Research and Education - from the point of view of a slightly rubbish teacher

Thanks to Mary Whitehouse I was able to go to the first Research Ed conference in September, and due to some encouragement from @Arakwai I have just come back from the regional event in Birmingham.

As a classroom teacher I haven't been able to take anything from the conferences that I can use in the classroom. So why go? And why go a second time if I didn't think that the first time was relevant to me?

I am curious about the link between research and education. To me there seems to be lot of information out there for teachers to use to help them teach better/differently, but is any of it any good? There are a lot of books by teachers, for teachers, but are any of them based on evidence or just anecdote? Does it matter?

After Brain Gym (which I never did in my own classroom) and Learning Styles (which I was always sceptical of) I am never entirely sure if I can trust anything that comes my way. I wonder to myself what good research looks like and how I can find it. I wonder if through the research Ed conferences  I might come across teaching methods that will help me and my students.

On top of being sceptical about research, I also find it unapproachable. "Direct Instruction" is the latest twitter/blogger buzz phrase. Those that use it seem to know what it means, I am not so sure I do. "Progressive Education", "Constructivist", "Meta-Cognition", etc etc. I saw Tim Oates talk about assessment at the ASE conference, I understood very little of what he said, only those used to the academic talk of assessment were able to follow him. As a scientists I understand the necessity of using technical language that describes exactly what you mean, however the in-context interpretation of the uninitiated could lead to misinterpretation.

I was interested in the session by Joe Hallgarten, who was looking at the relationship between teachers and research. Some of the guiding principles for resarch-rich, self-improvng education systems he showed us were that teaching should be informed by the latest research and teachers should be research literate. I agree with all of this, but how do I get 'research literate'? I can't understand the language, I don't know where to look to find reliable research and what if I don't like what I read or can't change my practice enough to take it on board anyway?

I am always wary of research; I have seen some practices that I would consider to be dubious when teachers have been involved in their masters projects. I have carried out deliberate changes to my practice as a result of some external CPD, and I am not sure if what I did had any impact.

I wonder if Research Ed can help with any of this? How can a teacher carry out a research project in their own school? How can teachers get access to sound research? If they do some research, how do they share it? How do we ask for funding to carry out research? How do we motivate ourselves to continue with changes in practice? What research is going on at the moment into teaching and learning and what can we learn from it?

Then again, I think that showing researchers that teachers are interested in what they are doing can only be positive. That having teachers feeling that they should, and in some cases must, engage with research can only be a good thing. That having the DfE engaged could help to move our 'profession' forward. I also got the impression that the word stills needs to be spread that it is important those who work in schools become engaged with research and Research Ed can only help to do that as word spreads.

I don't have an intention to go to Research Ed in September, I will hopefully be newly married and should spend some time with the husband. I will also have done ASE conference, two teachmeets, pedagoo south west, York tweet up, Wellington Festival of Education and ASE west conference as well as Research Ed Midlands and I think that is all I can spare.

In the mean time, I will take my research distilled by the School Science Review Journal, and by books like 'Good Practice in Science Teaching, what research has to say', 'Making Sense of Secondary Science', 'Evidence based teaching'. And luckily for me I have access to people who can help me understand the implementation of the ideas in these books too.

Thanks to Tom, Helene and the staff of John Henry Newman Catholic College for Research Ed Midlands. All of it was interesting and nothing I experienced was not worth it. A very positive day.

I can't live without levels

I am trying to map out progression through the working scientifically ideas, I can't do that without looking back at the work that has gone by on levels and APP.

I can't help thinking about progression of students as being in levels or stages. I can't help but think that there are levels of difficulty in tasks and levels of outcomes to activities.

I have an idea about what I want my students to be able to do at the end of Year 9. How do I get them from the level they are at when they start Year 7 to the level I want them to be at the end of Year 9, but by a series of steps or levels?

Using Your Own Device in a Physics Lesson

Today I set myself the challenge of only using ICT (and some practical equipment) to teach Work and Power.

I have known for a few weeks that I would have to do this.

I used http://issuu.com/ , http://padlet.com , Google Docs (a spreadsheet), http://www.socrative.com , https://bitly.com , http://www.pinterest.com , YouTube, and http://piktochart.com .

The first issue was remembering to bring the devices. This *shouldn't* be a problem in September when the students all have to bring iPads to lessons. Also being a science teacher will help as they will be able to charge them in my classroom, so a flat battery shouldn't be a problem either.

The second issue was finding the resources in the first place. I wrote a bit.ly link on the board, but this proved difficult to input correctly and took them to all sorts of websites other than the issuu magazine I had uploaded.

I can see resolutions to this, either by e-mailing (time consuming) links, creating QR codes to scan, or uploading to a department blog. The issue with using QR codes is that students will need to have a QR code reader, the issue with the third is that blogs are blocked at my school. I hope that the school will allow us to use blogs or edmodo with the students as this would be a great place to start with lessons.

We all got to my worksheet. However, for some reason issuu mangled the link to the googlespreadsheet, so back to bit.ly to provide me with a link to that. Then the students had to find their own mass and enter it into the spreadsheet; I always allow students to use my mass if they don't like it. The spreadsheet calculated their weight. Then we measured the height up the stairs and each timed ourselves going up the stairs. Then returned to the classroom, and inputed the data.

My next aim was to get the students to use the data and work out the equations linking mass, weight, work, distance, power and time. Their ideas when then put onto padlet. They really liked using padlet and seeing the collaborative work of their peers, but there were quite a few half finished sentences or just a name hanging on the wall, so practice at using this website would be useful. I was also frustrated because I wasn't able to upload an image that I wanted to include in the wall (with the answers). School firewall! I will have to approach this issue at school ready for next year.

After that they watched a video from my-gcsescience.com and one that I had made. It took me two hours to make 1minute 22 seconds of video and I could have spent a lot longer. It is very poor in relation to the videos I know others can make, and listening to my own voice echo around the classroom wasn't great.

Then we tried a secretive quiz. The students were cross with me as they got a few questions 'wrong' that the explanation said were 'right'. I think because I didn't indicate the right answer when making the quiz. I will have to be more careful with this in the future.

The students were really excited by the idea of collaborating on the same document, and they liked making notes from my YouTube video. They also appreciated the instant feedback that socrative quizzes provide.

I made an inforgraphic summarising the key ideas using piktochart and uploaded it to pinterest, which should help the students with the key ideas in their learning.

Next step is to think about what apps I want students to have on their iPads come September, and to work out how I will use the devices in more lesson. I think that I will be busy making videos and socrative quizzes during the next holidays!

Bring Your Own Device

At Easter all our students were asked to supply an iPad as part of their school equipment. I have read blog posts from senior leaders who explain why Bring Your Own Device has not been successful because teachers have not embraced. I am worried that this will be the same situation at my school.

The students often do have their own IT equipment, the older students use laptops for coursework, research and typing up their projects. Younger year groups like to make videos with theirs. But there has never been the expectation that students would use ICT in lessons, and I haven't been.

I know of schools that use iPads in their lessons and many teachers that would love the opportunity that I will have in September. In areas of America they seem to embracing iPads in education with enthusiasm.

However, BYOD presents me more issues that using 1-2-1 devices that have an image controlled by the school. Can I insist that students download certain applications? I might be able to do that with free applications, but what about paid ones? What if their device is full, can I insist a student deletes an app so they can use the one I want them to?

I also wonder about other aspects of students having their own devices? Should I be incorporating e-safety more obviously into my teaching? Should I be worried that a year 7 student might make a video clip for me and upload it to YouTube?

Another concern is that the using the technology will take longer than doing an alternative with paper and pen, detracting from the learning of the concepts. We struggle for curriculum time as it is, and devoting more lesson time to creating digital content may mean lessons have less learning?

On the other hand, ICT presents an opportunity. Students can use video to supplement their understanding, they can collaborate on experiments more easily, they can take photographs allowing recording of work more easily. Do they need everything written in a book or file?

iPads in the classroom should make my life more easy; student using online, immediately marked, homework packages would be one example. I would like students to be able to find records of their learning in videos and photographs as well as in notes. A variety of ways they can access information can only be helpful.

I want to help my classes use ICT to become more organised. I already use my iCal applications to organise my calendar, it would be great to do the same for the students, even sharing calendar events.

But using iPads in lessons is going to be a major change, I will have to think about how I resource every lessons and work on creating more resources than presentations and worksheets. Editable forms, blogs, videos, online quizzes will all become part of my practice and I need time to be able to create these resources. I need the equipment myself to create these resources.

Then I ask myself, will it be worth it? Will my attempts to use ICT in lessons be scuppered by the student who is waiting for a new one because they have smashed their screen or can't take a photograph until they have deleted the 3000 they have on their device already, or the wireless network that decides to switch itself off during my lesson?

I suppose I will have to try it and see.

Scrapping Levels: Opportunity or Threat?

I have read a few things lately about the use of levels in schools that help me to understand why some teachers and managers are happy at their demise. However, these comments also make me feel that we need something to replace levels.

If schools and teachers are using levels and not using the information to inform intervention and support progression, then I would agree levels are not fit for purpose. But I would question why they would not.

I am not really interested in measuring students; schools will need a way to do this. They can use grades A-E as I had when I was at middle school (before levels) and compare students against other students in the school. An A or B grade will keep parents happy. Tracking can be done through percentages and scores on tests. If schemes of work are built where content gets harder then we'd assume that students are progressing in their studies if they get more than zero in a test?

I would agree with those who question the use of levels in reporting. I would ask: 'how honest are the levels we report to senior management and parents'? And I suggest the answer is not very. Is it possible to accurate to within a sub level? Are students always learning at the same level and does that level get incrementally bigger each term? In the case of science, I would say not. So why does a good proportion of reports, I have seen, imply this is the case?

Another question would be 'how confident are teachers with level descriptors'? In my experience, not very! I have watched lessons that were engaging and entertaining, but not above level 3. I have seen levelled objectives that were not levelled correctly. I have worked with many teachers who couldn't describe level ladders even in a simplified version such as 'identify', 'describe', 'explain', 'use key ideas', and 'link key ideas'. Without understanding the levels and progression they represent then levels are useless.

However, how do teachers ensure they are pitching their lessons correctly, how do they know whether some concepts are more difficult than others, how do they know what advice to give to students to help them move forward in their understanding?

I want to take my students from a concrete understanding (level 4) to an abstract one (level 6), how will the teachers of the future know this without having the structure of levels? Will we be taught it? Will it be forgotten?

I won't stop using my knowledge of levels to help my student progress. I won't stop using that knowledge to help students understand the generic outcomes and how to improve their understanding and written work. I won't stop using levels to understand where to pitch the difficulty of my lessons.

What will the science teachers of the future do to help them understand the difficulty and progression in key stage 3 science? I am concerned that the 'scrapping' of levels means that we are throwing away the idea of progression in the thinking of our students and instead of helping students to understand more difficult concepts we will just expect students to know 'more'. This is not the same.

What is more difficult, understanding the particle model or understanding balanced and unbalanced forces? What constitutes a higher level of knowledge, remembering the first 20 elements of the periodic table or being able to explain the difference between metals and non-metals?

I don't ever believe that if a system isn't working we should just throw it away before firstly considering what the problem is and secondly thinking about why the system was introduced in the first place. We need to ask ourselves what Paul Black was trying to achieve in his work that underpinned the idea of levels, and if we are throwing that away when we throw away the level descriptors. I think we are.

Getting the Most From Your Social Media Experience

Twitter is great, but expressing yourself in 140 characters isn't easy. Neither is it easy to keep track of all the ideas and resources that spill through your timeline.

A lot of sharing is done off the social network site through other methods.

A dropbox account means that you can share resources, as it is possible to tweet a link to the resources, which others can then copy to their own dropbox account, or download directly.

A blog means that you can express yourself in more than 140 characters when necessary - like I am doing now. Tags in blogs mean that if you have made a point previous on your blog you can find it again and refer someone to the post.

Pinterest is great for categorising and storing images, and images with links to websites. Downloading the button for your browser makes it easier, or in the mobile twitter app you can get the link to the tweet and pin the images in it.

Pocket is a great app/website, it is a 'read later' service, that allows you to bookmark tweets and links in tweets. On the web browser version you can also add tags to make finding links easier.

Feedly is a great app and website for reading blogs. There are so many tweeters now with blogs, and feedly brings the posts directly to you. Sometimes I don't bother with twitter, preferring to read the blog posts. If you do find a good blog post in feedly it also allows you to post to twitter to share.

Other services to consider are evernote and google. They can also be useful for sharing and saving the resources you find. I also like bit.ly as it allows you to create shortened links with a URL you chose.

New People and Fresh Starts

http://www.ase.org.uk/news/ase-news/ase-announces-new-chief-executive/?

'Shaun Reason is to become the new Chief Executive of The Association for Science Education. Shaun, who was recently the Chief Executive of a Group Charity and a former headteacher, comments on taking on the exciting new role, 

“I'm very much looking forward to starting at the ASE and helping to have a positive impact on supporting science education in the UK. I'm keen to meet up with all those connected with the Association and to encourage those who are not members to join and to appreciate the benefits that can be found as a member.”

Shaun will take over the role as CEO at ASE from 1 May.'

I have to say I am encouraged and hopeful at the comments our soon-to-be CEO has made about the ASE. For several years now we have known the ASE is in trouble. It has been losing members fast and cost-savings have not been able to keep up with this loss in revenue. 

However, I would say to Shaun that making ASE into an organisation that has sufficient benefits teachers, other educators and companies will want to join in significant numbers it is not going to be an easy journey. 

I am chair of the West of England region, my committee and I are expected to recruit new members within the region. How can we do that when I have no way of advertising our events outside of our current regional members? It is my understanding that the regions are directly answerable to the CEO, so I would appreciate his support with this issue.  

Still with regions, I feel there are conflicting ideas about what the purpose of regions is. I have been informally told that regions should be generating revenue for the ASE as a whole, yet of the £86 membership fee my region only see £1 per local member. How can our region provide value for money on a local level, raise enough money to sustain our own activities and expenses as well as raise significant revenue for ASE nationally? I see the role of the region as one of supporting members, and using the revenue we have to do this. Perhaps there is a balance to be found and I hope Shaun can work with regions on this.

I have been a regional committee member for three years. For the first two of those I know we felt adrift and cut off from HQ. Emails going unanswered and confusion over issues with bank accounts. This situation had been present for at least 7 years prior to that, my fellow committee members tell me. I would like to see Shaun develop a good working relationship with the regional officers in order to help us feel valued. 

My last request related to regions. I want to see higher expectations and better sharing of practice between regional committees. We put on regional conferences and there is the opportunity to use these to raise the profile of ASE as well as a little revenue. However, there are many issues to be addressed. Cost: how much does each region charge, should we be consistent across the organisation and if so how, should payment be organised via eventbrite, the ASE website or through another organisation such as a former science learning centre? Venue, location, scheduling, catering, partners, branding, advertising, paying speakers' expenses, and finding speakers to talk about relevant issues are all areas that would benefit from being discussed and monitored. I would like to see Shaun attend regional events and experience them so he can help to share best practice and support the volunteers in regional committees to improve their offering. 

Apart from being a regional officer for the ASE, I am a teacher. As a head of department and science teacher I would ask Shaun to review the member benefits as I am concerned they do not offer value for money. We (teachers) are struggling under the pressures of the changes the government are bringing in and we are looking to ASE for advice and leadership. It is not forthcoming. I know why, I understand why. However, if science education and supporting members is not the first and biggest priority of the ASE then how can we hope to hang onto members and how can we hope to bring through talented and enthusiastic volunteers to continue the work of the ASE?

I hope that Shaun can lessen the pressures on council and assembly to look at internal politics and help to focus the Chair Trio and the committees they run onto education. I am of the strong opinion that until the national ASE committees and post-holders can concentrate on our core business of supporting members then the ASE membership figures cannot recover. 

I think that the benefits of ASE membership are worth £20/quarter, but I am an active member, making connections and boosting the helenrogerson80 brand on the back of the ASE. What about those who are not doing that, what do they get from the ASE. I hope that Shaun can help sell the ASE to potential member and make it into an organisation that is growing rather than shrinking. 

The ASE is important to science education national and internationally and for the sake of the education of our children it must survive. I wish Shaun all the best in his new role and offer him my support where it is needed.