Developing teaching as an evidence
informed profession
UCET Annual Conference
Kevan Collins - Chief Executive
kevan,[email protected]
www.educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk
About the EEF
•
The Education Endowment Foundation is an
independent grant-making charity dedicated to
breaking the link between family income and
educational achievement for children aged 3-16.
•
The EEF was founded in 2011 by lead charity the
Sutton Trust, in partnership with Impetus, with a
£125m founding grant from the UK Department for
Education.
•
In 2013, the EEF and the Sutton Trust joined the
What Works Network, as the government-designated
What Works Centre for Improving Education
Outcomes for School-aged Children.
•
Since its launch the EEF has awarded £65 million to
fund 115 projects working with over 700,000 children
across England.
The attainment gap
School
readiness
at 5
Attainment
at 11
Attainment
at 16
0%
Gap
19%
64%
45%
18%
81%
63%
27%
69%
42%
20%
40%
Non-FSM pupils reaching expected level
60%
80%
100%
FSM reaching expected level
How evidence can help to:
•
focus our effort where it will make the most difference
to children
•
capture the maximum possible benefit from effort and
resources
•
resist fads and fakes
Building the evidence base
Teaching and Learning Toolkit
The Early Years Toolkit
Screenshot to
be added
7
Self-regulation in the Early Years
Using the Toolkit
(or any other source of evidence)
Understanding
your context
Seeking
independent, high
quality information
Promoting
professional
conversations
• What are our priorities for better learning?
• Where should we focus our efforts?
• What change do we want to make?
• Who tells us what to do?
• Where do get our ideas from?
• Who do we trust?
• How will it work in practice?
• Can we deliver this in our setting?
• Should we stop doing that?
EEF-funded projects:
what we’re looking for
We fund ideas that:
• Focus on narrowing the gap;
• Build on existing evidence;
• Can be scaled up costeffectively if shown to work.
We are looking to generate
significant new understanding
of ‘what works’.
Some ideas we’re trialling…
• Does teaching children to play chess boost their
attainment in Maths?
• Can peer observation by teachers, using a programme
called Lesson Study, improve practice?
• Do pupils respond to financial or other rewards?
• Do summer schools improve attainment?
• What are the best ways of training and supporting
Teaching Assistants?
• Does training parents to read with their children improve
attainment?
• What are the best ways of grouping students, and what impact does this have on
attainment?
• What impact, if any, does giving children breakfast in schools have?
• Does delaying school start times for adolescents (combined with a sleep education
programme) boost Key Stage 4 attainment?
11
EEF’s approach to evaluation
All projects are robustly evaluated:
• Independent evaluation
All projects evaluated by a member of our 26-strong panel of
evaluation experts
• Quantitative measures
Effect on attainment and cost—so we can compare and contrast
between projects
• Qualitative and process evaluations also crucial
To find out if/how it works in real world school conditions
• Focus on longitudinal impact
All pupils will be tracked using the National Pupil Database
EEF approach to evaluating
intervention impact
Control v. Treatment
(keep everything constant apart from the thing we are testing)
Finding out what works
(and what doesn’t)
Chatterbooks
•
An extracurricular reading initiative that aimed
to increase a child’s motivation to read.
•
Weekly 1-hour sessions where pupils read
and discussed an age-appropriate book.
•
Delivered by trained graduates to pupils who
had not achieved expected level at the end of
primary school.
Accelerated Reader
•
A whole-group programme that aims to
foster the habit of independent reading.
•
Online system screens pupils according to
their reading levels, and suggests books
that match their reading age and interests.
•
Pupils take computerised quizzes on the
books they have read and earn ‘points’
related to difficulty.
Group
Months’ progress
Group
Months’ progress
All pupils
-2 months
All pupils
+3 months
FSM-eligible
-4 months
FSM-eligible
+5 months
14
Reporting our results
• All results published on EEF
website
• Report on impact and
security of findings
• Attempt to convey technical
findings in a way that is
accessible to schools
The TA Guidance Report
• Integrating established and
emerging research
• Bridging the gap between
research and practice
• Acting on the evidence Providing actionable, evidencebased recommendations
7 recommendations on
‘Making best use of TAs’
Successes
• Reception for the Toolkit from schools has been
very positive. The most recent survey found that
64% of school leaders are using the Toolkit.
• Rigorous evaluations are possible. Our first 44
evaluation reports have been published building
the evidence of what works.
• The appetite to participate in future research
from schools across the country is high.
Challenges and reflections
•
Mobilising knowledge
Ensuring lessons from research are shared and consistently applied, while
avoiding shallow compliance?
•
Evidence for leaning
Building confidence and trust to support disciplined innovation in a compliance
and high stakes accountability culture
•
Evaluation takes time
Finding out what works takes time, but policy-making moves quickly
•
The nature of education evidence
Not every approach works and not every trial is conclusive. Presenting
negative and complex findings is challenging