Ursula Howard,

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UNESCO Seminar Research related to quality and
the enhancement of quality

NRDC 5 effective practice studies an overview

• Ursula Howard,
• Director, NRDC
• European Literacy Researchers Meeting
• 18-19 February, 2008

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About this presentation
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• Part One overview
• Part Two findings and emerging themes
• What next?

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Overview
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• To identify effective teaching and learning
  practices in
• Reading - University of Sheffield
• Writing - Learning and Skills Development Agency
• Numeracy - Kings College London
• ESOL - University of Leeds and Kings College
  London
• ICT - Institute of Education, University of
  London
• Key questions
• How can teaching, learning and assessing
  literacy, numeracy, ESOL and ICT be improved?
• Which factors contribute to successful learning?

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Overview
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• Two phases academic years 2003/04 and 2004/05.
• Mainly over 19 year olds seeking primarily to
  improve their literacy, language or numeracy not
  those pursuing mainly GCSE courses in the Further
  Education sector

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Overview

• The targets across the two years were to
• recruit and gather data on 250 learners
• assess attainment and attitudes at two points
  during the year of participation
• interview both learners and teachers
• observe strategies the teachers used
• correlate those strategies with changes in
  learners attainment and attitudes

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Overview

• ICT
• Differs from others development first phase
• Only second phase of data-gathering resembles
  that of the other projects
• Smaller final sample size
• Shorter timescale, completing in March 2005

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Findings and emerging themes
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• Subject and pedagogic knowledge
• Diversity
• Flexibility
• Working in groups
• Confidence
• The learners
• Learning progress
• Persistence, practice, proficiency
• Work in progress
• Good practice
• 7

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Subject and pedagogy ESOL

• The major resource that can make or mar the most
  promising teaching methods is the expertise and
  professionalism of ESOL teachers
• This professionalism draws on both subject
  knowledge and subject-specific pedagogy, and CPD
  that encourages reflection on teaching and
  learning.

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Subject and pedagogy numeracy
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• Numeracy teacher education and CPD teachers not
  only need firm grasp of subject and pedagogic
  knowledge, but also of subject-specific pedagogic
  knowledge
• Importance of integrating teaching of subject and
  pedagogic knowledge into teacher training and
  professional development

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Teaching and progress flexibility
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• Writing flexible approach to teaching,
  responsiveness to learners concerns as they
  arise, willingness to go with the teachable
  moment - positive impact on learners progress
• ESOL effective practice happens with teachers
  who can balance the conflicting demands arising
  from policy and management requirements and
  learners lives and goals
• Managing potential fragile classroom ecology
  where so many vulnerable people are gathered
  together requires flexible teacher qualities as
  well as sound teaching strategies

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Teaching and progress groups
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• Reading learners who spent more time working in
  pairs made better progress learners who spent
  less time working alone made better progress
• Most frequent patterns of classroom activity
  whole-class opening section, then individual
  practice all individual work
• ESOL classrooms largely made up of talk. As well
  as being the medium of learning, talk is what is
  being learnt. Talk is work.
• Numeracy strongest negative correlations with
  attainment included large proportion of
  individual work

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Teaching and progress groups
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• ICT learners who spent more time on their own
  showed better gains in ICT than those spending
  more time in small groups
• Collaborative work imposed by need to share
  technology not as successful as when tutors
  develop tasks for peer interaction
• One person sometimes dominated use of technology
  - may undermine value of collaboration
• Writing working in collaborative groups may
  undermine confidence in writing in a public place
  or at work

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Confidence and progress
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• Reading
• Significant improvement in learners self
  confidence, but did not correlate with
  improvement in reading
• Writing
• Small increases in learner confidence
• No statistical relationship between progress or
  regress and changes in learners self confidence

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Confidence and progress
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• Numeracy learners attitudes became slightly
  more positive at the end of the course
• Changes tended to be greatest for older people,
  and related particularly to a perception of
  numeracy as less difficult
• Once learners overcome initial anxiety, both
  about the course and about mathematics, and when
  blocks and barriers are overcome, numeracy
  courses can have a significant and positive
  effect on their identity in general, improving
  levels of confidence and self esteem, and
  specifically, as people who can do mathematics

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Confidence and persistence ICT
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• Initial levels of ICT confidence found to have an
  impact on learners persistence those with lower
  levels of ICT confidence are likely to attend
  less frequently, and more likely eventually to
  drop out

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Learners and diversity ESOL
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• Diversity of learners from those with no formal
  education to highly qualified professionals
• Experience of learners, many living with trauma
  and great uncertainty about life in UK
• Although teachers manage the heterogeneous ESOL
  classroom, very mixed levels do not serve
  learners well, especially where there are marked
  differences in literacy
• Within-class differentiation may not be best
  strategy for addressing these differences

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Learners and progress writing

• Factors associated with progress
• Gender on average women made more progress than
  men
• Age the biggest gains were made by the younger
  age groups 16-19, and 20-29
• First language learners for whom English was an
  additional language scored slightly lower than
  native speakers
• Employment status the largest gains were made by
  learners in full-time education or in employment

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Learners and progress reading

• Factors associated with progress
• Gender womens scores rose slightly more than
  mens
• Occupational status in one cohort, employed and
  self-employed learners improved significantly
  more than those who were unemployed
• Formal qualifications in one cohort, learners
  with FE/national vocational qualifications
  improved significantly more than those with no
  qualifications
• Attendance more regular attendance (weakly)
  associated with improvement
• Self-study learners reporting more self-study
  between classes made better progress. This also
  emerged as an important factor in the
  Longitudinal Study of Adult Learning in Oregon.

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Learners and progress reading

• Factors not associated with progress
• Age
• Ethnicity
• English as first or additional language
• Time since last course
• Having dyslexia
• Improvement in self-confidence
• Attending other provision

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Learners and progress
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• Numeracy learners motivation and purposes for
  attending a course, their aspirations, abilities
  and dispositions towards numeracy, their
  socio-cultural background and experiences outside
  the classroom
• These characteristics vitally important for
  determining the effectiveness of teaching
  practices and learning progress
• Writing individual learner characteristics of
  the first importance in determining learners
  progress and their confidence in writing

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Implications for teacher training
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• Learner characteristics even more important than
  we had thought?
• Importance of teachers having good understanding
  of adult learners needs and aspirations
  positive teacher-learner relationships
• What are the characteristics of initial teacher
  training, learning environments and teaching
  practices that promote positive relationships and
  social interaction, and give due weight to
  developing both expertise and positive human
  qualities?

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How much learning progress?
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• ESOL significant progress between two
  assessments
• (Learners prepost assessed over 6-25 wks
  average weekly hours 9.6 (min 2 max 32)
• Numeracy significant progress between two
  assessments
• (Average no. of hours between pre and post
  assessment 39)
• ICT significant progress in both literacy/ESOL
  skills and ICT skills and confidence
• (Average 40 hours of class time)
• Writing modest progress between two assessments
• (Min. 50 hours no. of hours learners spent in
  classroom between the two assessments often quite
  limited
• Reading no significant differences between three
  assessments
• (Av. attendance 30 hours)

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Making time to learn persistence
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• NCSALL persistence has two parts - intensity
  (hours of instruction per month) and duration
  (months of engagement)
• Persistence not only taught contact hours, but
  also self study, distance learning, return to
  study. Hence time on task
• Students in US adult literacy programmes
  participate an average of 70 hours in a 12 month
  period, but 100 to 150 hours are required to
  improve literacy by one General Education
  Development Diploma (GED) level.
• NCSALL, NRDC estimate at least 150 hours,
  probably nearer 200 hours, required to improve
  by one level in Skills for Life

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Practice and proficiency
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• NCSALL longitudinal study of adult learning
  (Portland) distinction between learners
  practices and their proficiency
• Time on task has most direct and immediate effect
  on development of literacy practices these, in
  turn, have positive effects on proficiency
• Learners report growth in learning confidence,
  positive attitudes towards learning, and improved
  ability to perform wide range of LLN-related
  tasks

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Making time to learn ICT

• Worked with group of 9 tutors to develop teaching
  interventions
• One day a week release time for a year
• Monthly meetings between researchers and tutors
  between these meetings two development officers
  visited the tutors and worked with them in
  developing their practice
• Tutors met monthly for one-day workshops for a
  year
• Tutors completed weekly on-line reflective
  diaries and termly intervention plans

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Making time to learn ICT

• Average 40 hours of class time learners assessed
  twice and observed 3-4 times
• Significant learning gains in ICT and in
  literacy/ESOL
• Support for Moser claim Learners who use ICT
  for basic skills double the value of their study
  time acquiring two sets of skills at the same
  time
• Process took a lot of time and effort, but having
  developed robust models, the tutors were able to
  induct their buddies into these practices with
  much less effort on the buddies part, and to
  achieve equivalent results

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Work in progress

• We didnt always find evidence of the
  correlations between teaching and learning that
  we were expecting. Why?
• Need for more time? As above.
• Instruments not always sufficiently sensitive?
• Progress is sometimes subtle (though important) -
  too subtle for current assessment instruments
• Relationship between teaching and learning not
  always such that one element of teaching
  straightforwardly related to one element of
  learning
• Numeracy the multiplicity of factors
  contributing to learning mean that any effects
  that good practice might have are often
  compromised by other considerations that
  contribute to, or constrain, learning progress.

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Good practice

• Evening class at London FE college teacher
  taught numeracy for 21 years many learners made
  exceptional progress
• The teacher created non-threatening atmosphere
  and learners misconceptions used as examples to
  discuss with whole group
• Learners encouraged to discuss problems and
  concepts both between themselves and with the
  teacher, building strong collaborative culture
• Numeracy learning viewed as social activity where
  understanding was formed through discussion

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Good practice

• Variety of group, individual and whole-class
  teaching. Even when learning organised on
  individual basis the learners encouraged to
  discuss problems and help each other
• Class taught in open style, allowing
  higher-order, diagnostic questioning that
  uncovered learners thinking
• Range of material and teaching resources used
  worksheets, games, activities, including
  whole-class role play
• Teacher used problem-solving activities and able
  to change direction to respond to learners
  needs.

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What next? enabling better quality of teaching
and learning and learners success
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• Summary and full reports published
• Web-based report every last detail
• Practitioner guides for quality improvement
• Further research rigorous test of research
  findings, using development sites
• Action research, trialling, development projects

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Practitioner guides what NRDC can offer to
practice
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• Effective strategies for teaching reading (eg.,
  strategies for balancing reading aloud, phonics,
  developing fluency)
• Managing heterogeneity in the classroom ESOL and
  others
• Characteristics of initial teacher training,
  learning environments and teaching practices that
  develop both expertise and positive human
  qualities
• Developing provision that encourages learner
  engagement and persistence
• CPD models that allow adequate time for teacher
  engagement
• Models for integrating the teaching of subject
  and pedagogic knowledge
• How to improve teachers confidence and skills in
  classroom management (eg., balance of whole
  group, small group and individual work)
• Supporting teachers to become more skilled and
  flexible with teaching approaches. Going with the
  teachable moment
• Training teachers to use the curriculum, not
  simply to follow it

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References
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• Numeracy/Mathematics
• Beyond the daily application making numeracy
  teaching meaningful to adult learners, Swain, J
  et al, NRDC, 2005
• Effective practices in inclusive adult numeracy
  teaching, Coben, D., Brown, M., Rhodes, V.,
  Swain, J., et al, NRDC, 2006
• Adult numeracy review of research and related
  literature, Coben, D., et al, NRDC 2003
• Maths4Life materials in development
• New light on literacy and numeracy, Bynner, J.,
  and Parsons, S., NRDC 2006
• Does Numeracy matter more, Parsons, S., and
  Bynner, J., NRDC 2005
• Reading
• Effective practice in the teaching of reading to
  adult learners, Brooks, G., Burton, M., Cole, P.,
  et al, NRDC, 2006
• Progress in adult literacy do learners learn?
  Brooks, G., et al, Basic Skills Agency, 2001
• Writing
• Effective approaches to the teaching and learning
  of writing, Grief, S., Meyer, B., Kelly, S.,
  Soundranayagram, L., NRDC, 2006
• Teaching and learning writing a review of
  research and practice, Kelly, S. et al, NRDC
  2004

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References
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• ESOL
• Effective practice in the teaching of ESOL to
  adult learners, Baynham, M., Roberts, C.,
  Simpson, J., Cooke, M., et al, NRDC, 2006
• ESL
• What Works Study for Adult ESL Literacy
  Students, American Institutes for Research
  (Condelli, L., et al) 2003.
• ICT
• ICT effective practice study, Mellar, H.,
  Kambouri, M., Logan, K., NRDC, forthcoming 2006
• Embedding LLN
• Embedded teaching and learning of adult literacy,
  numeracy and ESOL, Roberts, C., Baynham, M., et
  al, NRDC 2000
• Young offenders
• Improving the literacy and numeracy of young
  offenders and disaffected young people, Hurry,
  J., Brazier, L., Wilson, A., Emslie-Henry, NRDC,
  forthcoming 2006
• Rapid evidence assessment of interventions that
  promote employment for offenders, Hurry, J.,
  Brazier, L., Parker, M., and Wilson, A., NRDC
  2005

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References
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• The Workplace
• Identifying effective workplace basic skills
  strategies for enhancing employee productivity
  and development, NRDC, forthcoming
• Persistence
• Persistence helping adult education students
  reach their goals, Comings, J., NCSALL web-site,
  forthcoming 2006)
• One day I will make it A study of adult
  student persistence in library literacy
  programmes, Porter, E., Cuban, S., Comings, J.,
  NCSALL website
• Engagement
• Success factors in informal learning, McNeil, B.,
  Smith, L., Jackson, C., NRDC, 2006
• New ways of engaging new learners lessons from
  round one of the practitioner-led research
  initiative, Hamilton, M., Wilson (eds.), NRDC
  2006
• Time on task practice and competence
• Literacy development over the lifecourse
  participation, practices and proficiency, Reder,
  S., NRDC Autumn Lecture, 2004

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References
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• Assessment for learning
• Inside the black box raising standards through
  classroom assessment, Black, P., Wiliam, D.,
  nferNelson, 1998
• Working inside the black box assessment for
  learning in the classroom, Black, P, Wiliam, D.,
  et al, nferNelson, 2002
• Improving formative assessment, NRDC,
  Universities of Exeter, Nottingham and Brighton,
  NIACE and LSDA, forthcoming
• Impact of Skills for Life on teachers and
  trainers
• Longitudinal study of the impact of the Skills
  for Life national strategy for improving adult
  literacy and numeracy skills on teachers and
  trainers, Smith, A., De Coulon, A., Giannakaki,
  M., Litster, J., et al., NRDC, forthcoming
• Impact of Skills for Life on learners
• Study of the impact of the Skills for Life
  learning infrastructure on learners, Brooks, G.,
  Davies, P., et al, NRDC forthcoming
• Evaluation of the impact of Skills for Life
  learning report on sweep 2, Metcalf, H.,
  Meadows, P., NIESR, 2005

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References
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• Teacher Education
• Towards a professional workforce adult literacy,
  ESOL and numeracy teacher education 2003-05,
  NRDC forthcoming 2006
• New initial teacher education programmes for
  teachers of adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL
  2002/03, Lucas, N., Casey, H., et al, NRDC 2004
• Skills for Life core curriculum training
  programmes 2001/03 characteristics of teacher
  participants, Lucas, N., Casey, H., Giannakaki,
  M., NRDC 2004
• Reviews of literature on post 16 teaching and
  learning
• Review of Current Pedagogic Research and Practice
  in the Fields of Post Compulsory Education and
  Lifelong Learning, Cullen, J., et al, ESRC, 2002
• How People Learn, Bransford, J, Brown, A., and
  Cocking R., (eds.), National Academy Press, 2000
• Review of Reviews A Report for the ESRC TLRP
  Steering Committee, Desforges, C.
• Understanding Pedagogy and Its Impact on
  Learning, Mortimore, P., (ed.), Paul Chapman
  Publishing Ltd, 1999
• Influences on Student Learning, Hattie, J.,
  Inaugural Lecture, University of Aukland, August
  2nd 1999

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Where to get more information about NRDC

• For more information about the National
  Research and Development Centre for adult
  literacy and numeracy please access our website
• www.nrdc.org.uk