The Gender Agenda: report from the first round of regional seminars – summer 2008
To facilitate the sharing of research and data on gender around the education system, the Department is organising a series of regional events, the first round of which took place in summer 2008 at the Universities of Leeds, Warwick and Institute of Education, London.
The Influence of School and Teaching Quality on Children’s Progress in Primary School
The resource is a report of research which “investigates the way school and classroom processes affect the cognitive progress and social/behavioural development of children between the ages of 6 (Year 1) and 10 (Year 5) in primary schools in England.” (page i) The research is part of a large research project funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). The project was called Effective Pre-School and Primary Education (EPPE 3-11). This project followed the cognitive and
Effective Teaching of Inference Skills for Reading
This is a literature review written by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). The review focuses on four main questions: Are there different skills within inference?; How can pupils be best taught to use inference skills?; What strategies are most effective in teaching inference skills?; and What does progression in inference and deduction look like? The key finding of the report states that the "abili
Accelerating Girls' Progress - A Celebration Event
As part of the Gender Agenda programme of activities, this project conference took place on 26 September at the Bridge in the DCSF Sanctuary buildings. It was an opportunity for the schools who took part in the Accelerating Girls Achievement project to disseminate their research findings.
How do boys and girls differ in their use of ICT?
Described as a ‘briefing’, this 6000-word paper from Becta aims to draw together research into gendered use of ICT within and outside school, in order to reach conclusions about ‘closing the gap’ in pupil attainment in this regard.
Marie Curie - Biography
Marie Curie was one of the first well known female scientists in the modern world and was a pioneer in the research of radioactivity. This video gives the life of the two time Nobel Prize winner, Marie Curie. Run time 04:12.
EPPE: Influences on Children's Attainment and Progress in Key Stage 2: Cognitive Outcomes in Year 6
This is one of a series of documents reporting findings of a research project entitled ‘Effective Pre-school and Primary Education 3-11’ (EPPE 3-11) commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). This longitudinal study tracked a cohort of 2701 children from 950 primary schools from age 3 to the end of primary school (age 11 years) in order to investigate what kinds of early childhood provision are most effective in promoting children’s development during pre-sch
Research into the deployment and impact of support staff who have achieved HLTA status
This is a report from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) commissioned by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) to carry out research into the deployment and impact of support staff who have achieved Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) status. The project took place from August 2006 to August 2007.
Ensuring the Best Start in Life: Targeting versus Universality in Early Childhood Development
This is a research paper published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy – an independent Canadian national non-profit organisation. This report identifies the strategies for enhancing the development of vulnerable children in Canada and focusing on early intervention programmes. The report explores four policy issues influencing early childhood education centres in Canada. The report is supplemented by American findings of initiatives involved in providing early childhood care.
Language Learning at key stage 3: the impact of the KS3 Modern Foreign Languages Framework and chang
Produced by the DCSF, this research brief reports on interim findings from the first half of a two-year investigation undertaken by the University of Cambridge into the impact of the KS3 Framework for Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) and other initiatives on current provision and practice at KS3.
Extended schools - testing and delivery of the core offer in and around extended schools
The resource is the final report, issued in 2008, of a two-stage programme of research to explore the delivery of the core offer of extended school services in England. The programme was commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), to be undertaken by Ipsos MORI.
Curee/TLRP Research Tasters
This part of the CUREE website hosts a number of ‘research tasters’, which are short articles encouraging practitioners to engage in evidence-based enquiry in their own educational setting through collecting evidence available to them and using it to reflect upon, inform and enhance their own practice. Here, a variety of materials have been produced by TLRP in collaboration with CUREE, in order for the findings of the TLRP and other relevant research to be disseminated to those with an inter
Optimising Challenge to Young Children: Action Research in a Nursery School
This resource is from NFER's Topic (now PRE) online journal. The focus of the resource explores the use of action research to improve the learning for young children in a West Sussex nursery school. The study reported on had its origins in the results of an Ofsted visit to the school. The resource outlines the procedures undertaken by the school to collect and analyse data, in order to continue the success experienced at the school, to engage children in scaffolding their own learning, and to pl
Sex Education in Primary School in Tayside: An Evaluation of Sexuality and Relationship Training for
This is an evaluation of the Sexuality and Relationship Training for Primary Teachers in Tayside region of Scotland. It was sponsored by the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) and published by them in February 2007. The resource aims to look at a training programme for teachers in Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) and to map its provision in Tayside’s primary schools.
The resource details the background to SRE development in Scottish primary schools. It goes on to present the q
The impact of a thinking skills approach (CAME) on students’ mathematical ability
This is a research digest from the DCSF Research Informed Practice Site (TRIPS). The article is a précis of the paper entitled ‘Fostering cognitive development through the context of mathematics: Results of the CAME project’ published in Educational Studies in Mathematics (2007). It reports the findings of an intervention project, Cognitive Acceleration in Mathematics (CAME), initiated in 1993. The aim of the project was to investigate whether the CAME approach would accelerate the cognitiv
Curiosity Kits: The impact of non-fiction book bags on boys’ reading at home
This 2001 NFER Topic (now PRE-Online) article reports on a small-scale pilot project which was supported by the National Year of Reading (1998–99) and the UK Reading Association, as well as publishers and other businesses. This research involved placing sets of book bags (‘Curiosity Kits’) in four Year 4 classes across the country, and monitoring the home-school reading patterns of these pupils compared with four control classes. The kits, contained in sports bags, comprised at least one
Influences on Children’s Development and Progress in Key Stage 2: Social/behavioural Outcomes in Y
The resource is a DCSF research report. It is linked to the Effective Pre-school Provision Evaluation conducted jointly by researchers from University of Nottingham, Oxford, University of London and the Institute of Education (University of London). The findings of the report focus on the social and behavioural outcomes for children in year 5.
Future of Chemical Research
Interviews with leaders from academia and industry explore the frontiers of chemical research. Chemistry is changing our lives through medical advances, new resources, and new molecules. Chemists come from a variety of backgrounds and share a curiosity about the world. Chemistry will be essential to the solution to the problems that face our world today, and new technolo
TDA Standards case study: PMFL Pathway for Undergraduate Trainees
A case study charting the experiences of trainees on a primary undergraduate programme, including the ways in which the provider tailored provision to prepare trainees to deliver a modern foreign language.
The Gender Agenda: report from the Autumn 2008 seminars
The latest round of DCSF gender agenda seminars took place during the Autumn, hosted by Kings College London, the University of Warwick and Leeds University. These days provided the opportunity for feedback from the first seminars, as well as to discuss and reflect on the implications of recent research into gender in education issues from a subject and practitioner perspective.
