`Agency, Voice and Participation`: Rainham Mark Grammar School

Transcription

Agency, Voice and
Participation
An
action inquiry project
undertaken by Sixth Form students at
Rainham Mark Grammar School into
factors that contribute to deep learning
WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP TO TRANSFORM SOCIETY THROUGH EDUCATION
Contents
Introduction.............................................................................. 01
How does your ideal teacher build...............................02
a relationship with you?
Amarjot Sidhu and Callum Tipple
How do teachers nurture students’...............................11
enthusiasm within their subject?
Shohan Sen and Armajot Sidhu
What teaching techniques help a student........................22
learn a new topic?
Shohan Sen and Armajot Sidhu
How do teachers motivate students........................................ 37
in compulsory subjects?
Emily Brookes and Elena Peachey
Which teaching styles and activities help..........................43
students to learn best?
Robert Blakeman and Emily Brookes
How is the transition in learning best managed..... 50
between Years 9-10 and Years 11-12?
Callum Tipple and Robert Blakeman
Reflections....................................................................................................................56
01
Introduction
This inquiry project has its genesis in an original piece of work conducted some five years ago
at Rainham Mark Grammar School by the then newly appointed Assistant Head Teacher with
responsibility for Teaching and Learning. His project investigated the key practices and methods
that students found most beneficial in terms of learning and teaching.
It seemed timely, some five years on, to reflect upon the findings and outcomes of the original
project. This is particularly important at this moment in time as there has been significant
investment in CPD with a strong emphasis on Assessment for Learning. Investment has included
a conference with a keynote lecture given by Professor Dylan Wiliam and the development of
innovative school - based teaching and learning communities.
In all of this, the Head Teacher’s vision was to place teaching and learning at the heart of
everything we do at Rainham Mark. That is, any meeting, any action any conversation was to
focus upon the impact of learning and teaching. This wider vision includes implementing a
challenging and rigorous curriculum that meets the needs of a grammar school student that
both stretches and challenges. That said, the school is in an area of significant social deprivation
with a key statistic of only 20% of parents having had a University education.
This project is situated therefore, within the wider school commitment to inspirational pedagogy
with the ultimate goal of engendering outstanding learning and teaching across all subject areas.
The vision for the project was to firstly evaluate what pedagogical practices work well from a
student perspective in terms of their own learning. A key intended outcome was to disseminate
the findings to the teachers at Rainham Mark Grammar School.
Uniquely, the project was placed in the hands of six Sixth Form students. The students were
introduced to a range of methods that would enable fellow student participants from across the
school to have a voice in terms of their learning.
The students embraced the project with real enthusiasm. They were engaged, motivated and
challenging in the way that they navigated their research. Importantly, they brought humour,
support for each other, razor sharp focus and an eagerness to share and reflect upon their
findings.
The outcomes in terms of each individual project have been drawn together in a reflective piece
at the end of this report. This reflection considers the implications of the findings for individual
teachers, Departments, Middle and Senior Leaders and, of course, students for further school
improvement looking towards the next five years.
The findings of this project will hopefully provoke further reflection on what creates a
stimulating learning experience and environment at Rainham Mark. We hope you find the report
challenging, thought provoking and enjoyable.
Mr Shibli, Rainham Mark Grammar School
Dr Hazel Bryan, Canterbury Christ Church University
Jill Blunden, Canterbury Christ Church University
Students
Robert Blakeman
Emily Brookes
Elena Peachey
Shohan Sen
Armajot Sidu
Callum Tipple
Agency, Voice and Participation
How does your ideal teacher build a
relationship with you?
Amarjot Sidhu and Callum Tipple
Rationale
Effective learning undoubtedly comprises a wide variety of elements. When investigating this
topic, teaching techniques are normally assumed to be the factor of highest importance. While
they are highly important, it is important to look beyond the teaching process and understand
how a learning-friendly environment can be created which acts as the basis for successful
teaching. For us, the relationship between the teacher and the student is a key factor within
creating this environment. Our hypothesis in short is that a good student/teacher relationship
would encourage the student to participate and engage more freely in lessons thus improving
the student’s academic performance.
Method
Sample
First and foremost, a sample was chosen containing students of a variety of ability ranges. This
would ensure that the responses we received were indicative of the views of the majority of the
students as opposed to a minority. The data would therefore be more useful to teachers and will
ensure that student/teacher relationships can be improved across all ability ranges as opposed
to disparities being present between different ability students. The sample included 3 students
from every year group between and including year 7 and year 12. The groups were merged into
two sessions: one with year 7, 8, 9 and 10 and the other with year 11 and 12. The merging of
different year groups into these sessions was partly to make the data collection more practical
by ensuring that the data could be collected within a suitable time period but the amalgamation
of the different year groups into one session would also assist in revealing recurrent themes
across year groups. These would be revealed by students from different year groups discussing
and debating with each other and reaching agreements. Therefore, the data which we receive
will be much more flexible and useful as opposed to independent recommendations from each
year. There is still, however, the potential for comparison as we can compare between students
in lower years (year 7-10) and students who have gone through exams (year 11-12). Year by year
comparisons are still possible for the diamond nines.
Methodology
The two research methods that we opted for were: diamond nines and a group discussion.
Firstly, the group discussion was chosen as spoken expression is often better at conveying a
message as opposed to purely written investigation. A discussion format would allow flexibility
for the students to discuss various aspects of a student/teacher relationship thus removing
restrictions which would be placed had the investigation been in a questionnaire / survey format.
An informal discussion between students of different abilities and ages would help to reveal
overarching themes which could then be applied in the classroom as opposed to us attempting
to assemble an idea of what the majority of students across the school felt was important in
terms of a student/teacher relationship by using separate pieces of data. Crucially, conclusions
would be reached in the discussions by the students themselves as opposed to us. A discussion
therefore offered an informal, unrestricted platform for data collection.
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A collaborative action inquiry project
03
Secondly, diamond nines were used. The students would be divided into their respective year
groups and asked to form a diamond nine of the factors they believed were most important in
building a good student/teacher relationship, the most important being at the top. The diamond
nine would form a hierarchy and would help to focus in on key factors as opposed to broader
themes which the discussion exhibited. The diamond nines also allow us to compare between
each year group which the discussion does not. This comparison will allow us to discover how
attitudes of students develop as they progress through each year of secondary school.
Conducting the investigation
The students in the sample would be collected by us in the morning that the activity was due
to take place. This method of direct collection was help to maximise attendance, something
which cannot be assured when using methods such as notices. Immediately after collection, the
students would be told what was going to happen and what they would have to do therefore
reassuring them and making them comfortable with the proceedings.
After assembling the students, we began by stating the question we were investigating and
what we hoped the data could be used for. After this, we began the discussion, the audio of
which was recorded. Our prime motive was to create an informal atmosphere in which the
students would feel comfortable and would want to contribute. Measures to create this informal
atmosphere included encouraging people to speak whenever they wanted to as opposed to a
‘hands up’ system or something similar which would impose restrictions on contributions. We
would let the discussion flow and when contributions decreased or we felt that the discussion
was veering off topic, the two of us would redirect the discussion by asking questions from
the students or alternatively by giving them potential ideas and asking whether they agreed
with them. Furthermore, we would attempt to involve students who were not participating as
frequently by asking them questions thus ensuring that the discussion was representative of the
whole sample as opposed to a few individuals. Crucially, the objective was to maximise the utility
of this discussion in the short period of time that we had to conduct it.
After the discussion, the duration of which was on average 10 minutes, we switched to the
‘diamond nine activity’. We grouped students according to their year group and asked them to
rank the factors which were important in establishing a good relationship with their teachers.
Our role within this was to assist groups that were having difficulties in generating ideas. In such
cases, we would propose ideas to them or ask them questions which we hoped would direct
them to an idea. After the groups had completed the activity, we would take a photograph of
the diamond nine.
Data
Year 12
Year 11
Year 10
Year 9
Year 8
Year 7
Year 7-10
Year 11-12
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05
Scripts from interviews
Years 7 – 10
The most important is that they’ve got to be quite strict because some teachers just let the
students do whatever they want, and it makes it hard to concentrate in class.
It shouldn’t be harsh but some teachers just let things slip, like bad things.
Also they have to make the lesson quite interesting, and interactive.
Tone of voice is important.
The way teachers talk to you has an impact on whether or not you respect them. It has to be
two-way respect. They should also respect you, it doesn’t have to be the same, but otherwise
there won’t be respect the other way.
If they respect you and they discipline you, you will take that, but if not then you won’t take it.
You respect a teacher due to engagement and if they are strict with you to a reasonable extent.
Years 11 -12
I think a sense of humour is important but I think that it should help the students learn rather
than just being the centre of attention, so the teacher should be humorous but also try to
engage, because it’s all very well being able to tell jokes but if you don’t teach anything then
there is not much point.
In those lessons that you can’t get on with the teacher then you’re not motivated to go and work
hard in the lesson. Some teachers will just sit there and be really strict throughout the lesson and
you feel a bit on edge, because it’s formal and you feel awkward in the lesson, but if you can
have a teacher who can lighten the mood and have jokes with you whilst you’re learning, that
does help students to learn.
Teachers can think they’re above you, so they treat you like rubbish and you don’t want to listen
to them, because they think they’re all high and mighty. If they have respect for you then you
have respect for them. If they don’t treat us with respect then they won’t get that respect back.
It helps when a teacher just chats to you, but when you’re trying to learn and they just talk about
other things, it’s not very helpful.
When teachers appreciate that you are a student and you study however many subjects it helps.
It helps when the teacher realises that you study a lot of other subjects in addition to just theirs.
Teachers of some compulsory subjects don’t engage with the students even though they know
that they often don’t want to be there. Just running through a PowerPoint and setting questions
doesn’t engage – if the teacher is more engaging, I would be more drawn to those subjects,
even ones that I didn’t want to take.
If the teacher is enthusiastic, you are more likely to be enthusiastic.
Just setting book-work in double periods gets tedious.
When a teacher engages your brain and doesn’t just set boring, similar work, then you have
more respect for them.
Analysis
Wordle and interviews
Having fed the contents of the interviews into the internet tool Wordle, the generated
responses accurately show the most prevalent themes and concerns of students concerning the
construction of a good working relationship with the tutor, and upon inspection it becomes
evident that a recurring theme amongst both data sets was the importance of, as one student
put it, ‘two-way respect’ between parties. Indeed, this theme can be seen to be the most
prominent on both diagrams, suggesting that efforts by the teacher from the start to engage
with the students individually and pay them respect no matter their preconceptions, was a critical
factor in ensuring a good relationship between teachers and students of all ability levels. Students
can therefore be seen to possess a greater enthusiasm for the subject and willingness to work
hard if the teacher treats them with respect and due kindness from the start.
However, Years 7 to 10 also elected to emphasise the important role of discipline and excessive
leniency in the classroom, and argued that this in fact fed into the notion of respect. For the
earlier school years, it is evident that students feel that a clear and well-defined standard of
conduct for pupils was extremely beneficial in setting boundaries and thus providing a clear
signal to the students as to where they stand in terms of what is acceptable. This proved to be of
utmost importance to younger students, yet appeared less prominently in discussions with Years
11 and 12, perhaps implying that discipline by then is not so critical an issue as it is lower down
the school. Equally, Years 7 to 10 placed importance on the style of teaching in lessons, and
argued that group and practical work was successful in garnering interest and thereby respect
from the students, as opposed to mere book work which some students found alienating. In a
similar vein, the younger students emphasised the importance of tone of voice, and suggested
that this fed straight into their perception of the teacher.
Meanwhile, the upper years focused on the engaging nature of teachers and their lessons,
and suggested that it was this which proved of higher importance than simply discipline
levels. Indeed, as can be seen in the diagram, teacher style and the teacher’s willingness to act
themselves rather than to worry excessively about humour, presentation or other such aspects
was critically important in constructing a relationship, as the student wishes to engage with
the authentic person teaching them, rather than a mere façade or a stock persona. An equally
important factor for older students was the necessity of teachers in compulsory subjects to
ensure innovation and enthusiasm in teaching style, as this is often lacking at GCSE and can
harm the performance of students. Teachers of such subjects must therefore work harder to win
the respect of students from different ability levels, as many students simply struggle to foster an
interest.
Diamond nine activity
The diamond nine activity was useful in terms of establishing a hierarchy of factors that are
needed to create a good student/teacher relationship. One recurrent factor that was prominent
amongst the diamond nines was ‘respect’. This factor was the most important in establishing
a good student/teacher relationship for year 7, year 8 and year 12, with the factor also being
present on the diamond’s nine’s for year 9 and 10. It is clear therefore that students feel that if
the teacher respects students then the students will reciprocate the respect.
Another motif within the activities was ‘humour’. It was present on each diamond nine, and
was particularly important for year 7, 10 and 12 appearing on the second tier of the diamond.
From this, it could be inferred that students feel that humour on behalf of the teacher results in
the teacher appearing more relatable and even approachable thus leading to a stronger student/
teacher relationship. Year 9 on the other hand ranked it as the lowest factor of importance on
their diamond nine.
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07
However, differences are also present between the preferences of each year group. The idea of
strictness/discipline is factor present on the diamond nine’s of year 7, 8, 9 and 10, with the factor
being of high importance (second tier) for year 7, 9, and 10. The factor isn’t present on the
diamond nine’s of year 11 and year 12. These two year groups clearly believe other factors are of
higher importance when it comes to establishing a good student/teacher relationship. Although
we have not collected data for year 13, one may infer from this that moving into late upper
school and into sixth form, factors aside from discipline are more prominent in setting the basis
for student/teacher relationship.
Numerical analysis
To successfully uncover recurring themes, numerical analysis can be conducted here. Each tier on
the diamond is given points according to its distance from the top. As the diamond nine’s varied
in height, the points are assigned according to percentage distance from the top tier:
•
O% (i.e. top tier) = 10 points
•
20% - 40% = 8 points
•
41% - 60% = 6 points
•
61% - 80% = 4 points
•
81% - 100% (i.e. bottom tier) = 2 points
0% = 10 points
(Each box) 25% = 8 points
100% = 2 points
The responses across all years were categorised under 4 broad categories:
•
Lesson content: this refers to what elements students thought should be lessons which
in turn would lead to better student/teacher relationship
•
Discipline: this refers to how students thought teachers should go about maintaining
discipline within the classroom which in turn would lead to a better student/teacher
relations
•
Respect: this refers to respect shown by teachers for students, without preconceptions
of the student or their behaviour, which in turn would mean that students have a better
relationship with their teacher
•
Friendliness: this refers to aspects of teacher’s behaviour which has an impact on
things such as approachability and therefore have an impact on the student/teacher
relationship
Each response on the diamond nine was classified under the 4 headings:
Lesson content
Discipline
Respect
Friendliness
Engaging
Firm but fair
Trust
Humour
Feedback
More concerned with
work than uniform
Respect for students
Friendly
Enthusiasm
Strict
Two way respect
A level of professionalism
Variation
Discipline
Mannerisms
Subject knowledge
Lenient to an extent
Kind
Lesson plan
Equal liking
Advice (exams + uni)
Feel relaxed around
Application
Formal
Interesting
Tone of voice
They should like their
subject
Interactive
Practical work
Informative
Fun
Group work
Focus
More activities than
talking
Quality not quantity
Once each response had been categorised and scored, the totals for each category in each year
group were calculated. A higher score for a category compared to another would imply that
either more factors from that category were included in the diamond nine or factors in that
category were higher up in the nine (and therefore more important) or both. The results are as
following:
08
09
Year 7
Year 8
30
25
25
20
20
15
15
10
10
5
5
0
0
Lesson
Content
Discipline
Lesson
Content
Respect Friendliness
Year 9
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Discipline
Year 10
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Lesson
Content
Discipline
Lesson
Content
Year 11
Respect
Friendliness
Year 12
30
30
25
25
20
20
15
15
10
10
5
5
0
Discipline
0
Lesson
Content
Discipline
Lesson
Content
Discipline
Respect
Friendliness
It is evident from the above graphs that factors relating to lesson content were prominent
amongst the diamond nine’s. They, in most cases, made up the majority of the factors on the
diamond nine and in many cases were considered of high importance. The data shows that
when considering their relationship with the teacher, the category under which the students
thought of the most factors was ‘lesson content’.
The graphs above, on the whole, give mainly an indication of the quantity of factors that the
students of each year group decided to place in the diamond nine. While the factors must have
been of some importance to place in the diamond nine, the above figures give little indication
of the average importance of the category in the diamond nine i.e. on average, whereabouts on
the diamond nine was a factor of that category placed? Below, the point value for the factors of
each category for the whole sample (years 7-12) have been averaged (figures rounded to nearest
whole number):
School Average
10
8
6
4
2
0
Lesson
Content
Discipline
It is clear from this that on average, ‘respect’ as a factor was placed higher in the diamond nine
than the other factors i.e. students across the sample deemed respect on behalf of teachers for
students to be the single factor of highest importance when it comes to establishing a good
student/teacher relationship. This is not to discredit the other factors, each of which have their
relative importance in establishing a good relationship between teachers and students.
Implications for practice
The way a teacher conducts their lesson encompasses a wide scope of elements including the
teaching techniques deployed, the way the teacher themselves present the lesson etc. All these
different factors have varying levels of importance but come together to form the factor which
has the largest bearing on the student’s relationship with their teacher. Respect on behalf of the
teacher is the single most important factor when it comes to establishing a good student/teacher
relationship.
There is a marginal difference between younger and older years, with younger years placing
more emphasis on discipline as a conduit through which respect may be earned, and older
years concentrating more on the teacher and their comfort and ease with the subject material.
In addition, engaging learning techniques proved critical in building a successful relationship
with KS3 pupils, whilst these were of a lesser importance to KS4 and KS5, who adopted a
more exams-focused approach and thus saw a deep knowledge of the subject, coupled with
individuality and a passion for the subject content as the way in which to connect with the
students in the classroom. In light of this, in future practice it would aid teachers to focus on the
construction of a mutual respect between parties in the classroom, with a strong focus on a clear
and reasonable discipline in early years, and a comfort, passion for and ease with the subject to
engage and challenge students from all sides of the ability spectrum.
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11
How do teachers nurture students’
enthusiasm within their subject?
A project to illuminate which teaching techniques enable a student’s
enthusiasm to be maintained, thus allowing the student to learn
efficiently and effectively
Shohan Sen and Amarjot Sidhu
Rationale
A student’s ability to learn and develop is centred, in large part, around their willingness to
engage in lessons and with the subject content. The willingness of students to do this can be
prescribed under the term ‘enthusiasm’. This element is not a natural proficiency in all students
and in such cases the responsibility lies with their teacher to encourage participation, thus
developing the student’s enthusiasm for the subject. We decided to investigate this as we believe
that enthusiasm acts as the basis for academic progress and success. The process of nurturing a
student’s enthusiasm is complex and can be approached in a variety of ways. Our hypothesis is
that the greater ability for a student to remain ‘enthusiastic’ with their subject content will result
in a greater ability to learn it. Subsequently, we also believe that greater encouragement from
teaching staff to nurture a student’s enthusiasm is directly related to successful learning.
Methodology
Data collection
Initially, our chosen data collection method was a journal for both students and teachers,
which would enable us to compare their ideas on how to nurture enthusiasm in a classroom
environment, and whether both had similar ideas on the importance of enthusiasm when
learning the subject content.
à Student Journal
The journal for students was designed to explore different aspects of the term ‘enthusiasm’. This
involved questioning students on their contribution to lessons, as this is one of the key attributes
displayed by a student when enthused with the content. However, as this is qualitative data
based, to an extent, on the performance of the student being questioned, some would argue
that the answers will be biased so to reflect themselves in best possible light. We subsequently
overcame this by reassuring the students that all the comments made on the journals will
remain anonymous, encouraging them to answer as accurately as possible. The next heading
was a follow-up question which asked about which teaching techniques in particular were
responsible for the student’s aforementioned contribution levels. We used this as a basis for
our recommendation, as we could subsequently pinpoint what exact methods a teacher could
deploy to maintain an element of enthusiasm within the classroom. In addition, so not to discard
any contributions the journal could not capture beforehand, we included an ‘other comments’
section, whereby students could make any relevant comments about the lesson. We chose to
include core subjects (English, Maths and Science for year 8 students, the latter being replaced
by Chemistry for year 10 students) due to the ease at which data could be compared and
recommendations could be made, as in most cases, students study these core subjects for most
of their schooling career. A slight difference arose for year 12 students, whereby candidates were
selected on the basis that they studied subjects across different disciplines (Maths, Sciences as
well as Humanities), enabling us to provide recommendations which are applicable across the
curriculum.
Some would argue that the subjects were not diverse enough to provide a recommendation
across all subjects; however we believe that the ability to compare data from the same subjects
had to take priority over the type of lesson chosen. It is also important to note that our subject
selection included a lesson which involved essay writing (English), one which involved calculations
(Mathematics) and one which involved experimentation (Science/Chemistry), allowing us to
transcribe the results found to similar subjects (for example for year 12 students studying similarly
disciplined subjects)
An example of a Year 8 Student Journal
The student journal also consisted of a justified rating system, whereby each student was
asked to rate different aspects of their favourite lesson (on a level of 1 to 5). These included the
interest levels within the subject, as interest within a certain topic can directly link to a student’s
enthusiasm within the lesson, their class’ level of contribution for the lesson and whether they
were looking forward to the next lesson. The latter element was included to measure the level of
enthusiasm that had been maintained towards the end of the lesson which in turn would make
the student look forward to the following lesson. We chose to do this for the student’s favourite
subject so that we had a broader set of data that encompassed the differences between core
subjects (or the subjects they had chosen in the case of year 12 students) and their favourite
subject. However in hindsight, we found that it more difficult to make recommendations
based on these results as it is difficult to improve the enthusiasm a student bears for their
favourite subject. We thought the justified rating system would allow students to quantify
their enthusiasm within a certain subject, which allows for better data analysis. The “justified”
element included the students justifying the reason for which they gave a particular rating to a
question, so to enable the student to think about the rating that most applies to them, whilst
also providing us with written and numerical data, enabling us to make more comprehensive
recommendations to the teaching staff. A limitation to a rating system is that it can be difficult
for students to quantify their opinions, however this is overcome by the fact that they have to
justify their ratings.
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à Teacher Journal
The teacher journal however, was an idea that did not progress due to the time constraints faced
by us and the teaching staff themselves (due to the periodic examinations). We were planning to
collect data on whether they felt the class was enthusiastic in their lesson (through a rating) and
then why they felt the class were enthusiastic about the subject content. This would have ideally
given us the opportunity to analyse the teacher’s view on nurturing enthusiasm, and whether
drastic recommendation would have to have been made should the student responses have varied
considerably.
An example of the teacher journal we intended to use
Sample
Initially, we chose a sample of three students (of varying abilities) from each year group in the
school, ranging from year 7 to year 12 students. We also decided to choose a mixture of 9
boys and 9 girls in the original 18 group sample as this would ensure the data was unbiased,
whilst also being an accurate representation of the ideas of the entire school, so to make
informed recommendations to teaching staff. However, due to the constraints on our time for
data collection, the sample was reduced to three year groups (year 8, year 10 and year 12), as
this would still provide us with the information necessary to analyse the responses and provide
accurate recommendations on how to nurture enthusiasm (within the given time period) across
a wide range of school year groups. We used random sampling to select the 9 students and this
provided us with 4 girls and 5 boys within the various year groups. This ensured we could analyse
the differences or similarities between responses of a certain gender and year group but also
gave less of a representation of the entire school.
Lastly, when analysing the data, we found that a few of the responses were very brief and
shallow and therefore offered us little insight into the enthusiasm levels within the classroom and
whether it had been nurtured throughout the lesson. In contrast, there were also a few subject
specific responses which made it difficult for us to extract broad recommendations from them.
Data
Year 8 student 1
Year 8 Student 2
14
15
Year 8 Student 3
Year 10 Student 1
Year 10 Student 2
Year 10 Student 3
16
17
Year 12 Student 1
Year 12 Student 2
Year 12 Student 3
Data analysis
A prominent motif within the year 8 journals was the idea of teamwork. Each of the students
mentioned an element of teamwork within the journal as a teaching technique which
encouraged them to learn. According to one student, working as a team helped develop their
teamwork skills. Another student felt that discussion with a partner helped them to learn. That
particular student went on to specify that the lesson was ‘good’ as it was ‘free’ for them to talk
to their partner. It is evident from the responses that working with others, as part of team or even
with a partner, encourages students to work well and therefore can be seen a useful technique in
evoking enthusiasm on the part of students.
Independent learning was another key theme, with it being mentioned in two of the three
journals as the reason for why the lesson content inspired and engaged them. One student
cited independent learning as the teaching technique which helped them to learn in that
lesson claiming that the teacher giving them examples and then letting the students work
independently was a ‘successful’ technique. The same student claimed for another subject that
working amongst themselves meant that they didn’t have to rely on others. Crucially, by having
to work independently and therefore interacting with the subject on their own basis, it appears
that students felt more enthused by the content.
The notion of application was also mentioned in various contexts in the journals as a reason for
why the content engaged them. One student claimed that the content of the lesson engaged
them as they were able to see the things they had learnt about in action. Another student found
the topic they were studying (advertisement) useful as it gave them knowledge which they could
use in the future. It appears that application of content into real life situations gives students a
motive to learn and therefore could be seen as a means of nurturing students’ enthusiasm for
the subject.
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The justified rating system is an important element upon which recommendations can be
made, as it not only provides an opportunity for numerical analysis, the comments made enable
recommendations to be made more specific. Whilst the questions indirectly referenced to the
student’s enthusiasm levels within the subject, positive answers would in turn, reflect nurtured
enthusiasm within the subject as it would have been maintained over the course of the lesson,
most probably due to the teaching techniques used. Subsequently negative responses would
demonstrate areas for improvement in relation to nurturing enthusiasm within the lesson.
Whilst most comments were positive due to that fact that students were commenting on their
favourite subjects, there were still aspects of the journal where year 8 students alluded to a
lower level of enthusiasm than first expected. For example, despite the rating of 4 (with the
highest rank of 5 pertaining to a “very high” level of engagement from the class), the student
mentioned that distraction from other classmates was an issue within the lesson which may have
been the reason for the category not being given a rating of 5. It was also interesting to note
the relationship between the familiarity of the topic and the enthusiasm levels of the student
in the subject. One student commented that due to the topic being covered previously, their
enthusiasm in the subject dropped, resulting in a rating of 4, whilst the other categories were
rated 5 (the highest rating possible). This seems to suggest that when a familiar topic is covered
whilst not being elaborated on largely, enthusiasm drops and subsequently, the student’s ability
to learn successfully also lowers.
In the journals of year 10 students, group work was once again a key feature. Two of the three
students mentioned group work as a teaching technique which encouraged them to learn.
Another element of collaborative learning that was mentioned by two students was class
discussion. In both cases, class discussion was listed for the same subject (English) and while this
may not be applicable across all subjects, in English and perhaps subjects of similar nature (e.g.
humanities), discussion could be seen as a particularly effective teaching technique.
Another recurring theme within year 10 journals was the role of the teacher with each of the
journals mentioning the subject teacher in some way. As a teaching technique which encouraged
them to learn, two students cited a ‘one to one’ session with their teacher. For one of these
students, the content engaged them ‘because the teacher helped’. It is clear from this that the
teacher and content go hand in hand when it comes to inspiring students. Another student
described their teacher as being ‘intelligent’ and ‘engaging’, with these characteristics in
themselves encouraging the student to learn. Teachers also had a role when it came to students
contributing to the lesson. One student stated that they contributed to the lesson because the
teacher made everyone ‘feel very comfortable’ to do so. Another student contributed as the
teacher prompted them to do so. It is evident that the teacher has a big role to play when it
comes to nurturing the students’ enthusiasm due to the fact that across the year 10 journals, the
role of the teacher was mentioned in some way in every column of the journal.
The year 10 students, despite similar answers being expected, provided another avenue for
recommendation, whereby students referred to the fact that the ability to answer questions
constantly within the lesson retained the enthusiasm levels within the classroom. In particular,
the students mentioned that due to the teacher asking multiple questions to the class, in fear of
getting them incorrect, the students had to remain engaged and subsequently enthused with
the subject. This ultimately enhanced the student’s learning of the subject content. The other
students in the year 10 sample alluded to a similar factor, whereby constant interaction between
the teacher and their students was pivotal in keeping the students enthusiasm for the subject
high.
The year 12 responses provide us with an interesting basis of comparison to the responses of
year 8 and 10 students. Whereas year 8 and 10 students contributed largely if they had answers
to give, each of the year 12 students contributed, in at least one of their lessons, by asking
questions when they didn’t understand a particular thing. This implies that year 12, have more
confidence when it comes to asking questions in front of the class, an attribute which perhaps
students lower down the school do not possess. This may be down to increased maturity that
comes with age, the increased difficulty of the subject content or the learning environment
which the teachers create for the students. There were, however, some insecurities present in the
responses. Two of the year 12 students did not contribute as they felt that their ideas weren’t
good enough compared to others in the class. Such insecurities needs to be addressed and one
of ways of doing so would be to develop the enthusiasm of such students for the subject content
which would encourage them to contribute and subsequently diminish any fears that they had.
Furthermore, the year 12 responses exhibited a great deal of contrasting attitudes. While two
of the students weren’t inspired by the content as the topic they were studying either wasn’t
their favourite or they weren’t confident with it, another student found the difficulty and
challenge of the topic as being their source of inspiration. Another contrast concerns teaching
techniques; while one student stated that group discussion encouraged them to learn, another
dismissed group work, the reason being that some people in the group don’t contribute. These
disparities may reflect purely individual preferences or may exist due to the sixth form students
taking subjects within different disciplines and therefore having a completely different learning
experience.
The role of the teacher once again appeared in all three responses. For one student, the way the
teacher spoke to them as well as the content, was the reason they were inspired. For another,
it was the teacher’s depth of subject knowledge which helped them learn. The third student,
while finding the subject challenging, was offered help whenever they needed it. These responses
clearly re-affirm the idea that teacher’s play a big role in nurturing students’ enthusiasm.
The justified rating system highlighted the different learning techniques adopted by different
years, as year 12 students referenced the ability to consider both the advantages and
disadvantages of a certain topic as an element the encourages enthusiasm from the students.
This may be due to the acknowledgement of the lessons helping to refine examination
techniques and subsequently students are encouraged to be enthused with the topic to enhance
their understanding of the subject content. Students who referenced teachers employing such
technique rated the category a 4 or 5 (the two highest ratings possible) showing the importance
of the teaching technique in nurturing enthusiasm.
Whilst the responses were not always insightful, the student journals provided some useful
recommendations for the teaching staff. For year 8 students in particular, group work and
independent work are two techniques which are successful when it comes to encouraging the
students to interact with the content in different ways. These different approaches help students
develop key skills for example team skills and independent learning skills which will help them
in the future. By using different approaches, the students’ enthusiasm for the topic can be
developed.
Another technique which appears to be successful in engaging students is through application
of theory to real life scenarios. By making the theory appear applicable to a real life situation as
opposed to the theory being dealt with in a restrictive classroom environment, students are likely
to better understand the theory and be more engaged in the lesson and therefore are likely to be
more enthusiastic.
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Whilst the subject content being covered at the time has a large influence on a student’s
enthusiasm within the subject, the justified rating system also highlighted other possible
areas which, once improved, will allow greater information retention through higher levels of
enthusiasm within the subject. The justified rating system enabled us to pinpoint the need for
teachers not to make certain topics over-familiar with students, as unless the subject topic is
being elaborated on, year 8 students in particular lost enthusiasm for the subject. Whilst we are
not discouraging lessons where subject content is recapped, we would recommend that teachers
consult the students on whether the topic should be covered again and subsequently move on if
the students want to, as it ultimately enhances their learning as they are more enthusiastic within
the subject.
Moreover, it is clear from responses on the student journals that the teacher has a big role to
play when it comes to developing a student’s enthusiasm; feedback commonly received from
both year 10 and year 12 students. ‘One to one’ activities can help engage students who may
initially struggle with the subject content. Students must also be encouraged to contribute by
the teacher by asking as well as answering questions. Crucially, a ‘friendly’ environment must
be created in which all students must feel that their responses are valued thus eliminating any
fears/insecurities that students have which may prevent them contributing. Even if the answer
is wrong, teachers must reassure students and pick out any promising aspects of the student’s
answer. If students are not contributing to the lesson then the teacher should ask such students
to answer questions. Although such students may be out of their comfort zone initially, over time
they are likely to become accustomed to contributing.
In addition, the justified rating system highlighted a particular teaching technique that we
would recommend is adopted by the teaching staff of year 10 students in particular, but
also for teaching staff of all year groups. The use of constant questioning appeared in the
student’s justifications whereby they felt that not only did the questions maintain an element of
enthusiasm within the classroom, they also succeeded in enhancing the learning of the subject
topic being questioned upon. We would therefore encourage teachers, wherever possible, to
engage the students frequently, with the use of a ‘question and answer’ system to nurture the
students’ enthusiasm for the subject content.
Lastly, the justified rating system also highlighted the need for a teaching technique slightly
tailored for students who have impending examinations. Year 12 students referenced to
evaluating certain topics, by looking at the advantages and disadvantages of the subject content.
Not only would this enhance their examination technique, but in doing so, would retain a level
of enthusiasm within the classroom through the knowledge that failure to engage with the
lesson may results in lower examination grades. We would therefore recommend teaching staff
to regularly employ an ‘evaluation’ section to their lessons, whereby students are encouraged to
be analytical is discussions to promote examination techniques and enthusiasm within the given
subject.
What teaching techniques help a student
learn a new topic?
A project to explore which teaching techniques enable students to
learn a new topic
Elena Peachey and Shohan Sen
On considering the headline question “how do students learn best?” we devised a sub-question
based on the impact that teaching techniques can have when students are faced with learning
a new topic. In order to identify these teaching techniques, we thought it was best to allow a
sample of students to form them, as the appropriate teaching techniques that we would have
formulated, would not have been an accurate representation of the entire school.
Firstly, we chose a sample size and the group that gave us enough data to analyse which
teaching techniques were most effective in enhancing the learning of unfamiliar topics. This
consisted of the year groups 7, 9 and 11 with six students, of varying ability, from each year
group. This gave us a total sample size of 18 students. Although we knew it would be difficult to
get an accurate representation of the views of the entire sample within the school, we felt that
by using a diverse range of students through their gender and academic ability, we could capture
the similar ideas students may have. An alternative would have been to use students across all
year groups but we felt that this would have provided data similar to that of the year above and
below them.
We then decided that the best form of data collection was a spider diagram due to the low
number of restrictions placed on the data entry for the students. We then used a ‘High Five’
system which consisted of rating the 15 most frequently appearing teaching techniques from 1
through to 5, in order to provide us with an inclination as to whether certain teaching techniques
were more helpful than others. Lastly, we decided that the data would be presented in a Wordle
format, whereby the 15 teaching techniques used in the High Fives activity would be transcribed
as words in the shape of a hand, to give a visual representation of the data. The restrictions with
using the ‘High Fives’ activity was that a very few number of teaching techniques didn’t get
transcribed from the spider diagram as they did not appear frequently enough with the sample,
but there is the possibility that these techniques may have been popular amongst other students.
However we made normative judgements, whereby the more conventional teaching techniques
could be rated by students as this serves as the best way to recommend on whether certain
teaching techniques shouldn’t be used or used more often.
The next stage of our methodology was to collect the data necessary to progress the project.
This included giving the spider diagrams to each year group (in reverse numerical order due the
student’s circumstances - i.e. Year 11 students partaking in study leave from the beginning of
May) whereby they spent a morning registration period to think about the given question (‘what
helps students to learn something new?’) and write down their ideas. Once all spider diagrams
were complete, we then went on to transfer the data on to our High Fives Activity, one of which
is shown below. This involved using the most frequent teaching techniques that students in
each year group felt were most important when learning a new topic, and placing them in a
column followed by a rating from 1 to 5 beside each technique, allowing the students to think
about which teaching techniques helped them personally. The constraints of using the ‘High
Fives’ activity is that the students did have the opportunity to justify their decision on each rating,
however the rating itself would give a broad indication as to why a certain teaching technique
was rated as it was.
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The High Fives Activity used for Year 11 students, asking them to rate various
teaching techniques
Rationale
The rationale for the entire project was centred around the idea that learning a new topic is
essential to a student’s progress through their academic career. The learning of a new topic in
any subject acts as the basis for a student to develop their understanding of the subject content
in the future. It is the foundations of learning that we were interested in and we therefore took
up the investigation to see how learning a new topic is enhanced through different teaching
techniques.
The rationale for choosing a sample size of 18 students was based around the idea that the
more varied the sample was, the broader understanding we would receive over learning a new
topic. Therefore, we chose to use students of varying ability, as well as gender, which meant that
we had three bands of varying ability, with 1 male and 1 female student in each band, which
totalled 6 students in each year group. We then decided to use the year groups 7, 9 and 11,
as they provided us with three different stages of learning; those who are entering the school,
those who are preparing for GCSE content, and those who are finishing their GCSE content.
This allowed us to have a sufficient level of data, whilst also ensuring that our investigation
approaches a sufficient number of students within the school.
In addition, we chose to use a spider diagram to collect the data, because it serves no restriction
to what the student can include, whilst also being a familiar form of data-entry for the students,
thus enabling a large amount of data to be collected on one focus point. In order to then
divulge which of the techniques noted were the most important, we then used a ‘High Five’
activity whereby students rate each of the teaching techniques they placed on the earlier spider
diagrams. Our rationale behind the activity was to have numerical data that was easy to compare
and subsequently see which techniques are the most effective for the students themselves when
learning a new topic. The activity also allows us to form recommendations to those concerned,
about how to teach new topics to students. Lastly, we chose to present the data in a Wordle
format so that a visual representation of the teaching techniques could be displayed, whilst also
highlighting the key techniques that teachers should use.
Lastly, the rationale for our method of data collection was to collect the data in the most efficient
manner whilst also factoring in the circumstances the sample faced. The data collection for
Year 11 students was completed first, as they were due to go on study leave, thus limiting their
availability for data collection to before early-May. We then collected data for students in year
7 and 9 in the same manner, whereby, in morning registration (as the students were unlikely to
have any other commitment during this time) we would give them the spider diagram to fill out,
and once this data was collected and transcribed into the High Fives Activity, the activity was then
given to the same students as a follow up in the next available morning registration.
Acrostics
Talking
about
topics
Pictures
Games
Hand actions
Analogies
Reciting
Multiple
questions
What helps you to
learn something new?
Rhymes
Songs
Student 1
Experiments
Group work
Use of various
equipment
Hand
actions to
answer
questions
Answering question
repetitively
Fun
learning
Interactive
learning
What helps you to
Being taught
the topics
Mini
Whiteboards
Class
discussion
s
Traffic
lights
Student 4
Computers
Questions
Experiments
Repetition of
topics
Fun
learning
Student 2
Working
around
school
Group/pair
work
Games
Fun
learning
Traffic
lights
Worksheets
What helps you to
Experiments
Class/pair
discussion
s
What helps you to
Group tasks
Whiteboards
Year 7 – Spider Diagram Raw Data
Talking
Not being
bored
Interactive
learning
Hand
actions to
answer
questions
Videos
Traffic
lights
Whiteboards
Computers
Quizzes
Student 5
Computers
Talking
about
topics
Mini
Whiteboards
Hand
actions to
answer
questions
Class/pair
discussions
Group tasks
Interactive
games
Traffic
lights
What helps you to
Experiments
Student 3
Whiteboards
Fun
learning
Games
Relevant activities (eg:
searching for animals
when learning about
animals)
Quizzes
What helps you to
Word- searches,
crosswords etc.
Group work
Computers
Working in
different places
Student 6
24
Student 4
Student 1
Student 5
Student 2
Year 7 – ‘High Fives’ Activity Data
Student 6
Student 3
25
PowerPoints
Going over
something more
than once
Relatable
Not talking
too much
Quiet areas
Textbooks
Not too strict
Student 1
Approachable
Good teachers
What helps you to
Less textbook
questions
More information
rather than
questions
Music playing
whilst working
Interesting
tasks
More
information
than exercises
A teacher who is
willing to help
What helps you to
Going over
something more
than once
Mixture of
practical and
textbook
work
Student 4
PowerPoints
Questions
Less questions
What helps you to
Not too strict
teachers
Not solely
textbook
work
Not too
much talking
Student 2
Not being
silent
Helpful
teachers
Making the topic
interesting
What helps you to
Practical work
Less listening
exercises in
languages
A chance
to ask
questions
about the
topic
Repetition
Images/
Diagrams
Student 5
Maths
Group/pair
work
More interesting
More
practicals
Not too
strict
teachers
PowerPoints
Fun
lesson
Student 3
Talking to
teachers
What helps you to
Student 6
Clear
explanation
Lots of information
about the subject
Writing
notes rather
than reading
What helps you to
Science
Practise
questions
Variations
in tasks
Quiet
atmosphere
Enthusiastic
teachers
Whether the
work is
interesting
Good
examples
of subject
A teacher who
helps when
stuck/cares about
the subject
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Student 4
Student 1
Student 5
Student 2
Student 6
Student 3
27
Making
notes from
PowerPoints
Mixed
groups
ICT Rooms
Traffic
Lights
Working
in pairs
What helps you to
Mini
Whiteboards
Using
laptops
Watching
videos
Student 1
Making
notes from a
PowerPoint
Group
discussions
Crosswords
& puzzles
What helps you to
Playing a game
about the subject
Mnemonics
‘No hands
up’
Student 4
Practise
questions and
examples
Notemaking
Student 2
Exam
questions
Making notes
from
presentation
s
Asking people in the
group questions
‘No hands up’
What helps you to
Starters to
test keywords
Not copying
from textbooks
What helps you to
Working in groups
(discussions)
Making group
presentations
Practise
questions
Mnemonics
Discussing
in pairs
Student 5
Whiteboards
Exam-style
questions
Watching and
making notes
from videos
Making notes
on PowerPoints
What helps you to
Working
in groups
Writing
definitions on
flashcards
Making
notes from
textbooks
Student 3
Copying notes
from textbooks
What helps you to
Making
presentations
‘No hands up’ –
teachers
picking on you
Crosswords
on keywords
Traffic
lights
Highlighting
key points on
presentations
Student 6
28
Student 4
Student 1
Student 5
Student 2
Student 6
Student 3
29
Year 7 wordle
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31
Year 9 wordle
Year 11 wordle
Year 11 wordle
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Data analysis
The data we had available for analysis, for all the students in the sample, included the spider
diagrams detailing what teaching techniques, in general, were helpful when a student has to
learn a new topic and the subsequent high five activity that refined these teaching techniques
into a simple rating system, which gave us numerical data to analyse.
Whilst it was always likely that students from the lower school would have similar answers
due to being in the same class for all subjects, it was interesting to note the differences in
answers based on the student’s gender. Whilst the male year 7 students preferred interactive
teaching techniques, involving class discussions, group work and answering questions on little
whiteboards, the female year 7 students, whilst also including similar answers, also included
various methods which enhance a student’s learning, for example using worksheets and quizzes
to test the student’s ability in any given subject, whilst also mentioning the use of experiments or
practical work in order to understand the foundations of a subject.
When observing the ‘High Fives’ activity data for year 7 students, it became clear that practical
work was rated very highly amongst all the students with answers ranging between 1 and 2 on
a scale from 1 to 5 (with 1 meaning the teaching technique was very important for the sample
when learning a new topic; 5 meaning the technique is not important in the student’s view).
From this, it can be suggested that students feel developing the foundations of a subject can be
built using practical teaching methods (for example acting a scene from a play to understand
the various elements of it) and subsequently it is also very important when learning a new topic.
It was also clear that one of the lowest ranked teaching methods was the traffic lights system
used through the student planners. This method is usually used to give an indication of how
well students understand a topic and whilst this demonstrates to the teacher whether they
need to re-teach the topic for better understanding, the year 7 sample felt that it was not a key
aspect in learning a new topic as it did not necessarily enhance their learning, consigning this
method to scores between 4 or 5; the two lowest scores on the rating system. A method that
received a mixed opinion was a lesson based around the use of computers. Whilst the majority
of students gave this a rating of 4, one other student gave a rating of 1, suggesting that using
the computers for research purposes can help some but not others. However, by going with the
majority, a computer-based lesson does not seem to be an appropriate teaching technique when
helping a student to learn a new topic.
Students from year 9 were likely to have slightly different answers in comparison to the
similarities observed with year 7 students, as year 9 students now tend to have different lessons
to each other due to the year group being divided by academic ability. However, there were still
evident comparisons to be made between each gender, whereby the male students mentioned
that the conventional teaching techniques were helpful when learning a new topic. This included
examples such as making notes from PowerPoint presentations, whereby the note-taking formed
a large part of the student’s learning regime, as well as doing practise examination questions in
order to be prepared for an examination scenario whilst learning the new content. The female
students however, felt that the more creative methods of learning are helpful, for example the
use of images and diagrams to understand topics and the ability to partake in practical activities
(e.g. in science to learn about certain compounds). Both sets of students however, agreed that
the teachers themselves are an important factor for learning a new topic, whereby a caring and
helpful nature, as well as being relatable to the students would encourage students to learn a
new topic effectively.
When analysing the ‘High Fives’ activity data for year 9 students, it was clear that one of the
highest ranked methods for the sample was to use past examination papers to practise the
subject content immediately when learning the new topic. In general, most of the students
ranked this technique a 1 and the rest thought it was worthy of a score of 2, suggesting that
students were conscientious of their upcoming examinations when completing the ‘High Fives’
activity. To our surprise, whiteboard lessons were not highly rated with the average score being a
3.
We expected this technique to be rated higher than it was because all of the other interactive
techniques, for example practical lessons, were rated quite highly. It was also interesting to see
the difference in reactions to a ‘quite learning atmosphere’ whereby some students rated this
highly, whilst other students seem to prefer a classroom with discussions. Largely however, the
students tended to answer in favour of both a quiet atmosphere as well as a classroom where
there are discussions about the topic, suggesting that teachers should employ both techniques
systematically to ensure students learn a new topic efficiently.
When analysing the data for year 11 students, there was one common theme that with the
spider diagrams the students filled in: PowerPoint presentations. When the students in the
sample got older, there was more emphasis on PowerPoint presentations, whereby year 11
students found it helpful to take notes from them due to the concise nature of the information.
An explanation for this could be due to the examinations the students have to do, whereby
the concentration for year 11 students lies with the many GCSE examinations they have to do
(whereby remembering too much content is not feasible when attempting to do well in all the
examination being taken), whereas for year 7 students, the onus lies with being as detailed
as possible in ‘end of year’ examination, so to showcase what they have learnt that year, and
therefore PowerPoint presentation are too brief to enable them to learn a new topic. Group
work was another popular teaching technique with the spider diagrams and amongst the
female students, Mnemonics, techniques designing to aid information retention (e.g. the use of
acronyms), was a popular teaching technique when learning a new topic.
Year 11 data for the ‘High Fives’ activity showed that on the whole, making flashcards and
revision aids were rated very highly with most of the students giving it the highest rating of 1.
This shows that the year 11 students remember subject content in a different manner to that of
the younger students who favoured practical work to learn a new topic. Along with the use of
PowerPoint presentations, it is evident that year 11 students prefer to refine their examination
techniques whilst learning a new topic, perhaps due to their impending GCSE examinations.
Furthermore, the year 11 students seemed to think that the traffic light method was not helpful
when it came to learning something new and they all awarded it a score of 3 or lower; this was
a method preferred more so by the younger students. Lastly, there was a mixed opinion on the
use of puzzles to aid the learning of a new topic. Whilst half of the year 11 sample rated it highly,
suggesting the need for exercises to test whether a student understands the new topic, others in
the sample suggested that class discussions are more important for when learning a new topic.
This suggests that whilst further application after the topic has been taught is necessary, the best
method for which this is can vary with students – a reasonable expectation as not everybody in
the sample were likely to agree with each other.
Our investigation encompassed the foundations of learning and which teaching techniques
are most appropriate for which students when faced with learning an entirely new topic.
Throughout the investigation we discovered that students have a variety of ideas on how
teachers could help them learn a new topic and although this was to be expected, the response
we received from the students has allowed us to reach certain conclusions. The intentions of this
project were to recommend teaching techniques that, in the views of the students themselves,
would help them learn a new topic effectively and efficiently. From the data we collected and
analysed, we can recommend the following things for each year group.
Year 7 recommendation
Using the data collected from both the spider diagram and the ‘High Fives’ activity, there
was a large emphasis that year 7 students react best to practical and interactive activities. It
was a common theme arising in the spider diagrams where students alluded to the usage of
experiments in science lessons in particular. This applies to both genders, as the entire year 7
sample rated group discussions as “important” with ratings between 1 and 3.
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Another recommendation of ours however is for teaching staff to put less emphasis on quizzes
and the use of the traffic light system in the student planners. With reference to past experience
and the data collected from students, the use of wordsearches and crosswords are not important
when attempting to learn a new topic. Whilst this does not include when students are recapping
a topic, it is important to note that students find this teaching method less useful than the others
as evident from the poor ratings it received from the majority of the year 7 sample.
Lastly, our third recommendation for the teaching staff of students in year 7 arises again from
both sets of data, whereby students, females in particular, learn well with the use of Mnemonics
to aid the retention of information from a new topic. Mnemonics is a teaching technique
whereby memorable activities are used to learn the subject content, for example using songs
or acronyms. We would therefore encourage teaching staff to spend time to incorporate
information retention techniques into their lesson plans in order for students in year 7 to learn
topics efficiently
An initial observation of ours was the reference the year 9 sample made to the learning
environment in which they worked in. Whilst half of the sample were in favour of a quiet
learning environment to aid the retention of new information being taught in the subject, the
other half of the sample were in favour of class discussions in order to develop the knowledge
the students had just learnt. This therefore has led us to make the recommendation that the
teaching staff should be encouraged to have different learning environments when teaching
new topics to their students. Whilst it is suitable to have a quiet working condition should the
work permit high levels of concentration, teachers should also be aware of the advantages of
having discussions so that the students can develop their own understanding of a topic, which is
particularly important for a new subject area.
Whilst this project aims to highlight areas for change in various teaching styles, it is also
important to consider the teachers themselves, whereby the year 9 sample specifically pointed
out that a teacher who is caring yet knowledgeable about the subject and is willing to help is
important, as the students felt encouraged to learn when the teacher promoted such actions
through their own behaviour. Whilst note-taking was promoted amongst the year 9 samples,
when they are in a position of not understanding the notes on the PowerPoint presentations, it
is important to encourage the teaching staff to relate to the student and explain it in a personal
manner to each individual student so that they are knowledgeable about the new topic learnt in
the subject.
Lastly, the two recommendations that has arisen from the ‘High Fives’ activity for year 9 students
include the extensive use of past paper questions and the lesser usages of little whiteboards for
answering questions posed by the teacher. Firstly, it was stressed that the use of examination
questions is important when learning a new topic rather than solely before an impending
examination as this ensures the students become comfortable with the new subject content in
the format they would expect to see it in an examination. In addition, the entire year 9 sample
stated that the use of whiteboards in lessons was not an effective teaching technique as it did
not aid, to a great extent, the student’s ability to answer a similar question correctly the following
time.
With year 11 students, as expected, there was more of an onus on examination results as they
were in their final year of GCSE examinations and were already aware of their performance in
previous examination following the publication of their January module results. When colleting
the data, the students were also aware of the number of examinations they had in the summer
examination period and subsequently realised the importance of having condensed notes in
order to perform well in as many of their examinations as possible.
This therefore had led to the recommendation for teachers to either continue, or use more if not
already, PowerPoint presentations so that students are able to have bullet point notes on new
topics and elaborate on them should the need arise.
Another recommendation for the teaching staff of year 11 students, would be to encourage
students to make flashcards and revision aids (such as Mnemonics) so to aid the information
retention of new subject content. This was rated highly on the ‘High Fives’ activity and we would
therefore recommend the teaching staff of year 11 students to set aside a lesson whilst the
students are learning a new topic, for the producing of revision materials as it not only allows
students to learn efficiently, it also aids their revision in the future.
Our last recommendation arises again from the ‘High Fives’ activity whereby half of the sample
stated the use of puzzles enabled them to learn a new subject topic, whilst others alluded to
the use of class discussions. The difference in opinions was to be expected amongst students
and we would therefore recommend that in a classroom comprising of mainly male students,
puzzles (such as wordsearches and crosswords) should be used, whereas with female year
11 students, they learn a new topic better when discussing the subject area – an idea that is
not objected to by the remaining year 11 sample. In a mixed classroom therefore, we would
therefore recommend the usage of class discussions to help the students learn a new topic with
the inclusion of a few puzzles to enable the testing of the new subject content learnt.
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How do teachers motivate students in
compulsory subjects?
Emily Brookes and Elena Peachey
Rationale
We decided to do a research project into education to help teachers to see how their teaching
techniques are interpreted by students and to give the students an opportunity to feedback to
the teachers in a less formal way. By doing this project we are able to present the student voice
to teachers and be able to show them how they are able to improve their teaching techniques to
motivate students in compulsory subjects.
Method
A decision was made by the team to investigate the differences between both year groups and
genders within the year groups themselves. As such we required two groups of three from
each year group used in the sample. There was one female and one male group from each year
because we decided that the students would probably work better like this.
To get an initial idea of what the students preferred and felt best motivated them, focus groups
were put into place. By doing this it was established the different types of ideas they had. These
focus groups were done by gathering the students in groups of three, within their year groups.
This helped us to identify any differences in opinion of genders as well as year groups.
Furthering upon this data from the focus groups we had enough information to establish the
favoured teaching styles. From this we went to take pictures of these styles (the top nine across
the board for all the focus groups). We then gave each group of three the same nine photos
to sort into diamond nines. This gave us adequate information to see different views between
genders and year groups. The diamond nines mean we know have rankings on the different
teaching styles summed up in photographs to make them more easily accessible for students.
Reliability of the data
The data should be reliable due to the large range of students from key stages 3 and 4, also
dividing them up into boys and girls means that we have information on both the year groups
and the genders so we can make more comparisons. The focus groups were a better way to
get ideas for the diamond nines than a questionnaire as it meant they could all discuss ideas;
however the reliability suffered as we had to sometimes give suggestions when in the focus
group, which meant at times we felt as though we were steering the conversation. Another
problem is that we chose the top nine ideas for the students to rank in their own way; this meant
we had an impact on the top nine but we left the students to put the nine into an order and as
such this part of the data was very reliable.
Diamond 9 image key
Working in groups
Making bullet point lists
Visual aids
Making posters
Making spider diagrams
Outdoor work
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Practical work
Highlighting
Writing in colours
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Data
Focus group data
Year 7 boys:
• Essays
• Practicals
• Posters
• Outside lessons
• Presentations
• Spider diagrams
• Calulations
Year 7 girls:
• Practicals
• Posters
• Outside lessons
• Presentations
• Videos
• Use of Computers
• Coloured notes
• Coping from the board
• Worked examples
• No hands up
Year 9 boys:
• Practicals
• Posters
• Outside lessons
• Presentations
• Videos
• Coloured notes
• Worked examples
• No hands up
Year 9 girls:
• Practicals
• Posters
• Outside lessons
• Presentations
• Videos
• Coloured notes
• Worked examples
• No hands up
Year 10 boys:
• Practicals
• Posters
• Outside lessons
• Presentations
• Videos
• Coloured notes
• Worked examples
• No hands up
Year 10 girls:
• Practicals
• Posters
• Outside lessons
• Presentations
• Videos
• Coloured notes
• Worked examples
• No hands up
Diamond nine data
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Year 7 boys
Year 7 girls
Year 9 boys
Year 9 girls
Year 10 boys
Year 10 girls
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Data analysis
Year 7 girls:
The ratings of the year 7 girls revolve mainly around more practical work and working
with others. They were less interested in tasks that involved more writing and reading.
Year 7 boys:
The boys of year 7 chose bullet point lists as the most motivating method in a
classroom, followed closely by practical work. The most interesting part is that they
viewed outdoor work as the worst of the top nine even though they seemed very
interested in it during the focus groups.
Year 9 girls:
The year 9 girls rated practical work and group work very highly and visual aids and
outdoor work were not as highly rated. Also, they thought that making display work
was very motivational and they decided that bullet point list were of the least help
when it comes to motivation
Year 9 boys:
Year 9 boys thought that practical work was the least motivational method and they
also thought that highlighting and spider diagrams were not very helpful. They highly
regarded group work and making display work as well as writing in colours.
Year 10 girls:
The year 10 girls decided that the method that they found most motivational was
group work closely followed by highlighting and writing in colours. They did not
consider outdoor work or practical work to be motivational and they also thought
that spider diagrams were not beneficial.
Year 10 boys:
The year 10 boys thought that making bullet point lists was very motivational and
also considered group and practical work to be highly motivational. They did not like
highlighting or outdoor work and thought that spider diagrams did not help with
motivation.
Comparing between year groups
The most consistently highly ranked motivation technique appears to be the group
work as each set of student rated it as either the most motivating or the second
rated. Spider diagrams were consistently in the middle of each diamond nine but
were not focused on within the group discussions.
Practical work was very enthusiastically suggested and discussed by every group
during the focus group sessions, however two of the groups rated it lowly on their
diamond nines and there appears to be no correlation between a particularly year
group or gender for this.
Comparing between genders
In the year 7 groups the boys rated bullet point lists as the most motivating activity
but the girls viewed it as one of the bottom ideas showing a difference between the
genders within an individual year group. This was surprising to us, as we believed that
the female students were more likely to lean towards the writing activities than the
males.
Conclusions
At the end of this project we were able to conclude that, on the whole, the males preferred
group work and practicals to motivate them and disliked highlighting and spider diagrams as a
form of motivation. From this, we were able to advise teachers on the preferred techniques that
they could use if they wanted to motivate their students. Furthermore, to conclude the female
data, they also rated practical work and group work very highly so when advising teachers on the
best motivational methods, these were the top two by far.
Methodological issues and improvements
One of the main problems that we faced during the data collection was the fact that not all of
the pupils turned up when notices were sent out in their registers. To amend this we changed the
time of data collection to during morning registration so all of the students would be present.
We also found that after the students had constructed the diamond 9’s, we took pictures of
them and it was very difficult to tell what the pictures in the diamond 9 were so we had to
number the pictures and reconstruct them onto a word document to make them clearer.
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Which teaching styles and activities help
students to learn best?
Robert Blakeman and Emily Brookes
Introduction
There is often debate as to the different teaching styles and activities which teachers incorporate
into their lessons. This often tends to be dependent upon the strengths of individual teachers,
although this may not be the ideal style for their students. As a result, a student’s ability and
progress within a subject could potentially be hindered, as the student may not become truly
engaged and immersed within their learning experience. Of course however, different students
do learn things in different ways, and it is therefore imperative that teachers adopt a wide
range of teaching styles in order to accommodate for all types of learning. A reason why we
chose this question to explore is because there is often a gap between what a teacher deems
as an appropriate teaching style and activity and what students view to be the best methods of
learning. Learning is something which doesn’t simply exist within the classroom, it is something
which must be retained and willingly revisited out of school. This is why a teacher may view
certain methods of teaching as effective within the classroom, but there is no incentive for
students to actually retain such knowledge as they go about the rest of their studies. The needs
of the student are imperative, and therefore must be the sole concern of the teachers in order
to maximise their potential throughout their school career. In exploring this question, we hope
to emphasise the voice of the student which may otherwise go unnoticed, as well as potentially
exposing the variance in what is deemed to be a worthwhile activity by both parties.
Method
The samples required were based purely on different year groups for the student findings.
Samples of four students per year were selected from Year 8 and Year 10. An equal number of
boys and girls were included within these samples. By using these samples we capture a large
range of ideas and it means we can see the difference across the years to see what students
prefer in Key Stages 3 and 4. To adequately see what they viewed we decided that the best way
to do this was to give them the Knowledge Tree to fill out. The leaves would represent what they
liked in terms of activities and teaching styles. The trunk would represent what atmospheres they
enjoyed. Finally, the roots would be representative of what they really did not think let helped
them to learn best., which we refer to as toxins. To establish what the teachers viewed as good
learning we gave them a simple task with one question on it; ‘Which teaching styles and activities
help your students to learn best?’. We then put all the ideas we received into a computer
programme named Wordle that made them into a more intriguing sight and helped us to decide
which words were most influential and linked best to the student responses.
Data
Year 8
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Year 10
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Teachers’ responses in wordle
Data analysis
Year 8
Toxins
Year 8’s believed that being rushed by the teacher led to them not being able to understand
what was going on and absorbing the knowledge. They agreed with the Year 10’s that just
writing from a textbook is very uninteresting along with disliking essays. In terms of teaching
styles they did not enjoy it when a teacher was too strict as they felt they could not connect with
them and they can’t learn well. The tree displayed that the Year 8’s found one of the toxins to be
a large amount of homework, that they said put too much pressure on them and took too much
time out of their evenings when they wanted to relax.
Helpful
The activities they view as helping them learn best were when they could work together and
help each other learn but they felt in whatever activity they did they needed to have enough
time given to them by the teacher which is something the Year 10’s did not believe was that
much of an issue. The Year 8’s also felt that practical lessons were particularly beneficial to their
learning experience, as well as the random hat; something which was also echoed in the Year
10 responses on their tree (preferring the no-hands rule instead however). Despite this, they
stated how they liked lessons to be taught outside; a factor the Year 10’s said was not important
enough to put onto the tree for them as it was not detrimental to their studies but didn’t help
them a vast amount either.
Useful atmospheres
The information given to us by the students in Year 8 all seemed to require a humorous
atmosphere where they need to have friendly banter with the teacher so that they feel
comfortable in their learning environment. They said they learnt best in a class where everything
ran smoothly so they knew exactly what they needed to do and when to do it. They felt this
order meant they could relax and absorb information more comfortably.
Year 10
Toxins
The informative gathered from the students shows that the Year 10’s found the toxins to be
to do with a large amount of work or homework similar to the view of the Year 8’s. They also
showed that non-practical activities such as copying from a textbook (which they described as
very boring and losing their attention so they ‘switch –off’) mean that they don’t learn as well.
The also suggested that the style of teaching where the class has to be silent led to them finding
the experience uninteresting and not helping them learn - but they also really disliked continuous
talking as well. In terms of activities they particularly disliked the use of posters, presentations and
essays (much like the Year 8’s).
Helpful
The activities they enjoyed revolved around practical lessons and watching videos as well as
school trips; they also liked being rewarded through the use of commendation cards when they
did a good piece of work, showing that praise was preferable to them over disciplinary action.
This is echoed by one saying they liked rewards; this was also supported by the Year 8’s as they
said they liked it when teachers gave them rewards too. They said the random hat was good
because it meant that everyone was able to answer questions and therefore it was not just the
same people answering each time.
Useful atmospheres
The tree gives us an insight into the atmosphere and as such the teaching styles preferred by
the year groups; they requested study periods instead of cover lessons as they felt they could do
more by themselves, colourful rooms where they can talk to each other while they are working
and they said that they need to have a connection with the teacher to learn effectively.
Teachers
The responses to the question posed suggest that the majority of teachers are already trying to
cater to all methods of learning in order to allow students to perform to the best of their abilities.
As students learn in a variety of different ways, teachers try to vary between different techniques
and activities; for example by setting pair work, using mini whiteboards or the flyswatter game.
The correspondence between the student and teacher responses suggest that there is a general
understanding about student needs within the classroom, and that the teachers are using a
range of techniques in order to meet them. Variety is key to an effective learning experience, as it
ensures students remain interested and engaged with the topic.
Furthermore, there was also a general consensus that making use of random questioning
techniques was beneficial in ensuring students pay attention in class. One teacher discussed how,
as students didn’t know whether or not they would be picked next, they would remain alert and
would therefore be more engaged in their learning. The students agreed that such a method of
teaching is beneficial, be it using the ‘no hands-up’ rule, or using the random hat programme
which comes as standard on staff laptops. Continuing to make use of such a method will ensure
students stay attentive and engaged in class, and will allow them to learn more in school instead
of having to catch up outside of school through homework and reading through the textbook
(both techniques which students dislike when learning, which in itself could act as an incentive
for students to pay attention more in class).
In addition, teachers also reported that a positive reinforcement towards student responses and
classwork was beneficial in learning the required topic content. This is because it acts as a ‘selffulfilling prophecy’, as such reinforcement acts as an incentive for students to push themselves
further. Even though such a technique is already being practiced to a degree, the information
gathered from both trees suggests that teachers should use a reward-based system more often,
as it acted as an incentive to do well.
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Commendation cards and are prime examples of this (amongst various others) as they let both
the students and their parents know that they have been performing well in class, spurring the
students onwards to perform even better within the classroom; if teachers were to make use of
these more, this should help boost student performance.
However, there is also some conflict between teacher and student perception as to the
effectiveness of different learning techniques, as some simply fail to engage the students. For
example, the teacher responses suggested that they felt methods of visual learning such as
creating posters were beneficial to learning, contrasting entirely with the Year 8 and 10 responses
which suggested that such activities are simply of no use to them. Often, such material is
painstakingly created and never referred to again, which means that valuable teaching time is
wasted.
Conclusion
Overall, the study shows that there is general consensus between both teachers and students
as to the most useful activities and techniques in the learning experience. Activities which are
particularly proactive seem to be favoured by both teachers and students, as they interest and
engage the students as well as allowing them to progress through the topic. The feedback
suggest how activities such as the no-hands rule, the use of mini whiteboards as well as lessons
which involve more practical work as opposed to merely written work are considerably beneficial,
and should potentially be adopted by teachers more often in order to help their students to
learn.
It is encouraging to see how teachers are willing and able to use a wide variety of different
teaching techniques inside the classroom in order to maintain a student’s knowledge outside the
classroom. It seems important therefore to refine the choice of activities based upon the student
responses, leaving out some choices of activity such as excessive creative work and minimising
other techniques which are uninteresting to students yet important to the subject, such as essays
and extended writing.
The report also emphasises how the relationship between student and teacher is an extremely
important learning technique in itself. In developing and improving this relationship, a student
is likely to feel more relaxed within the classroom setting which is often daunting for some
students, therefore allowing them to perform to the very best of their ability.
Reliability
The information that we collected from the students allows us to make a general observation
as to what students feel is beneficial to their learning. However, the sample does not necessarily
reflect the opinions of the corresponding year groups as a whole, and the responses we received
may actually not correspond to the beliefs of the year groups as a whole. Furthermore, the tree
itself could be seen as rather limiting, as it simply asks for very small responses to the question
as a whole; it also is not subject specific, and the methods in teaching that are suitable for one
subject area may be unhelpful in another subject area. However, coupling the student responses
with the teacher responses (which are a lot broader due to the nature of the question), these
small responses are able to explain themselves, as the teacher responses delved into the specifics
associated with different learning techniques. Additionally, being students, we are able to relate
to and emphasise the student voice, as we have first-hand experience of a wide range of the
different techniques the students and teachers in the sample have reported.
How is the transition in learning best
managed between Years 9-10 and Years
11-12?
Callum Tipple and Robert Blakeman
Rationale
Within this project we wished to investigate how teachers and learning assistants can best
help students making the difficult transitions between KS3 to KS4, and KS4 to KS5. Students
often find this leap very challenging, yet we feel that effective help from schools can reduce the
difficulty of this transition in learning, making the jump far more manageable and comfortable
for pupils. The aim of our project was to gather information on the types of strategies currently
employed by Rainham Mark Grammar School (RMGS), and to evaluate whether or not these
were the most effective; from there, we then wished to figure out which strategies the students
themselves find most helpful, and where there is room for improvement within this aspect of
pastoral support at Rainham Mark, with the final intention of making this transition in learning
one to relish, rather than one to fear.
Method
In order to carry out our investigation, we employed some more abstract and challenging
techniques than usual, as we felt that these would really challenge the students’ thinking, and
allow them to reveal their actual inner feelings and thoughts, rather than merely superficial
statements. We selected students from a range of ability levels in order to gain a representative
picture of student life as a whole, and used a group of three students from Year 10 and three
students from Year 12 as our sample – we felt that these groups would give the most useful
data, as they had partially gone through the process, but were still in the process of the
‘transition in learning’.
With each of the groups, we first used a ‘hidden voices’ activity, which involved the students
identifying their deeper thoughts and feelings about the transition process on A3 sheets, with
the students encouraged to be creative and forward with their ideas. We elected to utilise this
activity as our project was dependent on the students identifying their emotions about what they
were going through, and thus we wanted a more personal and creative approach to the project
from the students.
In addition to the ‘hidden voices’ task, we used an activity which we called ‘Hotspots’. This task
involved the students being shown a variety of strategies on the board, and as they were being
displayed the students were asked to give a score out of 10 based on how well that strategy
had been used in the past at RMGS, and how important/useful it is in managing the transition
process. This activity allowed us to hone in on the strategies that really help students, whilst also
allowing us to evaluate the success of currently deployed strategies at RMGS, and how these
strategies can be built upon to further help students to bridge the gap in learning.
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Data
Hotspots – Year 10
Hot Spots – Year 12
Key to Data – Hidden Voices
Yellow = helpful techniques
Orange (Year 10)/Pink (Year 12) = hindrances
Hidden Voices – Year 10
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Hidden Voices – Year 12
Analysis
Hot Spots
We found a number of themes which were commonplace for both Year 10 and Year 12. One
of these was the use of interesting and engaging activities, which allowed the students to grow
accustomed to the increase workload which the transition process encompassed. In addition,
both year groups noted that additional help outside of the class from their teachers aided the
transition process as it allowed them to firm up their knowledge of previously taught content
without falling too far behind in their studies.
However, there were also key differences between the two groups of responses; Year 12
for example emphasised the importance of individual attention and discussion with subject
teachers whereas the Year 10 pupils felt that the help gained from past exam papers was more
beneficial to their transition process, helping them to adapt to the requirements of a GCSE study.
Another noteworthy observation from the Hot Spot activity is that upping the workload prior
to the official transition process can prove a helpful force in readying students; however this is
dependent upon the individual students and their ability levels.
Hidden Voices
The Hidden Voices activity proved to be a useful aid in developing understanding of the student
perspective on the transition process. The Year 12s chose to emphasise the importance of the
teacher’s interest in the specific subject field, suggesting that such passion on the teacher’s part
translates to their students, and thus making the increased workload and difficulty much more
manageable. Furthermore, they also highlighted the critical role which teachers played in order
to maintain the necessary knowledge outside of the classroom environment, and the fact that
this corroborates with the data collected in the Hot Spots activity suggests that this is of critical
importance to Sixth Form learners. On the other hand, the Year 12s reported that they found the
immediate increase in the general workload at the start of the year damaging to their learning,
thus making it critical for teachers to gradually increase workload as the year progresses. This
observation was also backed up by the Year 10s, who strongly felt that a gradual increase in the
difficulty of the course coupled with challenging exams at the end of Year 9 was beneficial to the
transition process.
A comment unique to the Year 10 sample is that there is demand for some sort of taster period
for the different GCSE option choices available to students, as the students felt that this would
help them to select options carefully and thus make the transition somewhat easier. In a similar
vein, the independence given by teachers at the start of Year 10 proved to be extremely useful to
the sample, as they relished the chance to learn by themselves, and felt that this helped them to
manage the transition and feel comfortable about it, something also achieved through teacher
deployment of engaging pedagogical techniques such as use of interactive whiteboards. In
contrast, the intense start to Year 10 proved damaging to students and their self-confidence, and
thus it was discovered that high levels of difficult homework, coupled with high-pressure and
testing right from the beginning, disrupted the students and set them off on the wrong foot for
the two years ahead.
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Implications for learning
In summary, it can be seen that the transition process is of the utmost importance to students
at the beginning of Key Stages 4 and 5, and does result in significant additional stress and
pressure at a difficult time. As a result, the implementation of certain strategies in teaching and
learning are critical in order to engage students and ensure that confidence and standards can be
maintained throughout the switch to a higher level of difficulty and workload in GCSE or A-Level
studies respectively.
A significant and common thread running through the data collected is the importance of the
teacher as a learning tool. According to both Year 10 and Year 12 students, individual attention
and help from teachers was something not always consistently deployed, yet something which
would benefit learners throughout the ability spectrum in consolidating knowledge, and thus
removing a significant portion of the stress and anxiety that students face when grappling with
a new course of study. However, equally important is the passion the teacher has for the subject
which they are delivering, as it is this which secures confidence and faith in the learners, and
thus they feel far more comfortable and at ease from the start, whilst also becoming far more
engaged (something which transcends ability levels).
Specific techniques can be seen to play a marginally less important role for students; however,
it is notable that a gradual increase in workload towards the end of the preceding year and a
somewhat gentler start to the new course was something that facilitated the transition process
for certain students, suggesting that, depending on ability level, this would prove useful to
at least alleviate the immediate jump in workload at the beginning of specifically GCSE study.
Equally, innovative pedagogical techniques and a heightened level of independence would prove
a useful force for engaging a wider range of students from the beginning of the new course –
having said this, students placed more emphasis on the teacher role; this implies that it was the
teacher rather than necessarily their teaching style that is the most critical factor in the transition
process.
Reflections
The reflections below represent key themes that have emerged across
the six projects. They illuminate perspectives, perceptions and ideas
from the student sample and should be read alongside the fully
detailed projects.
The teacher as ‘authentic person’
A key theme across projects was the importance of the relationships teachers nurtured with
their students. What emerged was a desire for the “authentic person teaching them rather than
mere façade or stock persona”. The ‘authentic’ teacher was one who showed “due kindness”
to students, and who sought to “make students feel comfortable and …able to contribute”.
The authentic teacher emerged as one who had a “caring and helpful nature” and who could
“reassure students and pick out any promising aspects of the student’s answer”.
This dimension of care and kindness became important in providing the conditions for students
to feel confident to contribute to wider class discussions. The teacher’s “tone of voice“ formed
part of this authentic relationship to the extent that “the way the teacher spoke to them…was
the reason they were inspired”. The way the teacher spoke was an expression of the respect
teachers had for students, and this in turn was reciprocated as “two way respect”. The authentic
teacher also used humour which made them “approachable”.
The teacher and their subject
A second theme to emerge from the findings was the teacher’s relationship to their subject. Our
student- researchers reported that the most inspiring teachers had a “comfort, passion for, and
ease with the subject”. This was expressed through their “innovative and enthusiastic” teaching.
Students felt that an “engaging teacher” was far more effective in terms of student behaviour
than ‘discipline’. The teacher’s relationship with their subject was also explored in relation to the
way they were able to “apply to real life” the subject in hand.
Atmosphere
Classroom atmosphere was discussed across most projects. Students’ opinions varied from
subject to subject and year to year. Ultimately our student-researchers found that “teachers
should employ both systematically” so that students experience “a quiet classroom as well as
a classroom where there are discussions around a topic”. Whether engaged in individual silent
work or group discussions, students reported that being “rushed by the teacher” was stressful
and diminished their confidence and engagement.
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Meaning making
The findings from across projects indicate that where appropriate, students value group and
practical work - sometimes referred to as teamwork. The importance of speaking and listening in
learning was highlighted by the students when describing the way in which “discussions with a
partner” enhanced their learning. In this we see the value students place on peer discussions to
clarify and extend meaning. They are constructing their learning as a meaning -making activity
which is enriched by peer to peer interaction.
Meaning making was also enhanced by one to one time with the teacher. Students valued this
individual attention greatly. Similarly, students felt that independent learning was important in
deepening understanding, but this had to be carefully managed and designed; younger students
in the study reported that too much “bookwork” was “alienating”.
Partners in learning
The student researchers, in considering the implications of their findings, suggested that it might
be appropriate for teachers, when covering work in preparation for exams, to “consult students
on whether the topic should be covered again and subsequently move on if students want to”.
Similarly, the student researchers suggest that an “evaluation section” at the end of lessons might
focus students on their learning and provide teachers with helpful information in terms of what
students found most valuable. In this we see students who are taking responsibility for their own
learning, having a different relationship with both the subject and the teacher and seeking to
engage in metacognition.
Interaction with the teacher and other students
Students valued highly interactive, intense and focused activities. They reported that question and
answer sessions were valuable and they requested the use of examination papers when a topic
was being introduced, rather than simply as an aid in revision. Preparation for exams was valued
highly and yet the types of activities that were helpful changed depending on the age of the
students. Older students valued highly focused power point slides in particular.
All students valued creative revision aids although the traffic light system, over intensive use of
classroom computers, quizzes and whiteboards were felt to have limited potential in enriching
learning. Similarly, the younger students reported that too much homework was overwhelming
and stressful, leading to a diminished enjoyment of school.
These broad brushstroke reflections on the six projects show a community of students who are
articulate, who know what helps them in their learning and who wish to further enhance their
experiences in school. They show a passion for learning and a desire to work in partnership with
their teachers at Rainham Mark Grammar School. In short, they are students who enjoy agency,
voice and participation in learning.
Canterbury Christ Church University
Faculty of
Education Department of Professional Development
[email protected]

`Agency, Voice and Participation`: Rainham Mark Grammar School

Transcription

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