National Foundation For Educational Research Research Articles

End decline in youth apprenticeship starts

Lisa Morrison Coulthard, research director at the National Foundation for Educational Research

Digital inclusion and accessibility considerations in digital teaching and learning materials for the second-level classroom

ABSTRACT This article aims to explore the challenges associated with providing digital resources to stakeholders and identifying the obstacles and barriers to the successful design and exploitation of digital resources in the classroom and a wider learning environment. As a direct consequence of Covid-19 and the physical closure of schools we can now identify three specific content-producing cultures emerging within the educational community (Marcus-Quinn, A., T. Hourigan, and S. McCoy. 2019a. “‘The Digital Learning Movement: How Should Schools Respond?’.” Economic and Social Review 50 (4): 767–783). On the top tier we can see the independently developed resources by private educational companies that have been designed with accessibility hardwired into the resources. Such accessibility caters to the widest range of user needs. The second tier provides digital materials that have been produced by teachers in schools that have a ‘tech-driven’ agenda; such schools do not make it mandatory for teachers or students to use privately produced books. The third tier comprises teachers, outside of a formal community of practice, who use privately produced resources but modify them to suit their student needs better. There has been a rapid migration to digital learning as a direct response to the challenges posed by Covid-19 in schools (Mohan, G., S. McCoy, E. Carroll, G. Mihut, S. Lyons, and C. Mac Domhnaill. 2020. “Learning for all? Second-level education in Ireland during COVID-19.” ESRI Survey and Statistical Report Series 92 June 2020.). As schools have scrambled to adapt to this ever-changing environment, digital inclusion has never been more critical as school communities now navigate these new learning experiences (Hall, Byrne et al. 2021; Marcus-Quinn, A., and T. Hourigan. 2021. Handbook for Online Learning Contexts: Digital, Mobile and Open: Policy and Practice. Cham: Springer.; Murphy, C., A. Marcus-Quinn, and T. Hourigan. 2021a. “Exploring the Ripple Effect of ‘Always On’Digital Work Culture in Secondary Education Settings.” In Handbook for Online Learning Contexts: Digital, Mobile and Open, edited by A. Marcus-Quinn and T. Hourigan, 339–353. Cham: Springer, Murphy, C., A. Marcus-Quinn, and T. Hourigan. 2021b. “Technostress in Secondary Education Settings.” Coping with COVID: Advancing Education. The Naace Journal 89: 17–23). To comply with European legislation passed in 2019, public sector organisations and private companies and organisations need to check the accessibility of their websites, mobile apps, and media content (Oncins, E., and P. Orero. 2021. “Let's put Standardisation in Practice: Accessibility Services and Interaction.” Hikma 20 (1): 71–90. https://www.pdsttechnologyineducation.ie/en/Planning/Digital-Learning-Framework-and-Planning-Resources-Post-Primary/Digital-Learning-Framework-for-Post-Primary-Schools.pdf). The educational publishing sector should also adhere to these common accessibility standards ensuring that digital content conforms to digital equity, diversity, and inclusion principles (Mihut, G., S. McCoy, and B. Maître. 2021. “A Capability Approach to Understanding Academic and Socio-emotional Outcomes of Students with Special Educational Needs in Ireland.” Oxford Review of Education.). During the Covid-19 pandemic it became clear that there is an appetite for high-quality open-access digital teaching and learning materials (Eivers, E., J. Worth, and A. Ghosh. 2020. Home Learning During COVID-19: Findings from the Understanding Society Longitudinal Study. Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research.). To improve the consistency and reusability of such resources the education community would benefit from easy access to shared quality templates that are professionally designed and usability tested. Such an initiative is unlikely to happen without buy-in from publishers in conjunction with the Department of Education. Such collaboration was behind the successful establishment of Scoilnet: Ireland’s national repository for shared digital teaching and learning materials. During the pandemic Scoilnet compiled a list to highlight the Open-access resources available to stakeholders and requested that teachers make recommendations and upload such resources to the Scoilnet portal. It is clear that such resources need to be designed and developed, and this requires professional time and resources. We cannot expect this to happen without cost.

English Spelling Errors Committed by the Blind

Despite the outgrowing trend on assistive technology assisting blind student to be fully participate in education, the challenges remain in the area of English language learning. The inconsistency of the sound-spelling relationship in English apparently triggers the spelling problems for the Blind student since he tends to encode syllables by as it sounded. This study aims to identify, classify and analyze the spelling errors committed by the blind students in learning English using the classification of NEFR (National Foundation for Educational Research) that comprises the aspects of omissions, substitutions, insertions, transpositions and grapheme substitution. Employing case study design, this research elaborate the spelling error committed by 1 blind EFL learner enrolling an Academic Writing course in English Language Education Program, Faculty of Cultural Studies, Universitas Brawijaya, Indonesia. The findings expose that the blind students tend to frequently do spelling error in the aspect of grapheme substitution followed by omissions, substitutions, and insertion. Some contributive factors that presumably affecting the errors are (1) lack exposure to the formation of the words, (2) inherent of language (silent letter, homophone and borrowing words), (3) different characteristics of L1 and L2, and (4) student’s preferences on reading (use screen reader more than braille text). Thus, the exposure toward phonetics symbol and the sound-letter relationship in English should be more disseminated so the blind student is capable of having a correct spelling.

Changing times, changing assessments: International perspectives Special Issue to be published in Educational Research: 2020

***Call for Papers Extension: Submit by 30 June 2020***Guest Editor: Liz Twist, National Foundation for Educational Research, UKThe 2009 special issue of Educational Research focused on national cu...

Teaching and Educational Research in Wales: How Does Teachers' Engagement with Educational Research Differ in Wales from those in England?

The purpose of this study was to better understand how teachers in Wales differ from their counterparts in England in regard to their engagement with educational research. In 2010, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) conducted a study of over 4,000 teachers in England. Many of the questions referred to their engagement in forms of educational research. In 2013, the same questions were posed to 216 teachers in Wales. A comparison of the findings indicate teachers in Wales were more likely to have recently undertaken action research than the England teachers. They also found others' research findings more useful in their teaching. Additionally, the teachers in Wales were more likely than England teachers to agree that they know where to find relevant research to inform their teaching and that they are able to understand and use the research. With recent concerns over educational research and initial teacher education (ITE) in Wales, these findings provide insight into how teachers in Wales perceive and engage with education research and may help to inform policies enabling teachers to produce and implement evidencebased practices into their pedagogy.

Leading highly performing children’s centres

There is wide recognition that early childhood experiences are critical to a child’s development and their subsequent life chances. However, little research has been undertaken into leadership in early years settings, which is so influential in this regard. This article summarizes research into the leadership of Sure Start Children’s Centres, which provide support to the most vulnerable children and families. Completed by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) on behalf of NCSL, this research involved a review of literature on early years leadership and the production of 25 case studies of leaders of ‘highly effective’ children’s centres. The study identified three specific challenges faced by leaders of children’s centres. Two of these, ensuring positive outcomes for children and dealing with change, are particularly salient in light of challenges affecting leaders in times of austerity. The third, increasing the visibility and value of leadership, is a perennial challenge for the sector. The study found that leaders demonstrated eight core behaviours to address these challenges. These included engaging responsively with families, using evidence to drive improvement, motivating and empowering staff and embracing integrated working. The authors recommend that these behaviours inform the delivery of future leadership development for these leaders.

Análisis de los procedimientos y criterios utilizados por Organismos Europeos Nacionales y Multilaterales para la evaluación y seguimiento de Proyectos de Investigación Educativa

RESUMENEl artículo presenta el proceso y resultados obtenidos en esta investigación cuyo objetivo era analizar los procesos y criterios utilizados por distintos organismos europeos para valorar los proyectos de investigación educativa presentados a las convocatorias públicas y el tipo de seguimiento utilizado para controlar los avances y calidad de los proyectos que se financiaron. El trabajo de recogida de datos se centró en las instituciones de investigación educativa más representativas de Inglaterra (National Fun-dation for Educational Research, NFER), de Francia (Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique,INRP) y de la Comisión Europea (a través de todos los programas de investigación educativa). Los resultados obtenidos se centran en un análisis de contenido que nos permitió extraer los criterios utilizados más profusamente para valorar la calidad de los proyectos de investigación educativa.ABSTRACTThe article presents the process and results obtained in this research, which aims to analyse the processes and criteria used by different European organisms to weight educational research projects presented for public grants, and the type of follow up used to control the progress and quality of the projects that got financial support. The data gathering process focussed in the educational research institutions more representatives in England (National Foundation for Educational Research, NFER), de Francia (Institut National de Reserche Pédagogique, INRP) and the European Comission (through alleducational research programs). Results obtained focus in a content analyses that allows us extract the criteria more widely used to weight the quality of educational research projects.

Investigating Factors That Support Re-Engagement of 14 - 16 Year Olds in Education

This review of literature applied a comprehensive approach to corroborate and/or contradict the findings of previous research that has been disseminated to education practitioners. Disengagement from school amongst 14 - 16 year olds has become a recurrent phenomenon, thus identifying and implementing timely interventions to address it should be a key aim for schools. This paper therefore examines previous literature on the subject matter. It investigates factors that could help to break down the barriers to learning and which could inspire affected learners to re-focus on learning and achieve. A thorough and methodical search strategy using Google and Google Scholar was used to locate relevant literature for the research and this yielded the following resources: online research reports and publications, research journals, BERJ (British Educational Research Journal), NFER (National Foundation for Educational Research) and DFE (Department for Education) websites, media and trade union publications, the University of Greenwich library and electronic resources. All similarities on the subject matter were compiled, examined and applied to a critical review of re-engagement. The last step was to examine their implications and applications at school level.

Creating Citizenship Communities

The project ‘Creating Citizenship Communities’ is funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and is being conducted by a partnership team from the Department of Education, University of York and the National Foundation for Educational Research. This article describes the project design and draws attention to issues emerging from data analysis. An indication is given of the actions to be taken with professionals and young people in light of the project findings. An argument is made for the need to co-ordinate work in schools by developing stronger liaison between citizenship education teachers and those responsible for whole school initiatives to promote community engagement; and helping teachers to build on young people’s existing knowledge and expertise in community matters to help them understand and act more effectively in society

An innovative pilot intervention to improve nutrition at holiday play centres

Background: Although the Government has set mandatory standards for food served across the extended school day(School Food Trust, 2007), there is currently no guidance on what food and drink can be brought to, or served in Holiday Play Centres (HPCs). To ensure children are provided with consistent messages about healthy eating, preliminary work was undertaken with one HPC, aiming to review current food and drink provision. This audit was carried out in conjunction with children and Play Workers to understand their needs and wishes, and to work with them to develop ways of achieving these. Methods: The HPCs underwent audits of breakfast, packed lunches and tea. Two questionnaires were distributed to staff; the first gathered their views on the foods served and problems that they encountered when providing food. The second measured their nutrition knowledge. Small groups of children completed two questionnaires under supervision: an attitude questionnaire exploring what they liked and disliked about HPC food, whether they could choose what went in their packed lunch, and whether they thought healthy eating was important. A validated child knowledge questionnaire(NFER, 2005) was used to measure their experience, preferences and knowledge with regard to healthy eating. Two focus groups were carried out with a group of eight children aged 8–11 years. They discussed the results of the packed lunch audit and discussed which foods should be allowed in packed lunches before putting together a presentation and posters to share with the other children during assembly. A follow-up packed lunch audit was carried out at the pilot centre 3 days after the interventions. Results: Although the club did not meet the term-time standards for foods served at breakfast and tea, only small changes needed to be made (e.g. pancakes were occasionally served at breakfast and fish fingers and hot dogs were an occasional treat at tea). A total of 77 lunch boxes were assessed. After the interventions, a number of positive changes were made, including decreases in meat products (−2%), confectionery items (−10%) and sugary drinks (−15%), and an increase in healthy drinks (+10%). Twenty-five children completed the questionnaires, showing a mixed understanding of healthy eating messages such as ‘5-a-day’ and what makes up a healthy packed lunch. Most children (96%; 22/23) liked HPC food and although 61% (14/23) considered it healthy, only 44% (11/25) considered their packed lunch was healthy. Although staff generally supported the work being carried out to improve nutrition, their healthy eating knowledge was generally quite poor. Discussion: This project has uncovered some key areas in need of further attention to improve nutrition at HPCs. Lack of staff nutrition knowledge and training means they struggle to come up with menu ideas to fit meet time, budget and equipment constraints. Although the provision of packed lunch guidance for parents is crucial to address lunchtime nutrition, the development of a nutrition resource with suitable recipes for HPCs could solve both the nutritional and practical aspects of providing tea. Conclusions: There is huge scope for the improvement of nutrition at HPCs. This innovative work demonstrated that empowering children and staff has great potential for success, and that children have a high level of enthusiasm for being given the responsibility to make decisions for the right reasons. Further work with play centres is likely to be well-received and achieve high-impact results. However, this short-term intervention needs follow-up to investigate whether changes were sustained and how this could be implemented across all HPCs in the future.

Talking e-assessment

Dr Marian Sainsbury from the National Foundation for Educational Research reviews the

Designing your sample efficiently: clustering effects in education surveys

Background: Education, and information about education, is highly structured: individuals are grouped into classes, which are grouped into schools, which are grouped into local authorities, which are grouped into countries. The degree of similarity among members of a group, such as a school or classroom, is a very important factor in the design and analysis of studies in education. Purpose: The aim of this article is to provide information on this degree of similarity within schools to enable those involved in carrying out surveys of schools to do so most efficiently in terms of resources and minimum disturbance of schools. Sources of data: This paper uses data from 13 studies at primary and secondary level conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales. Main argument: The degree of similarity among members of a group is measured by two statistics, the intra-cluster correlation and the design effect. The study described here classifies outcomes into a number of categories and estimates intra-cluster correlation and design effect. The relevance of the results to survey design and analysis is discussed, and examples of how to use these are given. Conclusions: The main findings of this study, rather than conclusions as such, are the intra-cluster correlations for each topic category. However, the paper reaches some tentative conclusions about the degree of clustering by topic. Using Hox's convention (Multilevel analysis: Techniques and applications, Lawrence Erlbaum, London, 2002) for the size of intra-cluster correlations, it was found that the degree of clustering of achievement was high, while ethnic and language variables were highly clustered in secondary but not primary. By contrast, attitudes towards school, educationally relevant home characteristics, and perception of school policies have quite low values of ρ (mean < 0.05), defined as small.

Moving on from free school meals: national census data can describe the socio-economic background of the intake of each school in England

Background: Data for England from the national census can provide the socio-economic background of individual pupils and therefore the intake of schools. In many respects, this is more useful than the conventional measure of ‘free school meals’, which has historically been used in the UK as a proxy measure for disadvantage. Prior to the advent of the English Pupil-level Annual School Census in 2001, using census data for research concerning schools was problematic as the immediate location of the school is often socio-economically different to areas in which the pupils live. Now and in future, working with the national census is considerably more attractive as data on individual pupils can be matched and information aggregated to school level to provide measures that reflect intake rather than immediate location. Purpose: This paper discusses the details, merits and uses of this approach. It considers whether derived census data for England can replace or augment the traditional proxy measure for disadvantage, eligibility for free school meals. Sources of evidence: Statistical comparisons of derived data from the 2001 England national census and the free school meals measure were used to clarify strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches. A literature review concerning the measurement of socio-economic disadvantage for educational research provided background to the discussion. Educational researchers at the UK's National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) provided details of what variables from the 2001 national census would be useful to derive. Data descriptions provided with the English Pupil-level Annual School Census and the 2001 England national census formed the basis of the data derivation. Main argument: Eligibility for free school meals has a number of problems when used as a proxy measure for disadvantage. The use of derived national census data to illustrate the socio-economic background of pupils and schools' intake is free of these problems. However, it has its own collection of setbacks that should determine how and when it is used. Conclusions: Derived national census data should be used in conjunction with eligibility for free school meals to enhance our knowledge of the important part background has to play in the education of children in England.

A further brief response from Mary Hilton to: ‘Measuring standards in primary English: the validity of PIRLS—a response to Mary Hilton’ by Chris Whetton, Liz Twist and Marian Sainsbury

I have been invited to reply to this response to my article of December 2006 in this journal. This response can only be a summary of some of my findings and a reiteration, in very truncated form, of my arguments. I would refer any interested reader back to my original extended review of the PIRLS project as it was there that I laid out my full critique. It must be first pointed out that my extended critique of the PIRLS project is not one of the detailed technical and statistical procedures carried out by international teams of experts and psychometricians, of which these members of the British National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) can be numbered (Whetton et al., above). Rather, I focus on their ability to understand what is culturally at stake within the very complex decisions that were, at some level, driven by a need to establish a necessary consensus between participating nations in producing and using a common measurement instrument. I also express doubts about the way that it actually functioned in England, and the ways its results entered a charged highstakes political agenda around the testing and success of English children. I also point to the larger issue of subtle cultural hegemony involved in this kind of international survey where richer nations apparently do much better on what is claimed to be a context-free measurement. Although well funded and extensive, the statistical PIRLS project raises enormous doubts about the validity of attempting to test large numbers of young children of an approximate age group with approximate years of school experience in a huge range of very different, economic, social, and

International mathematics tests and pupils with special educational needs

Tandi Clausen‐May is a principal research officer in the Department for Research in Assessment and Measurement at the National Foundation for Educational Research. In this article, she examines the accessibility for learners with special educational needs of some of the mathematics questions from tests used in the 2003 cycle of two international surveys. Aspects of the language and layout of the questions are considered in relation to the principles of universal design as these are being formulated in the context of test development. Some potential barriers to the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs are identified and possible alter‐native wording and presentation of the questions are suggested. Tandi Clausen‐May closes her article with a discussion of the way in which some of the principles of universal design might inform the development of more inclusive tests for the future.

How Can We Use an Extra Pair of Hands?

Classroom assistants are widely employed to support pupils with special educational needs. However, little attention has been paid to the way in which they are deployed and managed within the classroom. Drawing on research undertaken by the National Foundation for Educational Research, Felicity Fletcher-Campbell, senior research officer, NFER, identifies elements of good practice.

The impact of feedback on school performance

Over the past few years Research Data Services (RDS), part of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), has led numerous large‐scale, longitudinal projects. Feedback to schools has been provided for all of these projects, and has been in the form of sets of tables and charts and electronic files illustrating pupil performance and progress in each school compared with national norms. This study sought to establish what differences the ongoing provision of feedback has made to the participating schools. The main thrust of the study was a statistical analysis of the most current National Pupil Dataset. Using this dataset, the overall impact on pupil performance in the participating schools of their participation in projects where feedback is used could be examined. In general, the findings presented in this paper suggest that school feedback does have an impact on key stage 2 performance.

A Decade for Differentiation

What is differentiation? Definitions proliferate and often conflict. Penelope Weston, principal research officer, Department of Evaluation and Policy Studies, National Foundation for Educational Research, proposes 10 elements which she sees as contributing to the definition.

Do School Leaders Have a Shelf Life?

This article explores several issues about school leaders, career stages and performance. It draws upon various pieces of research, including the longitudinal study of secondary headteachers which began in the early 1980s at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), to raise some key issues about headteachers' careers, the various stages of headship, and the relationship between length of tenure and school leader performance. The article concludes with some thoughts regarding the future of headship and what needs to be done to ensure that the quality of leadership remains as good as it should be. If leadership at the apex of organisations is as crucial as all the research and inspection evidence suggests, then what needs to be done to ensure a longer ‘shelf life’ for school leaders and is the notion of a limited or fixed-term contract worth revisiting?

MULTI-AGENCY WORKING ACROSS EDUCATION CHILD CARE AND HEALTH: RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE UK

Mary Atkinson, Senior Research Officer with the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), the UK's largest educational research organisation, explores some of the issues raised by research within the context of the current multi-agency climate in the UK. Significant recent policy developments in the UK, including the introduction of the government green paper 'Every Child Matters' and the move towards integrated children's services, are summarised and in-depth research into multi-agency working conducted by NFER is described. This study, conducted prior to recent policy developments, examined interagency collaboration amongst professionals from the education, social services and health sectors. The key factors for the success of multi-agency working and the associated challenges, as highlighted by interviewees in this study, are set out. A detailed discussion of the issues raised by interviewees ensues, together with pertinent developments in relation to the new policy agenda, focusing on the structures and processes the UK government has put in place to address some of these issues. In conclusion, questions are raised about the need to explore the reality of the impact of the recent policy changes to establish how far multi-agency working has moved on. It is suggested that impact on the professionals involved in delivering children's services, both at strategic and operational level, and the impact on the children, young people and families in receipt of services need to be examined.