A Study of Effective Practice in Adult Numeracy Teaching

1
A Study of Effective Practice in Adult Numeracy
Teaching

• Diana Coben, Margaret Brown, Valerie Rhodes, Jon
  Swain, Katerina Ananiadou, Peter Brown

Kings College London in association with the
National Research and Development Centre
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Research design sample

• 47 Classes
• 30 in FE Colleges (11 16-19s, 19 adults,
  including ESOL, ICT, etc), 4 in adult/
  neighbourhood colleges, 4 work-place, 2 family
  numeracy, 2 jobcentre plus, 2 prison, 1 army, 1
  private training provider
• In clusters around 6 teacher-researchers in North
  Lancashire, Gloucester, London, with other single
  locations
• Some classes very small
• 471 learners, of whom complete data on 250

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Teacher quotes

• You have a mix of students who are entry level 3
  in certain skills and pre-entry in other areas
• Tying one persons shoelace when Ive got
  someone else in my other ear asking me about
  quadratic equations
• Its been awful, you know just trying to keep
  them in the room (vocation course)
• If they find a job, they suddenly disappear from
  us

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Research design data

• Test using Skills for Life national survey items
• Attitude questionnaire adapted from TIMSS
• Background questionnaires from teachers and
  learners
• Interviews with 39 teachers and 112 learners
• Observation of 112 teaching sessions of 47
  classes

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Research design assessment

• Test using 20 selected items from national Skills
  for Life survey
• multiple choice, pictures, 1 item per page
• across areas of numeracy and levels from Entry 1
  to Level 2 (sensitivity?)
• Attitude questionnaire adapted from TIMSS with 17
  items on usefulness, enjoyment and difficulty

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Research design observations

• Narrative account, and summary of phases of
  lesson
• Reflective sheet with 6 aspects of teacher
  approach - subdivided into over 100
  characteristics each graded 0-3
• Observer judgements and self-ratings about
  transmission/connectionist/ constructivist
  balance, and also for open/closed and
  active/passive

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Classroom Practice

• Characteristics are organised under 6 headings,
  with between 3 and 9 characteristics for each
• structure and organisation
• teachers role
• mathematical pedagogy
• learners and learning
• teacher-learner relations
• materials

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Structure and organisation
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Teachers role
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Mathematical pedagogy and relations
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Learners and learning
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Materials
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Results learning gains
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Results class progress
Range in mean class gains from -13.3 to 32.5
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Results by learner background
Significant at plt0.05
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Correlation between practice and progress

• Correlation calculations carried out between
  features of practice and progress. Mostly small
  and insignificant results
• Only significant positive correlation was with
  the amount of procedural teaching (r0.45,
  plt0.01)
• There was a significant negative correlation with
  the amount of individual work (r - 0.34, p0.02)
  
• A surprising negative correlation was with the
  use of resources to enhance learning (r - 0.32,
  p0.03). Explanation?

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Procedural teaching and progress
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Individual work and progress
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Resources and progress
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Effect Sizes

• We compared teaching practice top 5 performing
  classes to the sample overall. The effect sizes
  (observed more in top 5 classes) found are shown
  in the table (bold significant at p lt0.05)
• But some also observed more in bottom 5 classes

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Teacher approach and progress
Little connection was found between teacher
approach and progress made. In the diagrams
below, position of the dot the balance between
the teaching approaches in a class, the colour
the level of gains made by that class (greenvery
good, bluegood, orangepoor, redvery poor). No
patterns. Neither were there significant results
found for degree to which the class was
open/closed or the pupils were active/passive
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Teacher views on approaches

• You need to have taken into account the
  learning styles of the different individuals..the
  particular resources that are going to suit those
  learning styles
• You see it form of classroom activity depends
  on what were doing, if were doing something
  that needs quite a lot of differentiation then
• Starting from where the learners areextending
  them all as far as they need to go, which is not
  the same for everybody. A variety of activities
  and a variety of ways of doing things

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Results learners attitudes

• Mean attitude scores increased by a very small
  but statistically significant margin of 2
• Learners over 20 and learners of non-British
  origins had slightly more positive attitudes at
  the start of the course, but British origin
  students caught up during course. No other
  significant results found with learner
  characteristics
• The 3 sub-scales (enjoyment, usefulness,
  difficulty) didnt emerge in the factor analysis
• Difficulty was the only sub-scale where there was
  a significant but small improvement

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Learners views on maths

• 20 liked maths at school, 60 didnt
• 52 now enjoyed maths, 32 didnt
• Learners preferred adult numeracy classes to
  school 90 expressed satisfaction
• When I was in school I was useless and I didnt
  want to learn it. But now I want to learn it
  thats why I came here.
• Boring. Didnt understand it. Now I love it.
  Its a challenge.
• It makes me so proud, I am going somewhere
• I feel equal, when Im at work I dont feel that
  Im a second rate person any more

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Conclusions

• Adult numeracy classes have a huge diversity of
  learners
• There were few relationships between observed
  teaching practice and either learning or attitude
  gains, although many learner quotes belie this
• Teachers adapted to their circumstances and are
  generally judged by learners to be successful
• The heterogeneous nature of adult numeracy
  teaching, and the number of variables amongst
  teachers and learners, make it difficult to
  produce findings that can be generalised across
  the whole sector

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Learners reasons for taking numeracy course
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Learner quotes on reasons

• I came here because Ive got no GCSEs at
  alland my sons going to be 10 and sometimes \i
  think he knows more maths than meso I thought I
  dont work or anything so I thought Id do my
  education. I tried to get on the English but it
  was full upbut when you say you are doing maths
  people really praise it. And people say Oh why
  are you doing maths, its really hard? Its
  like a big expectation
• I could survive, but I want to learn more

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Other learning factors

• The only motivational reason for attending the
  course which was significantly correlated with
  gain was to become more confident (plt0.05)
• The reason To get a better job was close to
  significance (p0.06)
• There was no correlation between the gain and the
  hours attended

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Results individual progress
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Research design questionnaires

• Learner background data with information about
  age, sex, experience, ethnic group, languages,
  educational experience, disabilities, employment
• Teacher data (gathered in interview) with
  information about age, experience,
  qualifications, ethnic group and languages etc.

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Research design interviews

• Interviews with 39 of the 40 teachers about their
  experiences of and beliefs about adult numeracy
  teaching
• Interviews with 112 learners about their
  attitudes to and experience of numeracy teaching,
  including their beliefs about good teaching, and
  more details about background

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The learners

• 42 were British origin, 31 Asian, 6 Caribbean,
  6 African
• 59 had English as their first language
• 20 had previously attended a maths/numeracy
  class since school
• 40 had a maths/numeracy qualification
• 9 had had numeracy training at work
• 23 reported at least one factor affecting
  ability to learn, with dyslexia most frequent(7)
  

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Learners Characteristics Gender and Age
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Learners characteristics occupational status
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Teachers backgrounds

• Teachers had been teaching maths or numeracy for
  13 years on average, adults for 8 years and at
  current institution for 6 years
• 74 had experience of teaching to GCSE level, 25
  at A-level
• 56 had taught in secondary schools, 24 in
  primary, 77 16-19s, 88 over 19s
• 79 had qualification in maths or numerate
  subject, 88 had teaching qualification,18 the
  new level 4 qualification in adult teaching

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Results by level