Differentiation

Steps Towards A More Inclusive Physical Education

Rebecca Foster and Emma Richards offer a practical guide to support teachers working with students with impairments

Teachers face increasing pressures and expectations that expand far beyond normal teaching practice, but may have little formal training to facilitate the learning of disabled students, and may have very limited resources by which to do so [1]. Yet, teachers are still expected to create an inclusive space.

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      string(5604) "Making evidence accessible, accurate and actionableThis article provides an overview of the Toolkit the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) Teaching and Learning Toolkit and summarises what I see as the potential contribution it makes to research-informed teaching and to professional development and learning in schools. It focuses on the challenges of making evidence both accessible and accurate as well as in a way that is sufficiently actionable to ensure improvement. Publishing summaries of evidence doesn’t automatically translate into schools improving their teaching practices. Sometimes people misinterpret what you intended. I’ve heard accounts of schools devoting extra hours to marking pupils’ work under the impressions this would deliver effective feedback. Marking pupils’ work focuses on feedback delivered and the efforts of the teacher, but not whether the feedback was received, understood and acted upon by the learner. One local authority in Scotland attempted to use the information in the Toolkit as justification for increasing class sizes, ignoring the finding that pupils in larger classes tend to do a little bit less well, on average. The overall argument is that reducing class sizes is only moderately effective and very expensive, so it is not cost-effective as a strategy to help learners. Challenges like these are at the heart of research-informed teaching.The EEF’s Teaching and Learning ToolkitThe Toolkit was originally funded by the Sutton Trust to summarise evidence from educational research to challenge thinking about effective spending for what was then the new pupil premium policy in England. This policy aimed to increase spending in schools to benefit children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Toolkit was subsequently adopted by the EEF and is now in widespread use in England, with just under two thirds of headteachers saying they consult it. Similar approaches to evidence synthesis and translation, as well as adoption of evidence in policy-making, are growing in popularity, reflecting a global movement towards more effective engagement with research and evidence.In the Toolkit a number of educational approaches or programmes are listed, and categorised in terms of the evidence from research for their effectiveness, the cost and average impact. The aim was to create something like a ‘Which?’ consumer guide for education research, covering topics of interest and relevance to policy and practice. The UK Government has cited the Toolkit as an exemplar for its network of ‘What Works’ centres. This commitment to spend public money on the most effective practices is important and impressive, but the ‘What Works’ label can imply a certainty that I believe oversimplifies what the research actually means. Research can only tell us what has worked in the past, not what will work in the future. I argue further that it can only offer indications of what may work under certain conditions.The Toolkit website (see Figure 1) summarizes the messages across different areas of education research with the aim of helping education practitioners make decisions about supporting their pupils’ attainment in schools. It is designed to be accessible as a web-based resource for practitioners and other educational decision-makers. It combines quantitative comparisons of impact on educational attainment in an approach sometimes called ‘meta-synthesis’. This is where the findings from different meta-analyses are combined to give an overall effect. This is similar to, and was inspired by, John Hattie’s approach in Visible Learning. The aim of the synthesis is to provide information and guidance for practitioners who are often interested in the relative benefit of different educational approaches, as well as information from research about how to adopt or implement a specific approach. What distinguishes the Toolkit is the inclusion of cost estimates for the different approaches to guide spending decisions along with an indication of the robustness of the evidence in each area.Bananarama: it ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do itThe Bananarama principle is named after Bananarama and Fun Boy Three’s 1982 hit single ‘It Ain’t What You Do’. Most people smile at the joke, but even if they don’t the song is something of an earworm and tends to stick in your head. It can also be seen as an important principle for research-informed teaching when acting on the findings of research. The initial point was a simple one: it wouldn’t be what schools spent, but the way that they spent the pupil premium that would get resultsThe deployment of teaching assistants, reducing class sizes and ability grouping are all examples of the Bananarama.The principle underscores the power but also limitations of evidence in helping a teacher decide what to do in a classroom: how an approach is implemented is vital and just as important as its content. This principle reflects the spread of findings in each area of the Toolkit. In the meta-analyses there are examples of successful and unsuccessful approaches. The overall average gives you an indication of what typically happens when an approach is adopted. Evidence can be helpful, but it is never going to be enough. Put more formally Bananarama also reflects a statistical argument. The range of effects within a Toolkit strand is greater than the difference between neighbouring strands. 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Personalised CPD

How Can Schools Use Evidence To Improve Teaching?

21 Feb 2021

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      string(5087) "digital learning updateA word bank to create sentences Industry NewsAnxious writers can present in so many ways. They may be quiet and hope to go unnoticed, or they can exhibit disruptive behaviour and appear defiant. There are many reasons why children behave in these ways, but if they struggle with writing anxiety, it may be because they are trying to avoid engaging with literacy tasks.The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened anxiety levels for many children. The challenges of working from home have highlighted how important the support structures at school are – and for many struggling writers, the gap between their writing and that of their peers has grown wider.In a few weeks’ time, we will be working with Carol Allen, an ICT and Inclusion expert, to present a special webinar about how our child-friendly word processor Clicker can be used to alleviate writing anxiety. The webinar will take place on Wednesday 10th March – 4:00pm to 4:30pm GMT. You can reserve your free place via our website.Carol has been working in education for over forty years and is widely recognised for her work on creative and engaging use of technology to support pupils with literacy barriers, so this should be a fantastic session. 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Applications and Software

Putting An End To Writing Anxiety With Clicker Tools

13 Feb 2021

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      string(5342) "Sometimes the message is not what it seems – schools are closed but still supporting the community in many waysIndustry newsThe pandemic has impacted every aspect of society, fromschool closures to hospitality and event cancellations. For the team atFlashAcademy, the UK’s leading digital language learning platform for Englishas an Additional Language (EAL), this meant the cancellation of two major EALevents in both Birmingham and London. As an alternative tothese paid events, FlashAcademy have started to put on free CPD webinars foreducators supporting learners with EAL. Thousands of teachers, teaching assistants and support stafftuned in to learn about supporting the healthand wellbeing of EAL pupils, managingprovision in high-need schools, languageawareness, doublingattainment for EAL learners and so much more! 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Whole School ApproachesWhen considering the inclusion of learners with EAL, we shouldn’t limit this to inside the classroom but across the school campus. Visuals are key for language and learning development, so it’s worth asking teachers from every department to make at least one EAL-friendly display to help them engage with the subject lesson. Putting an EAL stamp on other incentives is a great way to help integrate learners within the school community. To help learners acquire curriculum vocabulary, reach out to departments and ask for a list of key subject vocabulary to not only ease your workload as the EAL leader/coordinator but to help the learner prepare for mainstream lessons. Health & wellbeingHealth has, and continues to be, at the forefront of all our minds as the pandemic occupies a huge space in the public consciousness. Language barriers can make it difficult to support pupils’ physical and mental health. Supporting EAL pupils’ ability to express themselves in their home language as well as English is vital, as the ability to identify and express your emotions is linked to better health outcomes and greater academic success.Words and graphics to get the message across Differing cultural perceptions can have an impact on how we communicate about physical and mental health. In many cultures, mental and physical health are viewed much more holistically than in the west, where they are often separated. Physical complaints may actually be an expression of mental distress, so try to be aware of this in order to direct people to appropriate services.Language Learning MythsThe language learning myths we hear in the world around usaffect our attitude towards language learning. Here are just a few of the mythswe unravelled: If a child isn’t speaking, their English level is verylow – Most EAL pupils go through a ‘silent phase’ when they first arrive asthey absorb language through receptive skills of listening and reading. It willtake time for them to produce language confidently or spontaneously, but theirunderstanding may be higher than it seems. Help develop their confidence andprovide structured tasks at their level.It is the English teachers’ job to teach English – Itis every teacher’s responsibility to support language development for allpupils. Awareness of learners’ language needs helps remove barriers to learningand create a more inclusive classroomMaking children speak more than one language will confuse them – Research shows that bilingualism has long-term advantages including increased cognitive control and improved problem-solving abilities. Parents often believe this language learning myth and feel they should speak to their children in English all the time. In fact, it is better for parents to speak their home language as they are likely to be more confident and will give children richer language input.Teacher TalkThe mainstream classroom can be an overwhelming place where pupilsare bombarded with unfamiliar language. However, there are ways that you canadjust your teacher talk to help support EAL pupils’ understanding, whicheversubject you teach. Ensure your language is direct, and not too polite (e.g.‘Would you mind doing me a favour?’), avoid self-narration, support yourlanguage with gesture, and model correct grammar in your teacher talk – thereis a strong link between oracy and literacy, so there is the risk that pupilswill imitate ‘slang’ in their academic work!Keen to learn more about accelerating progress for learnerswith EAL? Click hereto book your free trial with the FlashAcademy platform."
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Digital Learning

Essential Topics for EAL Teachers

2 Dec 2020

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      string(2807) "any software and simply join lessons with a single click. Bramble was made freely available to tutors and teachersworldwide in early March as the lockdown loomed. In the second quarter of 2020it has hosted more than 260,000 hours of live teaching and learning in 114countries – 28 timesgreater usage compared to the same period last year.A role for online learning? Teachers give their viewsMany of the 200+full-time teachers who responded to our survey offered their reflections on therole that online learning platforms like Bramble could play in supportingteaching and learning.Here’s aselection of those perspectives:“As a peripatetic teacher, even when thechildren are back in school, I may not be as my job would be classed as quitehigh risk – normally visiting lots of different schools and children in any oneday….I’ll be able to arrange with schools and SENCOs to still ‘see’ and teachmy students – even if they were in school, but I couldn’t be.”“If blended learningis going to be the short-term approach, then I think online teaching platformswould provide teachers with a means of providing one to one support, especiallyfor students who have found it hardest to engage in online learning duringlockdown.”“Online platformscould help teachers and pupils to change the way they learn – for example,students who don’t like the hustle and bustle of the classroom could continueto take part in quality lessons but in an environment more conducive to theirown needs. These platforms could also be used to minimise supply cover costshaving children able to access lessons at different times.”“I tutor pupils in theLAC system and who are unable to access mainstream education as a result ofexclusion. Bramble could be used to afford some level of inclusion, albeit froma distance.”“I’m looking ata scenario where I will be back in school in my classroom with a small numberof students in front of me who find it harder to work at home, and the rest ofclass will be logged on through Bramble, which will allow every student to seethe full lesson and interact with me in the same way, whether they are in theclassroom or at home. And because the lesson is recorded students can thenaccess that lesson later for revision.”Next steps: A full breakdown of the Bramble online learning survey results are available at https://about.bramble.io/blog/news-online-tutoring-beats-in-person.htmlAbout the authorWill Chambers is co-founder of Bramble, an online tutoring and teaching platform designed for education. Bramble is currently used by over 49,000 tutors and students in 148 countries. The experience and knowledge gained from more than 400,000 hours of live online teaching has given Bramble a unique insight into how people teach and learn online."
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Digital Learning

Talking About A (Real) Revolution

19 Aug 2020

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      string(373) "... identify subsets against which behaviours can be mapped; sexually suggestive or explicit content, the ‘active’ sender or ‘passive’ recipient, aggravated or experimental nature, and the inclusion of explicit: text, images, links to pornographic sites, self-made films and line drawings such as the explicit anime known as ‘Yaoi’. This complexity ..."
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      string(5590) "Boys report receipt of their first sext message 6-9 months earlier each school year group, with its current peak at 13 years 3 months oldSafer Internet DayA teenagers’ nascent cognitive maturity begins to enable them to reflect on their sexuality and behaviours and is a crucial phase in the development of sexual agency. This mid-adolescent period leads to a strong relationship between the development of adolescent sexuality and the growth of sexual communication within digital platforms.Defining SextingThe2020 United Kingdom Council for Child and Internet Safety (UKCIS) guidance fordealing with sexting among youth populations identifies two main categories ofsext: those that fall within an ‘experimental’ definition; youth generated andcirculated to another young person to further romance, fun or entertainment,and ‘aggravated’ messages created with malicious intent e.g., in exchange formoney or gifts, coercion, or to hurt or damage another. In its simplest form, ‘sexting’ is a portmanteau of the words ‘sex’ and ‘text’ and represents sending and receiving of sexual photographs, films or messages via digital media platforms and mobile communication devices. However, a simple definition is not easily arrived at if the focus is broader than explicit content. A definition must also identify subsets against which behaviours can be mapped; sexually suggestive or explicit content, the ‘active’ sender or ‘passive’ recipient, aggravated or experimental nature, and the inclusion of explicit: text, images, links to pornographic sites, self-made films and line drawings such as the explicit anime known as ‘Yaoi’. This complexity around definition identifies the importance of developing a consensus within ‘research’ in order to create a construct against which comparative studies can be made and within ‘education’ so that appropriate curriculum material can be developed.Holoyda et al (2017) argue that the growth in access to internet enabled mobile devices has ‘created new avenues for individuals to communicate, develop relationships and form social networks’ and that this has fundamentally altered the way that teenagers navigate the psychosocial tasks of adolescent sexual identity and practice. This is supported by Del Rey et al (2019) who note the onset of sexting increases during adolescence, but that earlier initiation occurs as the age of access to smartphone technology decreases. Wherein this normalised teenage behaviour can be viewed under the broader title of technology-mediated sexual interaction and includes mobile phones, computers and other internet enabled handheld devices.Risk or RightThereis a continuum along which the approach to teenage sexting can reviewed. One endof this scale described within a protectionist milieu where sexting indicates apotential safeguarding issue linked to risk factors that indicate harm ordanger. In this domain sexting is considered a corruption of dominant societalmorals and is classified as the sharing of images of child sexual abuse fromwhich all teenagers need to be protected. Atthe other end of the scale is a revisionist ‘mise en scène’, where sexting is seen within a neo-liberal constructaround freedom of expression.  Albury(2017) argues that an adolescent’s human rights must, by necessity, extend tothe right to express sexuality. In light of the posterioriargument of adolescent technological expertise and theintegrated use ofcommunication technology and social media platforms,sexts may be viewed simply as youth produced, self-generated sexual media and therefore included within the individualrights of sexual citizenship. Thereality is however, that such a dualistic classification does not fully demarcatethe issues. Existing legal restrictions around the attainment of legal majorityand the age of consent; identity development around the male teenage awarenessof masculinity, gender and sexual orientation, the reinforcementof misogyny in youth subculture andthe potential impact of a traditional male hegemonic narrative of femaleobjectification and female passivity do not make the paradigms as clear cut.Heterosexual v same sex sextingAlburyand Byron (2014) continue this argument further and write that much of the workaround sexting practice does not distinguish between heterosexual usages andthat of same sex attracted young people. They argue that this general lack ofrecognition in research or curriculum typically ‘heterosexualises’ the issuesand potentially adversely frames the risks taken by young people who identifywithin a more fluid definition of gender.Inaddition, Benotsch et al (2013) writethat sexting is reported to raise issues around poor self-esteem and affectedemotional health and be linked to behaviours that impact on physical healthsuch as drug taking, alcohol consumption and risky sexual practice but that teensexting and risky behaviours are potentially subject to other variant factors. Thesefactors include a lack of parental supervision, associating with delinquentpeers, impulsivity, and a lack of life experience. Thus, sexting is seen to beassociated with risk taking behaviours, but it is not clear if sexting is thecause of, or a symptom associated with vulnerability.Longitudinal studyInhis current longitudinal study, the author is comparing data gathered in 2017from 15 schools and an ongoing second data set in 2020/21 where 22 academies haveparticipated throughout England so far. Both groups of schools are drawn from arange of public and private schools in a broad"
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Digital Learning

Do you think I’m Sexty? Profile and Prevalence of Sexting in UK Boys

23 Jan 2021