Fran Riga

Formative Conceptions of Assessment: Trainee Teachers' Thinking about Assessment Issues in English Secondary Schools.

This paper explores the developing thinking about assessment of graduate trainees preparing for secondary teaching in England. For some years teachers in English schools have worked in a context where the outcomes of formal testing have been used to judge school and teacher performance as well as student achievement. Research evidence that formative modes of assessment contribute more to student learning has in recent years led to strong recommendations that most classroom assessment should be ‘Assessment for Learning’ (AfL). In reality the new orthodoxy of AfL is being championed in a context where high‐stakes testing retains its perceived role in ensuring ‘accountability’. Interviews with a sample of trainee teachers at an early stage of preparation for teaching suggest that their preconceptions about the nature and purpose of assessment, and their interpretations of classroom observations on school placement, offer a confused and complex basis for adopting recommended assessment practices in their own teaching.

Understanding differences in trainee teachers' values and practice in relation to assessment

This study uses cluster analysis to examine groupings of trainee teachers against dimensions underpinning their values and practice in relation to assessment. Our sample comprised 220 trainees, studying for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, an initial teacher training and education course, at the University of Cambridge, UK. The survey instrument derives from D. Pedder and M. James, and aimed to discover how trainee teachers value and implement different classroom assessment practices in their teaching. Cluster analysis of factor scores from varimax rotated principal components analysis revealed four clusters of trainees in relation to their practice responses, and two clusters in relation to values responses. Similarities and differences between clusters are discussed, as are similarities and differences with corresponding solutions for qualified teachers. Membership of clusters was found to be associated with membership of particular subject disciplines. The implications for initial teacher education and training are discussed.

Principled Improvement in Science: Forces and proportional relations in early secondary-school teaching

In response to continuing concerns about student attainment and participation in science and mathematics, the epiSTEMe project took a novel approach to pedagogy in these two disciplines. Using principles identified as effective in the research literature (and combining these in a fashion not previously attempted), the project developed topic modules for early secondary-school teaching in the UK, arranged for their implementation in classrooms, and evaluated the results. This paper reports the development, implementation, and evaluation of one of the epiSTEMe science modules. Entitled Forces and Proportional Relations, the module covers standard curricular material in the domain of forces, while paying particular attention to the proportional nature of many key constructs. It was developed in collaboration with a small group of teachers; implemented subsequently in 16 classrooms, in all cases involving students from the first year of secondary school; and evaluated through comparison with first-year students in 13 control classrooms who were studying the topic using established methods. Evaluation addressed topic mastery and opinions about the topic and the manner in which it was taught. While further research is required before definite conclusions are warranted, results relating to topic mastery provide grounds for optimism about the epiSTEMe approach. Furthermore, student opinions about the module were positive.

A research-informed dialogic-teaching approach to early secondary school mathematics and science: the pedagogical design and field trial of the epiSTEMe intervention

Abstract The Effecting Principled Improvement in STEM Education [epiSTEMe] project undertook pedagogical research aimed at improving pupil engagement and learning in early secondary school physical science and mathematics. Using principles identified as effective in the research literature and drawing on a range of existing pedagogical resources, the project designed and trialled a classroom intervention, with associated professional development, in a form intended to be suited to implementation at scale. The most distinctive feature of the epiSTEMe pedagogical approach is its inclusion of a component of dialogic teaching. Aimed at the first year of secondary education in English schools (covering ages 11–12), the epiSTEMe intervention consists of a short introductory module designed to prepare classes for this dialogic teaching component, and topic modules which employ the epiSTEMe pedagogical approach to cover two curricular topics in each of science and mathematics. A field trial was conducted over the 2010/2011 school year in 25 volunteer schools, randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Within the intervention group, observation of lessons indicated that the level of dialogic teaching was higher for one of the topic modules than others. Evaluation focused on the effectiveness of the topic modules, each trialled in more than 10 classes containing a total of over 300 pupils, and compared with a group of similar composition. Overall, at this first implementation, learning gains under the epiSTEMe intervention were no greater, although for individual topic modules the effects ranged from small negative to small positive. No difference was found between intervention and control groups either in the opinion of pupils about their classroom experience or in changes in their attitude towards subjects.

Inquiry-Based Science Education

By all accounts, science and inquiry should go hand in hand. Whether the same is true of science education and inquiry is quite another matter.

Secondary school teachers’ perspectives on teaching about topics that bridge science and religion

The question of where to locate teaching about the relationships between science and religion has produced a long-running debate. Currently, science and religious education (RE) are statutory subjects in England and are taught in secondary schools by different teachers. This paper reports on an interview study in which 16 teachers gave their perceptions of their roles and responsibilities when teaching topics that bridge science and religion and the extent to which they collaborated with teachers in the other subject areas. We found that in this sample, teachers reported very little collaboration between the curriculum areas. Although the science curriculum makes no mention of religion, all the science teachers said that their approaches to such topics were affected by their recognition that some pupils held religious beliefs. All the RE teachers reported struggling to ensure students know of a range of views about how science and religion relate. The paper concludes with a discussion about implications for curriculum design and teacher training.

How Students View the Boundaries Between Their Science and Religious Education Concerning the Origins of Life and the Universe

ABSTRACT Internationally in secondary schools, lessons are typically taught by subject specialists, raising the question of how to accommodate teaching which bridges the sciences and humanities. This is the first study to look at how students make sense of the teaching they receive in two subjects (science and religious education [RE]) when one subjects curriculum explicitly refers to cross‐disciplinary study and the other does not. Interviews with 61 students in seven schools in England suggested that students perceive a permeable boundary between science and their learning in science lessons and also a permeable boundary between religion and their learning in RE lessons, yet perceive a firm boundary between science lessons and RE lessons. We concluded that it is unreasonable to expect students to transfer instruction about cross‐disciplinary perspectives across such impermeable subject boundaries. Finally, we consider the implications of these findings for the successful management of cross‐disciplinary education.

Professional knowledge learned and professional knowledge applied: A case study of two trainee English teachers

Abstract This article reports on one strand of a collaborative research project undertaken at the Faculty of Education, which sought to explore trainee teachers’ development of assessment understandings and practices during their PGCE, and over the following two years. Using two case studies of English trainees, we explore the ways in which they seek to bring together effective assessment principles embedded in the research literatures they encountered in their training with the classroom focused, ‘tried and tested’ approaches in their placement schools. The resulting demands on professional knowledge ‘pure’ and ‘applied’, and some resulting tensions are investigated though interviews with the trainees concerned.