Raising Achievement Robby Parker U1215706

Abstract Standards in schools have varied across classrooms, schools and regions within the UK and for standards in achievement to be raised and students education to be enhanced there are barriers that need to be addressed through the implementation of pedagogical strategies. Pedagogical strategies aim to utilise varied methods of teaching and learning styles to help address the different barriers in education such as English as an additional language (EAL), Special educational needs (SEN) or behaviour problems that can come from students personal lives. Raising achievement in ICT can be aided via pedagogical strategies including higher order thinking, self and peer assessment, questioning and motivation and self esteem. These strategies help to build in structured learning and address the different competency levels across classrooms and enable teachers to adopt a number of techniques that can be used within ICT that get the best out of students and ultimately raise achievements.

Introduction There has been much research and investigation into raising the achievement in education, it is something that has been discussed and researched even going back to when David Blunkett published a paper (Excellence in Schools) in 1997). In this paper it was highlighted how standards in schools needed to be raised and how standards mattered more than structures. It was made clear that schools needed a clear Head who understood leadership and the school didnt just need committed staff, it needed parents support and all students to set high expectations. David Blunkett advised that for schools to make positive change throughout the UK, it would takes millions of people to support this change, whether it be teachers, heads, parents or students and that human interaction in education was necessary. In society, schools are now challenged and are compared to other schools, this helps schools to raise achievement and better themselves, schools cannot better themselves by just having good teaching staff, it is the parents and the students who help schools to raise achievement. Tony Blair opened up an interesting discussion against The London Challenge and said that Piecemeal change is not enough to build a first class education system for London. Radical structural reform is essential, not only to raise standards in existing schools, but to reshape the system around diversity, choice and the new specialist principle. This comment refers to the London Challenge that was established in 2003 to improve outcomes in low performing secondary schools in London. Since the London challenge was put in to place to help low performing secondary schools, only 1% of secondary schools remained below the floor target after the summer examinations in 2010. Ofsted published a paper in December 2010 that discussed the key findings in The London Challenge and advised that 30% of secondary schools in London were now outstanding compared to 17.5% with the rest of England. Ofsted also reported that since the London Challenge has been in place and raising achievement within secondary schools, only 2.4% of secondary schools were inadequate and 9% of academies were inadequate. The London Challenge does give an excellent insight into secondary schools in the UK and how achievements have been raised and how school are still trying to raise achievement. This assignment will focus on four different areas of pedagogical strategies that are used to raised student achievement in secondary schools and especially in ICT.

Higher Order Thinking Higher order thinking occurs when students manipulate information and ideas in ways which transform their meaning and applications. This transformation occurs when students combine facts and ideas in order to synthesise, generalise, explain, hypothesise or arrive at some conclusion or interpretation. Higher order thinking is key in a students learning environment and in getting students to go the extra mile. Students can be taught how to think outside of the box and teachers can guide and structure tasks for them at the beginning - also known as scaffolded learning - giving students support at the beginning of a lesson and then gradually turning over responsibility to the students to operate on their own (Slavin, 1995). Higher order thinking is an import element to ensure a level of authority in academic environments. However, many authors have identified higher order thinking in different ways such as Bloom (1956) who denoted thinking skills that consist of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Blooms taxonomy was revised in 2001 by Anderson and Krathwohl who added the ability for knowledge to be created at the higher level of the hierarchy. Other studies into higher order thinking have been done such as Dimensions of Learning which was developed and introduced by Marzano (1992) and Newmann (1990), this strategy enabled students to highlight thinking dispositions and attributes as factors that could impact on a students learning. Marzono and Newmanns model was similar to Blooms taxonomy but also included finer details such as the role of students attitudes, perceptions and mental habits. King, Goodson and Rohani (2003) identified many teachers use the higher order thinking pedagogical strategy in the classroom however teachers didnt assess students when using this strategy. If a pedagogical strategy is used, without any assessment, the strategy cannot prove effective in the classroom. Higher order thinking raises pupils achievement in ICT through various ways. Firstly, students can get a better understanding of where they are at using the blooms objectives. Secondly, students are support from various topics for example, development of a website, the teacher would at the beginning explain the process and fundamentals of building a website, but after that knowledge has been given scaffolding the students learning, the students would then be able to develop higher order thinking for themselves. Motivation and self-esteem Many pupils in secondary schools may lack confidence, may lack motivation and have very little selfesteem. This is dependent on a number of things; a students home life, a certain situation they are faced with in the school environment, or not enjoying education due to the way teachers may deliver lessons. Tasks that students are set need to be achievable, the student needs to be able to see there is an end goal and understand and see the progress they make through learning whatever subject. No matter how well a student may be achieving or how high the grades may be or visa-versa, all students need praise and teachers need to ensure praise is given however menial the progress. In a competitive system, low-attainers attribute their performance to lack of ability, high attainers to

their effort in a task oriented system, all attribute to effort and learning is improved particularly amongst low attainers (Craven et al, 1991) ICT in classrooms can improve the process of learning and help draw positive modes of motivation. Passey, Rogers, Machell and McHugh discussed that students were characterised and motivated when learning about ICT as it wasnt just task based and especially when digital video was used (Pittard and Becta, 2003). Condie and Monro highlighted that significant research had been carried out to show the effect that ICT has and has had on pupils (Passey et al, 2004) such as a positive difference in their behaviour, understanding of learning outcomes, school attendance, truancy, antisocial behaviour and uses of digital content. Passey, Rogers, Machell and McHugh conducted interviews with secondary teachers about their experience and feelings on ICTs impact on students. The outcome of those interviews indicated that ICT had a positive impact on students learning environments and gave them pride in their work as well as students showing genuine interest in the quality of work they produced. EAL pupils have shown higher motivational progress in ICT in comparison to other academic subjects, the use of ICT has inspired and intrigued them into what they are doing even if they struggle with the language it is delivered in as they are able to understand what they have to achieve through visual aids on a computer. Peer assessment & self assessment Peer and self assessment is a key pedagogical strategy in education and especially in ICT. Students need to be aware of what they are doing and have the ability and knowledge to be able to assess their work and others. Peer and self assessment works extremely well in large classes as the teacher is able to teach the students how to peer assess other students work, this way, all students can get critical feedback on something they have done in a short amount of time. Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall and William (1998) highlighted that self assessment in the learning environment plays a key role in a students learning which uses formative practice and that teachers of ICT now get students to keep diaries which help the students to reflect on their learning and measuring their progress through self assessment. Peer and self assessment falls under the AFL strategy (assessment for learning) which promotes independent learning as well as communication and support inside the classroom. Students who are taught to self assess themselves have proved to be reliable and valid, in doing this students have become skills assessors, their grades reflect on this. In improving the learning environment, students need to engage with the quality of the work and learn how to reflect on work they have done in order to improve it. Students who become proficient in self assessment can then provide peer feedback and support each other within the learning environment. (Assessment Reform Group, 2002). There are a lot of different strategies that teachers can use for peer and self-assessment including encouraging children to listen to each others responses to questions and presentations made in class and to ask questions on points that they do not understand. This strategy enables students to assess information each other gives and identify if the information is correct or not and also enables students to share answers and learn from each other and find a different answer. Another strategy

is to ask children to use the success criteria to comment on strengths of each others work and to identify areas for improvement - this helps students evaluate each others work, identify each others strengths and assist each other in areas where one may be stronger. Some of the benefits of peer assessment in ICT are that it helps students to develop valuable skills they will keep for life and give them the ability to follow a method when judging something. Another benefit of peer assessment also allows the teacher to create a classroom environment in which students will take a responsibility for their learning and learn how to help assess their peers work. Peer assessment in a class can also be less intimidating for students, especially among the lower sets where students may be shy to show the teacher their work. Questioning Questioning is vital when teaching and delivering topics cross curricula and in ICT; planned questioning in particular helps the teacher to assess the students understanding on topics. Elder and Paul (1997) suggest that questioning is crucial to student learning in as much as that when students themselves fail to ask questions and seek answers to them, that it shows a lack of their seriousness to the content. However, it is important that the teacher has structured questions planned to avoid struggling to think of on the spot questions about the topic. Rowe, 1974, identified that many leave less than one second after asking a question before, if no answer is forthcoming, asking another question, or answer their own question. Planning around structured questioning within lesson planning ensures that students are given enough time to answer a question and is a strong pedagogical strategy to use in, particularly in ICT as teachers can measure what individuals have learnt. To ensure and encourage student participation and to inspire higher level thinking, teachers need to become highly skilled in questioning. According to Teaching Strategies (2003), the crucial elements of a skilled questioner are that they: pose brief and concise questions, are prepared to rephrase questions, are prepared to draw further response from participants, use a variety of techniques, redirect questions/responses, provide feedback and reinforcement without repeating answers, and spread questions around the class. Clasen and Bonk (1990) suggest that although many strategies exist that can impact student thinking, teacher questions have the greatest impact. The actual techniques used in questioning could be categorised in two ways convergent, where specific answers are sought, and apply to Blooms lower levels of applying, or divergent, where a wide variety on answers are sought, which are generally more open and link to higher level thinking and apply to Blooms higher level of creating. Each of these questioning types can add towards raising achievement of pupils as the questioning continuously challenges students, encouraging their participation within lessons and learning, and promotes further and more in depth thinking on a particular task. Within ICT this is particularly relevant where impromptu questions are asked whilst students are undertaking an activity this can create a more dynamic and interactive session and gets students to think about certain elements as they are in the process of undertaking a task. Critique of literacy strategies to support raising of achievement in IT lessons

Through the use of ICT, issues in secondary schools around behaviour, learning difficulties and EAL can be addressed. Unlike many other subjects, EAL students dont pose as much of a problem when they are studying ICT. At Morpeth school, there are quite a number of EAL students. Different translation tools can be used to communicate with these students, however, as the majority of tasks are done by individual learning, students can normally work through these tasks by themselves. If an EAL student needs to learn something inside a database, the teacher is able to communicate by showing them an example of a database finished, with any formulas included. Then, the student could be shown a blank database, and be given a step by step instruction list of how to complete things inside the database. EAL students are not always able to follow an instruction based lesson but they are able to follow a step by step instruction based activity, which is more prominently used in ICT, even with the use of little English, the teacher is able to explain an activity through pictures and diagrams with just a little writing using. At Morpeth school, there are many challenges that teachers face when teaching students aspects of ICT. There is a student who is studying at key stage 4 is fairly new to the school. Her level of English is extremely low and covering topics such as online shopping and the dangers of social networking has proved extremely tough. To combat the barriers with this and to ensure she is ready for the exam, each topic has been broken down individually. Although much of the key content that is taught to the class is the same, she has been given differentiated power point slides, different student led tasks to complete as well as the help of another student who speaks her native language. This has enabled her to identify key points of topics, follow individual led learning tasks that have been given hints and tips that help her to identify answers to certain topics. Instead of her writing paragraphs for answers, she has been asked to bullet her ideas on certain topics and then been given help after the class to construct answers. This approach is time consuming for the teacher but it enables an EAL student to follow the same topic and try and ensure she is prepared for exams and other forms of assessment. Each lesson, she has been given pre planned questions that matches her ability, this enables her to contribute in class and group discussions. This enables the teacher to also assess her progress to ensure she has benefited from the differentiated tasks. The department for education and skills (2004) discussed certain ways literacy could be implemented in ICT, for this student who has serious EAL issues the department for education and skills identified different learning and literacy strategies relevant to ICT. To aid this student in ICT, two relevant strategies to use would be talking and thinking together and using writing as a tool for thought. These strategies may help the student more so than another learning strategy such as reading for meaning as trying to explain to another student in a pair and sharing the task or via a group activity about a topic and thinking about a topic that has been taught may be easier than reading and researching about a topic. The student would then be able to write down ideas they have come across and discussed and thought about. In using this strategy, the student would be able to question themselves on the topics they have learnt, question other students in the group on the topic and listen to answers that are given and evaluate their own progress of a topic. If the EAL student interacts and is able to listen to other student answers and ideas, this may boost their self esteem and make them become more motivated when studying ICT even if they are struggling with literacy areas in the subject. There are other students at Morpeth who in both key stage 3 and key stage 4 who have had issues progressing in many of their classes. This has been down to personal situations outside of school of

behavioural issues, some behavioural issues of which occur due to their personal circumstances outside of school. These issues have effected students performance over a long period of time and has left them behind and feeling down as they dont understand the topics that are taught. In several classes, some differentiated tasks and questions have been put into place, moving them next to another student of a higher ability in the class has aided them to catch up with work. A lot of praise has been shown for these students, when they have completed a task, when they have answered a question or just shown the tiniest positive attitude in class. Trying to boost their moral and self esteem has motivated them in certain situations has helped. The pedagogical strategy of motivation that has been implemented here has helped to raise student achievement. Students who may have issues outside of school or personal problems, are often very happy when they are praised and this motivates them, even though some students may show they are happy if they are praised, as it may be deemed not cool, deep down this praise motivates them and as identified by Condie and Monro earlier, ICT also motivates students alone as the majority have an interest in technology. One student that has been in a key stage 3 class for the last two months has improved drastically, after a terrible first lesson with him, behavioural strategies were put into place and small tasks were set for him to complete in class. In doing so, being able to monitor his own individual progress and measure what he had learnt from the beginning to the end of a lesson helped him think more positively towards the subject. The department for education and skills (2004) discussed certain way literacy could be implemented in ICT that may aid students who have behavioural problems, these strategies that were linked to ICT were using talk to present and clarify ideas and developing research and study skills. Both of these strategies could aid in behavioural problems, these strategies would enable the student to move away from a writing based task such as reading for meaning, and would enable them to get involved in discussion on topics that are taught, giving them the opportunity to listen to other students ideas and then give them ideas to go away and research the topic. Giving students the opportunity to work with other and share and discuss ideas will give them the skills to peer assess other students work, other students answers and opinions and possibly boost a students self esteem when discussing a topic they have a good understanding of. There are several students in a key stage 4 class who have been classed as gifted and talented, commonly, sometimes pupils who have been classed as gifted and talented have barely been put into that category and it has been hard to create extra work that will benefit them and help them to progress further. The few students in this key stage 4 class are extremely gifted, they are able to complete the harder tasks in a very short period of time, work that has been set for those who only progress well in each lesson. In order to challenge these pupils, depending on the topic that is being taught, they have been given a separate task, the most recent task was on social networking. These selected students were asked to use a piece of software to brainstorm in a sense, but under each part of the brain store, to expand on that topic and discuss the fundamentals, the security issues and what those security issues were, how they could be combated etc. Introducing clear cut objectives in each lesson using Blooms autonomy has also helped, students are able to understand what they must achieve in the class and understand from the objective how they can achieve it. Using higher order thinking in blooms, those

students who are extremely talented can also measure what they learnt using these objectives, and ensure they have met every objective before completing higher order thinking tasks that are set. The department for education and skills (2004) discussed certain way literacy could be implemented in ICT, for gifted and talented students, a learning strategy that would challenge the pupil would be a reading for meaning task. When they are asked to branch out on a idea, and teaching them to use the higher order thinking strategy, they would be able to use the learning strategy reading for meaning, and select key points of a topic which will help them to branch out on an idea. Conclusion Raising achievement is key to any educational establishment in delivering a higher level of standardised teaching to students across the UK, a view backed up by David Blunkett when he championed a priority to improve excellence in schools. Raising standards is something that schools and boroughs have been trying to do for a long time with standards measured by Ofsted and areas of improvement identified. A number of interventions have been put in place to attempt to raise achievement such as the London Challenge which have had successful outcomes. However, it is clear there are many barriers to both raising achievements and improve the learning environment. Schools having a high percentage of EAL students, those with large numbers of SEN students and schools in poverty stricken areas, are all issues that schools need to confront and address as part of raising standards and can create more of a challenge. Whilst challenging, these barriers can be combated by use of pedagogical strategies including higher order thinking, peer and self assessment, motivation and self esteem and questioning. The pedagogical strategies particularly in ICT allow learning strategies to be implemented with different student types in order to enhance their learning despite their background issues. Ensuring that strategies for different student types are implemented through ICT, helps to alleviate certain issues and raises standards across the classroom and therefore schools as a whole.

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