In the Zone Edition 4

Playing computer games could help boost pupils’ concentration levels and improve their results in the classroom, research suggests.

In this edition...

Computer games boost pupils’ concentration levels taken from The Daily Mail How you can make teachers stop worrying about research and learn to love it instead taken from Schools’ Week Team Teach Ongoing Teaching and Learning at Portsmouth High School

The importance of marking and feedback

by Roisin Egan

The study found that turning learning into a game helps stop the mind from wandering, allowing students to study better.

Professor Paul Howard-Jones, who conducted the research, said computer games have been “trivialised” in recent years, but that used properly, they can help to accelerate pupils’ learning.

The study saw 24 university students take part in three types of study session while having their brains scanned. In the first session, they were given conventional questions to look at, in the second there were multiple-choice quiz questions and the third was a computerbased game in which the students competed against each other to answer questions. In return points were paid out on an escalating scale, if students were lucky, by a wheel of fortune.

Researchers found that when students tried to study by just reading notes and looking continued overleaf

in the zone

Computer games boost pupils’ concentration levels, research finds

Portsmouth High School’s Teaching and Learning Newsletter

SPRING 2016 Edition 4

Kent Road, Southsea, Hampshire PO5 3EQ 023 9282 6714 admissions@por.gdst.net www.portsmouthhigh.co.uk Part of the Girls’ Day School Trust network of schools www.gdst.net

at example questions, a “Default Mode Network” in the brain - which makes the mind wander - was activated. But this disappeared when students took part in the game-based session, and their learning increased.

Prof Howard-Jones, an educational nueroscientist and presenter of Channel 4 series The Secret Life Of 4, 5 and 6 Year Olds, said that when the Default Mode Network is activated, the mind wanders to other things—such as dinner plans—that are irrelevant to the task at hand.

He said: “It is important not to demonise technology. We hear about children spending too much time online, the important thing is what they are doing online.”

Prof Howard-Jones added: “Technology has a reputation for doing bad stuff to children’s brains but it’s important that we don’t demonise it. This is evidence that computer games can be good for learning if we are careful about how we design and develop them.

‘How you can make teachers stop worrying about research – and learn to love it instead’ An article by Stuart Kime as originally appeared in Schools’ Week Teachers who use research to inform their teaching can often be evangelical about its benefits, but not all staff will be so easily persuaded. These tips might just help get them on side.

If you are having a conversation with a teacher who is really reluctant to engage with research, keep in mind they probably have good reason for this. A lot of education research is of poor quality, and we have seen well-intentioned research-based initiatives become time-consuming and ineffective.

Thankfully, things are getting better: the quality of the research is improving, more teachers and school leaders are making use of it, and support is available for those wanting to know more. But do not expect a Damascene conversion by break time. Using research evidence to inform decision-making in schools is the work of years, not weeks.

In the meantime, here are my five top tips for helping change the thinking of a research-reluctant teacher.

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Let them talk Often, research is seen as an obscure extra, making demands on severely-constrained teacher time. If you have never looked at research before, it can seem like an unwieldy and irrelevant beast. Sometimes, it is hard to see research offers a sustainable way to stop the cycle of “great new (unproven) ideas”, and it can actually save time by helping teachers avoid blind alleys. These views are hard to change, so listen carefully to what research-reluctant teachers have to say and understand why they not keen to engage. Then…

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Provide time and space to reach new conclusions When our beliefs are challenged and we try to hold a new, contradictory idea in our minds, a rather intriguing thing called cognitive dissonance takes hold, and it can be really unsettling. Ray Land at Durham University has done a great deal of work on the idea of “troublesome knowledge”: the idea that research could hold new information that improves teaching and learning can be massively troubling. For a teacher resistant to research, becoming more aware of research is really unsettling. So tread carefully and give them space.

“For the first time we can actually see what learning through games does in the brain.”

The study is linked to a bigger classroom study which will involve 10,000 UK secondary school pupils. Both will be launched at the Association for Science Education annual conference in Birmingham.

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...the quality of research is improving, more teachers and school leaders are making use of it...

Be clear that it’s not a panacea One common source of resistance is the belief that research evidence will become a form of dictat, with journal articles written by academics who have never set foot in a classroom prescribing exactly the actions a teacher should take. This is a fallacy. The best research evidence can only tell us that something worked (or not) on average, somewhere, somewhen, somehow, and under certain conditions. But even with all these caveats, why would you not want to know what the research says before you plunge headlong into a new initiative? It is messy and makes us think hard, but that is not a bad thing.

Be substantive Researchers speak a language seemingly understandable only to other researchers, and much of their discussions are of esoteric abstractions. That is enough to put anyone off, let alone a busy teacher. So, focus on research that might truly offer important insights to a teacher’s work: marking and feedback, class size, setting and streaming, for instance.

Teachers want to do the best job possible for their students, so guide them to the evidence that actually means something to them, and steer clear of abstraction.

Show them the impact I cannot understate the value of our Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Toolkit as a potentially game-changing resource to decrease resistance to using research evidence.

By combining three key metrics (impact on learning expressed as months of progress, cost, and strength of the evidence), the toolkit presents a very balanced and accessible guide to the best available evidence. Simply reading the page on meta-cognition and self-regulation, for instance, can be a great way in.

For those who really want to know the impact on important student outcomes of the interventions they implement (year 5 reading scores, for instance), use the EEF’s DIY Evaluation Guide. I have a vested interest in it (I helped write it), but we’re really excited about the possibilities it has for schools to know their impact and make decisions using their own research evidence.

THIS TERM HAS BEEN designated Team Teach Term as part of the on-going Teaching and Learning programme for Portsmouth High School. What is it all about?

All members of the school teaching staff were put into cross-curricular groups of two or three. The idea was to use the knowledge and skills of their partner/s to look at an approach to teaching outside their usual comfort zone. Working together staff could swap ideas or look at a new idea together. Here are just a couple of the ideas being created around school.

Miss Humphreys has given more choice of tasks to her Spanish class.

She wanted to make them more responsible for their own learning.

With a carousel of tasks set around the room the girls can choose which tasks they would like to attempt and whether they will do them as individuals or as a group.

Mrs Griffiths has split her Year 10 group into rows. With her initial assessment the girls were put into rows depending on their strengths in the core skills of Define, Explain or Evaluate. This allowed them to understand their ability. As they did further essays they could then choose the row they felt had shown progress.

Discussions in class had particular rows showing how they might answer an element of a question.

Mrs Brooks, Ms Noble and Mr Barrett-Danes have been looking at the creative process from the view of the individual. They felt that too often it was only the end product that was given value rather than the creative journey. The theme is Icons and Shrines. They have emphasised the different skills and techniques as seen in various artists’ work and now the girls are working through the problems encountered with using these techniques. They are in control of how the tackle this. www.portsmouthhigh.co.uk

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The importance of marking and feedback...

Evidence of clear objective criteria – pupils knew where they did and did not get the marks Students decided the marking criteria in advance – allowing them to focus on different areas to improve

Following a whole school initiative to share good practice in marking, all departments brought an example of effective marking to an Inset session where they were shared.

Firefly quizzes set for homework

Staff then identified what they Use of extra time was thought was good about each piece. commented on The overall comments were encouraging, demonstrating a variety of effective methods A good mix of peer of giving feedback. and teacher comments and marking

A mixture of hints for further development and marking by example to give an exemplar for future reference

Good examples from peers used as exemplars, copies given to students Pupils being given lesson time to comment on marking

Pupil setting tasks for themselves and the group – pupil deciding in advance the most important elements for marking ‘Stretch’ comments given and time to work on them

We saw feedback to teachers about their comments 2 strengths – 2 areas to improve Different coloured pens were used for marking different skills, allowing targeted response Repeated use of language to encourage correct terms Thinking time allowed before work is marked Pupils having time to revisit incorrect work, not just in the next lesson

Pupils set their own targets having read the feedback

From the Association of Assessment Inspectors and Advisers

Clearly staff are adopting a variety of strategies that suit their particular groups and subjects. There is no single ‘right’ way of providing feedback – the strategy used should be appropriate for the purpose and context of the work. With time for discussion and continued training our ‘tool kits’ should be getting even heavier. Ms Roisin Egan

Good quality feedback contributes positively to behaviour management.

Evidence strongly suggests that it leads to increased motivation and engagement and is worth the time and effort involved.

There is no single ‘right’ way of providing feedback – the strategy used should be appropriate for the purpose and context of the work.

Teachers need to develop a ‘tool kit’ of approaches to giving feedback which they can draw upon within a subject context.

Portsmouth High School is an independent school for girls from Nursery to Sixth Form delivering outstanding success.

The school is part of the Girls’ Day School Trust, a network of 24 schools and 2 academies educating 20,000 pupils a year across the country.

Kent Road, Southsea, Hampshire PO5 3EQ  023 8282 6714  admissions@por.gdst.net An independent school for girls from Nursery to Sixth Form  www.portsmouthhigh.co.uk