ETF OTLA Research Project Feb-July 2019 exploring possible - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ETF OTLA Research Project Feb-July 2019 exploring possible strategies to address: Achievement gaps of our most vulnerable students with focus on English & Construction curriculum areas Summary of: Ø Research project – the process Ø Findings Ø How findings feed into improving the teaching, learning and assessment of GCSE English

Project research process Identify sample and student researchers Survey of prior experience of English GCSE Pod Student to Student Action Research End of survey responses to process Findings inform English strategy for next year

Survey responses at start of project 56% 59%

32% 93%

100% 100%

I like the option of working on the GCSE Pod as I can revise for my English at my own pace and select what I want to work on. END OF 94% yes PROJECT STUDENT SURVEY 84% RESPONSES 84%

94% 94%

75% 81%

32% 91%

Student Action Research: preparations Spider diagram containing information regarding the research groups English learning experience.

Spider chart of pros and cons of pastoral support. Key themes highlighted to generate questions.

Notes taken during the focus group training .

Further prep prior to research.. Questions generated after considering survey results and findings from group discussions…from which further amendments were made…

Student-to-student consultation

Appendix 6: Final Questions 1. How important do you think gaining and English GCSE is to your college course? 2. Do you think gaining a GCSE in English is essential to everyday life? 3. Describe what the learning environment is like during your English lesson at College is like. 4. In your English lessons at College do you think the Learning Environment is effective? If so, why? If not, why? 5. What are the main differences in the learning environment for English Lessons between School and College? 6. If you receive any, do you feel like you receive enough support in your English Lessons at College? 7. If you receive any, is the support you get in your English Lessons at College different to school? Is so, how? 8. What do you enjoy about your English Lessons at College? 9. What would you change about your English Lessons at College? 10. Was there anything you particularly enjoyed within your English Lessons at School that is not part of your English Lessons at College? 11. Do you feel as though the exam environment/process effects your productivity during the exam? 12. Is your motivation for doing English at College different to when you did English at School? 13. Do you think revision in preparation for your English Exam is important? 14. Do you feel like all learning and exam preparation should take place in the classroom and should be up to your English tutor to ensure you feel prepared or do you think that you as an individual should take some of the responsibility?

‘Headline’ responses from student action research… • Don’t appreciate value of English skills development • Do recognise the link between GCSE and money earned • Don’t want to write, want to type • Low level behaviour disrupts learning in class • 90 minutes too long if working on something they can’t do • Prefer English at college to English at school; treated more as an individual in college rather than as a class –feel more motivated to learn than when at school (more person-centred approach / maximising potential for all message getting through…) • Lessons more relaxed, teachers more approachable/supportive in college • Lack of links between core subjects and English – they are too separate • English skills need to be made more explicit in core voc subjects/not so focussed on GCSE achievement - change the conversations – (make English more real in the trade’s workshops )

‘Headline’ responses from student action research • English not ‘made real’ enough in the vocational contexts • Aspirations need to be pushed much more; students want to be challenged further than their ‘target’ grades in English and don’t want everything always framed within their GCSE target grade Surprising finding: • Student perceptions need to be challenged, they make judgements based on appearances/dress, equate that with ‘value’ – judgements, based on stereotyping eg teachers could dress more in trade gear to challenge student views: if wearing suit/smart then you are ‘worth’ more etc …

GCSE POD: 29/4/19 – 24/5/19 ( 4 weeks) • 100% PARTICIPATION • 357 DIFFERENT PODS VIEWED • All viewed ‘ in college ’

GCSE pod feedback • - Excellent online training and service to get set up and running and trouble shoot • - Very good teacher support resources to introduce GCSE pod to staff and students • - It appears to have a good range of topics, pods and questions to choose from. Multiple choice and self grading (good for workload) • - The videos are short enough and specific enough to be easily digestible for students (especially those with a short attention span) • - Easy to create pods for teachers to put together online activities. But I think that these could be all set up in advance or by one person on the department centrally and accessed by all - to avoid it becoming “another job to do” each week. • - It could be worked on independently towards the back end of the 3 hour lesson to bridge its use to outside of class as “homework” • - I would recommend the Maths version for maths, that way student s of both maths and English have consistency, but teachers from both subjects can support one another

Key Findings informing next year • GCSE POD 100% take up – positive responses – rolling out to entire English cohort next year • Engaging with students re prior experience of English; addressing the ‘elephant in the room’= useful part of process in ‘metacognition’ – getting them to think about their experiences and from this: what could they /we do differently now? • Student action research reinforced need for us to ‘change the conversation ‘ and make English ‘mighty real’ for students + v. different from school– importance of ‘bridging’ -part of metacognition process- in terms of embedding links between English skills and voc areas – not all about ‘getting that Grade 4’. • Consideration of emotional/metacognitive process – moving students from ‘learned helplessness’ to ‘self-reliance’ and ‘self-regulation’ - needs to be critical part of t/l/a strategy IMPACT • Await exam results to see of any impact re ‘achievement’ gaps of these (41) students - but window of project = 4 weeks re GCSE POD…. • This project provided the resources to 'trial' and focus on an area of development that informs improvement strategies for next year for GCSE English resitters

Key finding We need to change the conversation with our students re English skills to make them… FEEL MIGHTY REAL .