Reference no: EM132876197

Assignment: The impact of pedagogy on pupil progress

Overview
This task is a project which asks you to test how a particular aspect of your teaching (differentiation, assessment or behaviour management) can support the progress of learners in your class.
The outcome of this work will be a 2,500 word report (please note this is a recommended limit) in which you highlight your findings.

Rationale
This assignment moves away from subject specific pedagogy, and enables you to focus on teaching and learning more generally to test how a particular aspect of your teaching (differentiation, assessment or behaviour management) can support the progress of learners in your class. You will consider how your practice can support the progress of a whole class.

Process

Stage One: Decide on a focus
The first step is to decide on the class you would like to work with. You also need to think about the focus of your assignment, choosing from the following titles below (please note that you do not have to choose Yr 8 - this is for illustrative purposes only!):

How can effective differentiation support the progress of students in my Yr8 class?
How can effective assessment support the progress of students in my Yr8 class?
How can a positive learning environment support the progress of students in my Yr8 class?

Step Two: Carry out academic research related to your chosen area of Teaching and Learning and choose your strategies
The next step is to do some reading on your chosen area of focus. Through this reading you should aim to identify some strategies which can help students to make progress. For example, you may read about how different styles or approaches to differentiation (support and challenge) can improve the progress of students. If your area of focus is behaviour management you may read about how different strategies, for example seating plans, can improve student progress. Based on your reading you should choose a few strategies to implement into your lessons.

Step Three: Identify the baseline data/ starting point for your class
Before you can assess whether the strategies you implement have any impact on pupil progress, you need to be clear about where their starting point is. This might involve self-reflection - thinking about whether, for example, pupils do not meet success criteria in a lesson because of disruption, looking at data e.g. the most recent level/grade review, looking at work that you have assessed and how students have responded to this or seeking some student voice - asking students how they perceive their progress in your lessons.

Step Four: Implement your strategies and develop a methodology to assess (and record) the impact on pupil progress
Implement the strategies/actions you have chosen. You also need to be sure to develop a methodology (or methodologies) which allows you to assess (and record) the impact of the strategies you are implementing. It is really important to do this in every lesson and not just at the end of the research period. For example, if you are looking at the impact of differentiation you may decide to employ different questioning technique with more/less able students to support or stretch their understanding of a topic. In the lesson you will observe the impact of this based on a student's response or reaction and after the lesson you could record your thoughts in a reflection log. You will of course be looking at the work that students produce in your lessons, which should provide you with evidence of whether your strategies are impacting on pupil progress. You may also want to make more use of pupil voice and you could also use test or assessment data (but please do not use this as your sole source of evidence as to the impact you make by implementing your strategies). It is important to note here that you may well observe that certain strategies are having little/no impact on pupil progress. This is also very valuable information, so don't worry if not all of your observations are about the positive impact of your strategies on pupil progress.

Step Five: Assess the impact of your chosen strategies on pupil progress of your work
Reflect on what the observations/work/data you have gathered suggests about the impact of your interventions or strategies on class progress. How do pupils now feel about their progress? Does assessment/test data or classwork suggest that pupils are making better progress?

Step Six: Write up your findings in a report
Write up the report outlining your findings. Ensure that you make reference to your original academic research to support your claims and your data.

Suggested Structure
In your report make sure that you:

o Introduce your chosen area of focus (differentiation, assessment or behaviour management) and provide a flavour of what academic writing suggests about how implementing effective strategies in this area can impact on student progress.
o Describe the strategies which you chose to adopt.
o Explain the starting point of your class (their baseline).
o Explain the impact (or lack of impact) of your strategies on pupil progress. Ensure that you illustrate any impact that was made using the evidence you gathered.
o Any key findings you have made or any recommendations you could now make about the specific aspect of teaching and learning you were working on.

What we are looking for when we mark your assignment
When you write up your report as suggested above we will be looking to see that you have:
o Demonstrated a good understanding of the area of teaching and learning that you chose to focus on with reference to relevant literature
o Collected and analysed a range of data/evidence (observation, pupil's work, relevant literature etc.) and presented a detailed analysis of the progress (or lack thereof) made by students in a class.
o Made use of your reading of educational research/literature in the conclusions you come to
o Reflected on what you and other teachers could do to enable students to make better progress.
o Ensured that you have communicated your ideas clearly through your writing and referenced any published material clearly.

Attachment:- Assignment pedagogy.rar