working with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the University of Warwick. The aim of the commissioned research was to look at the effects on teacher development, focusing on the active rehearsal room pedagogic techniques and ensemble methods of exploring Shakespearean text and performance. The practices of working as an ensemble through rehearsal room pedagogy were central to the LPN. Our interest is in looking for possible shifts in teachers’ subjectivity, their self-perception. What affordances, limitations, accommodations and tensions are experienced by the teachers in transposing work from the rehearsal room to the classroom? We draw on a range of cultural theories that provide complementary perspectives on aspects of subjectivity; these include Vygotskian approaches to the psychology of art and acting. Raymond Williams’s work on the ‘dramatized society’ and Jacques Rancière’s work on spectatorship and pedagogy. Data in the form of excerpts from field notes, taken in an introductory workshop where teachers worked with theatre practitioners, and from transcribed interviews with participants in the project are used to provide evidence of shifts in perspective, self-perception and pedagogic practice.     

Creativity and whole school change: An investigation of English headteacher practices

Schools in England have been required to adopt and adapt an ongoing series of policy initiatives: some however are offered on an ‘opt-in’ basis. This paper examines one such ‘offer,’ that of Creative Partnerships, a programme which provides schools in designated deprived areas the opportunity to work with creative practitioners in order to change both classroom practice and whole schools. We report here on the snapshot phase of a national study, using a corpus of multi-method qualitative data from 40 schools. We suggest that headteachers saw different opportunities in the CP offer but what actually happened in the school related to three interwoven strands: the situatedness of the school, the headteacher’s stance towards change, and the architecture of change management. Our analysis, which highlights the ways in which many of the schools were unable to ‘spread and embed’ the pedagogical changes supported through CP, suggests that the majority of heads could benefit from involvement in explicit discussion about ‘unofficial’—and more democratic—approaches to leading and managing change.     

Development and evaluation of computer‐assisted assessment in higher education in relation to BS7988

A university‐wide project team of academic and administrative staff worked together to prepare, deliver and evaluate a number of diagnostic, formative and summative computer‐based assessments. The team also attempted to assess the University of Southampton's readiness to deliver computer‐assisted assessment (CAA) within the Code of practice for the use of information technology in the delivery of assessments (British Standards Institution, 2002 British Standards Institution (BSI). 2002. BS7988: 200—code of practice for the use of information technology in the delivery of assessments, London: British Standards Institution.  [Google Scholar]). Evaluation data was used formatively to improve procedures during the project and summatively in preparing the project's final report, this publication and future support for CAA at Southampton. Some of the problems encountered during this pilot programme were anticipated, both by the project team and by BS7988; but they were not necessarily or entirely avoidable given the nature of control and management in an academic environment. Our approach was to encourage institutional learning via extensive dissemination and discussion of the results. To contribute to the public debate on the adoption of BS7988, we highlight difficulties in allocating responsibility for various aspects of the assessment process and make a number of recommendations about this and other practical issues.     

Scaffolding Mathematics Remediation for Academically At-Risk Students Following Developmental Education Reform in Florida

The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand how educational scaffolding may explain changing patterns of student success in mathematics in the era of developmental education (DE or remediation) reform in Florida College System (FCS) institutions. Specifically, we apply the concept of scaffolding to underprepared FCS students who are at risk of dropping out or failing gateway courses (the first credit-bearing college-level class in a course sequence) because they lack the academic skills necessary to succeed in college-level coursework, particularly in mathematics. We present data from focus groups conducted at 10 FCS institutions, suggesting that a reduction of scaffolding in math remediation occurred in the areas of course sequencing, instruction, and coordination with academic support services following state-level policy changes. In light of these findings, we offer a discussion of practical recommendations for college administrators related to academic advising, instructional strategies in DE courses, coordination between developmental and college-level instructors, student success courses, and the integration of DE instruction with academic support. We also suggest directions for continued research on the effects of policy changes in the FCS and DE reform efforts across the country.     

Using Activity Theory to explore the management of General Certificate of Education (GCSE) access arrangements

Access arrangements are the way in which awarding bodies for public examinations in England, such as the General Certificate of Secondary Education, make reasonable adjustments for students with special educational needs and disabilities. SENCos have expressed concerns about the onerous nature of managing requirements for access arrangements, both administratively and practically, but there has been little explanation of why an apparently straightforward process proves so challenging. In this study, the development of a whole-school system to improve the administrative and practical management of access arrangements is used to seek to understand how the requirements set (and re-set) annually interact with school systems and processes to render the administration of access arrangements potentially complex, time-consuming and unpredictable. Scotland's flexible, school-led framework of requirements for the management of public examination assessment arrangements is highlighted as potentially more fit-for-purpose for the organisation of statutory reasonable adjustments for educational assessment.