Book: Evidence Based Primary Teaching

Glazzard, Jonathan & Stones, Samuel. Evidence Based Primary Teaching. 2021; Learning Matters. SAGE Publications. California. ISBN 9781529741932

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Chapter 1: Early Years Pedagogy

Key Research

• Child-initiated play, combined with the provision of teacher-initiated group work, is the most effective vehicle for learning.
• Practitioner intervention in children’s freely chosen play is an effective strategy for providing intellectual challenge. Welsberg et al. (2013) refer to this strategy as “guided play”. Guided play is neither direct teaching not free play, but it sits between these two pedagogical approaches.
• The use of “sustained shared thinking” was observed in settings where children made the most progress.
• The modelling skills or appropriate behaviour by adults were often combined with sustained periods of shared thinking in effective settings.
• Open-ended questioning and modelling were also associated with better cognitive achievement
• Effective pedagogy for young children is less formal that for primary school
• The most effective settings adopted discipline/behaviour policies in which staff supported children in rationalising and talking through their conflicts.
  • (Sylva et al., 2005)

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Research also deomonstrates that children who enter school with poorly developed speech and language are at high risk of literacy difficulties (Snowling et al., 2011)

The importance of developing children’s social and emotional regulation skills and promoting a positive sense of self in the early years has been identifed by researched. Developing these aspects supports positive longer-term outcomes (Goodman et al., 2015)

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Balancing Pedagogical Approaches

…children in the early years need a variety of pedagogical approaches. These include child-initiated play and adult-initiated interactions that are more typically associated with the word “teaching”. In effective settings, the balance of who initiates the activities (i.e. children or adults) should be roughly equal (Sylva et al., 2004).

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It is less effective when adults intervene and effectively close down children’s play.

The importance of personal, social and emotional development

Personal, social and emotional development is the foundation of all learning in the early years. Children cannot learn effectively if they do not establish secure relationship with practicitioners in the setting and if they do not feel safe.

…a play-based pedagogy in the early years supports the development of [social and emotional regulation] skills because it enables children to interact with others, and to do this effectively they need to learn how to socially interact, how to behave and how to regulate their feelings.

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What does good practice in sustained shared thinking look like in the classroom?

Sustained shared thinking is a process that occurs between an adult and a child. It involves skilful higher-order questioning. Within an episode, the adult take the lead from a child and seizes and opportunity to advance the children’s thinking. The research demonstrates that high-quality early years settings are characterised by frequent episodes of sustained shared thinking (Sylva et al., 2004).

The following dialogue between a child and an adult illustrates sustained shared thinking.

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Chapter 2: How Children Learn

Key research

The evidence from research has demonstrated:

• Children’s learning and development are shaped by a combination of environmental factors and learning opportunities both inside and outside schools.
• Learning involves physical, psychological, social and emotional processes. These influence one another in that the interactions between these processes can enable or restrict learning.
• The brain and intelligence are malleable and can be changed by environmental influences, including exposure to high-quality teaching.
• Our experiences activate neural pathways that enable new ways of thinking and new skills to develop.
• Emotions and social context shape neural connections that contribute to attention, concentration and memory, as well as knowledge transfer and application. Research has demonstrated that chronic stress due to trauma affects cognition and working memory.
• Differentiated instruction enables optimum brain growth.
  • (Darling-Hammond et al., 2019)

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Behaviourist approaches to learning

In behaviourist approaches to learning, children respond to stimuli in the environment. Your role as a teacher is to provide engaging and relevant stimuli that children can respond to. This process of engagement and response enables children to gain new knowledge and experience. This approach suggests that the appropriate behaviors can therefore be taught by repeatedly exposing children to tasks [Alison note: compare with Suzuki method of musical instruction?] This should be combined with positive feedback to recognise and reinforce success and negative feedback to encourage correction and discourage further instances of undesirable behaviour.

…[Pavlov’s classical conditional is an example of a behaviourist approach to learning]…

…operant conditioning occurs when a behaviour is learned and determined by the anticipation of what follows the behaviour (e.g. a child modifying their behaviour because they are concerned about a sanction or because they are seeking a reward).

Constructivist Approaches to Learning

Jean Piaget was a constructivist. He developed a stage theory to explain cognitive development in children (Piaget, 1936). He believed that learning was promoted through the child’s interactions with their natural environment and resources.

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Bruner’s Model of Child Development

Jerome Bruner (1966) proposed that children move through three stages of development:

• enactive representation (action-based);
• iconic representation (image-based);
• symbolic representation (language-based);

At the enactive stage, children learn through physical interactions and movements. At the iconic stage, children learn primarily through visual information, and therefore diagrams, photographs and other images are important in supporting learning at this stage. At the symbolic stage, children learn through symbols such as letters, words and mathematical symbols.

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There is a danger that teachers could move children away from active learning too quickly, and we argue that opportunities to learn through physical movement and other forms of first-hand experience are critical at all stages of development.

Criticisms of stage theories

Stage theories have been criticised for presenting overly simplistic models of how children develop. Children operate at different stages of development and do not always progress through certain stages at specific ages, as Piaget suggested. … children do not just progress from one stage to another across all subject areas and other domains (e.g. their social,, physical and emotional development(. In addition, Piaget’s work has been criticised fro lacking methodical robustness.

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Social constructivist approaches to learning

Vygotsky is one of the most frequently citied scholars associated with social constructivist learning. This approach assumes that social and cultural contents and language promote learning.

Social constructivist perspectives on learning assume that children’s earning and development are promoted within social contexts (Vygotsky, 1978). Vygotsky developed the concept of the zone of proximal development. This is the distance between a child’s actual level of development and their proximal level (i.e. what they are capable of achieving with the support from a more able peer or adult). Scaffolding is used to support a child to move between the two stages of development, but learning should always be pitched within the zone so that it is always a level above the child’s current level of development. Vygotsky was interested in how dialogue (including internal dialogue and dialogue between individuals) promotes learning within social and cultural contexts.

Collaborate Learning

Research demonstrates that brain development is experience-dependent (Darling-Hammond et al., 2019). Research has also found that cooperative learning promotes higher achievement compared to individualist efforts (Johnson et al., 2000). The implications for pedagogy are for teachers to provide rich collaborative learning opportunities through paired works and group work. … Planning, organising, monitoring and evaluating project-based learning develops pupils’ metacognitive skills.

Self-Esteem

Like most psychological concepts, self-estaeem it is not straightforward. Self-esteem can act as a buffer which supports individuals to cope with adverse situations (Jindal-Snape and Miller, 2010). Mruk’s (1000) two-dimensional model of self-esteem is supported by empirical studies (Tafarodi and Milne, 2002; Tafarodi and Swann, 1995).

The model identifies two components of self-esteeem: self-worth and self-competence. …self-esteem is conceptualised as the integrated sum of these two components (Jingal-Snap and Miller, 2010).

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…in cases where individuals demonstrate a deficiency on one or both dimensions, they can develop pseudo or defensive self-esteem (Mruk, 1999). Individuals who demonstrate self worth but not self-competence may develop avoidance strategies when they are asked to completed challenges (Jindal-Snape and Miller, 2010). Those who have low self-wroth (due to trauma, a history of receiving negative feedback and other adverse experiences) but a positive sense of competence may demonstrate antisocial behaviours.

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Resilience

Earlier perspectives on resilience conceptualised it as a fixed trait within individuals (Masten and Garmezy, 1985). However, contemporary perspectives tend to conceptualise resilience as a dynamic attribute that can be enhanced (Luthar, 2006; Roffey, 2017; Stephens, 2013). Definitions of resilience emphasise positive adaption following adversity or trauma (Gayton and Lovell, 2013) and the capacity to grow in response to adversity (Stallman, 2011).

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Promoting a Growth Mindset: Brain Development

Research demonstrates that the brain can physically change and that this can occur well into adulthood (Abiola and Dhindsa, 2012).

…research that demonstrates the plasticity of the brain supports the belief that intellectual ability can be enhanced and developed through learning (Sternberg, 2005).

…learners with a growth mindset embrace learning opportunities that provide challenge, even where failure is a very real possibility (Dweck, 2007). Although two individuals with differing mindsets can start out achieving similar levels academically, research suggests that over time the individual with the growth mindset will begin to outperform the individual with the fixed mindset (Dweck, 2009). Research demonstrates that “at every socioeconomic level, those who hold more of a growth mindset consistently outperform those who do not”(Claro et al., 2016, p4)

The attitudes of teachers towards intelligence and school culture play an important role in how students view themselves. The use of ability groups in schools promotes the idea of a fixe mindset. Boaler (2013) has argued that ability groups transmit to students the view that some students are not capable of completed more challenging tasks, thus suggesting that intelligence is static.

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Chapter 3: Memory

Key research

Research suggests that an effective approach to curriculum planning is to revisit learning and repeat practice over time, as this leads to better long-term retention of knowledge (Rawson and Kintsch, 2005). Reviewing previous learning leads to much greater long-term retention if subject content is spread out, with gaps in between to allow students to forget the content (Coe et al., 2014).

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The working memory model

…the components of working memory include:

• Central executive. This drives the working memory and the subsystems of working memory; the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketch pad. It also deals with cognitive tasks.
• Phonological loop. This si the part of working memory that deals with spoken and written material. This is a slave system of the central executive.
• Visuospatial sketch pad. This stores and processes information in a visual or spatial form, and is therefore essential for navigation. This is a slave system of the central executive.
• Episodic buffer. This is a temporary storage system that combines information from the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketch pad. It also communicated with long-term memory.

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Cognitive Load

Cognitive load theory addresses techniques for managing working memory load in order to enable learners to process complex cognitive tasks (Paas et al., 2003). The aim is to reduce the load on the working memory so that it can function more efficiently. If a single slave system of the working memory is attempting to complete two tasks at the same time, the tasks will conflict with each other, resulting in cognitive overload. … teachers can reduce the load on the working memory by breaking down or “chunking” information in manageable ways and by connecting new learning to previous learning.

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What does good practice in support in supporting memory look like in the classroom

Some children with poor memories may struggle to recall subject-specific knowledge, concepts and skills in a range of subjects. However, the following activities can strengthen memory:

• Show the children two objects (e.g. an apple and a banana). Ask them to look at the objects and to remember them. Ask them to close their eyes. Hide one of the objects. Ask them to open their eyes and identify which object has been removed.
• Repeat the above with three objects and remove one
• This process can be continued over time, graudally extending the number of objects
• When they are confident, start removing two objects
• Then extend the number of objects and remove three objects.

This activity helps to develop the memory.

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Chapter 4: Subject Knowledge

Key research

The most effective teachers have deep knowledge of the subjects they teach, and when teachers’ knowledge falls below a certain level it is a significant impediment to students’ learning. As well as a strong understanding of the material being taught, teachers much also understand teh ways students think about the content, be able to evaluate the thinking behind students’ own methods and identify students’ common misconceptions. (Coe et al., 2014, p2)

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What is subject knowledge

…subject knowledge for teaching is made up of the following aspects (TDA, 2007)

• subject knowledge per se (i.e. your knowledge of the subject content – its concepts, facts, theorys and skills)
• pedagogical subject knowledge;
• pupils development

Subject knowledge per se

strong subject knowledge will give you confidence to explain things clearly, answer children’s questions, and address their misconceptions. Having a strong grasp of the subject content will also enable you to provide suitable learning challenges for children who are operating at higher stages of development.

Pedagogical subject knowledge

… your knowledge of how to teach that subject content to enable pupils to learn it.

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Addressing misconceptions

The best way of addressing misconceptions is to research possible misconceptions that children may develop when you are planning lessons. This will then enable you to explicitly highlight these common misconceptions in your lessons, thus drawing attention to them and teaching children to avoid developing them in the first place.

You will need to address misconceptions at various stages in a lesson. These include:

• when children answer questions and demonstrate misconceptions through their answers
• when children are working on a task and you notice them developing misconceptions
• when you observe children’s responses to an assessment for learning task and notice they have developed misconceptions.

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Chapter 5: Modelling

Key research

Two different ties of modelling are described in the literature:

• Mastery models demonstrate rapid learning and make no errors. In this type of modeling, the teacher models the task or skill perfectly.
• Coping models are not perfect. Teachers show their hesitations and make errors as they demonstrate approaching the task from the perspective of the pupil.

(Braaksma et al., 2002)

Research has demonstrated that use of mastery (competent) models is more effecting that coping models (Graham and Harris, 1994; Schunk et al., 1987). However, the research is inconclusive.

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coping models provide an opportunity for teachers to model misconceptions and to model the process of thinking like a learner. This is sometimes referred to as “thinking aloud“…

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Chapter 7: Assessment For Learning

Key research

There is consistent evidence that assessment for learning increases pupils’ achievement (Hayward and Spencer, 2010; Webb and Jones, 2009). The work of Black and William (1998) has also been influential in highlighting the benefits of assessment for learning:

There is a body of firm evidence that formative assessment is an essential component of classroom work and that its development can raise standards of achievement. We know of no other way of raising standards for which such a strong prima facie case can be made (p12)

What is assessment for learning?

Assessment for learning is assessment that promotes learning. It is usually informal and continuous, as well as placing emphasis on advancing learning rather than measuring achievement. It has been argued that:

Assessment that is for learning, as opposed to merely of learning, looks forward as well as back. Teachers who assess in this way are concerned not just to confirm and verify what their students have learnt, but also to help their students and themselves understand what the next steps in learning should be and how they might be attempted. This kind of assessment has a ‘formative’ purpose: it helps to shape what lies ahead rather than simply to gauge and record past achievements. – Flórez and Sammons, 2013, p2)

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Building assessment tasks into lessons

assessment for learning tasks can include quizzes or questions that pupils completed individually, in pairs or in groups. They are usually short tasks that are specifically planned to enable the teacher to check pupils’ understanding before moving on to a different stages in the lesson. They can be planned:

• at the start of a lesson to check pupils’ understanding of subject content that was taught in a previous lesson;
• after new learning has been modelled and explained;
• throughout the lesson;
• at the end of a lesson

If the feedback from these tasks indicates that many children have not understood the subject content, the content may need to be retaught to everyone.

Questioning

Research has found that the questions used by teachers are often insufficiently challenging for students (Flórez and Sammons, 2013). In addition, studies have found that the time given to elaborate on an answer is often too short (Condie et al., 2015; Gipps et al., 2005; Kellards et al., 2008; Kirton et al., 2007; Webb and Jones, 2009). Research has recommended increasing the time given for students to think of an answer (Webb and Jones, 2009) and making greater use of open questions rather than closed questions (MacPhail and Halbert, 2010) to promote higher-order thinking. Creating a positive classroom climate in which misconceptions are addressed enables students to learn from mistakes (Torrance and Pryor, 2001) and promotes learning.

Specific questions should be planned to check pupils’ understanding or to promote thinking. Questions that require pupils to give more detailed or multiple responses than a single correct answer are more effective at promoting thinking (MacPhail and Halbert, 2010)

Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy of thinking skills is a useful framework to support teachers in planning questions. The framework moves from lower-level thinking to highter-level thinking.

The lowest level of thinking, according to the framework, is knowledge. e.g. “describe the… what is… what happened”

The next level of thinking is understanding. e.g. “explain… what are the differences… who was the main character and why”

The next level of thinking is analysis. e.g. “how is__similar to___… why do you think the author used this word.”

The next level of thinking is evaluating. E.g. what sort of character is x and how to you know

The highest level of think is creating. This is where pupils use their knowledge and understanding to create something.

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Addressing Misconceptions

There are various ways to address misconceptions during lessons. One strategy that some teachers use is to research common misconceptions relating to subject content and then highlight these explicitly to pupils during the teaching of subject content.

Misconceptions can be addressed in a range of ways. These include:

• reteaching subject content;
• rephrasing or re-explaining something;
• providing individual support to pupils during lessons
• highlighting misconceptions to the whole class
• providing support to small groups of pupils who develop common misconceptions

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Self-assessment

Research has demonstrated how self-assessment can promote metacognitive skills (Brookhart, 2001; Gipps et al.,2005; Stiggins and Arter, 2002). During the process of self-assessment, pupils learn to evaluate their work in relation to the expected outcomes. The identify what they achieved in relation to the original goals and aspects that strengthen the work. This process of evaluating learning is critical to becoming a good learner.

Peer Assessment

Research demonstrates that pupils generally are more accepting of feedback from their peers rather than feedback from their teachers (Flórez and Sammons, 2013). Teachers need to carefully consider the pairings that are used during the process of peer assessment. Children also need to be trained in the process of peer assessment. They need to understand the purposes of peer assessment and how to give feedback.

Marking

it is not necessary to mark every single piece of work in detail and it is not always necessary to mark every child’s exercise book. It is possible to mark a selection of books to identify misconceptions, which can then be addressed with the whole class in the next lesson.

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Feedback

Research from Hattie and Timperly (2007) suggests that models of feedback should address three questions:

• Where am I going [where the learner is]
• How am I going
• Where to next

According to Hattie and Timperly (2007), the answers to these questions enhance learning when there is a discrepancy between what is understood and what is aimed at being understood. It can increase effort, motivation or engagement to reduce this discrepancy… feedback is among the most critical influences on student learning.

Feedback comments should be specific… comments such as “good work”are unhelpful because they do not communicate to pupils why the words is good.

Seminal research found that when students were given comment-only feedback rather than assigning marks or grades, they subsequently did better in achievement tests (Butler, 1987).

…marking students’ work as right or wrong can promote competition between students, which can damage the sef-esteem of students who get low scores.

Feedback should provide pupils with guidelines not only about what is incorrect in their work, but also on what has been done correctly in relation to the initial learning goals or expectations.

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Chapter 8: Behaviour

Key research

The outcomes of several research studies into behaviour suggest that the following stragies are important in supporting pupils’ behaviour:

• knowing and understanding your pupils and their influences;
• teaching learning behaviours alongside managing misbehaviour;
• using classroom management strategies to support good classroom behaviour;
• being consistent;
• having a clear behaviour policy
• using targeted approaches to meet the needs of individuals
  • (EFF, 2019)

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Knowing your pupils and building relationships

It is critical that children know that you like them, and crucially that you are on their side. They need to know that you believe in them and that you will forgive them for the times that they demonstrate inappropriate behaviour. They need you to respond with empathy and kindness even when they do not demonstrate this to you. You need to remember that you are the adult in this relationship and that they are still learning. Strategies for establishing effective relationships include:

• knowing their names
• smiling at them
• communicating their strengths to them
• giving them responsibilities in the classroom
• being prepared to forgive them
• using praise
• demonstrating that you believe in them

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Rules and Routines

It is better to phrase rules in positive language (e.g. using the phrase “We listen when others are talking” rather than “Do not interrupt”).

Clear routines provide children with security. These might include:

• agreed ways of entering and leaving the classroom;
• consistent tasks that children complete at specific times of the day
• a consistent timetable
• consistent signals for gaining attention
• consistency in lesson structure

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Diffusing situations

there are a range of strategies and approaches that you may find useful to diffuse these situations. These include:

• adopting a confident body posture
• tactically ignoring secondary behaviours and remaining focused on the issues that you are already dealing with
• using children’s names to maintain attention and reiterate the existing relationship you may already have with them
• reinforcing school policies to make it clear that your approach is not a personal attack
• circulating the room
• addressing inappropriate behaviour as soon as you sett it so that it does not escalate
• distracting the child
• removing the child from an area where potential conflict may arise and taking them to another area to complete a task for you
• staying calm
• dealing with behaviour quietly in order to reduce the involvement of additional children
• coming down to talk to children at their level to provide a sense of safety

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Dealing with challenging behaviour

• phrasing instructions and commands positively (e.g. thank you for stopping talking, Jonathan’, rather than ‘stop talking, Jonathan’)
• addressing misbehaviour respectfully in a way that minimises class disruption and encourages discussion
• enforcing consequences at a later stage to prevent escalation in the short term
• remaining calm and controlling your emotions and agression
• maintaining a safe distance between yourself and the child at all times to ensure that your actions are not perceived as a physical threat
• providing opportunities for children to calm down before attempting to discuss behaviour incidents.

When dealing with a situation, it is important to wait for the child to calm down before you try to discuss the incident with them. Throughout the discussion, you must remain calm and composed in order to effectively convey the points you need to discuss.

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Chapter 9: Metacognition

Key research

metacognition and self-regulation approaches have consistently high levels of impact, with pupils making an average of seven months’ additional progress (Higgins et al., 2014). Metacognitive strategies help student think about their own learning more explicitly by teaching them specific strategies for planning, monitoring and evaluation their learning.

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What do we mean by metacognition and self-regulation?

Research has found that students who employ metacognitive strategies, including self-regulated learning and goal setting, are more able to engage in cognitive processes and remember information, as well as having greater capacity for learning (Farrington et al., 2012)

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Essentially, self-regulation is bout the extent to which pupils are aware of their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the strategies they use to learn. Self-regulated learners can motive themselves to engage in learning and develop strategies to improve their learning. Self-regulated learners are:

• proactive in their efforts to learn
• aware of their own strengths and weanesses
• good at setting their own goals to enhance their learning
• able to check the accuracy of their work
• able to monitor their progress towards their goals
• able to self-reflect on their learning
• motivated to continue to improve
  • (Zimmerman, 2010)

Cognition …strategies include skills such as memorisation techniques or subject-specific strategies

Metacognition is about the ways that pupils monitor and purposefully direct their learning (e.g. the skills of planning, monitoring and evaluating their learning, as well as making adaptations to improve their performance). Metacognitive strategies enable pupils to monitor or control their cognition.

Motivation … strategies include investing effort and perseverance into a task, as well as convincing oneself that a task needs to be completed.

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Evaluating Learning

children with good metacognitive skills can evaluate their work. Teachers can support the process of evaluation using a range of pedagogical approaches. These might include:

• providing children with clear success criteria to support evaluation
• asking children to self-assess their work against the success criteria
• sharing models of good work with the class and asking them to evaluate their work against this
• introducing peer assessment
• asking children to identify what aspects of their work are good and to identify one aspect for improvement
• modelling correct or good responses on the screen/whiteboard and asking pupils to evaluate their work in relation to the model
• asking pupils to reflect on the learning process (e.g. how well they worked as part of a team)
• meeting children once every half-term to engage them in reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses

Structured Reflection

Providing opportunities for pupils to reflect on their work and themselves as learners is a critical aspect of metacognition. Children can be supported in this process by providing them with a set of questions or prompts that help to structure their reflections. Children need to understand that reflectio nis a key component of effective learning and that good learners are always seeking ways to improve. Other strategies for facilitating reflection include:

• pupils writing a reflective comment at the end of a piece of work
• asking pupils to reflect on three things that they have achieved in their learning each week and one thing that they want to improve on the following week
• pupils keeping a reflective diary over the duration of a year that includes evidence of their achievements (e.g. photographs of their learning and written reflections).