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Section 7 Questions for Schools and Local Authorities to Consider

Language specialists from the SSA partner organisations and groups discussed the findings of the report and offered some questions about the survey findings for schools and local authorities to consider.

Questions to consider in Reading

7.1 In reading, schools appear to be building successfully on pupils' achievements at Levels B, C, D and E over each 2-year period. There are more high achievers in P7 (Level E) than at the other stages. Lower achievers seem to lose more ground than higher achievers after P5.

• Are these findings to be expected? If so, what might be the explanation for them?
• What kind of programmes and activities might provide P7 pupils with a more secure basis for developing their reading and study skills at the transition from primary into secondary school?
• Are there aspects of the theory and practice of teaching reading that might be the focus of professional development for teachers in the upper primary and lower secondary school?

Questions to consider in Writing

7.2 Teachers' judgements from the national 5-14 Survey of Attainment and SSA show steadily increasing trends over the first five years at all levels, levelling off or even beginning to decrease slightly in the last two years, except at Level D in S2 where the trend is up.

• What might explain the apparent success in improving achievement in writing for lower achieving pupils in S2, with well over 85% of pupils attaining at least Level D? Could successful strategies apply in primary schools?
• What could be done to raise expectations of progression in writing for higher attaining pupils, particularly in primary schools, so that skills gained at lower levels can be developed and extended at an appropriate pace?

7.3 Field officers' judgements of levels for the relatively small sample of pupils' Writer's Craft tasks were consistently less positive than teachers' judgements about writing overall, particularly at P7 and S2, where differences were between 20 and 40 percentage points.

• What could explain the apparent difference in pupils' attainment between extended writing and Writer's Craft?
• What could be done to extend pupils' understanding and skills in aspects of the writer's craft, particularly at Level D and above?

Questions to consider in Numeracy

7.4 The survey results suggest that primary schools are successfully building up numeracy skills. However, well-established skills at Level D do not always seem to be translated into well-established skills at Level E in S2 and the proportion of P7 pupils with very good skills at Level D is about a third lower at Level E in S2. Evidence from the 2004 AAP maths report suggests that there are numeracy topics at Level E that present pupils with difficulties, even though they are quite confident at Level D. Likely difficult topics are decimals, fractions, percentages and ratio.

• What could be done to help pupils in the upper primary school who are less confident, and may have achieved a good start but cannot yet be considered to have well-established skills in numeracy at the levels expected?
• Given that the survey assessed numeracy skills that are regarded as important for learning and for adult life, rather than mathematics in its broadest sense, what might be done in terms of programmes, learning, teaching and assessment at S2 to make sure pupils acquire these skills at an appropriate level?

7.5 In maths literacy tasks, which required pupils to apply their skills in everyday contexts, the results suggest quite consistent progression through the primary school in applying number and data handling skills in everyday contexts, but again there appears to be little progress between P7 and S2 in this type of maths. These differences are very similar to those between numeracy (number, money and measurement and information handling) and problem-solving in the 2004 maths survey.

• How can this apparent lack of progression at transition be explained?
• What might need to be done in terms of programmes, learning and teaching in S1-S2 to give pupils more experience in applying their knowledge and skills in context and solving numerical problems?

7.6 In Listening/watching the overall picture was of a wide spread of attainment. At Level F, higher attainers in P7 performed almost as well as those in S2, with half the pupils at both stages successfully answering the questions at this level. These finding suggest that there may be a problem with progression from Level E to Level F.

• Do teachers have a clear understanding of what Listening/watching skills at higher attainment levels are like? Is there a need for more support and CPD for teachers in this area?
• What might be done in terms of language programmes to give pupils opportunities to develop more sophisticated aural skills Levels D, E and F, particularly in S2?

7.7 In individual and group talk, the numbers of pupils at each stage attaining the successive levels or successfully tackling tasks decreased with age from P5-S2. In Working with others and Problem-solving, twice as many lower attainers in S2 as in P7 made little or no contribution to the discussion and/or showed no evidence of listening to the ideas of others and building on them. Rather more pupils at S2 compared with those at P5 and P7 adopted a disruptive role, showed signs of being disengaged, or demonstrated no evidence of problem-solving skills.

• What might explain these results? Are they expected?
• How can these core skills that are held to be important for learning and for life beyond school, be given greater attention and development in programmes of learning in language and across the curriculum, especially with the introduction of the four capacities of the Curriculum for Excellence?

Questions about 'shared standards' to consider

7.8 The survey shows differences between teachers' judgements and the survey results for reading, writing and numeracy. This should not be taken to mean that the survey is 'right' and the teachers are 'wrong'. Nevertheless, there is some evidence from the survey to suggest that teachers might be both over- and under-estimating pupils' reading, writing and numeracy skills, and that understanding of standards relating to levels may not be shared across Scotland. In numeracy the results suggest that teachers for the most part do share an understanding about the standards required for attainment at particular levels, but for having 'made a good start' rather than having 'well-established' skills.

• Why, in reading and numeracy, do teachers' judgements and survey results differ? Is the difference to be expected?
• In particular, what might explain the situation for P3 and P5, where substantial proportions of pupils showed higher attainment than expected in the survey? Are there factors in early years provision that might have contributed and could usefully be shared across Scotland?
• Are there teaching and/or assessment practices in place in the early years of primary and secondary school that may have the unintended effect of putting a 'ceiling' on teachers', pupils' or parents' expectations of pupils' achievements?
• How do classroom teachers arrive at a shared understanding of what is needed to achieve a particular level in reading or writing?
• What can be done to develop and promote better understanding and sharing amongst teachers of the learning and standards needed for the achievement of particular levels within a curriculum framework?

7.9 The survey shows a good level of agreement overall between teachers' ratings and moderators about levels of attainment in writing, especially at P5 and P7. There is a lower level of agreement at P3 and S2.

• Why, in writing, are teachers' judgements generally unaffected by moderation at P5/P7 but more affected at P3 and S2?
• Why, in the primary school, is there a greater mismatch in writing than in reading between national assessment results and teachers' own views (from the questionnaire)?

Gender issues

7.10 For the most part, girls performed significantly better than boys across reading tasks and genres, in writing, and in talking, at all levels. Questionnaire data reveal that there is stereotyped gender bias in pupils' preferences for future careers.

• Why do the strong gender differences in learning, attitudes and attainment persist in Scotland?
• Why does Scotland not see a systematic gender gap in numeracy attainment, when other countries usually do?
• Does it matter? If so, what can be done to try to reduce the attainment gap?
• What might be done to take more account of boys' and girls' different preferences in structuring programmes and tasks for language work in English and across the curriculum, and to provide experience of a wide range of tasks in different contexts and for different purposes?

Change over time

7.11 Comparing reading, writing and numeracy results writing levels in 1998 and 2005, results in reading show an overall improvement. In writing, schools' reports from the national survey and teachers' judgements for the 2005 SSA survey largely coincide at P7, but at S2 are further apart. Results for numeracy show a marked improvement only at Level D in P7 and S2.

• Is the improvement in reading attainment since 2001 expected? If so, on what basis?
• Is it likely that writing has also improved since 2001? If so, what might be the reasons?
• Why, in numeracy, should there have been a marked P7/S2 improvement since 2000 at Level D, but not at Level E?

Issues from questionnaires

7.12 The results from the teachers' questionnaires suggest that teachers are aware that test results do not always match their own judgements about pupils' attainment.

• Does the difference matter? Do teachers have a good understanding of why there might be a difference between their own judgements and test results?
• If the difference does matter, how can schools be encouraged to develop teachers' confidence in assessment and to use a range of approaches to assessment and evidence to arrive at summative judgements about pupils' learning and progress?

7.13 Pupils' motivation and self-esteem in English and mathematics appear to decrease with age, especially at the transition from primary to secondary school.

• Why might pupils' motivation to learn fall as they progress through their schooling?
• Why is motivation to learn lower at S2 in mathematics than in English Language?
• Why do pupils' self-assessments in English Language become less positive as they mature?
• Are these findings to be expected? Do they give cause for concern?
• If so, what changes might be needed in approaches to learning, teaching and assessment to improve the confidence, motivation, expectations and attainment of lower attaining pupils in the upper primary and lower secondary school?

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