The Education
Scotland website has a range of support information to help practitioners to
engage with the Scottish Attainment Challenge through the National Hub. The National
Hub support practitioners with information, blogs and social media and through
an online community. The research and evidence pages
within the Scottish Attainment Challenge area of the website aims to help
practitioner engage with current research by supporting the “effective
translation of knowledge
into action within the Scottish Education system”.
Two research briefing papers have
been produced both focus on ‘closing the gap’. The first research briefing paper
was published in November 2015 and is entitled “Differentiated Learning in
Numeracy and Mathematics”, the
second was published earlier this month and discusses “Early
Reading”. The research briefings were created using current thinking and literature
and are intended to be used as a useful
starting point for further research by practitioners. Here, I will give a brief summary of each research briefing paper.
Differentiated Learning in Numeracy and Mathematics (November 2015)
Differentiation
provides a means to try to ‘close the gap’ in numeracy and mathematics,
however, practitioners need to take cognisance of social factors as well as
academic attainment. The impact of socio-economic factors on students attainment
and achievement is complex, but as an education system, we need to, “view
children and families living in poverty in terms of their possibility and
promise rather than their deficiencies” (Ciuffetelli Parker, 2015). Heacox
(2002) described differentiated learning as “one dimension of equitable
teaching” which can be used to alleviate disengagement and reduce barriers to
education, thus helping to ‘close the gap’.
Differentiation
is not a single approach but provides a foundation on which all teachers can
develop multiple starting points and learning journeys for their learners.
Effective teachers differentiate through a variety of different strategies to
meet the needs of their learners and involves teachers adapting the learning
and teaching, and assessment strategies. These strategies can include making changes
to accommodate learners needs by differentiating learning through changes to content,
modification of process, or adapting the learning environment to meet the needs
of all students’. Differentiation, effective assessment and monitoring of
students progress are paramount in supporting teachers make professional judgements
about the learners’ progress and next steps in their learning journey.
The
challenge for teachers and schools remain the same for every change in
practice; time, skills and resources. It has been argued that the time spent on
differentiation, supports student learning and thus alleviates the need for
interventions later in the students’ school career. Teachers need to be
supported through strong leadership and high quality professional learning, including
collaborative working in order to make improvements to support student outcomes
and ‘close the gap’.
Early
Reading (February 2016)
In
‘closing the gap’ in reading, it is important to acknowledge that this is a complex
issue. Research has consistently reported that children from more disadvantaged
backgrounds find reading more difficult and that this gap can be identified in
pre-school children (Buckingham et al., 2014). Further evidence suggests that
parental education and the influences of home learning (Hartas, 2013) also have
a substantial impact on the gap between the readiness of children to become readers.
In
order to become a successful reader, children must learn a number of
interconnected skills. Hattie (2007) offers the ‘five pillars’ of good reading
to be phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. The Education
Endowment Foundation (2015a) suggests that it is more important to match the strategy
for learning phonics to the needs of the individual than having a blanket approach
to teaching phonics. This research also suggests that for young readers a
phonic based approach, as part of a balanced reading programme, gives the most
effective learning experiences for children.
Ellis
(2015) noted, that there are a number of factors that can support disadvantaged
students to become better readers. These include challenging classroom environments
and learning opportunities that promote literacy and match pupil’s needs. To help
reduce the attainment gap, students’ need to have high quality learning and
teaching experiences and to be supported by targeted programmes or one to one
support as and when required.
In
conclusion, ‘closing the gap’ is very challenging and complex. All learning relies
on high quality learning and teaching but within the Scottish Attainment
Challenge there is a particular focus on learners from more disadvantages backgrounds.
Practitioners need to ensure that they are delivering high quality learning and
teaching opportunities, that engage students and that they have the skills and
resources to do so. Practitioners also have to undertake regular effective monitoring
of individual progress and to make professional judgements about the support
each pupil needs in order to help them be successful learners.
Both research briefing papers
can be found here:
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