Siraj, Iram; Shepherd, Donna-Lynn; Melhuish, Edward; Taggart, Brenda; Sammons, Pam; Sylva, Kathy; (2011) Effective Primary Pedagogical Strategies in English and Mathematics in Key Stage 2: A study of Year 5 classroom practice from the EPPSE 3-16 longitudinal study. (Research Report DFE -RR129 ). Department for Education: London, UK.

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Abstract

The Effective Provision of Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE 3-16) project is a large scale, longitudinal, mixed-method research study that has followed the progress of 3000+ children since 1997 from the age of 3 to 16+ years. A continuing question for EPPSE was whether pre- and primary school experiences or children's early home learning environment (HLE) could reduce inequality. While the original studies found that parents' socio-economic status (SES) and qualifications were significantly related to child outcomes, they also found that the quality of the early HLE was important (Melhuish et al., 2008; Sammons et al, 2004). Also important, and particularly relevant to this study, was the extent to which educational influences (pre-school and primary school quality and effectiveness) also shaped children’s educational outcomes. These reports were published as ‘Variations in Teacher and Pupil Behaviours in Year 5 Classrooms’ (Sammons et al, 2006) and ‘The Influences of Teaching Quality on Children’s Progress in Primary School’ (Sammons et al., 2008). This earlier research found that overall teaching quality is a significant predictor of better cognitive progress for children, and specific aspects of classroom processes were found to predict both better cognitive progress and social/behavioural development. For example, higher levels of disorganisation were related to poorer progress in Reading and Mathematics and increased hyperactivity and quality of pedagogy showed a strong relationship with children’s progress in Mathematics (Sammons et al., 2008). Since educational influences are mainly exerted through teaching, this suggested that an in-depth evaluation of the pedagogical strategies used in the schools involved would be of both policy and practitioner interest. This study provides greater insights into effective primary pedagogical strategies in English and Maths. Pedagogy is a contentious term (see Ko & Sammons, 2010). Our definition is: Instructional techniques and strategies which enable learning to take place. It refers to the interactive process between teacher/practitioner and learner, and it is also applied to include the provision of some aspects of the learning environment (including the concrete learning environment, and the actions of the family and community). (Siraj-Blatchford et al., 2002) Effectiveness is another controversial term. In educational effectiveness research the focus is on the teacher or school’s contribution to pupil progress (Teddlie and Reynolds, 2000). Melhuish et al. (2006:4) argued that: Primary schools where children make significantly greater progress than predicted on the basis of prior attainment and intake characteristics can be viewed as more effective (positive outliers in value added terms). Primary schools where children make less progress than predicted can be viewed as less effective (negative outliers in value added terms). This study explores the associations between value added measures of school effectiveness and variations in pedagogy.

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