Doctorate in Professional Educational

Thinking of becoming an Educational Psychologist?

Come and find out about our exciting three year doctoral level training programme in Applied Educational Psychology; which is approved by the Health Professions Council and accredited by the British Psychological Society.
The open evening will provide you with the opportunity to meet with Tutors and to enjoy informal discussions with current Trainees and recently qualified EPs. You will learn about:
· Recent developments in EP training
· The course philosophy, structure and organisation
· How to apply for training and funding
· The process of selection
· Relevant reading and pre-course experiences.
We encourage applicants from minority groups.

For further information please contact Lorraine Fernnades : l.fernandes@ioe.ac.uk

Swedish free schools and academic achievement

Research from the IOE on Sweden's 'free school' reforms suggests that the entry of new schools had a positive effect on pupils' academic achievements. But according to a survey of the evidence by Rebecca Allen, the benefits are small, they are predominantly focused on children from highly educated families and they do not persist: scores are no higher in the end-of-school exams.

The findings appear in the latest issue of Research in Public Policy (published by the Centre for Market and Public Organisation, CMPO).

Allen concludes that the experience of Sweden is helpful, but necessarily limited, in the extent to which it can help predict the impact of school reforms in England. One reason for this is that the schools also underwent a radical decentralisation of the education system, which would seem to be critical for promoting diversity and productivity gains through experimentation in free schools.

Sweden also has fewer reasons to be concerned that a free school system will produce greater school stratification since the country's lower levels of income and skill inequalities mean there is far less need for parents to choose schools based on social composition. It is also possible that Sweden's stronger tradition of non-standard schooling – such as Steiner and Montessori schools – is leading to a greater diversity of provision than parents in England would ever demand.

Why music education deserves to be protected from public spending cuts

The remarkable range of music education opportunities currently available to young people and adults in the UK is a vital national resource that must not only be preserved but developed, even at a time of severe public spending cutbacks, says a new book published this week by the Institute of Education, University of London.

Music-making should be part of any long-term strategy relating to quality of life for all, argue Professor Susan Hallam and Dr Andrea Creech, editors of Music Education in the 21st Century in the United Kingdom: Achievements, analysis and aspirations.

The book itemises the positive impacts that music-making can have on the intellectual, social and personal skills of children and young people. For instance, in the early years it enhances the ability to differentiate between sounds, which contributes to the development of language skills and literacy.
Research has shown that it also helps to build self-reliance, friendships, and sensitivity to other people's emotions.

The book, which includes contributions from 17 authors who are either IOE staff or have close connections with the Institute, examines the formal and informal music education opportunities that are available from the early years, through primary, secondary, further and higher education, and into later life. It also has chapters on listening, singing, instrumental music, the role of technology, creativity, performance and assessment, special educational needs and the training of music teachers.

Professor Hallam and Dr Creech conclude that the UK has arguably the best music education in the world. The key to its success, they say, are the general music classes and weekly extra-curricular instrumental tuition in primary and secondary schools, delivered by well-qualified and enthusiastic teachers. Historical analysis shows that when these fundamentals are not in place musical activity disappears, along with all the benefits it brings.

The book's contributors include:

Pauline Adams (Institute of Education, London), John Conlon (Institute of Education, London), Dr Andrea Creech (Institute of Education, London),  Dr Colin Durrant (Institute of Education, London), Jessica Ellison (Institute of Education, London), Dr Helena Gaunt (Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London), Professor Susan Hallam (Institute of Education, London), Dr Evangelos Himonides (Institute of Education, London),  Kate Laurence (Institute of Education, London), Dr Hilary McQueen (Institute of Education, London), Professor Adam Ockelford (University of Roehampton), Dr Ioulia Papageorgi (Institute of Education, London), Ross Purves (Luton Sixth Form College), Dr Lynne Rogers, (Institute of Education, London),  Dr Jo Saunders (Institute of Education, London), Dr Maria Varvarigou (Institute of Education, London), and Professor Graham Welch (Institute of Education, London).

Music Education in the 21st Century in the United Kingdom: Achievements, analysis and aspirations will be launched at an event in the Institute of Education on Thursday, July 15. Further information on the book from:

David Budge
d.budge@ioe.ac.uk
020 7911 5349
07881 415362
Notes for editors
1. Music Education in the 21st Century in the United Kingdom: Achievements, analysis and aspirations, ISBN 978-0-85473-899-1, £23.99, paperback, 370 pages, can be ordered from all online book retailers or directly from John Smith's Education Bookshop. Tel: +44 (0)20 7612 6050. Fax: +44 (0)20 7612 6407. Email: ioe@johnsmith.co.uk. www.ioe.ac.uk/publications
2. The book has been produced partly to mark the Government's Tune In – Year of Music initiative, which ends this summer. The IOE also undertook a major literature review last year to support the launch of the Year. Entitled The power of music: its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people, the literature review can be downloaded from http://www.ioe.ac.uk/Year_of_Music.pdf
3. The Institute of Education is a college of the University of London specialising in teaching, research and consultancy in education and related areas of social science and professional practice. The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise judged almost two-thirds of the work submitted by the IOE as internationally significant, and 35 per cent as 'world leading'.

Millennium mothers want university education for their children

The Millennium generation of UK children may have the most educationally ambitious mothers ever, a new study suggests.

No less than 97 per cent of them want their children to go on to university, even though most did not have a higher education themselves, researchers at the Institute of Education, University of London, have found.

Today, roughly a third of young people in the UK progress from school to higher education. However, that proportion will be much higher in 10 years' time if the mothers of children born in the first few years of the new century get their way, a survey of almost 14,000 families has shown.

The Millennium Cohort Study, which is tracking the development of children born in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland between 2000 and 2002, found that 96 per cent of mothers with the lowest qualifications want their seven-year-olds to go on to higher education. The figure for those with postgraduate qualifications is only slightly higher (98%).

Attendance at parents' evenings is also encouragingly high, say Dr Kirstine Hansen and Dr Elizabeth Jones, who analysed the responses to the study's latest survey. The vast majority of families (93%) had been represented at a parents' evening, and more than half of those who had not attended one said that their school had not yet held such an event.

Most parents also told the researchers that they help their child with their reading, writing or maths homework. Eighty-five per cent of parents with either no qualifications or the most basic certificates said they offer such support.

"The overarching impression from the parental interviews is one of all families, right across the social spectrum, taking an interest in the Millennium children's schooling and aspiring for them to do well," Dr Hansen and Dr Jones say. "This is a positive sign because previous research has shown that parental involvement and interest in their children's education is a strong predictor of later educational success."

The study's latest survey, conducted in 2008/9, also found that the average amount of time that seven-year-olds spend on homework is 86 minutes a week. Seven-year-olds in Northern Ireland appear to do most homework (115 minutes per week on average), followed by children in Scotland (87 minutes), England (84 minutes) and Wales (69 minutes).

In England and Wales it is recommended that children in Years 1 and 2 of primary school should spend one hour a week on homework. In Scotland and Northern Ireland schools are given discretion over homework policy.

The findings appear in a report published today by the Institute of Education's Centre for Longitudinal Studies: Millennium Cohort Study, Fourth Survey: A User's Guide to Initial Findings. Copies of the report can be downloaded from www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/MCSFindings.

Further information from:
David Budge
(off) 020 7911 5349
(mob) 07811 415362
Notes for editors

1. The Millennium Cohort Study has been tracking the Millennium children through their early childhood and plans to follow them into adulthood. It covers such diverse topics as parenting; childcare; school choice; child behaviour and cognitive development; child and parental health; parents' employment and education; income; housing; and neighbourhood. It is the first of the nationwide cohort studies to over-sample areas with high densities of ethnic minorities and large numbers of disadvantaged families. Previous surveys of the cohort were carried out when the children were aged nine months, three years and five years. The study is housed at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education. It was commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council, whose funding has been supplemented by a consortium of government departments.

2. Data from the fieldwork for the fourth survey of the Millennium cohort are now available from the UK Data Archive www.esds.ac.uk.

3. The contract for data collection in MCS is awarded under competitive tender to specialist agencies. For three of the four surveys undertaken to date the data collection was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, who in turn sub-contracted the interviewing in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. The agency responsible for the second round of data collection was Gfk-NOP, who sub-contracted in Northern Ireland to Millward Brown.

4. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's planned total expenditure in 2009/10 is £204 million. At any one time the ESRC supports more than 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes.

5. The Institute of Education is a college of the University of London that specialises in education and related areas of social science and professional practice. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise two-thirds of the publications that the IOE submitted were judged to be internationally significant and over a third were judged to be "world leading". The Institute was recognised by Ofsted in 2010 for its "high quality" initial teacher training programmes that inspire its students "to want to be outstanding teachers". The IOE is a member of the 1994 group, which brings together 19 internationally renowned, research-intensive universities.  

Good relationships at home and school can lessen life-blows for teens

25 February 2010

How can we help youngsters with hardships in their lives to have a better childhood? Research commissioned by the Department for Children Schools and Families shows that good relationships with mum and dad can protect children who have tough challenges in their lives from going off the rails as they reach adolescence.

Researchers from the Institute of Education also found that supportive friendships and feeling happy at school boosted the wellbeing of children whose circumstances placed them at risk of becoming disaffected and unhappy.

Risk factors included low family income, maternal depression and suffering an exceptionally stressful event. "Child-parent relationships are particularly important to sustaining and improving wellbeing," says the report, Change in Wellbeing from Childhood to Adolescence: risk and resilience.

Children's wellbeing is currently of major public and political interest. The Government has placed it at the heart of its agenda through its flagship Every Child Matters policies and families are the focus of much pre-election debate. The findings suggest that early intervention and support can make a big difference.

The academics point to the value of programmes such as SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) in primary schools, which could have lasting benefits in terms of improved wellbeing later. "In particular, the finding that for children at high risk, enjoying school at a younger age is predictive of higher wellbeing later implies that these kinds of programmes might be particularly beneficial for such children," say the academics.

The research also highlights the importance of family intervention schemes that provide support early in children's lives. Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), an ongoing study of children born in 1991 and 1992, the researchers sought to find out what factors drive change in children's wellbeing during late primary and early secondary school.

The report highlights some differences between boys and girls. For example, boys whose mothers suffer from alcoholism tend to experience greater declines in wellbeing as they get into their teenage years, whereas girls do not.

Dr Leslie Gutman, research director at the IOE's Centre for the Wider Benefits of Learning, and her colleagues, comment that the findings "underline the importance of continuing to find effective, easily accessible, attractive and non-stigmatising ways of supporting parents in their role." These might be as simple as promoting the message to parents that taking an active interest in their children's schooling might help them enjoy school more.

Meanwhile, it is valuable for people who work with parents of children at high risk to learn that a warm parent-child relationship particularly protects daughters, while having supportive friendships is protective for high-risk boys.

While it is a truism that children who do well in school feel better about themselves, the finding that success in school promotes the wellbeing of all children "highlights the need to consider the case of children who are not achieving so well and the need to avoid a downward spiral of low achievement and poor wellbeing," says the report.
Ends

Editors' notes
1) Change in Wellbeing from Childhood to Adolescence: risk and resilience by Leslie Morrison Gutman, John Brown, Rodie Akerman and Polina Obolenskaya looked at four aspects of children's psychosocial wellbeing, examining in particular what drives changes in children's outcomes. Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) on some 6,000 children, they looked at trajectories and drivers of change, both positive and negative, across two time periods: 7.5 years to 10.5 years and 10.5 years to 13.8 years. They also looked at children with a large number if risks to wellbeing in their lives, identifying factors which may help protect wellbeing.

The report can be found at http://www.learningbenefits.net/Publications/ResReps/ResRep34.pdf
2) Risk factors to wellbeing used by the researchers are: a. Child has suffered an exceptionally stressful event b. Household income lowest 25% c. Mother had depression when child was aged 10-12 d. Mother was alcoholic when child was aged 10-12 e. Any special educational needs.
3) SEAL is a comprehensive approach to promoting the social and emotional skills that underpin effective learning, positive behaviour, regular attendance, staff effectiveness and the emotional health and well-being of all who learn and work in schools.
4) On support for families, the report says: "The realm of the family is one area where the findings suggest attention might usefully be focused – both in terms of promoting positive relationships between family members, and in addressing specific problems such as depression and alcohol abuse."

"In the case of these problems, it seems that intervening when children are younger might have the most benefit. "Bearing in mind that younger children may be less able than teenagers to identify when their parents are experiencing such problems or to ask for help, staff in schools and other services that have contact with children and families have a vital role in spotting where families might be facing serious problems and taking appropriate action, as well as in providing an environment in which children feel able to share any worries that they might have."
5) Contacts at the IOE press office Diane Hofkins, interim press officer, 020 7911 5423, d.hofkins@ioe.ac.uk James Russell, press assistant, 020 7911 5556, j.russell@ioe.ac.uk
6) The Institute of Education is a college of the University of London, specialising in teaching, research and consultancy in education and related areas of social science and professional practice. Last year's Research Assessment Exercise judged almost two-thirds of the work submitted by the IOE was internationally significant, and 35 per cent was regarded as "world leading". The IOE is a member of the 1994 group.

Children with younger mothers face much tougher start in life, study shows

Children born to younger mothers may need additional government support if they are to fulfil their potential, a new report suggests.

Researchers who are tracking the development of youngsters born in the UK between 2000 and 2002 have found that children with younger mothers have had a much more difficult start in life, on average, than those with older parents.

Their comparison of seven-year-olds with mothers aged under 30 or over 40 reveals that children with younger mothers are:

• far less likely to have married natural parents (19%, compared with 68% of children with older mothers)

• more than seven times as likely to have stepfathers (15%:2%)

• more than twice as likely to be living in a lone-mother family (39%:15%).

Researchers at the Institute of Education, University of London, who analysed information gathered on more than 14,000 children taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study, found that those with younger mothers have also had to cope with far more upheaval than other children during their first seven years. Four in ten children with mothers aged under 30 (39%) experienced a significant family change, such as the arrival of a stepfather, compared with only 13 per cent of youngsters with mothers aged 40 and over.

"Living apart from natural fathers can be associated with poverty and negative outcomes for children," says Lisa Calderwood, of the Institute's Centre for Longitudinal Studies. "As these experiences are particularly concentrated among children of young mothers these findings provide support for policies aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy. They also indicate that families with young parents may benefit from further targeted government support."

The study's latest survey, conducted in 2008/9, shows that ethnic background, as well as mother's age, is strongly related to the type of family a child is brought up in. About nine in ten Indian (89%) and Bangladeshi (90%) seven-year-olds were living with both natural parents who were, in almost all cases, married to each other. By contrast, black Caribbean children were the most likely to be living in a lone-parent family (50%) and were the least likely to have married natural parents (23%).

Overall, just over one in five of the Millennium children (22%) were living in a lone-mother family and over one in twenty (6 per cent) were being brought up by a natural mother and stepfather. Around seven in ten children (69%) were living with both natural parents, with just over half (55%) living with married natural parents.

The proportion of children living with married natural parents was considerably higher in Northern Ireland (61%) than in England (55%), Scotland (53%) and Wales (51%).

The study's latest report also shows that the proportion of children living with both natural parents has been declining steadily. At age nine months 86 per cent of children were with both natural parents. This dropped to 77 per cent at age 5 and to 69 per cent at age 7.

The findings appear in a report published today by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies: Millennium Cohort Study, Fourth Survey: A User's Guide to Initial Findings. Copies of the report can be downloaded from www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/MCSFindings.

.

School improvement comes at a price, study shows

Schools which improve their results may be paying for it by increasing their pupils' levels of disengagement from learning, a major new IOE study based on survey data from more than 9,000 teenagers concludes.

The results present a challenge for teachers, say the study's authors who argue that all institutions' ability, in reality, to raise pupil engagement in learning may be limited. However, the findings suggest that schools, educationists and policy-makers are going to have to work harder in trying to find ways to enhance pupils' engagement with what they are studying, while also raising grades, says the research, being presented at the British Educational Research Association conference today.

Academics at the Institute of Education, University of London, analysed the answers to questionnaires completed by more than 9,000 pupils as part of the Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England, which has been following the progress of pupils who were in year nine in 2003/4.

Each teenager completed questionnaires when they were in year nine, in 2004, and then in year 11, in 2006. Pupils were asked whether they agreed with 12 statements as part of the survey – such as "I am happy when I am at school" and "In a lesson, I often count the minutes till it ends" – which the researchers then used to work out their "emotional engagement" with learning.

The teenagers were also asked to say whether they had played truant in the last 12 months, providing a measure of "behavioural engagement".

Results were then linked to national databases allowing analysis of test results of the pupils and their schools, how much each pupil's school had improved its results as measured by "value-added" scores, plus many background characteristics.

The study found that schools with improving value-added results tended to have less engaged pupils, under the "emotional engagement" measure. The academics questioned whether this was because of the types of pupils that schools with improving value-added results tended to educate, but found that this did not account for the pupils' levels of disengagement.

The study did find, however, that schools with improving value-added results tended to have relatively low numbers of pupils saying they had played truant in the past year.

The research concluded: "We find that pupils who are attending schools that are improving their academic achievement levels, as measured by their school value added scores, are on the one hand becoming less positive in their attitudes towards schools but equally are also less likely to have increasing rates of truancy. This is a striking result."

The results on emotional engagement may reflect the fact that schools pay a price for raising their value-added results by implementing policies which may be unpopular with pupils such as enforcing homework or increasing the emphasis on literacy and numeracy. "In the process of improving school value added scores, with increasing emphasis on test score performance, some pupils [may] become less engaged with school," the study says.

"Whilst these results potentially give ammunition to those who claim we are over testing English pupils with our league table approach to school quality, we would argue that in fact they lend support to the view that there is a limit to what schools can do in promoting pupils' engagement.

"We do, however, need to recognise that change can be challenging and find ways to engage students better with attempts to raise standards in our school system."

"School disengagement and its causes", by Anna Vignoles, Francesca Foliano and Elena Meschi (all of the Institute of Education, University of London), will be presented at the BERA conference today (Friday, September 3rd).

Institute of Education – London's top rated university for student satisfaction

The Institute of Education has the highest levels of student satisfaction in London according to the national student satisfaction survey, an honour it shares with the Central School of Speech and Drama. This places the IOE joint 6th in England for student satisfaction.

90% of IOE undergraduate students reported being satisfied with their student experience, which is significantly above the national average of 82%.

Mary Stiasny, Assistant Director for Teaching and Learning said:

"This is excellent news and reflects the importance we place in our students getting the best from their time here at the IOE."

The Institute has also recently been rated as "outstanding" by Ofsted for the quality of its Initial Teacher Training provision and a recent audit of teaching quality by the QAA received the highest grading possible.

For more information contact the IOE Press office:
James Russell on 0207 911 5556 / j.russell@ioe.ac.uk
Diane Hofkins on 0207 911 5423 /d.hofkins@ioe.ac.uk

The IOE
The Institute of Education is a college of the University of London that specialises in education and related areas of social science and professional practice.  In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise two-thirds of the publications that the IOE submitted were judged to be internationally significant and over a third were judged to be "world leading".  The IOE is a member of the 1994 Group, which brings together nineteen internationally renowned, research-intensive universities. 

One in four boys is turned off school by the age of 7

Almost one in four boys in the UK is already "anti-school" by the age of seven, a major survey has revealed.

Boys of this age are more than twice as likely as girls to say they do not like school, according to a study from the Institute of Education, University of London. Twenty-four per cent do not enjoy primary school, compared with only 10 per cent of girls.
The research, which involved more than 14,000 children, also found that 63 per cent of seven-year-old girls, but only 43 per cent of boys, like school "a lot".
The findings have emerged from the Millennium Cohort Study, which is tracking the development of children born in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland between 2000 and 2002. The study's latest survey, carried out in 2008/9, has confirmed that seven-year-old boys are much less keen than girls on reading. Less than half of the boys (48%) said they enjoy reading, compared with nearly two-thirds of girls (65%).

Boys appear to like number work and science marginally more than girls do. However, girls of this age appear to be more focused on their schoolwork and are more likely than boys to say they always try their best at school.
Four in five girls also say they behave well in class – a claim made by only three in five boys. Half of the girls (51%) believe that their teachers think they are clever, compared with 44 per cent of the boys. 
The researchers who analysed the children's responses, Aleks Collingwood and Nadine Simmonds, of the National Centre for Social Research, also point out that girls seem to be happier, in general, than boys. Boys are more likely to say they are worried or admit they have short tempers.
The survey also found that boys enjoy:
• watching television, videos and DVDs more than girls do (boys 79%:girls 68%)
• playing console games such as Xbox and PlayStation (82%:52%)
• taking part in sports and outdoor games (74%:66%).

However, girls are more likely than boys to say they like:
• listening to, and playing, music (66%:46%)
• drawing and making things (81%:62%).

The findings appear in a report published today by the Institute of Education's Centre for Longitudinal Studies: Millennium Cohort Study, Fourth Survey: A User's Guide to Initial Findings. Copies of the report can be downloaded from www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/MCSFindings. 
Further information from:
David Budge
(off) 020 7911 5349
(mob) 07811 415362
Notes for editors:
1. The Millennium Cohort Study has been tracking the Millennium children through their early childhood and plans to follow them into adulthood. It covers such diverse topics as parenting; childcare; school choice; child behaviour and cognitive development; child and parental health; parents' employment and education; income; housing; and neighbourhood. It is the first of the nationwide cohort studies to over-sample areas with high densities of ethnic minorities and large numbers of disadvantaged families. Previous surveys of the cohort were carried out when the children were aged nine months, three years and five years. The study is housed at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education. It was commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council, whose funding has been supplemented by a consortium of government departments.

2. Data from the fieldwork for the fourth survey of the Millennium cohort are now available from the UK Data Archive www.esds.ac.uk .The age 7 survey included interviews with co-resident parents and cognitive assessments and physical measurements of the children. For the first time the children were asked to fill in a self-completion questionnaire, which produced the findings reported in this press release. This questionnaire contained 38 questions in total on their hobbies, feelings, friends and schooling.

3. The contract for data collection in MCS is awarded under competitive tender to specialist agencies. For three of the four surveys undertaken to date the data collection was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, who in turn sub-contracted the interviewing in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. The agency responsible for the second round of data collection was Gfk-NOP, who sub-contracted in Northern Ireland to Millward Brown.

4. The National Centre for Social Research is Britain's leading social research institute. Information on the Centre's work is available at www.natcen.ac.uk.

5. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's planned total expenditure in 2009/10 is £204 million. At any one time the ESRC supports more than 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes.

6. The Institute of Education is a college of the University of London that specialises in education and related areas of social science and professional practice. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise two-thirds of the publications that the IOE submitted were judged to be internationally significant and over a third were judged to be "world leading". The Institute was recognised by Ofsted in 2010 for its "high quality" initial teacher training programmes that inspire its students "to want to be outstanding teachers". The IOE is a member of the 1994 group, which brings together 19 internationally renowned, research-intensive universities.  

Focus on results can make children do worse, study finds

Children do better in their exams when their teachers focus on learning, rather than on test results, a detailed research survey published by the Institute of Education, London, concludes.

"A focus on learning can enhance performance, whereas a focus on performance alone can depress performance", writes Chris Watkins, Reader in Education in this summer's edition of Research Matters. Children who develop a "performance orientation" rather than a "learning orientation" tend to show greater helplessness, use less strategic thinking and be more focused on grade feedback. They are more likely to persevere with strategies that are not working.

Watkins examined more than 100 classroom-based research studies for his paper, Learning, Performance and Improvement, published by the IOE's London Centre for Leadership in Learning and the International Network for School Improvement.

When children think about what helps them learn, they do better in school, a range of international studies shows. "But learning-centred school improvement is less prevalent than might be envisaged from this evidence, because it remains in tension with the dominant discourse about classroom learning and with current policy interventions in England," Watkins writes.

In recent years, the government in England has viewed "learning" as the same as "being taught", argues Watkins. Although "whole class interactive teaching" has been advocated, the research shows an increase in the amount of talking at pupils, rather than talking with pupils by asking open questions.

Children's attitudes and behaviour improve – along with their results -- when teachers and schools are more concerned about helping them learn than pushing them to gain particular exam scores, Watkins found. Such points have been recognised by Ofsted reports on successful schools, and also mirror the evidence on achievement in other fields such as sports and business.

Never-the-less, evidence suggests that the "goal climate" in classrooms becomes increasingly performance-oriented as children get older, and that this continues to disadvantage the groups of children who have always struggled to achieve in school.

Watkins says schools have two challenges:
• To recognise that passing tests is not the goal of education, but a by-product of effective learning.
• To recognise that even when we want pupils to do their best in tests, pressure and performance orientation will not achieve it.

He concludes "If there's one new thing we need in our school system right now, it's a well-developed focus on learning. And if the coalition government is serious about its wish to close the gap between high performers and low performers then a focus on learning will make a significant contribution. Learning is for life, not for league tables."

Should parents use league tables to choose schools?

A number-crunching study from academics at the Institute of Education, London, and the Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO), Bristol University, shows that when parents use league tables to inform their choice of secondary school, their child is more likely to do better in their GCSEs.

"Parents should use GCSE performance information to choose schools," conclude Dr Rebecca Allen of the IOE and Professor Simon Burgess of Bristol. "We find that using performance tables is better than choosing a local school at random."

The findings will surprise sceptics, who argue that raw exam league tables simply reflect the make-up of a school's population and may not be useful in predicting how one particular child might do there. For example, a school with good results might simply attract high ability pupils.  Sceptics also point out that there is a six-year gap between school choice and a child's own GCSE exams, and schools can change a great deal in this time.

Allen and Burgess studied the entire cohort of half a million children who had to choose their school in 2003 and used the extensive data available to find out how they actually did in their GCSE exams in 2009. They compared each child with similar local children who chose a different school. This enabled them to evaluate whether picking the school at the top of the local league table in 2003 was likely to have been a good choice for the child who took their GCSEs in 2009.

"A child who attends the highest performing school within their choice set on 2003 data will turn out to do better than making a choice at random twice as often as they will do worse," say the researchers.

Perhaps surprisingly, raw outcome performance tables outperform more sophisticated tables, such as those which attempt to show the "value added" to children's scores by the school.

The analysis is detailed in a CMPO discussion paper entitled "Evaluating the provision of school performance information for school choice".

Allen and Burgess found that league tables are most useful for students who have to choose among schools with very different levels of performance. When differences between local schools are minimal, league tables are not particularly helpful in predicting a child's future academic performance, they say.

"Another surprise is that the best GCSE performance information is only slightly more useful in school choice than knowing the average ability of pupils entering the school," say the authors.  "We believe that this is because the demographic profile of pupils strongly influences the school's ability to attract high quality teachers, headteachers, governing bodies, unpaid volunteers, teaching assistants, and other resources. 

"To be clear, our argument is not that school composition is all that matters directly and teaching quality not at all; rather, we argue that teaching quality matters a great deal, but that averaged over a number of years, this is strongly influenced by school composition."

They recognise this is "not a comfortable conclusion", because of the implication that it is not rational for a middle class parent to pick a deprived school, even if it is doing well. They believe this situation could be overcome through policies which work harder to equalise school intakes, or which enable deprived schools to attract more resources.

"The obvious policy reform would be to mandate local authorities to publish exam performance data alongside admissions information in the school admissions brochures sent to parents of 10 year-old children. This should improve the chances that more disadvantaged families use this performance information, and will make no difference to the choices of advantaged families who already incorporate this information into their decisions."

However, poor families will not benefit without reforms to the school admissions system "so that students from these disadvantaged families can actually access the schools that they might choose on the basis of the performance data", Allen and Burgess conclude.

Towards equal education for girls around the world

In the past 10 years more children have had better opportunities to attend school, but nearly a billion people still receive little or no education. Most of them are girls and women. An international conference taking place online and in Dakar, Senegal, is bringing together education activists, academics, practitioners, policy makers and girls themselves to debate and develop ways to ensure a better deal for women in education around the world. Titled E4 Engendering Empowerment: Education and Equality, this innovative conference is using both electronic media and participatory discussion.

The e-conference begins on Monday, 12 April, for the five weeks leading up to the May 17-20 Dakar event, to open up the discussion and allow the broadest possible participation in the E4 initiative. Both conferences will examine issues of violence, poverty and educational quality and their intersections with participation, climate change and health.

The E4 conferences are organised jointly by UNGEI, the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative, and a team from the Institute of Education, London, led by Elaine Unterhalter, Professor of Education and International Development.

The organisers hope to develop and deepen partnerships among activists, practitioners, policy-makers and scholars, national and international, concerned with girls' education and gender to build knowledge and to plan collectively for policy and practice.

In a situation analysis prepared for the E4 Conference, Professor Unterhalter summarises what has been done so far:

Despite money invested, problems persist. There are still major obstacles in realising rights to education, in education and through education for many millions.

In 2009, 40 countries, with the largest complement in Africa, were considered unlikely to meet the goal of gender parity in primary school enrolments. 50 countries still have such large disparities in enrolments in favour of boys that they are unlikely to achieve gender parity in secondary education by 2015.

Many countries have achieved enormous improvements in gender parity in enrolment and attendance, but UNESCO analyses of attendance show that being poor, rural and a girl means that attendance in school is much less likely to be regular.

Partnerships for gender equality in education have faced considerable difficulties in reaching the poorest quintiles, ensuring quality or equity in post primary transfer. Some reasons for this relate to inadequate resources or political commitment, others to the complex web of global inequalities associated with poverty.

Turn schools into "talent factories"

Schools must become "talent factories" if Britain is to compete successfully in the new world market, a leading academic warned today (March 4). Dylan Wiliam, Deputy Director of the Institute of Education London will tell a conference organised by The Spectator magazine: "It is not enough to identify talent in our schools any more; we have to create it."

Although children have become brighter and teachers better, "the changes in the world of work have been even more extraordinary," he said. "Over the last 10 years, the UK economy has shed 400 no-qualification jobs every single day."

The situation was like "walking up a down escalator," he said. "If we cannot increase the rate at which our schools are improving, then, quite simply, we will go backwards.

"In the past, we have treated schools as talent refineries. The job of schools was to identify talent, and let it rise to the top. The demand for skill and talent was sufficiently modest that it did not matter that potentially able individuals were ignored. The demand for talent and skill is now so great, however, that schools have to be talent incubators, and even talent factories. It is not enough to identify talent in our schools any more; we have to create it."

Successive governments had striven to raise standards through countless policy initiatives, but "the depressing reality is that the net effect of the vast majority of these measures on student achievement has been close to, if not actually, zero," Professor Wiliam said.

Overwhelmingly, the evidence shows that "the only thing that really matters is the quality of the teacher". In the classrooms of the best teachers, children learn in six months what students taught by an average teacher take a year to learn.

Professor Wiliam demonstrated that raising the threshold for entry into the profession would not be enough. Over 30 years, this would increase teacher quality by just 20% of the gap between teacher quality in Finland (the highest-rated country) and in the UK. This would result in one extra student per class passing an exam every three years.

"Our future economic prosperity therefore requires that as well as improving the quality of entrants to the teaching profession, we have to make the teachers we have better." This required time and support to help change practice.

"The problem is that our schools are inundated with initiatives, and too many schools try to embrace them all." When there is clear evidence about what works, it is "self-indulgent" to try everything.

"When resources are limited (as they always are) then whether something is good is irrelevant. What matters is whether there is something better that could be done with the same resources."

Bright girls less likely to want to study maths and physics at A-level than bright boys

The largest ever investigation analysing whether teenagers want to take maths or physics in the sixth form has found that even high-ability, highly motivated girls are less likely than boys to want to persist with the subjects beyond the age of 16.

Researchers from the Institute of Education, London, who surveyed 10,355 14- and 15-year-olds in 113 schools across England found that girls were less likely to want to take maths and physics at A-level and through other post-16 qualifications, even when compared to boys with similar background characteristics.

Three times as many boys as girls said they strongly agreed with the idea of taking physics beyond the age of 16, while for maths, boys were 1.5 times more likely to say this was the case.

The academics behind the three year study, being presented at the British Educational Research Association's annual conference today (Saturday September 4), admitted that it was still not clear what schools should do to counteract this "male-orientation" towards take-up.

The findings are likely to be seized upon in the debate about raising participation levels in subjects which are widely seen as vital both for the UK's future economic prosperity and for individual students in their future careers.

The researchers surveyed 5,321 pupils on their intention to study maths beyond the age of 16. Asked if they wanted to study the subject after their GCSEs some 22 per cent of boys "strongly agreed" that they did, while 70 per cent agreed at least slightly.

The comparable figures for girls were 15 per cent agreeing strongly and 59 per cent at least slightly. Some nine per cent of boys strongly disagreed with the idea of post-16 maths study, compared to 13 per cent of girls.

They asked the same question of 5,034 pupils for physics. Only 5 per cent of girls strongly agreed with the idea of pursuing the subject post-16, compared to 13 per cent of boys. Some 52 per cent of boys agreed at least slightly, compared to 33 per cent of girls. Only 18 per cent of boys disagreed strongly with the idea of post-16 physics study, compared to 25 per cent of girls.

The academics then explored whether the differences might have been explained by pupils' results in tests at Key Stage 2, by psychological factors such as how good they thought they were at the subjects, or by how good their schools' results were.

However, none of these factors explained the apparent reluctance of girls to persevere with the subjects. Even when comparing girls of similar prior achievement and belief in their own ability to boys, males were more likely to want to study maths and physics. Tamjid Mujtaba, the lead researcher, says: "This is really important. All other things being equal, girls are less likely to intend to go on to study the subjects than boys. These do seem to be seen as male-oriented subjects.

"We do not know why. We think it is to do with socialisation processes, both in and out of school, but it will need to be investigated further."

The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, also found that pupils who described themselves as extroverts were less likely to want to study physics than those who did not – although this was not the case for maths – and that schools with teachers who said they attended a lot of meetings, rather than concentrating on classroom teaching, had lower proportions of pupils saying they wanted to study physics post-16.

A series of papers on the Understanding Participation rates in post-16 Mathematics And Physics (UPMAP) project are being presented by Tamjid Mujtaba, Celia Hoyles, Michael Reiss, Bijan Riazi-Farzad, Fani Stylianidou, Shirley Simon and Melissa Rodd (all of the Institute of Education, University of London) at BERA today (Saturday September 4).