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How to use oracy as a tool for formative assessment
Get PDFBackground: The study was conducted in a Year 9 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) class with 30 students aged 14-15, some of whom found it difficult to sustain conversations and also are overly dependent on teacher assessment of their competences.
Aims: The aim of the study was to explore how students, through improved oracy skills, can become more aware of their own competence and know how to improve it?
Methods: The researchers conducted three lessons to achieve this aim. The first lesson involved term relay and oral discussions about different claims related to a case in social studies. The second lesson focused on oral discussions about different claims connected to various assessment criteria. The third lesson included orientation exercises with practical tasks that promoted oral discussions. The researchers selected three focus pupils with different levels of oral skills: one with excellent skills, one with fairly good skills, and one with poor skills. The researchers observed the focus pupils during the lessons and collected data through interviews and questionnaires.
Findings: The researchers found that students who were already aware of their own role in oral discussions benefited more from the lessons compared to other students. The study also highlighted the importance of teacher guidance and feedback in helping students become aware of their own competence. The maturity of the students was found to have a significant impact on their awareness of their competence. Safety, both for individuals and the group, was identified as crucial for effective discussions. Practical tasks, especially those involving movement, increased student participation.
Implications: The study suggests that teachers may overestimate students' competence and should adjust their ambitions to match students' levels. Teachers should also use vocabulary that is easily understandable to students. It also suggests actively making students aware of their role in oral discussions through modelling and providing examples of how to maintain conversations. The researchers propose allocating time for self-assessment and using feedback to promote further competence. Overall, the study provides insights into using oracy as a tool for formative assessment and offers practical implications for teachers working with oracy and formative assessment
“I like knowing how it all fits together”: Creating desirable difficulties in the Physics lab.
Get PDFBackground and purpose: To achieve in the classroom and to embed understanding students need to undergo a degree of struggle in the learning process. This paper explores changes to teaching techniques to ensure supported and appropriate levels of struggle takes place in all students in the Physics Classroom.
Aims: To explore how a change of technique in planning and teaching can lead to a shift in attitude in students, encouraging them to take greater risks with their learning and lead to possibly greater achievement
Study design or methodology: 50 students of mixed ability were taught a Physics topic, over a 6-week period using planning techniques that encouraged greater independence from the students.
Findings: Quantitative data showed slight improvement in test-based data. Observation from colleagues and from students showed a shift in attitude toward independence and further pursuit of mastery. Greater ownership encourages students to be more self-reliant whilst learning.
Implications for practice: Planning sequences of learning should be based around skills acquired rather than content. Undergoing research / deliberate practice enables teachers to refine their craft. Student independence and struggle can help students feel more confident in their learning approach
Developing meaningful child-led class discussions: centring children in classroom dialogue to motivate learning and encourage oracy development
Get PDFBackground and purpose: This inquiry was designed to move away from a teacher-led classroom discussion model and to centre the children, allowing them the opportunity to develop their oracy and dialogue skills.
Aims: The aim of this inquiry was to accentuate such dialogue while embedding purposeful child- led learning in different subject areas. Self-assessment was carried out following each discussion for the children to metacognitively engage with the development of their skills and the impact of oracy across their learning.
Study design or methodology: I carried out this action research project with my year 3 class. Each week, I showed the children a statement or question. I sat and observed without participating. The pre-established talk rules and teacher-created sentence stems applied. The whole class then completed a self-assessment through further discussion.
Findings: The children leading their discussions with certain scaffolds made the outcomes purposeful and the children were motivated to carry implications of the discussions to their learning. The talk was mostly meaningful and diplomatically-organised. In the context of the child- led discussion, some individual children who previously were less vocal in classroom talk became talk leaders, while others chose to participate more subtly. The children were more likely to respond to each other than when the discussion was teacher-led and used the sentence stems more robustly.
Conclusions, originality, value and implications: The inquiry helped me as a practitioner to shift from a tightly-managed, adult-led talk model to one that empowers children to respond to and share ideas with one another and then apply those ideas to different areas of learning. This latter point is one I have so far seen in limited amounts, but could be developed further with carefully chosen talk stimuli and the continued embedding of child-led learning. Moving forward, I aim to embed this child-led discussion seamlessly within classroom learning
Cultivating year 9 English as a Foreign Language oracy skills in a Norwegian classroom
Get PDFBackground and purpose: We were becoming more aware of the importance of designing and planning activities where pupils can practise their oracy skills. Teachers have to give pupils the opportunities and the time to practise their oracy skills in the classroom, and we wanted to explore different tools to support this.
Aims: We chose to look at how different tools, such as sentence starters, talking points, roles and café dialogue, can help pupils to participate in group and plenary conversations in English.
Study design or methodology: We conducted three research lessons in one year 9 class.
Findings: We found that these tools helped to increase the number of pupils who participated in the conversations in English. The interviews and questionnaires we conducted confirmed our observations: the pupils found most of the tools helpful, especially the talking points, roles and café dialogue.
Conclusions, originality, value and implications: This research underscores the importance of considering the way that pupils communicate in the classroom and of giving them the tools they need in order to include everyone. All pupils seemed to benefit from the tools that we provided, but in different ways and to varying extents
“Just… the thing you get at the end”? A Case Study examining Student and Teacher Experiences of Assessment in Art and Design in a Year 11 GCSE Class during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
No full textAssessment has long been an area of contention, controversy and discomfort in art education. How do educators define, regulate and assess that which is so often indefinable, idiosyncratic and subjective? Through a qualitative, small-scale case study focusing on a Year 11 GCSE Art and Design class at a mixed, comprehensive secondary school in Cambridgeshire, England, this paper seeks to examine how students and teachers themselves experience assessment in art and design. Undertaken during the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring of 2021, my research focuses on how art assessment interacts with students’ motivation and creative process, teachers’ professional and pedagogical practice, and the wider context of the pandemi
What role does a ‘sense of place’ play in pupils’ ability to construct large-scale historical narratives? An investigation into the ability of Year 9 pupils to narrate the history of the Cambridgeshire Fens
No full text‘Sense of place’ is a concept whose currency is growing in history teaching, but whose elements and purpose remain elusive. Drawing on cultural geography, environmental history and work in history education around world-building and narrative, this paper documents an explorative case study that aimed to examine the role that building a ‘sense of place’ might play in pupils’ historical learning. The case study centred around a five- lesson enquiry in which Year 9 pupils explored the story of the Cambridgeshire Fens since c.1600. The paper argues that a ‘sense of place’ can be framed as a tool which supports historical thinking or as a constitutive element of historical thinking itself. Considering this choice can help teachers to determine the types of knowledge that pupils need in order to build a ‘sense of place’, and how such knowledge can be built
How to use oracy as method/tool for formative assessment of students
Get PDFBackground: This study focuses on the use of learning peers and groups to improve 15-16 year old students' oral abilities and knowledge in the context of a genetics lesson. The researchers aimed to explore the impact of these strategies on student participation and engagement in oral activities.
Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of learning peers and groups in promoting oracy skills and facilitating formal assessment in the classroom. The researchers also aimed to identify the key factors that contribute to successful implementation of these strategies.
Methods: The study involved three research lessons where students watched a movie clip related to the theme of genetics and sexuality. They then worked in learning groups to discuss questions from the movie clip. To review important terms and promote oracy, the students played a term game in groups, where they had to explain subject terms to their group members. The researchers also developed other activities such as a variation of the word game Alias and conversation starters to further enhance oral participation.
Findings: The use of learning peers and groups was found to significantly improve students' oral abilities and knowledge. The researchers observed that a larger number of students participated in oral activities in the last lesson, indicating increased engagement and motivation. The use of varied and fun tasks, such as word explanation games, was found to be particularly effective in promoting oracy and cooperation among students. Additionally, the researchers found that carefully planning the composition of learning partners and groups was crucial for successful implementation.
Implications: The findings of this study suggest that teachers can promote better oracy skills and facilitate formal assessment by incorporating learning peers and groups into their teaching practices. It is important for teachers to carefully plan the composition of these groups and provide a safe and supportive environment for students to engage in oral discussions. Varied and fun tasks should be included to motivate students and cater to their different levels of ability. The researchers recommend further exploration of the use of learning peers and groups in future lessons, with a focus on self-assessment. The study also highlights the importance of sharing research findings with other teachers and schools to benefit the wider education community
Low Student Engagement Level in Struggling Learners and Ways to Address It
No full textThis article is concentrated on understanding the concept of 'student engagement' and investigates the outcomes of the increased engagement levels in struggling learners. It addresses the effectiveness of some of the methods targeting 'dips' in students' involvement levels and investigates its triggers. Student engagement has lately been on the radar of the educators' community as one of the foundational layers of teaching. It has been interlinked with sounder progress levels, improved attendance, and increased learning-related curiosity. Action Research was used as a methodological approach, with observations, journaling, and staff interviews being used as methods. A sound body of literature was researched to establish a solid framework for this study. The research has shown that improved engagement has the potential to lessen behaviour-related incidents, boost progress in struggling learners, and has a positive impact on the social climate. However, more research is needed to confirm this. In this study, a significant improvement in the number of successful tasks performed independently by children, a decrease in behavioural incidents, and improved social integration were present as the result of the strategy applied to increase engagement. Identifying pluming components of engagement (i.e., cognitive, social, behavioural) was discovered to be instrumental for the engagement-booster strategy to be effective
Assessing engagement with construction-based, structured-play activities designed for the teaching and learning of the language of metacognition in a primary Pupil Referral Unit
Get PDFBackground and purpose: I conducted a case study at a primary pupil-referral-unit (PRU), exploring the use of construction-based, structured-play activities for the teaching and learning of the language of metacognition (LoM). Metacognition is important for developing independent learners and, in the context of a PRU, for both assisting students in obtaining academic outcomes similar to their mainstream counterparts and facilitating reintegration into mainstream settings.
Aims: Engagement is a necessary pre-requisite for teaching and learning to occur, and in this report, I explore primary-PRU students’ engagement with the activities to determine if the activities are sufficiently engaging such that they can unfold in a manner consistent with their design.
Study design or methodology: Three students at a primary PRU in the South-East of England participated in eight sessions of two construction-based, structured-play activities; both activities included ‘metacognition resources’ of my own design, which were intended to introduce students to the LoM. To explore engagement with these activities, context-specific indicators were obtained from observation of video and audio data, and a ‘Leuven-inspired’ scale of engagement, ranging from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high) was constructed and used to monitor engagement throughout the sessions.
Findings: Considering the context and the archetypal PRU student, the activities were generally engaging. I found students to be sufficiently engaged such that the activities could unfold in a manner consistent with their design. The build process was, however, generally more engaging than the ‘metacognition elements’ of the activities.
Implications for practice: The findings suggest that construction-based, structured play and the metacognition resources offer a viable means to engage students with metacognition. Such activities may provide a way to help students in PRUs develop independency in learning, facilitate their reintegration into mainstream settings, and improve their academic outcomes
What impact does the use of differentiation when teaching writing to KS1 Primary 3 EAL students effectively support and challenge students to create engaging lessons in a primary school in Hong Kong?
No full textThis paper undertakes an investigative approach to evaluate the effectiveness of differentiation on KS1 English as an Additional Language (EAL) Primary 3 students during writing lessons. The researcher undertook a small-scale action research project using multi-data collection through observation, self-noticing and evaluated pre and post-test results to examine the impact of the intervention. The action research used the four-stage model of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting over three cycles which allowed for deeper research and intervention implementation. Findings suggest that implementation of scaffolding and group work allowed for progress in pre and post-test results, supporting the constructivist view that students build on previous knowledge and learn from more experienced others. As it was a small-scale research project, there are still knowledge gaps, and it would be recommended to have continuous research to gain optimal results