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This page provides you with useful and inspirational links to high quality RE/RVE/R&W.

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The Woolf Institute provides an academic framework and space in which people could tackle issues of religious difference constructively.

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S13 E3: The One About Sikhi - The RE Podcast

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This is certainly not a comprehensive account of Sikhi, but what I hope this is is a brief overview to help you feel more confident in teaching this beautiful way of thinking.If you are new to teaching Sikhi and want a starting point, or you are a…

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Podcasts Archive | The Religious Studies Project

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Visit the Religious Studies Project Podcast Archives.

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Christ at the Centre: the nature of Catholic Schools

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Christ at the Centre: the nature of Catholic Schools

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Much is written and spoken about the distinctive ethos of Catholic Schools. If they are to have a characteristic identity and mission, Catholic Schools need to relfect upon and to articulate that ethos. And then they need to ensure that, day by day and year by year, that ethos is made a reality in the lives of the pupils, teachers and families of the school community.

Catholic Schools share many features with other schools. They share the central mission of passing on the cultural and scientific heritage to the next generation, and of encouraging the personal growth of each pupil through good teaching, outstanding pastoral care and the creation of an effective school community. But Catholic schools also draw distinctive features from their Christian heritage and the way in which they combine their educational and religious missions.

This page aims to set out some of the key characteristics of a Catholic School. It is drawn from various documents, from best practice and from reflection. This outline is used by the Jesuit Institute in its work helping Catholic Schools reflect on their identity and mission.

The person of Jesus Christ is
at the centre of the Catholic School

The person of Jesus Christ is presented to pupils and to staff.
The values and attitudes of Christ are modelled by the adults of the school community.
Pupils are encouraged to make the values and attitudes of Jesus Christ their own.
The school recognises the Spirit of the Risen Christ, present, alive and active in the school community.

Studies

Catholic schools give their pupils rich and varied ways of exploring the world God has created and peopled.

Pupils learn that God has given us this planet and its resources for our good and that we are to use it responsibily.

Catholic schools propose that God is be found in all things and therefore all things are worthy of our interest and study.

The Catholic school is a place where a spirit of enquiry and the intellectual life flourish.

Catholic schools propose that belief in God is compatible with rationality.

Catholic schools draw upon and pass on to their pupils the long and rich tradition of Christian learning and creativity.

Pastoral Care

Catholic schools promote the emotional and spiritual growth of their pupils.

Teachers in Catholic schools build strong and appropriate relationships with pupils that go beyond teaching: they take an interest in their development, they listen to their cares and concerns about the meaning of life, they share their their hopes and fears, their successes and failures, and accompany them through their childhood and teenage years.

Catholic schools ensure well-judged intervention in children's lives to provide appropriate professional support and challenge.

Forgiveness is a hallmark of the way Catholic schools deal with pupils.

Catholic schools provide a stable and welcoming community to which children can belong.

Catholic schools recognise and celebrate the varied successes and achievements of pupils.

Religious Life

Catholic schools are schools of prayer.

Catholic schools encourage religious devotion in simple and regular practices.

Catholic schools celebrate the liturgy of the Church following the seasons and feast days of the Church's year.

Catholic schools teach about justice, act justly and seek to promote the common good.

Catholic schools reach out to suffering and marginalsed individuals and communities, locally and globally.

Catholic schools are open and welcoming to people of other faiths and of no faith.

In the Catholic school, the practice of the Christian faith is not separate from the rest of daily life.

Catholic schools have chaplaincies which promote the Christian life and Catholic identity of the school.

Personal Formation

Catholic schools seek to develop the God-given gifts and talents of each pupil.

Catholic schools seek to form attitudes and values in their pupils which are based on the gospel teaching and actions of Jesus Christ.

Catholic schools lay foundations for life-long learning.

Catholic schools seek to foster in their pupils an attitude of altruism and generosity.

Catholic schools provide a range of extra-curricular activities which promote the physical, creative, spiritual, and intellectual development of pupils.

Catholic schools encourage pupils to adopt a way of looking at the world which is positive and engaged, and which seeks to change the world for the better.

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The Jesuit Institute - The Identity and Ethos of a Catholic School

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Much is written and spoken about the distinctive ethos of Catholic Schools. If they are to have a characteristic identity and mission, Catholic Schools need to relfect upon and to articulate that ethos. And then they need to ensure that, day by day and year by year, that ethos is made a reality in the lives of the pupils, teachers and families of the school community.

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Great explanations of key concepts to bost the quality of your instruction in the classroom

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Judaism Practices online lessons playlist

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Judaism Practices online lessons playlist

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The Jewish Law. Halakah. Judaism Practices AQA GCSE Lesson 1

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Great explanations of key concepts to boost the quality of your instruction in the classroom

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Nature of God. Judaism Beliefs and Teachings AQA GCSE. Lesson 1

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No more differentiation - Adaptive teaching is much more effective

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No more differentiation - Adaptive teaching is much more effective

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The PISA research says that 'adaptive instruction' is one of the approaches most positively correlated with student performance. Matt Bromley looks at what adaptive teaching entails and how to deliver it

One of my former students - I'll call him John - contacted me recently. He wanted to update me on what he'd been doing since I last taught him nearly a decade ago.

I've acquired a group of students like John who get in touch from time to time to tell me how they're getting on. It is one of the greatest privileges afforded to a teacher: to see, first-hand, the impact you have on young people's lives and how your actions continue to shape those lives long after they leave school.

John was in a class I regularly cite on training courses. If you have heard me talk about teaching English to "bottom set boys on a Friday afternoon", then know that John was one of those boys.

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Adaptive teaching explained: What, why and how pedagogy classroom teachers curriculum differentiation Teachers Standards PISA

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The PISA research says that 'adaptive instruction' is one of the approaches most positively correlated with student performance. Matt Bromley looks at what adaptive teaching entails and how to deliver it

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Feedback - EEF Findings show 6 months more progress can be achieved

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Feedback - EEF Findings show 6 months more progress can be achieved

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Feedback may have a positive impact through supporting pupils to focus future learning on areas of weakness, through identifying and explaining misconceptions, through supporting them in taking greater responsibility for their own improvement or through increasing pupils' motivation to improve.

Implementing feedback successfully will require:

communicate with pupils, teachers, and parents, about practices and expectations that relate to feedback policies,

assessing pupil understanding, so that you know what needs to be improved,

consider the ​'opportunity cost' associated with different feedback practices,

ensuring that feedback can be acted upon, for example through including specific information on what a pupil has done successfully or not, assisted with an explanation as to why,

carefully considering how feedback will be received, including impacts on self-confidence and motivation,

providing opportunities for pupils to act-upon the feedback after it has been given,
evaluating how effective the feedback has been.

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Feedback is information given to the learner about the learner's performance relative to learning goals or outcomes.

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Beyond Belief - what should we teach in RE?

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Beyond Belief - what should we teach in RE?

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Beyond Belief - What Should We Teach in RE? - BBC Sounds

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The quality of RE teaching is a ‘postcode lottery’. What needs to change?

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Does your assessment meet Coe's 5 criteria?

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Does your assessment meet Coe's 5 criteria?

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It has become common, although I still find it surprising, to hear teachers use the word 'data' as if it were a bad thing.

'Data drops' have come to epitomise a pointless exercise in collecting meaningless numbers and feeding them into a system that can have no possible benefit for learners. People even say that Ofsted is 'too reliant on data', as if a judgement process could - or should - rely on anything other than data.

The problem is that data is often not actually data. The numbers that are typed into spreadsheets or tracking systems every six weeks don't signify anything; they have no informational content, so cannot really be described as data.

If we are talking about assessment data, then some basic knowledge about assessment could help us to decide whether these numbers have any meaning or value. As a starting point, I offer here five criteria for assessment. In my view, if some 'data' production process does not meet these five, then it is NOT AN ASSESSMENT and no one should waste any time on it.

Assessment must be:

Informative

Assessment must contain information. In practice, that means it could surprise you: it could tell you something you don't already know. It follows that simply recording an overall holistic judgement about the level at which a student is working is NOT AN ASSESSMENT.

If you just write down what is already your impression, it can't surprise you.

On the other hand, if you have just taught a topic and then give students an assignment on it, you might find that some of them have not actually understood it. Or you might ask a child a very hard question and be surprised to find that they can do something well beyond what they have ever shown or been required to do before.

If you know your pupils well, you should hope not to be too surprised too often: mostly assessment will confirm or be consistent with what you already know. The point is not that all assessment has to surprise you, just that in principle surprise has to be possible.

Accurate

Of course, if the result of an assessment is surprising, it doesn't necessarily follow that it is right and you are wrong. All assessment is imprecise and can be wrong: we know that there are many reasons why someone might give a wrong answer to a question they know and should get right, or a right answer to a question they don't actually understand.

So the information in an assessment also has a weight, depending on how reliable it is - how much information it conveys. An accurate, reliable assessment should probably make you question your judgement if assessment and prior judgement disagree, but an unreliable assessment (for example, the answer to a single question) may contain very little information and should not override an existing well-formed judgement.

So if you can't say something about the weight, trustworthiness and precision of an assessment outcome then it is NOT AN ASSESSMENT.

Independent

This is really just a corollary of the need for assessment to contain information. If the result of an assessment is pre-constrained in any way, then it is NOT AN ASSESSMENT.

For example, if you ask a teacher to assign pupils to levels (eg 'approaching', 'expected' or 'exceeding') that have clear normative expectations (for example, if any child allocated 'approaching' will receive additional scrutiny, teacher workload and the implication that the teacher has not done a good job) then don't be surprised if very few pupils end up in that category, but this is NOT AN ASSESSMENT.

Other examples of this are the Y1 'phonics screening check' that shows a massive bulge just above the 'pass' mark, or the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile, in which most children are given the 'expected' level on all 17 early learning goals.

Generalisable

When we assess pupils we are almost never interested to know that something has been done once in one particular context. Instead, we want to know that they will be able to do it again, to respond similarly to similar tasks and to transfer that performance to other contexts.

Examples of how this might fail to be the case include an assessment where the students are given hints about what questions are going to be asked. We can't then generalise to performance on any other questions, so this is NOT AN ASSESSMENT.

Equally, an assessment where the assessed work has been directly shaped by comments and feedback from the teacher is NOT AN ASSESSMENT.

Replicable

A key part of generalisability is replicability, often referred to in assessment contexts as reliability.

This usually refers to the interchangeability of arbitrary aspects of the assessment process that we want to be able to ignore, such as the time or occasion of testing (which could equally well have been morning or afternoon, or even on another day), the particular questions presented (which may be thought of as taken from a pool of possible questions on the topic that could have been asked) or the particular marker who assessed it (where other markers were, or might have been, involved).

If it isn't replicable then it is NOT AN ASSESSMENT (or at least not a useful one). If the outcome would vary massively with a different occasion, different questions or a different marker, then it doesn't actually tell us anything about the candidate's knowledge or abilities.

Replicability is closely related to accuracy (as discussed above), both of which are often included under the heading of reliability.

If an assessment outcome is consistently replicable with little variation, then we can take it as a precise, accurate estimate of likely future performance and give it significant weight of evidence in drawing inferences about the knowledge and abilities of the student to whom it relates. For all these reasons, knowing the reliability of an assessment is a vital part of judging its quality.

Getting to grips with data

In schools, data has become a four-letter word. But data is a good thing and we need to reclaim it.

References

See Figure E in https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/561224/SFR50_2016_Text.pdf and

Figure 1 in https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/577806/SFR42_Phonics_KS1_2016.pdf

The ideas in this blog made up the core of Rob's presentation at the Festival of Education at Wellington College, 21 June 2018.

Find out how CEM assessments can help in your school
Find out now

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Data is a valuable tool in education, and we must reclaim it. Professor Rob Coe outlines five important criteria which must be met in order for data to have meaning.

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Inclusive Judaism Teachers' CPD: High Holy Days (Secondary)

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AQA Islam Beliefs and Practices

This curriculum covers Islam at GCSE and supports the AQA Beliefs and Practices questions (Paper 1).

The curriculum is fully planned and resourced. You will want to take some time to read through the material and as you do you will see an overall plan, individual lessons and resources to support the lessons. Learning objectives are given and the Big Ideas background thinking is made clear.

Information on how this resource came about can be found here

A curriculum for Christianity at GCSE for the AQA Beliefs and Practices questions (Paper 1) can be found here

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AQA Islam Beliefs and Practices - RE:ONLINE

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This curriculum covers Islam at GCSE and supports the AQA Beliefs and Practices questions (Paper 1). The curriculum is fully planned and resourced. You will want to take some time to read through the material and as you do you will see an overall plan, individual lessons and resources to support the lessons.

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Visit My Mosque | 250+ mosques holding open days

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You can look here for local and national events/CPD for Religious Education (RE), Religion, Values & Ethics (RVE) and Religion and worldviews (R&W).

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You can look here for local and national events/CPD for Religious Education (RE), Religion, Values & Ethics (RVE) and Religion and worldviews (R&W).

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10 Classic Klaxons… Things to avoid doing or saying

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There are few absolutes in teaching but when you watch as many teachers as I do, it can be pretty obvious when things are said or done that seem like a bad idea. Some are quite common – easy …

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Human nature, lived experiences, relationships.

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Bible - Well explained short videos covering complex topics

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Bible - Well explained short videos covering complex topics

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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New Testament Summary: A Complete Animated Overview

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Old Testament Summary: A Complete Animated Overview

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Get to Know Jesus’ 12 Apostles, Including Peter, John and More

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The 12 apostles were ordinary men God used in extraordinary ways to carry the gospel to the world. Learn the characteristics of each disciple.

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the anchoress and mystic who, in the late fourteenth century, wrote about her visions of Christ suffering, in a work since known as Revelations of Divine Love. She is probably the first named woman writer in English, even if questions about her name and life remain open. Her account is an exploration of the meaning of her visions and is vivid and bold, both in its imagery and theology. From her confined cell in a Norwich parish church, in a land beset with plague, she dealt with the nature of sin and with the feminine side of God, and shared the message she received that God is love and, famously, that all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.

With

Katherine Lewis
Professor of Medieval History at the University of Huddersfield

Philip Sheldrake
Professor of Christian Spirituality at the Oblate School of Theology, Texas and Senior Research Associate of the Von Hugel Institute, University of Cambridge

And

Laura Kalas
Senior Lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Swansea University

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

John H. Arnold and Katherine Lewis (eds.), A Companion to the Book of Margery Kempe (D.S. Brewer, 2004)

Ritamary Bradley, Julian's Way: A Practical Commentary on Julian of Norwich (Harper Collins, 1992)

E. Colledge and J. Walsh (eds.), Julian of Norwich: Showings (Classics of Western Spirituality series, Paulist Press, 1978)

Liz Herbert McAvoy (ed.), A Companion to Julian of Norwich (D.S. Brewer, 2008)

Liz Herbert McAvoy, Authority and the Female Body in the Writings of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe (D.S. Brewer, 2004)

Grace Jantzen, Julian of Norwich: Mystic and Theologian (new edition, Paulist Press, 2010)

Julian of Norwich (trans. Barry Windeatt), Revelations of Divine Love (Oxford World's Classics, 2015)

Julian of Norwich (ed. Nicholas Watson and Jacqueline Jenkins), The Writings of Julian of Norwich: A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and a Revelation of Love, (Brepols, 2006)

Laura Kalas, Margery Kempe's Spiritual Medicine: Suffering, Transformation and the Life-Course (D.S. Brewer, 2020)

Laura Kalas and Laura Varnam (eds.), Encountering the Book of Margery Kempe (Manchester University Press, 2021)

Laura Kalas and Roberta Magnani (eds.), Women in Christianity in the Medieval Age: 1000-1500 (Routledge, forthcoming 2024)

Ken Leech and Benedicta Ward (ed.), Julian the Solitary (SLG, 1998)

Denise Nowakowski Baker and Sarah Salih (ed.), Julian of Norwich's Legacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)

Joan M. Nuth, Wisdom's Daughter: The Theology of Julian of Norwich (Crossroad Publishing, 1999)

Philip Sheldrake, Julian of Norwich: "In God's Sight": Her Theology in Context (Wiley-Blackwell, 2019)

E. Spearing (ed.), Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love (Penguin Books, 1998)

Denys Turner, Julian of Norwich, Theologian (Yale University Press, 2011)

Wolfgang Riehle, The Secret Within: Hermits, Recluses and Spiritual Outsiders in Medieval England (Cornell University Press, 2014)

Caroline Walker Bynum, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (University of California Press, 1982)

Ann Warren, Anchorites and their Patrons in Medieval England (University of California Press, 1985)

Hugh White (trans.), Ancrene Wisse: Guide for Anchoresses (Penguin Classics, 1993)

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BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Julian of Norwich

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval anchoress and her Revelations of Divine Love.

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We often assume that the main reason for testing students is to find out what they know. But it isn't.

The main reason for testing students is to improve learning, and one of the ways tests do this is to motivate productive effort by students - studying!

Teachers are used to teaching students who study hard and those who don't. These differences are often attributed to the character of the students (e.g. lazy, hard-working, motivated), to their circumstances (e.g. home life, peer group), or to their abilities (e.g. a high-flyer, disadvantaged).

These folk theories can serve to place responsibility for effort with the student and their circumstances and not with the teacher. It is true that the teacher cannot control all the variables that affect the effort made by students in their studies. However, teachers can create conditions within which students are more likely to engage in productive effort.

HINT: motivational posters aren't going to cut it!

(Image: https://sweettoothteaching.com/2023/01/how-to-encourage-students-before-testing.html. Do check out their 8 ways to motivate students before testing if you want an alternative to this post!)

To promote productive effort, teachers should have a working knowledge of motivation theories and the evidence to support these theories. They should also understand the levers at their disposal.

Tests are one such lever, perhaps one of the best we have.

Productive effort

Setting aside coercive measures, students must otherwise make an active choice to study. When students choose to spend time preparing for a test, we call this their volition to study. This choice is an act of will which depends on the self: that part of our identity which 'translates basic psychological needs, motives, feelings, values, and beliefs' into action (Urhahne & Wijnia, 2023).

More colloquially, we talk about students' motivation to study. As a term, motivation can encourage us to imagine an attribute which a student does or does not possess. This is misleading and potentially harmful. The volition to study is in fact largely situational and domain-specific. In other words, a student may be motivated to study at one time and not another, towards one goal and not another, in one subject and not another, or for one test and not another. It is motivation's mutability that makes it open to a teacher's influence.

For a student's action to be productive in relation to test preparation, the student must:

1. Initiate study.

2. Pay attention to the right things.

3. Adopt an effective approach to study.

4. Persist to study.

Productive effort is therefore a function of both motivation (1&4) and informed action (2&3). Teachers must not only increase a student's volition to study but also their ability to do so with efficacy.

Motivational mechanisms

What follows will focus mostly on the motivational mechanisms that are at work rather than what makes the action taken by students effective, although I will touch on the latter.

I shall draw upon the following popular and fairly well researched theories of motivation:

Expectancy-value theory

Social cognitive theory

Self-determination theory

Interest theory

Achievement goal theory

Attribution theory

Social norms theory.

I will not explain each of these theories fully but rather take an applied approach by considering what these theories tell us that may be of use to the classroom teacher in motivating students through testing.

It is helpful to ask why students study for tests. Isolating the most likely reasons may help identify practical actions teachers can take to harness motivational effects. I will suggest these reasons in turn, briefly explaining what effects may be at work and what practical steps teachers might take as a result.

So, why do students study for tests?

1. Because they have experienced past success

In a nutshell: Past test performance affects a student's expectancy of future success.

Theoretical constructs: Expectancy-value theory

Key references: Pinquart & Ebeling (2020)

The student's experience of past tests is an important influence on whether they expect to perform well in future assessments, which in turn is a factor in their future success. Students are more likely to work for something they perceive they have a good chance of succeeding in.

However, expecting to do well is not the only factor necessary to ensure motivation. Expectancy-value theory suggests that the student must also value success and perceive that achieving this success is worth the effort (more of this in point 4).

It will be no surprise to teachers that being successful in tests will mean students are more likely to expect to do well in future tests, but what are they to do with this information? Most obviously, teachers should try to give all students some experience of success. However, breaking into the virtuous cycle of success-motivation-more success is easier said than done.

One approach is to use low-stakes, high success-rate tests frequently so that all students have some regular experience of doing well. Teachers can prepare students carefully for such tests, ensuring students have secure knowledge before testing them. However, they must also ensure that these tests are not too easy for those who regularly achieve well as this may devalue achievement for these students and teach them that doing well requires little effort. To overcome this, teachers may include a very difficult question in the test that most are not expected to answer but will be challenging for the high achievers.

Students' motivation can also be damaged by regular or catastrophic failure in tests (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020). Mitigating this risk is also important.

Finally, teachers can create the feeling of success in how they set up tests and portray results. For example, managing students' expectations about what success looks like for them (perhaps agreeing a personal target), using 'personal best' approaches, or avoiding comparisons between students (such as ranking) - these techniques are also relevant to goal-setting which we'll come to in point 7.

Next, study study for tests...

2. Because they attribute their success to productive effort

In a nutshell: Students believe there is a link between their productive actions and their success.

Theoretical constructs: Attribution theory

Key references: Heider (1958), Weiner (1986)

Students might attribute their success to a range of things: their innate ability, hard work, luck, ease of the test, how well they were taught, and so on. Students may attribute their failure similarly. What students attribute success or failure to is important.

This attribution is particularly significant in motivation when the test is deemed as important by the student, when their success or failure is unexpected, or when the experience is particularly negative. These factors will make the experience emotionally impactful.

Teachers may anticipate such effects by creating a narrative around success, explicitly linking it to productive actions i.e. exerting effort on productive study. They may also be watchful for students making unhelpful attributions and seek to address these. For example, a student may berate themselves as lacking ability, claim the test was too hard, explain their performance as being due to them having a good or bad day, pronounce that they are 'naturally good' at the subject, or even claim that they hadn't been taught something which was on the test.

Attributing success to productive effort is a step towards point 3. Students study hard...

3. Because they know how to succeed

In a nutshell: Students have belief in their competence and control over test preparation.

Theoretical constructs: Social cognitive theory, Attribution theory

Key references: Skinner (1996), Schunk & Zimmerman (2006)

When students expect a test, how confident are they to prepare for it? This will depend on their competence beliefs and whether the means to prepare is within their control. These beliefs are known as self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy will partly depend on past performance in tests (point 1) and correct attribution (point 2). However, teachers can build self-efficacy by teaching explicit study strategies, providing students with opportunities to practice strategies, and demonstrating the link between effort and success. More powerful than merely narrating test success or failure, teachers may seek to provide 'proof of efficacy' of certain study methods. For example, a before-and-after test may be given, with students provided with explicit guidance around studying and an opportunity to do so between the first and second test. In doing so, the teacher is attempting to prove that making an effort and studying in this way is beneficial.

Competence beliefs are domain-specific so the teacher should not rely on a general study-skills programme to build students' self-efficacy. Competence beliefs must be built in relation to the subject and even the topic or form of test. This means teachers being explicit about how to study this topic and for this type of test. Homework can also be used to build self-efficacy, but there must be scaffolding of study, not just an instruction to 'revise'.

4. Because they believe that success is worth the effort

In a nutshell: Students value success in the test enough to make it worth their time and effort.

Theoretical constructs: Expectancy-value theory

Key references: Tolman (1932), Lewin (1951)

We established earlier that students must expect to be successful in a test and know how to achieve this. However, they must also value doing well and believe it is worth their time and effort.

Students may value doing well for intrinsic reasons (they enjoy doing well) or extrinsic reasons (such as being seen to do well or accruing certain benefits such as moving up a set). We will consider the relative merit of these reasons for valuing success in tests in point 7, but for now we will assume that valuing success is a good thing, whatever the reason.

Is success worth the effort? Students will weigh up how much time and effort it might take, what else they could do instead, and how difficult and frustrating the study is likely to be. This is where the volition to study often falls down. Students will always have better things to do than study. We also know that the most effective study will be frustrating and effortful. It is not an attractive proposition for many students.

To convince students that success is worth the effort the teacher can either increase the perceived value of success or minimise the effort required. It is tempting to emphasise extrinsic rewards to achieve the former, but as we shall see later, this may be counterproductive in the long term. Perhaps a better bet is to emphasise how students will feel when they succeed.

Some hard work cannot be avoided, but teachers can try to reduce extraneous effort by ensuring students have the resources they need at hand to study, ensuring students know how to study effectively, providing some time in class to begin, and giving short term goals for students to work towards and check off as they go. Students must also perceive that the gap between what they currently know and what they need to know to do well is small enough to close in the time available. Teachers can support this by advising students on what it would be best to focus on and reminding them what knowledge is already secure.

5. Because they identify as a successful student

In a nutshell: Achievement in the test aligns with the student's values and interests.

Theoretical constructs: Self-determination theory, Interest theory

Key references: Ryan & Deci (2000),

Some students appear quite comfortable with being identified as successful at school. Others would do almost anything to avoid being perceived this way even if they secretly take pride in doing well.

Students who identify strongly with the 'successful student' identity have a desire to take control of their learning, enjoy feeling competent, and want to do well at school. Doing so aligns with their ambitions for the future. It is easier to identify this way if doing so is socially acceptable and will bring you closer to those you respect and care about. It is also easier to do so if you genuinely find the subjects you study interesting.

Teaching (and testing) students like the ones described above is not a difficult task: studying hard is intrinsic to their identity. However, teaching a class of students whereby those with this identity are in the minority is a challenge. Firstly, how do you meet the student's need to be accepted by their peers (we shall address this in point 6). Secondly, how do you use testing to motivate less willing students without eroding the intrinsic motivation of others?

Teachers should ensure they put the subject matter front and centre in their teaching and not seek to 'engage' students with superficial 'fun' activities. Regular testing reminds everyone that the point is to learn the subject. To incentivise some students, it may be necessary to employ extrinsic rewards, however these should be targeted wherever possible at those who need them. To intrinsically motivated students, such rewards will likely be perceived as patronizing. These students will respond better to feedback which helps them deepen their understanding and move beyond the core content.

Intrinsically motivated students often reach an unspoken understanding with their teachers where they have the emotional maturity to do so. The student understands that not everyone is as motivated as they are, and that the teacher has a job to do in moving these students forward. Subtle cues and quiet comments are often all that is needed to ensure the student knows what instructions or incentives do or don't apply to them. In this way, the student can achieve some social acceptance through their relationship with the teacher, whom they regard as a like-minded academic. The student may also satisfy their relational needs by forming friendships with similar students. Teachers can encourage study groups and foster mutually supportive relationships within these groups.

6. Because they want to be part of something successful

In a nutshell: Students feel a sense of belonging to a successful group.

Theoretical constructs: Social norms theory, Attribution theory

Key references: Perkins & Berkowitz (1986)

Students learn how to behave from others around them. How they see others respond to tests, or how they believe others are doing to prepare for them, will influence their own response.

The task of the teacher in this regard is to create positive norms of behaviour around study and to create the impression that productive study is the norm. The implied message is 'everyone else is doing it, so you should too'.

With regard to test preparation, the teacher should attempt to create positive norms around the time spent studying and the method of study. To achieve this, the teacher must demonstrate that the students who adopt productive study behaviours are the most successful, therefore ensuring correct attribution. It is tempting to use students who have a strong 'successful student' identity (see point 5) as an example. However, this may not be welcomed by the student and lead to social isolation from the group. Students who tend not to study well may also find it easier to identify with lower-achieving peers, therefore the task of the teacher is to identify examples of where a student has worked harder or more effectively than previously and to draw a link between this and their improved test performance.

Productive study norms may also be built gradually within a class, beginning by setting very reasonable goals for study, with explicit instruction as to what to do, and building expectations of time and approach as students experience improved test outcomes.

The perception of group-success rather than individual success is also important. Students may not be able to personally achieve well in every test, but they can contribute to group performance. Teachers may set class-average goals and pitch the class against other groups, creating some friendly rivalry. Students will do better if they feel part of a successful group.

7. Because they have a mastery goal

In a nutshell: Test success aligns with the student's mastery goals.

Theoretical constructs: Achievement goal theory

Key references: Pintrich (2000)

People have different reasons for doing things. For example, when a test is announced, one student may study hard because they want to master the content, another may study hard to achieve the highest mark in the class, and yet another to avoid getting the lowest mark in the class. Or a student may not study at all because they have no goal orientation towards the test - they don't care!

Achievement goal theory suggests that students who adopt mastery goals, that is those that aim to master the subject rather than perform well in tests, will achieve more in the long term. Students who adopt performance goals which are based around how they perform in relation to others will achieve less well over time, particularly if their goals are 'avoidant' i.e. driven by avoidance of failure rather than achievement of success.

Mastery goals would appear to be preferable. However, there is also evidence to suggest that students can adopt multiple goals, for example working hard to master content but switching to drive for strong performance when it comes to high stakes tests. This may be the best of both worlds.

This theory poses a problem for a test-driven motivation approach as tests may reinforce performance goal orientation without mastery of the content. This will result in superficial study of the material. Teachers must take care to counteract this with measures to promote mastery.

Between tests, teachers may encourage a mastery approach through formative assessment, scaffolding tasks, providing encouraging feedback, and highlighting the importance of making mistakes in the learning process. Before the test, teachers should portray the test as a way of showing what has been learnt: as a checkpoint towards mastery of the subject. After the test, teachers should avoid making comparisons of students' performance or chastising students who have not performed well (which is not the same as chastising students for not studying for the test).

Test results should be portrayed as information which can be used by the student and teacher to support the journey towards mastery. For this reason, teachers should minimise testing which provides no opportunity for correction post-test; either to re-teach material, correct mistakes, or take another test which shows improvement. In other words, all tests should be used formatively and be seen as students as integral to their improvement in mastering the subject.

The object of study

Understanding the reasons students study for tests helps us create the conditions under which students will become more motivated to do so. Let's summarise these.

Students study hard for tests because:

They have experienced past success.

They attribute their success to productive effort.

They know how to succeed.

They believe that success is worth the effort.

They identify as a successful student.

They want to be part of something successful.

They have a mastery goal.

Teachers can use testing to create conditions within which students are more likely to study by paying attention to the testing environment, what happens before the test, and what happens after the test. Careful use of testing is a potentially powerful motivational tool.

But studying hard is not the only prerequisite for success. Students must engage in productive study, studying the right things in the right way. Testing provides signals about what knowledge is valuable. The form of a test also implies what methods of study might be most beneficial. For example, factual recall tests will encourage students to rote-learn information whereas open-ended questions will encourage students to study a broader domain of knowledge and the connections between ideas. Either may be valid in the right context.

Teachers should consider what they tell students about what might be in a test and what form it will take. If they are very specific, the volition to study may be reduced as students may feel able to secure knowledge quickly. If teachers are too broad and vague about the test, students' motivation may also be inhibited as the task is too great or uncertain. In addition to our reasons why students study, we may add that students study productively because:

They understand what knowledge is valuable.

They know what is required of them to succeed in this test.

They know enough about what may or may not be tested.

Bringing it all together

Teachers should think about testing not only as a way to find out what students know but as a way to promote learning through productive study.

Teachers can create a positive testing environment by:

Enabling students to experience regular success.

Explicit instruction in test preparation.

Providing opportunities for students to practice productive study in class and at home.

Demonstrating to students which approaches to study lead to success.

Creating the sense that studying is the norm.

Building positive class norms and an identity of success.

Creating a mastery mindset.

Before a test, teachers should:

Emphasise the learning benefits of the test.

Ensure students have everything they need to study.

Provide enough information about what may be on the test and what form it will take.

Remind students of the most effective way to prepare for this type of test.

Set expectations for students as to what success will look like for them as an individual.

Set expectations for the class as to what success will look like for them collectively.

After a test, teachers should:

Portray results as information to inform learning.

Avoid comparisons between students.

Avoid chastising students for poor performance.

Congratulate students for their efforts, not their performance.

Narrate success as being linked to productive learning behaviours.

Remind students that they are one step closer to mastering the subject.

Remember, the main reason for testing students is to improve learning. Motivating productive effort through testing is a key competence for teachers.
References The inspiration for this post is a paper by Urhahne, D. and Wijnia, L. (2023) titled Theories of Motivation in Education: an Integrative Framework. I would recommend a thorough reading if you are interested in this area.
Heider, F., 1958. Perceiving the other person.

Lewin, K., 1951. Field theory in social science: selected theoretical papers (Edited by Dorwin Cartwright.).

Perkins, H.W. and Berkowitz, A.D., 1986. Perceiving the community norms of alcohol use among students: Some research implications for campus alcohol education programming. International journal of the Addictions, 21(9-10), pp.961-976.

Pinquart, M. and Ebeling, M., 2020. Students' expected and actual academic achievement-A meta-analysis. International Journal of Educational Research, 100, p.101524.

Pintrich, P.R., 2000. Multiple goals, multiple pathways: The role of goal orientation in learning and achievement. Journal of educational psychology, 92(3), p.544.

Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L., 2000. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), pp.54-67.

Schunk, D. H.,and Zimmerman, B. J., 2006. Competence and control beliefs: Distinguishing the means and ends. In P. A. Alexander and P. H. Winne (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology. Lawrence Erlbaum.

Skinner, E. A., 1996. A guide to constructs of control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(3), 549-570.

Tolman, E.C., 1932. Purposive behavior in animals and men. Univ of California Press.

Weiner, B., 1986. Attribution, emotion, and action.

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Motivating productive effort through testing

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We often assume that the main reason for testing students is to find out what they know. But it isn't. The main reason for testing students is to improve learning, and one of the ways tests do this is to motivate productive effort by students - studying!

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I never really understood the prodigal son story, esp. in ref to the older brother til I read @BishopBarron "The Priority or Christ". Younger demands a gift, Older tries to earn a gift. One is a bully, the other is a kiss-up. Both manipulate to get what they want. Neither loves.

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Tuesday, 31 Jan

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Mary Myatt | ATCRE National RE Conference 2020

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My context
I teach in a secondary school with a culture of direct instruction, cold-calling students to read aloud and encouraging them to project their voices when doing so. My department uses anthologies partly to encourage a culture of reading at length.  We often use original scriptures or extracts from a scholar.

I also use the model of "I do, we do, and you do" with my classes. My students are also used to using choral response to learn and practise new vocabulary or information.  I am currently teaching a unit of work on faith stories from the Abrahamic faiths, this means that in most lessons, we will be reading a piece of scripture.

Religious texts are often difficult to read and filled with archaic and strange words, I was worried that using a popcorn reading method meant that students were not listening to the text because they were on high alert for their names being called. Perhaps they were scanning forward to look for difficult words or practising those words so that they did not look daft in front of their classmates.

In addition, despite me encouraging students to project and speak slowly, many were mumbling into their anthologies or reading fast to get it over with.
What I am trying
I am using the "I do, we do and you do" method when reading as a class.

I tell the class that I am going to read first, and I want them to pay attention to how I pronounce new words, how I project my voice, including how I look up from my anthology and the punctuation pauses that I make. I then read a section of our text to the class. As I do this, the students follow with their rulers on the numbered line. This means that everyone is following, and it reduces background noise. I also know that the students have heard me very clearly reading the text to them; they are not straining politely to hear a nervous classmate.

I then pick out the tricky words, last week we were reading the call of Abram, and so the words included Abram, Canaan and Sarai. The class then choral response those words; this is particularly important if they are words they are likely to use when responding to questions. If I am going to use cold call in my classroom, I have a duty to do all that I can to reduce any anxiety that might cause, and this includes making pronunciation clear.

Now that I have modelled the reading and practised pronunciation, I can ask my students to read aloud.  Hopefully, they will do so clearly and gain from the practice of reading to the class.  However, if it is hard to hear, I do know the students have heard me read previously.

This does take longer; however, I personally think that hearing a story twice can do no harm.
Glossary
Cold Calling - Rather than hands up for a question, the teacher picks students to answer questions.

Choral Response - The teacher says a keyword and the students repeat it back in unison. This might be repeated.

Popcorn reading - The teacher picks a student to read from a text.  After a few lines, the teacher stops the student and "randomly" asks another student to continue reading.  This continues until the full text has been read.

Nikki McGee is a member of the NATRE Executive and the RE Lead for Inspiration Trust

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My context I teach in a secondary school with a culture of direct instruction, cold-calling students to read aloud and encouraging them to project their voices when doing so. My department uses anthologies partly to encourage a culture of reading at length.  We often use original scriptures or extracts from a scholar.

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Summary of the best T&L research summaries from Tom Sherrington

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There are several superb summaries of educational research that have been compiled into easily accessible websites and articles in pdf format that can be read online and shared with staff. Although they are easy to find via an internet search, I am pulling them together into one place for easy access. I'll keep adding to it as I find things and when people make suggestions:
John Dunlosky: Strengthening the Student Toolbox

Click to Download

Barak Rosenshine: Principles of Instruction

See also: Rosenshine Re-ordered. A Poster by @olicav
Rob Coe et al: What makes great teaching. Dylan Wiliam: 9 things every teacher should know- via tes
The article is here: https://www.tes.com/news/dylan-wiliam-nine-things-every-teacher-should-know with a nice box inset about that researchers - many of whom are featured in the other summaries represented here.
James Ko et al: Effective Teaching
John Sweller's Cognitive Load Theory, summarised by Oliver Caviglioli for How2.

Here's another great paper from CESE in New South Wales on Cognitive Load Theory - with thanks to Matthew Benyohai: Summary on page 7 is very helpful.

Daniel Willingham' s Why don't kids like school. Summary.

And here's a link to Willingham's American Educator article:

The Learning Scientists - downloadable materials

Yeager, Walton and Cohen: Addressing achievement gaps with psychological interventions.

Also, for quick reference:

EEF Toolkit: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/resources/teaching-learning-toolkit
Chris Husbands and Jo Pearce: Nine claims from research
American Psychology Association Top 20 Principles from Psychology

There's a quick access summary of the 20 principles here:

Clark, Kirschner and Sweller - A readable version of their research into guided (and minimally guided) instruction.

Education Endowment Foundation report on Metacognition: by Professor Daniel Muijs et al .

Robert Slavin on Cooperative Learning - Group work - a short helpful summary via CUREE.
Arthur Shimamura: MARGE: A whole brain learning approach.
See also: Introducing MARGE: A superb ebook about learning by Arthur Shimamura.
Bjork: Desirable Difficulties:
See also: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/desirable-difficulties which includes an excellent video presentation by Robert and Elizabeth Bjork.
The Great Teaching Toolkit
This superb review from Evidence Based Education is a definite must-read. It's a very comprehensive guide to most of the ideas above - grouped into four categories. Download it here

This is summarised in this brilliant A4 summary:

IES Practice Guide Organizing instruction and study to improve student learning -
As recommended by Dylan Wiliam:

Just realized that I've never tweeted a link to the IES's 2007 Practice Guide on "Organizing instruction and study to improve student learning": https://t.co/VU0LJdM4hB. The checklist makes a much better placemat than most of the quick reference guides offered to teachers. pic.twitter.com/onmAYxJvzG
- Dylan Wiliam (@dylanwiliam) October 29, 2020

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Teaching and Learning Research Summaries: A collection for easy access.

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There are several superb summaries of educational research that have been compiled into easily accessible websites and articles in pdf format that can be read online and shared with staff. Although they are easy to find via an internet search, I am pulling them together into one place for easy access.

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What can we as Educators learn from Pope Francis’ latest Encyclical Fratelli Tutti on Fraternity and Social Friendship?

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What can we as Educators learn from Pope Francis’ latest Encyclical Fratelli Tutti on Fraternity and Social Friendship?

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Model for great teaching (Evidenced Based Education)

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Model for great teaching (Evidenced Based Education)

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Published in the Great Teaching Toolkit: Evidence Review, the Model for Great Teaching offers a curriculum for teachers' professional learning. It provides a common professional language and a shared structure for enabling Great Teaching.

Teachers matter more to student achievement than any other aspect of schooling. Raising the quality of teaching within schools is likely the single most effective method we have for improving student attainment and equity.

The Model for Great Teaching is a summary of the best available research evidence on the things teachers do, know and believe that has the biggest impact on student learning. It serves to help teachers more easily make better decisions about what they can best do to improve the quality of their teaching.

The Model is freely available for you and your colleagues to use.
Click here to download the Model for Great Teaching
Alongside the Model, we have several posters available to download, which accompany the Great Teaching Toolkit: Evidence Review. These free downloads are intended to help spark professional conversations in schools and colleges throughout the world about the elements of great teaching. These posters are available for download and use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.

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Our Model for Great Teaching offers a curriculum for teachers' professional learning, based on the best available evidence.

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Telling My Worldview Story

The aim behind this series is to encourage people to share their own worldview story. The series recognises that our own worldview journey is personal and will be shaped by our own individual background, family, and cultural influences.

Our ability to understand and respect stories like these can lead to a greater understanding of how people arrive at their current beliefs and practices, as well as showing how our worldviews can change over time. The pieces add layers of understanding about what people believe and how they live their lives. They also help us to recognise and reflect on our own personal knowledge.

This new series complements an animation entitled ' Nobody Stands Nowhere' produced by the Theos Think Tank which aims to unpack the idea of worldview and invites the viewer to consider how their own unique view of the world might co-exist with other, sometimes quite different, vantage points held by those around them.

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The aim behind this series is to encourage people to share their own worldview story. The series recognises that our own worldview journey is personal and will be shaped by our own individual background, family, and cultural influences.

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Teaching controversial issues in RE - Culham St Gabriel's

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Teaching controversial issues in RE - Culham St Gabriel's

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28th April 2021. An audio recording. Professor Denise Cush talks to Dr Kevin O'Grady. Denise and a colleague recently reimagined the Hindu subject knowledge essay for RE:ONLINE. Denise shares some of the research that underpins this essay, as well as discussing the positioning of her work and the methodologies employed.

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Worldviews in RE - Professor Trevor Cooling

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Worldviews in RE - Professor Trevor Cooling

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28th April 2021. An audio recording. Professor Denise Cush talks to Dr Kevin O'Grady. Denise and a colleague recently reimagined the Hindu subject knowledge essay for RE:ONLINE. Denise shares some of the research that underpins this essay, as well as discussing the positioning of her work and the methodologies employed.

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Teaching Islam as a worldview - Culham St Gabriel's

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Teaching Islam as a worldview - Culham St Gabriel's

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28th April 2021. An audio recording. Professor Denise Cush talks to Dr Kevin O'Grady. Denise and a colleague recently reimagined the Hindu subject knowledge essay for RE:ONLINE. Denise shares some of the research that underpins this essay, as well as discussing the positioning of her work and the methodologies employed.

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Teaching inclusive Judaism - Culham St Gabriel's & The Jewish Museum

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Teaching inclusive Judaism - Culham St Gabriel's & The Jewish Museum

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Recorded on 23rd March 2022. What does it actually mean to be Jewish? Is Judaism a religion, culture or ethnicity? How can we teach Judaism holistically, whilst giving space to the different intersectional communities? What does it mean to be ‘Jewish and…?’

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The miracles of Jesus - Professor Paul Middleton

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The miracles of Jesus - Professor Paul Middleton

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The Miracles of Jesus - Professor Paul Middleton

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TRS Webinars Season 3 - The Miracles of Jesus - Professor Paul Middleton


17 May 22

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Learning quotes via retrieval practice by Dawn Cox

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Learning quotes via retrieval practice by Dawn Cox

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How to learn keywords & quotations - weekly retrieval

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I've blogged before about how we have tested students on keywords. It forms part of their 3 set homeworks to learn the keywords. However we realise we need students to equally be able to recall and apply quotations in their writing. We have therefore adapted our weekly quizzing to use one of the them to...

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RED, introduction by Philip Robinson (Catholic Education Service)

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RED, introduction by Philip Robinson (Catholic Education Service)

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The Wheel of Teaching: How do you score?

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The Wheel of Teaching sets out eight aspects of your teaching life that are crucial to your wellbeing and job satisfaction. Drawing on the advice in his new book Love Teaching Keep Teaching, Peter Radford explains

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ATCRE CPD - Dr Margaret Carswell: Teaching Scripture for Meaning not Recall - Hermeneutical Pedagogy

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ATCRE CPD - Dr Margaret Carswell: Teaching Scripture for Meaning not Recall - Hermeneutical Pedagogy

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ATCRE CPD - Dr Margaret Carswell: Teaching Scripture for Meaning not Recall - Hermeneutical Pedagogy

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S4 E12: The One About Decolonising Judaism

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In the next of my collaboration with Ash Kundi on decolonising the curriculum, we chat to previous guest Rabbi Binyamin Sheldrake. In a frank and fascinating discussion we consider the best language to use when teaching Judaism, handy tips to making our teaching more authentic and advise on whether to and how to teach the Holocaust.

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Sin and Salvation

The Nicene Creed states belief in 'one baptism for the remission of sins'. Although the exact understanding of this has been a major point of dispute between Christians, there is general agreement that repentance and baptism are two means whereby people can experience reconciliation with God and welcome into membership of the Church.

The term sin has several meanings, including disobeying God's commands, 'missing the mark', and, failing to live up to God's standards. St Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is attributed with having popularised the concept of original sin (that we have all inherited sinfulness, from even before birth, as a result of the sin of Adam & Eve), although the Orthodox Churches argue that this does not render us guilty or estranged from God at birth. In contrast, Catholics traditionally consider early baptism as imperative, in order to remove the scourge of this affliction.

Major issues of contention on this topic (particularly at the Reformation) concern whether only the Church has the power to grant absolution of sins, but also whether forgiveness is subsequent entirely on expression of faith, or whether one should also follow ritual practices in order to experience full and lasting forgiveness. Furthermore, in light of God's omniscience, debates have also been prevalent about whether repentance (and thus salvation) is due to an individual's own concerns and actions, or whether God foreordains those who will be saved from sin and it is His 'calling' which subsequently leads them to be drawn to eternal life.

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The Nicene Creed states belief in 'one baptism for the remission of sins'. Although the exact understanding of this has been a major point of dispute between Christians, there is general agreement that repentance and baptism are two means whereby people can experience reconciliation with God and welcome into membership of the Church.

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How do we knowing learning is happening? Professor Coe

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How do we knowing learning is happening? Professor Coe

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One of the very best pieces of work in communicating education research is the What Makes Great Teaching report from 2014. Around this time Professor Rob Coe (@ProfCoe), one of the report's central authors, was doing fabulous work sharing the key ideas from the report in various presentations. Here is one example:

As I shared recently on twitter, one particular slide from the presentation encapsulates a lot of the key thinking and is one I have found myself returning to and referring to countless times. In terms of getting ideas across, the 'poor proxies for learning' concept was something of a game-changer:

Of course it's always risky sharing isolated slides out of context - but I did so hoping to reel people into reading the full set if they'd missed it - that's what you always hope! However, it is obviously important to provide context. The key to this list is that it highlights some of the assumptions that are embedded in practices such as lesson observations and in some teachers' minds when lessons might appear to be going well - despite the fact that the underlying reality can't be seen: the learning that is actually happening is hidden in students' minds.

Poor Proxies is a powerful prompt to probe further to establish whether learning has happened rather than to assume. It's a reminder of the danger of focusing too much on task completion, immediate performance and behavioural compliance when they may or may not in themselves foster the learning you're seeking. It has major implications for the (dubious) validity of lesson observations as the presentation explores in some detail.

The next slide in the presentation is this:

Again, of course, this needs unpacking. How can you tell if students are thinking hard? The main thing is to make sure the tasks they are set require them to think hard; actually - to require them ALL to think hard. If you run through the Poor Proxies list, it's worth considering whether it's possible for students to do those things without thinking hard - and the answer is Yes!

This all links to various other ideas in Prof Coe's presentation and to ideas from Dan Willingham, Graham Nuthall, Dylan Wiliam and others - the need to think about thinking, 'hidden lives' and eliciting evidence of learning:

Coe's Poor Proxies have also helped me in thinking about the strategies that teachers might focus on to ensure that thinking hard is really happening across a classroom:

For more detail, Prof Coe helpfully shared this video to help this discussion. Here he is talking about his ideas in 2013, as he shared on twitter. It's a superb exploration of the nature of learning and the research that surrounds it:

And here is a full essay that explores the ideas further. The four recommendations are as relevant now as it was when it was published. :

Think hard about learning

Invest in effective professional development

Evaluate teaching quality

Evaluate impact of changes

Without question, Rob Coe is one of the greatest minds working in the field of educational research and it's wonderful to have this record of his insights. More recently, now working with Evidence Based Education, he has contributed to this superb report: Great Teaching Toolkit - again, well worth your time, exploring the detail.

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Poor Proxies for Learning. Powerful insights from Prof Coe:

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One of the very best pieces of work in communicating education research is the What Makes Great Teaching report from 2014. Around this time Professor Rob Coe (@ProfCoe), one of the report's central authors, was doing fabulous work sharing the key ideas from the report in various presentations.

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Bishop Barron on the Meaning of the Trinity

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This is a write up of my talk from Practical Pedagogies in Cologne, November 2018.

'Unapologetically ambitious, unashamedly academic'

This is the mantra I share with my students at the start of every academic year, and it's something we return to when we need a boost. I am currently teaching in the same community where I grew up. It's taken me nearly a decade, but I've earned my stripes in a number of other schools and communities across West Yorkshire in order to return to my old stomping ground. I am incredibly grateful for the foundation which my childhood has given me, but as someone who grew up in a single parent family in an area which ticked all the boxes for social deprivation, someone who attended a (technically) failing school and wouldn't have been expected to do particularly well, I want to give voice to something:

So called 'disadvantaged' students don't want you to make things 'accessible', we want you to make aspiration possible. Don't take it slowly, take it easy on us or limit what you teach so that we can 'get it'. Instead, be even more demanding, even more ambitious, and help us to catch up with our more privileged counterparts.

A school does not need to be 'outstanding' to challenge students and get the best out of them. Though the school I attended had its difficulties, it was the individual teachers, their care, their intelligence and their belief in me which meant that I went on to be successful. Bright, poor kids can do really well if they:

1. Have teachers they KNOW believe in them

2. Are confident that their teachers have the knowledge and ability to stretch them

Students will never hold it against you for being demanding, relentless and rigorous, as long as they feel that you believe in them and will support them to achieve.

What is Challenge?

Challenge is a highly abstract, subjective concept. Educators and philosophers have tried to define and explore challenge for generations. My colleague Dan Eastwood has written an excellent explanation of Czikszentmihalyi's theory of 'Flow' on our school T&L blog here.

Essentially, attempts to take 'challenge' from abstract to concrete are all based on finding the optimal level of difficulty on a scale from easy to hard. Using a scale like this is incredibly helpful because it gives us a mechanism to help us measure challenge, and to talk about it. Most important, it helps students to talk about it.

A classroom which is challenging for all is one where all students have work which is the most appropriate for them. Sound familiar? Best practice in teaching always boils down to the same thing; whether we call it Challenge, Differentiation or Personalisation, it is always just: knowing our students and acting accordingly.

Why is challenge important?

In a recent HMI visit to our school, an inspector asked our student panel, "On a scale of 1-10, where 1 is completely empty, and 10 is full to bursting, how full is your brain by the end of the school day?"

I think this really goes to the heart of things. By the end of the school day, students should feel full of new knowledge and understanding, and should be tired out by all the work their brains have been doing!

Challenge has obvious benefits:

accelerated progress

makes lessons feel meaningful

leads to greater engagement

meeting challenge leads to aspiration

As educators, we know this. What we often aren't aware of, however, is the role of challenge as a vital part of the mechanical process of learning.

If the brain finds something difficult, or encounters failure, it grants it personal significance. High challenge = better learning.

To read more about the cognitive learning process (how the brain learns things, and why challenge is a key part of this), see my blog here.

So, give them work which is highly challenging, and they are more likely to transfer new information to long term memory. Work which is too easy is generally ineffective in terms of the learning process.

This high challenge will also be more powerful if students themselves are aware of the research around learning and the brain. Tell students that challenge is good for them, get them to embrace it, and encourage them to ask for it.

Practical Strategies for the Classroom

I believe strongly that there is very little difference between half-decent teaching, and brilliant teaching. Anyone who tells you that there is a single silver bullet or solution, and that you should make big changes to your practice, is a snake-oil salesman and should be avoided. ANY teacher can be highly effective in the classroom by making tiny tweaks to their practice; don't re-invent the wheel or change your style.

Tweak 1: Vary Cognitive Load Demand

Cognitive load theory is the consideration of how much we are asking students to do at once, and whether or not it is manageable. To be truly challenging, we want to get this exactly right, and there are many things about our planning and delivery that we can do to make subtle alterations to this. See this great blog by Adam Boxer: Simplifying Cognitive Load Theory for more detail.

Tweak 2: Awareness and Articulation

Empower your students to do the work for you; if they can tell you that they need more challenging work, that is learning gold!

I've shown this resource in previous posts, but it's a good one! Give students a blank version of this 'comfort, stretch, panic', then get them to write in each space what this looks like for them in your classroom.

This is one student's first attempt at this activity. In red, she has looked at the skills in her 'panic' area. and begun to think metacognitively: How does it feel? Why might that be? What can your teacher do to help you overcome this?

I also use paint sampler scales and chilli scales, things you will have seen before, to help students to identify how challenging things feel...

If students can identify what feels challenging, the next step is for them to think about how you could challenge them even more. This is quite advanced metacognition, but it is possible to give them scaffolds to help them with this initially (see below). If students have independently asked you for more challenging work, or even suggested to you what their next step will be, then engagement in learning will be higher because they have ownership.

Tweak 3: Language - explicit, purposeful planning

Students who use sophisticated language are able to express themselves with greater precision and elegance. In my opinion, this is the most high-impact tweak you can make if you're in a writing subject. My blog here explores some simple strategies for teaching sophisticated vocabulary and expression.

Tweak 4: Disciplinary Literacy

In his book 'Don't Call it Literacy,' Geoff Barton argues that literacy is not the same in every academic discipline, and therefore we shouldn't pretend that it is. My school this year is using this principle and teaching children the unique academic writing styles which are required in each aubject area. Students aren't just learning to write; they are writing like historians, biologists, politicians, novelists and critics. This is hugely important for maintaining high levels of challenge because we can set the bar high - "you have the process right, Jordan, but what adverbs would a chemist use to describe the reaction?", "accurate response, Alima, but how would a businesswoman have said that in a sales pitch?"

This approach requires collaborative planning in department areas, the sharing of expertise, and the development of resources to support different writing styles. When in place, it can produce some excellent responses:

Tweak 5: High Level Models - pitch to the top

Tom Sherrington (@teacherhead) wrote a great blog on Teaching to the Top, where he talks about setting the bar as high as possible and scaffolding downwards. One way I try to do this is by only ever using models which are aspirational for the students in front of me. More often than not, I use only top level models, sometimes showing things which are A Level standard for GCSE students. This might sound a little extreme to some, but it is a teacher's job to make this feel accessible, to break it down and show students how good writing is constructed.

Here is an example of a top band poetry paragraph. Students have picked it apart, analysed it, identified the key phrases, skills and vocabulary. You can see along the bottom that there are a high number of sophisticated vocabulary choices.

I also use full marks responses as part of whole class feedback sheets. With the example below, students looked at the model, then at their own attempt, then identified things which the model did which they hadn't done. Their next draft aimed to close some of those gaps in their writing.

Here is an example of a student's work who has been exposed to full marks models for six months. At the start of the year he was writing at a grade 2. The difference here is remarkable.

Tweak 6: Multi-faceted, personalised success criteria

Using success criteria to frame any substantial task is crucial in my opinion. Students know what you're looking for, you know what you're feeding back on; everyone knows where they stand. I like to use success criteria as an initial list of things students need to do to be successful in a task (use the author's name, comment on context, etc.). Success criteria serve to lay out all the features of a high level piece of work, and thereby make excellence transparent and clear for all students.

The example below shows where a Y7 student has completed a piece of work, been assessed by the teacher (see green and pink highlighter bars), used this to set their own challenging targets for next time, and has some challenging questions at the bottom to push them further.

Tweak 7: Embrace and respect the abstract

All subjects, at their upper levels of challenge, become increasingly abstract. English goes from words to humanity, just as Physics goes from measurement to creation. The abstract is hard to teach; it is intangible, ethereal, and leads to unpredictable thinking from the young people before us. If we want to be truly challenging and aspirational, we must face these challenges head on and find creative ways to help students to access them. In a blog here, I outline a strategy to help students to break down high level statements and questions. I find that it has been a reliable approach for all my classes, from A Level to Y7, and I know of a primary colleague who successfully used a slightly adapted version with Y4.

The other, most effective way of embracing the abstract, is by finding powerful visual representations of concepts. I use the image below to help students to explore ideas about mental instability in poetry. The image represents the concept, and students have made really perceptive notes.

In his blog, Tom Sherrington says that students need the opportunity to have open ended tasks where they can really excel. If we are too prescriptive, we run the risk of limiting creative potential and allowing our pre-conceived ideas of student ability to provide a glass ceiling and stifle them. I like to set regular homework tasks which enable students to surprise me. The example above is work which a student did entirely by hand - I asked the class to create mood boards to encapsulate the key ideas surrounding a main character in the play. I'm sure you'll agree that this is stunning. An overly-prescriptive task might have prevented this student from producing this beauty.

Another example of this can be seen on my post here on homework.

All of the strategies above are explained fully in this post.

Tweak 10: big yourself up

You've done it. You're challenging students left, right and centre, they leave lessons with aching brains, and are desperate to push their own limits. Now it's important to monopolise on that brilliance and re-establish the power of challenge. At the end of a topic, re-visit old work and show students really explicitly what progress has been made.

This example shows what the student did as a baseline, and then what they did later in the topic. I got them to look at both pieces of work, identify how much better the most recent one was, and reiterated all the challenging things we did to get there.

There is value in reminding students that you are a good teacher. I want my students to say: "Mrs Webb is a brilliant English teacher; I learn a lot and make excellent progress in her lessons." As well as feeding my ego, this breeds trust between us and our students, improves engagement and strengthens your practice moving forward.

Class teachers can create highly challenging environments where students thrive, but this is even more effective when leaders create an aspirational culture in the wider school.

Things leaders can do:

1. Seek to understand curriculum demands. Many subjects have highly demanding new curricula. Leaders should find out what these demands are so that they can appreciate the work teachers are doing.

2. ASK staff what they feel they need to become better subject specialists. Teachers can only stretch students if their own subject knowledge is good enough. If teachers are asking for subject knowledge enhancement, give it to them. It is far more important than most of the other CPD expenses you might be considering.

3. As part of quality assurance, look for evidence of struggle. Where have students found something difficult and how have they overcome it? If you can't find the evidence of this, ASK! Speak to teachers and students: What did students find was the most challenging part of this task? What could you do to raise the level of challenge? Discussions like this should be developmental and non-judgemental; we should not be in the business of catching teachers out, but finding more ways to support and develop them.

4. On curriculum, ask yourself: can you be certain this wasn't covered in Primary School? Build excellent relationships with feeder schools. Look at innovative strategies and make time to connect.

5. Ask yourself: Does culture and staff attitude reflect a 'not yet', hopeful atmosphere? Find ways to sensitively challenge staff who say, "these kids can't/won't/don't..."

The first ever school I worked in was a successful independent school. I learned a lot from my time there, but the abiding lesson I learned about school culture is that if the students value academic success, your work is mostly done; they will value and seek out challenge. At that school, the person who got the highest score on the maths test was as highly respected as the captain of the rugby team. As long as someone was successful at something, whatever that was, they felt that they had some status and identity. If we can build schools where students see academic success, progress and the strive for excellence as something which is, dare I say, 'cool', we will have learning environments where students can really thrive.

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Challenge for All: #PracPed18 | Funky Pedagogy

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This is a write up of my talk from Practical Pedagogies in Cologne, November 2018. 'Unapologetically ambitious, unashamedly academic' This is the mantra I share with my students at the start of every academic year, and it's something we return to when we need a boost.

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Teaching Scholarship in RE (Joe Kinnaird)

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Teaching Scholarship in RE (Joe Kinnaird)

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Challenge in the curriculum - Mary Myatt

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Challenge in the curriculum - Mary Myatt

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researchED Durrington Mary Myatt: Curriculum  (rEDLoom)

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You're Supposed to Rule the World (Here's How)

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How to write better multiple choice questions

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How to write better multiple choice questions

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Butler, A. C. Multiple-Choice Testing in Education: Are the Best Practices for Assessment Also Good for Learning? Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2018.07.002

Multiple-choice (MC) questions are ubiquitous in education. Whether it be a formative assessment to begin a lesson or an end of year exam, MC questions are commonplace. Just last week, my wife and I met with my son's 1st grade teacher and she discussed how his class would be looking at MC questions and how to properly read, decode, and answer them. From 1st grade through college tests, MC assessments are routine and help students and teachers assess learning in the classroom.

The article points out much research has been devoted to how to best construct MC questions for assessment purposes; "how to improve the reliability and validity of MC tests." In addition to using MC questions for assessment, these questions can also 'cause learning':
"Retrieving information in response to a test question strengthens memory, leading to better retention of that information over time; it can also change the representation of the information in memory, thereby producing deeper understanding. With respect to the MC format in particular, numerous laboratory studies have shown that taking a MC test is beneficial for learning...MC testing has been found to improve retention and transfer on subsequent unit and final exams in middle school, high school, and college courses. In addition, MC testing can enhance the learning of non-tested conceptually related information and restore access to previously acquired knowledge that has become inaccessible."
As a teacher, I appreciate this delineation. It's quite easy to only see MC questioning through a lens of assessment, grading, and as a means to an end. However, assessment ( retrieval practice ) should be an integral part of the learning process. This focus on the learning aspect of MC questioning really drew me to the article. As a teacher who relies on MC questions for some daily formative assessment and summative assessment, I was quite intrigued with the ability to use what this research communicates about constructing better questions.

Below are five evidence-informed best practices for the classroom teacher to create more reliable and valid MC questions for both assessment and learning.
Best Practice #1 - Avoid Using Complex Item Types or Answering Procedures
Complex multiple-choice (CMC) questions are becoming more popular in education because they appear to more deeply assess learning and require more thought. A typical MC question has one stem and three to five primary responses. A CMC has a stem and primary responses, but then also includes secondary choices that may include options of none (or all) of the above , A and B, B and D, A and B, but not C, etc.

Again, the prevailing thought here students will have to engage more with the material to come up with the correct answer and avoid more complex distractors. However, from the viewpoint of MC questions as assessment, CMC should be avoided for these reasons:

1. Clueing - CMC items may inadvertently allow students to 'strategically guess'. If a test-taker can eliminate primary responses, they can then begin to eliminate secondary responses which may also include other primary responses. Due to clueing, CMC items can produce artificially greater performance and reduce reliability when compared to more traditional MC questions.

2. Research suggests CMC items are not better at measuring higher-order thinking, which is a main reason these types of items are used.

3. CMC items are difficult to write and a usually dropped from potential questions to be used on an assessment during the verification phase.

CMC is also not effective as a tool for learning. The most studied complex answering procedure is known as 'answer-until-correct' method. This, as you probably guessed, allows students the ability to continue answering a MC question until they choose the correct answer. The idea here is the student can continue to engage with the material, even after choosing the wrong answer. In theory, this sounds great, but research has shown the answer-until-correct procedure is no better than traditional MC with immediate feedback. This may be due to simple guessing. If a student first chooses incorrectly, they may lack the knowledge to reason through and intelligently choose a second or third choice as the correct answer.
Best Practice #2 - Create Items that Require the Engagement of Specific Cognitive Processes "When creating a test for the purpose of assessment, each item should tap particular content and engage specific cognitive processes in order to provide broad coverage of the learning objectives across items while minimizing overlap among items."
There are two methods discussed to think about engagement of a specific cognitive process for assessment:

A collection of question 'shells' or templates that isolate cognitive processes. For example, notice the difference in the cognitive processes required for these two MC question shells:

1. Which best defines X?

2. Which distinguishes X from Y?

Teachers can then choose among many different shells to find one that best matches their learning objectives.

Use the verbs of Bloom's taxonomy (recall, explain, compare, synthesize, etc) to engage specific cognitive processes which can apply to a learning objective.

From the aspect of using MC questions for learning, it is important to isolate and deliberately create questions which engage specific cognitive processes.
"A question could require a student to retrieve a fact (Which of the following buildings is the tallest in the world?), contrast two concepts (Which of the following is a way in which hawks differ from eagles?), or analyze a set of conditions to make a decision (Given that the patient shows symptoms of X, Y, and Z, which of the following diagnoses is most likely?)"
Careful consideration of MC questions enable students to interact with information, using many different cognitive processes. The processing induced by each question should mimic the type of cognitive processing required for future performance (either another assessment or a more practical application).

A common criticism of MC questions is that they only test basic factual information. This is just not true. With proper construction, MC questions can certainly test higher-order thinking. Research has shown these questions can produce learning that improves future performance and performance on MC and constructed-response tests tend to be highly correlated.
Best Practice #3: Avoid Using "None-of-the-Above" and "All-of-the-Above" as Response Options
Adding all-of-the-above (AOTA) and/or none-of-the-above (NOTA) options to simple MC questions essentially transforms them into CMC questions (best practice #1). As discussed before, CMC items are to be avoided. For assessment, NOTA and AOTA reduces discriminability among items and, specifically for AOTA, increases the likelihood for clueing. Another potential problem with NOTA and AOTA is their ability to create bias when they are only sporadically included as MC question responses. Students tend to choose AOTA and NOTA at higher rates than other responses when they are occasionally presented.

Although there has not been much research on the use of NOTA and/or AOTA for learning, what has been done appears to recommend they be avoided. NOTA specifically appears to be harmful to learning when it is the correct answer and has a negligible effect as an incorrect answer. Ideally, when presented with a MC question, students should retrieve the correct answer. However, it is quite possible when NOTA is the correct answer that students do not have to retrieve the right answer and only have to rule out all of the incorrect answers. If this is the case, the students has not strengthened their learning of the correct answer via retrieval of that answer. When NOTA is an incorrect answer, the chance for learning increases because students will hopefully retrieve the correct answer from memory. Nevertheless, it may be the presence of NOTA that creates biases that are mentioned before, which may decrease its effectiveness for learning.

AOTA appears to be beneficial for learning when it is the correct answer response. The student must identify and retrieve all of the correct answers, which should be a goal of learning. When AOTA is the incorrect answer, the effects are less certain. For the same reasons mentioned above with NOTA, depending on the frequency of AOTA as a response, students may be biased to select AOTA when it is incorrect and believe several false alternatives are correct.
Best Practice #4: Use Three Plausible Response Options
A meta-analysis, Rodriguez (2005) surmised that using two incorrect responses and one correct response provides the "best balance between psychometric quality and efficiency of administration." Essentially, students are able to complete more three-response questions than four-response questions in the same amount of time. Another line of research points to the plausibility of the incorrect answers as playing an important role in the amount of responses used. Using only one plausible incorrect response is better than using two low-quality responses. Some examples for creating high-quality responses includes using both common errors or misconceptions and true statements that do not correctly answer the given stem.

For the purpose of learning, research also suggests using relatively few alternatives on MC questions, but for a different reason. If students are met with many incorrect answers, they run the risk of incorrectly learning the information. Processing distractor items as the correct answer decreases the chance students will choose the correct response on another MC test. This is called the negative suggestions effect. Selecting a distractor as a correct response can interfere with their capability to retrieve the correct information in the future. Studies have also shown that including more responses decreases the positive effects and increases the negative effects on learning; students retain less correct information and run the risk of obtaining more incorrect information.

Processing distractors can be beneficial for learning. If a student can read a plausible incorrect response and rule it out, they are more likely "to discriminate the correct information from related incorrect information in memory, thereby improving accessibility and reducing the potential for interference during subsequent retrieval."
Best Practice #5: Create Multiple-Choice Tests That Are Challenging, But Not Too Difficult
In order to measure learning successfully, MC items should discriminate between students who have and have not acquired the knowledge. When this is achieved, moderately difficult tests are created and students are challenged but able to succeed. Very easy MC questions can undermine the positive effects on learning because students can succeed without thinking about/with the information and processing in a deliberate manner. "The key to producing desirable difficulty is that the MC item should engage the test-taker in the type of cognitive processing needed to learn the intended knowledge or skill." This can be produced by using common errors or misconceptions as a distractor choice. Doing so could create a desirable difficulty if the student learns to discriminate between the correct answer choice and the somewhat related incorrect choice.
Bonus Best Practice: Provide Feedback
Feedback after formative assessment is very effective for assessment and learning. It increases the positive effects on learning and reduces the negative effects greatly. Feedback allows students the ability to correct incorrect beliefs; resulting in the avoidance of learning false information. Feedback is effective whether given immediately or after a delay.

*It is important to note the author comments several times that more research is needed in the area of creating MC questions. While there isn't a great deal of research on certain aspects of best practices for constructing MC questions, using these five tips can create a more valid and reliable test for assessment and learning.

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Writing A Better Multiple-Choice Question: What Does Research Indicate? - The Effortful Educator

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Writing A Better Multiple-Choice Question: What Does Research Indicate?

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How Multiple choice questions can be a challenging assessment tool (Daisy Christodoulou) 

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How Multiple choice questions can be a challenging assessment tool (Daisy Christodoulou) 

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Daisy Christodoulou - Life Beyond Levels

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Do you teach Religious Education (RE)? Would you like to develop your subject knowledge? Would you like the guidance and support of a specialist Personal Tutor from Edge Hill University? Our Religious Education Summer School may be for you.

Following on from the hugely successful Summer Schools for 2021 and 2022, we are delighted to be able to offer a free summer school for a limited number of teachers of RE (primary and secondary) to improve their subject knowledge. Thanks to the generous support of Culham St Gabriel's Trust and Edge Hill University Faculty of Education, we are able to make this a residential summer school at the stunning Edge Hill Campus in Ormskirk, running from Monday 24 July to Friday 28 July 2023.

The theme of the summer school is 'Religion and Desire'.

We are delighted to be able to welcome Dr. David Lewin of Strathclyde University to be our keynote speaker on Monday 24 July 2023.

Through the week there will then be five seminars from our expert team of religion specialist tutors, two meetings with your allocated personal supervisor and a field visit to a religious community, as well as plenty of time and space to work on your own question/area of development. The Friday will be an opportunity to present the fruits of your week's labour to your peers and the tutor team. This will very much be a 'work in progress' and we would expect your completed project to be sent to us by Monday 4 September 2023. We hope to publish some or all of them on the Edge Hill website, and there may be opportunities to further disseminate your work.

Who should apply to the Religious Education Summer School?

The week is open to all teachers of RE and will be fully residential. All teaching, food, accommodation on our campus and travel to the field visits during the week will be included, thanks to the generosity of Edge Hill's Faculty of Education and the Culham St Gabriel's Trust.

During the week all attendees will be working on a 'project'. This research topic could be practical or theoretical, so for example you might look at putting a scheme of work together to teach about the challenges of science and evolution to religious belief. Or you might want to do a more 'academic' in-depth analysis of Christian theology from a queer perspective. We are really interested to hear your ideas of how you would like to develop your subject knowledge as teachers of RE.

Application process for the Religious Education Summer School.

To apply for one of these limited number of free places on our summer school we ask you to write a short paragraph in answer to each of two simple questions:

1. How would the summer school help your subject knowledge as a teacher of RE?

2. What question or area of development would you like to work on during the week - and why?

Application is by completing this online application form before 12pm on Monday 15 May 2023 together with some personal contextual details.

Successful applicants will be informed within two weeks from closing date.

Submit your application

What happened last year?

The projects themselves were varied, from creating a sequence of lessons to teach about misconceptions, producing resources for non-specialist teachers to teach about Jewish Identity, or reviewing a Hindu curriculum sequence, to a more academic discussion of what intellectual humility might mean in RE.
Feedback from the attendees:

"It has been an incredibly valuable experience which has renewed me academically and given me a new enthusiasm for the classroom. I cannot wait to start to putting this in to practice!"

"After a hard year I have left the summer school feeling challenged and inspired. This is honestly one of the best CPD sessions I have ever attended and what I think was particularly powerful was that we are a collection of teachers with a huge range of experience and yet we all left with practical takeaway. Often CPD works for one level of experience but not another, this was not the case. The chance to work in an academic environment was so valuable."

The opportunity to collaborate across primary, secondary, university has been invaluable. Thank you so much to everyone.

I feel incredibly grateful that I've had this chance to develop my subject knowledge, engage directly with experts and academics in the field and research areas of personal interest that can help me support my school and develop my practice going forward. Thank you.

We are delighted that we will be able to run another Subject Knowledge School for Teachers of RE in Summer 2023

Read the 2021 papers

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Religious Education Summer School 2023 - Edge Hill University

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Do you teach Religious Education (RE)? Would you like to develop your subject knowledge? Would you like the guidance and support of a specialist Personal Tutor from Edge Hill University? Our Religious Education Summer School may be for you.

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How can we help disadvantaged students make more progress?

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How can we help disadvantaged students make more progress?

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Rebecca Wheater looks at a new PISA 2018 analysis that sheds light on the conditions for disadvantaged pupil’s academic success

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Rebecca Wheater looks at a new PISA 2018 analysis that sheds light on the conditions for disadvantaged pupil's academic success

research director of International Large Scale Assessments, NFER

8 Mar 2021, 5:00

Recent national and international evidence has shown that the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the negative impact of disadvantage on educational success. Understanding how to mitigate this is therefore vital to ensuring an equitable recovery for disadvantaged young people.

New NFER research highlights the importance for these students of understanding how you learn and of creating environments where pupils believe their ability will develop over time, rather than something that is fixed.

These findings come from further analysis we undertook of pupils who took part in OECD's Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018. Although the data was collected prior to the pandemic, the analysis provides insights into how we can support pupils as they return to school having missed a significant amount of learning.

There were some encouraging findings about how well schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are supporting disadvantaged pupils. These included increases in the performance of disadvantaged pupils in reading and maths compared with previous cycles, and stable performance in science against an international overall drop in performance in that subject.

However, disadvantage remains the single most influential factor impacting on educational under-achievement. While no country can claim to have solved the problem, some countries are doing better than others. For instance, England's most advantaged pupils perform similarly to the most advantaged pupils in Canada and Estonia. Yet these two high-performing countries' PISA success can be attributed to better performance of their disadvantaged pupils compared with those in England.

In spite of their socio-economic disadvantage, some pupils overcome barriers and attain high scores in PISA. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, around one-third of disadvantaged pupils achieved at a level considered by PISA to equip them for success in later life.

Digging deeper into the PISA data can help us to identify areas for support. NFER's analysis found that disadvantaged pupils who did well in PISA despite the odds had a better understanding of how they learn - or 'metacognitive strategies'. They were also less likely to believe that intelligence can't be changed - to have a 'growth mindset'. In addition, they had high aspirations for their future education or careers and were less likely to truant.

Supporting metacognition

These findings support previous research findings, such as from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), that teaching and using metacognitive strategies can help to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, pupils who were disadvantaged but high-achieving were more likely to use metacognitive strategies than low-achieving disadvantaged pupils.

As the EEF advises, metacognitive strategies can be taught in conjunction with subject specific content that will help to cement them as transferable skills. Our new findings make a strong case that they should be. The Sutton-Trust/EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit rates metacognition as a high-impact, low-cost approach to improving the attainment of disadvantaged learners. The evidence suggests that use of these strategies can be worth the equivalent of an additional seven months' progress.

Creating rewarding environments

Resilient pupils were also more likely to have a growth mindset. That is, resilient pupils recognise challenges as external, understanding they can be confronted and tackled. They believe that their efforts at school contribute to their success in school and the future.

Early intervention

Resilient pupils had high aspirations compared with their disadvantaged, low-achieving peers. By 15 years old, pupils should already have a good idea of the general level of jobs and education that are in scope for them. Therefore, any interventions that focus on raising aspirations should start from an earlier age.

As children return to schools, these findings re-emphasise the impact of disadvantage on educational attainment and life chances. But they also indicate which tools and strategies are likely to work best in the recovery effort - intervening early, positively, with a focus on subject knowledge and metacognitive strategies.

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Research: How to ensure more disadvantaged students succeed

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Rebecca Wheater looks at a new PISA 2018 analysis that sheds light on the conditions for disadvantaged pupil's academic success research director of International Large Scale Assessments, NFER 8 Mar 2021, 5:00 Recent national and international evidence has shown that the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the negative impact of disadvantage on educational success.

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The One Thing Our Catholic Students Must Have When They Leave Us 

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Inspiration: Your Vocation as an RE Teacher in a Catholic School (very short Podcast)

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Inspiration: Your Vocation as an RE Teacher in a Catholic School (very short Podcast)

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Find out about booking Jonathan to come and speak at your school or event
https://choicez.txfunnel.com/catholic-speaking-enquiry
Book a coaching call with me right now - For Principal's and Leaders in Catholic Education
https://choicez.txfunnel.com/catholic-leaders
Grab your free access to my awesome resource for Catholic teachers right here:
https://cf.onecatholicteacher.com/oct-opt-in

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The One Thing Our Catholic Students Must Have When They Leave Us - One Catholic Teacher

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Find out about booking Jonathan to come and speak at your school or event https://choicez.txfunnel.com/catholic-speaking-enquiry Book a coaching call with me right now - For Principal's and Leaders in Catholic Education https://choicez.txfunnel.com/catholic-leaders Grab your free access to my awesome resource for Catholic teachers right here: https://cf.onecatholicteacher.com/oct-opt-in

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TRS Chester: Theology and Religious Studies Webinar Series 2023

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TRS Chester: Theology and Religious Studies Webinar Series 2023

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Theology and Religious Studies Webinar Series 2023

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TRS Chester Religious Studies Webinars Season 4 Every Tuesday 4.00-4.35pm Open to all A level students of any subject and their teachers. 15-minute live lecture plus anonymous Q&A in the chat (audience is neither seen nor heard).

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Pilgrim Ways | Places of Pilgrimage in the UK

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Welcome to Pilgrim Ways, places of pilgrimage in the UK.

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What is Salvation? How do you get it? Are there different ways?  Who gets it?  How do I teach it?

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What is Salvation? How do you get it? Are there different ways? Who gets it? How do I teach it? In this episode, I look at the history of Salvation, what we call the 'acr of salvation' from the fall to the law to sacrifice to good deeds to Jesus and grace all the way through to the spirit.

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Great strategy to help you through a massive pile of mock papers!!

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AQA B Theme B: Pope Francis clarifies remarks about homosexuality and sin

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AQA B Theme B: Pope Francis clarifies remarks about homosexuality and sin

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Pope Francis clarifies remarks about homosexuality and sin

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Pope Francis reaffirmed that homosexuality is not a crime, and that any sexual act outside of marriage is a sin, in a written response to a request for clarification about his remarks during a recent interview with the Associated Press. VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis reaffirmed that homosexuality is n…