Promoting staff support in schools: Solution Circles

The Solution Circle (SC) approach is a flexible tool which encourages participants to maintain a positive, creative approach to problem-solving. This project focussed on the introduction of this approach to staff in a primary and a secondary school. The rationale was to implement a problem-solving/discussion tool that would allow staff to utilise expertise present within the school before looking to outside agencies for support. In both schools staff participants reported positively about the process, highlighting its potential use to promote the inclusion of pupils with a wide range of needs.     

Conversation and Conflict: Supporting Authentic Dialogue in the Classroom

This paper presents an exploratory study of MSW students who self‐identified as having political/religious world views differing from what they perceived to be dominant at their school. A goal was to learn about conditions that fostered or inhibited authentic speech for those students. A secondary goal was to learn how students dealt with their political views differing from political positions taken by the profession. Eleven student volunteers participated in structured interviews. Qualitative analysis of these allowed the construction of themes concerning both how faculty may discourage and how faculty support expression of minority views.     

Emotionally Intense Science Activities

Science activities that evoke positive emotional responses make a difference to students’ emotional experience of science. In this study, we explored 8th Grade students’ discrete emotions expressed during science activities in a unit on Energy. Multiple data sources including classroom videos, interviews and emotion diaries completed at the end of each lesson were analysed to identify individual student's emotions. Results from two representative students are presented as case studies. Using a theoretical perspective drawn from theories of emotions founded in sociology, two assertions emerged. First, during the demonstration activity, students experienced the emotions of wonder and surprise; second, during a laboratory activity, students experienced the intense positive emotions of happiness/joy. Characteristics of these activities that contributed to students’ positive experiences are highlighted. The study found that choosing activities that evoked strong positive emotional experiences, focused students’ attention on the phenomenon they were learning, and the activities were recalled positively. Furthermore, such positive experiences may contribute to students’ interest and engagement in science and longer term memorability. Finally, implications for science teachers and pre-service teacher education are suggested.     

Does academic self-concept drive academic achievement?

Gaps in GCSE attainment have long been the concern of policy makers, academics, and social commentators, largely due to the importance of these exams for setting children on their future academic and career pathways. In the past a wide range of factors relating to the pupils, their families, and their schools have been found to account for differences in GCSE attainment. In this paper we examine the role of pupils’ beliefs in their own academic ability (academic self-concept). Using Next Steps data, we examine whether pupils with higher academic self-concept do better or worse in their GCSEs than pupils with lower academic self-concept. Results show that on average, controlling for other characteristics, having high academic self-concept increases GCSE scores by four grades. When we compare academic self-concept to measured achievement we find that both high and low attainers have higher probabilities of achieving five A*–C GCSEs and higher GCSE point scores on average if they have high academic self-concept than similarly able students who have lower academic self-concept.     

The first seven years at school

This paper assesses the cumulative long-term impact of successive years of high quality provision in schools. This was achieved by looking at the consequences, up to the age of 11 (Year 6), of attending a school where there was high or low value-added in each of the 7 years of primary education in England. Multi-level models for thousands of pupils were set up in which the relative contribution of the school was estimated each year, as was the impact of attainment levels reached in each previous year. The analyses indicated that: relative progress each year was important but progress in the earliest years was the most important. Good progress in the first year at school was still detectable in the last year of primary schooling. Boosts or setbacks to progress in one year can be added or subtracted to progress in another. The relative importance of school for maths and reading were similar but smaller for vocabulary. The analyses suggest that teachers are of key importance when considering educational effectiveness and the implication for policy makers and school effectiveness researchers are discussed.

Determinants of private school participation: All about the money?

For those who grew up in Britain in the latter half of the twentieth century, there is known to be a strong association between social class or family income and attending a private school. However, increasing private school fees and promotion of school choice in the state sector have potential implications for the predictors of participation in private schooling in the twenty-first century. In this article, through analysis of rich, longitudinal data from a recent, representative birth cohort study, we provide new evidence on this issue. Given the high and rising fees required to send a child to private school, one might think that the decision is entirely connected with financial resources. However, while these remain an important factor, we argue that other determinants are also important. In particular, we highlight the importance of parental values and geographical proximity to high-quality state school alternatives: a one standard deviation increase in levels of parental traditional values is associated with a 2.5 percentage point higher probability of their child attending a private school, while each minute of additional travel time to the nearest state school judged ‘Outstanding’ by England’s schools inspectorate is associated with a 0.2 percentage point higher probability of attending a private school. We also examine the characteristics of those who ‘mix and match’ state and private schooling, noting their similarity to private school attendees in terms of their values but lower levels of financial resources.