Students’ attitudes to practical work by age and subject

This article reports on a study into students’ attitudes to practical work. The findings suggest that students’ attitudes differ according to their age and the particular science where the practical work is conducted. The implication is that teachers should be more aware of how students’ attitudes to practical work change as lessons move further away from a focus on the enjoyment of science towards one that is examination-orientated. Simply doing the same amount of, and adopting the same approach to, practical work is unlikely to foster positive student attitudes towards practical work in all three sciences

Students’ attitudes to practical work in secondary school science

Students’ attitudes to practical work in secondary school science, Sharpe, R. at the UK Science Education Research Conference, National Science Learning Centre, 2nd – 4th July 2012

Untangling what teachers mean by the motivational value of practical work

This article reports on a study of teachers’ views on the motivational value of practical work. The findings suggest that what teachers frequently refer to as motivation is, in a psychological sense, better understood in terms of situational interest. The fact that situational interest is unlikely to endure beyond the end of a lesson helps to explain why students need to be continually re-stimulated by the frequent use of practical work. The implication is that simply doing more of the same practical work is unlikely to motivate students towards opting to study science in the post-compulsory phase of education

Pair-mentoring: a project to improve the achievement and attitude in science of students aged 16 in England

Within England there has been a growing recognition of the need to increase students’ attainment in science especially amongst disadvantaged students whose schools receive additional state funding to support their education. There is, in England, currently no paired mentoring programme in which undergraduates, studying STEM subjects, are paired up with disadvantaged students (aged between 15-16) while they are studying towards their science GCSEs (public examinations). This peer-mentoring project in which students, from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, are paired with undergraduate students was designed and implemented in order to help improve both their academic achievement in science and their attitudes towards studying science and related subjects in the post compulsory phase of their education up to, and including, university level. The project is a comparative study involving a control (n=42) and intervention (n=42) group from across four state secondary schools in England. Unlike previous evaluations of mentoring projects, that relied solely upon participants’ (mentors, mentees and programme coordinators) self-evaluations, this study uses student school test and public examination data as a measure of academic achievement in addition to questionnaires to investigate their attitudes towards science. This paper reports on the way that this project was designed, issues arising in its implementation, as well as preliminary results regarding its effectiveness

Does Paired Mentoring Work? A Study of the Effectiveness and Affective Value of Pairing Students Aged 16 with Undergraduate Students in England

Within England there is a growing aim to improve the lives of secondary school students who are defined as disadvantaged as well as supporting these students’ attainment and improving their attitudes towards secondary school science. This project was designed to support disadvantaged students who were taking their compulsory public General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) science examination in their final year of secondary education in England (Year 11 – aged 15 to 16) by pairing them with undergraduate mentors from a university. The study, set up as a randomized control trial, involved 86 disadvantaged students across four secondary schools with half being involved in the intervention and half in the control – drawing on an inter and intra school comparison. The mentoring lasted for 23 weeks with an intensive six-hour mentoring session just prior to their GCSE examinations. Data was collected from the Year 11 students’ mock and actual GCSE examinations results as well as questionnaires from both Year 11 and undergraduates. The results found that mentored students did statistically better in terms of their attainment both in mock and actual GCSE examinations as well as a statistically greater improvement in their attitudes to science than un-mentored students. These findings demonstrate the impact and value of academically asymmetrical paired mentoring projects

Getting practical: improving practical work in science programme: a report on the achievements of the programme 2009–2011

Following the SCORE report in 2008 titled ‘Practical Work in Science’, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) funded a 2-year programme of professional development for teachers of science to improve the way in which practical work in science was being taught in schools. A consortium of partners, led by the Association for Science Education (ASE) created a package of continuing professional development (CPD) materials for this purpose. The development of this package was informed by the mapping exercise carried out by the Centre for Science Education (CSE) and was put together by experts from the National Science Learning Centre, regional Science Learning Centres (SLCs), CLEAPSS, the University of York, the National Strategies, ASE and CSE

The effectiveness of the ‘Getting practical’ Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme

The effectiveness of the ‘Getting Practical’ Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme. A paper presented jointly with Reiss, M., & Sharpe, R. at the UK Science Education Research Conference, National Science Learning Centre, 2nd - 4th July 2012

Early years and key stage 1 teachers’ attitudes towards outdoor and online play

Children’s opportunities for outdoor play have declined (Nash, D. 2018. The Construction of the Decline of Children’s Outdoor Play as a Social Problem in the UK. Canterbury: Canterbury Christ Church University) whilst opportunities for online play are increasing (Berrett, B., J. Murphy, and J. Sullivan. 2012. “Administrator Insights and Reflections: Technology Integration in Schools.” The Qualitative Report 17 (1): 200–221). This study investigated early years/key stage 1 teachers’ attitudes towards outdoor and online play utilising (Rosenberg, M. J., and C. I. Hovland. 1960. “Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioural Components of Attitudes.” In Attitude Organization and Change, edited by M. Rosenberg, C. Hovland, W. McGuire, R. Abelson, and J. Brehm, 1–14. Connecticut: Yale University Press) tripartite model of attitudes. An online survey was employed with 30 early years/key stage 1 teachers, gaining an understanding of teachers’ attitudes towards outdoor and online play. In summary, results show there is significant variation in teachers’ attitudes towards outdoor and online play, whilst children’s opportunities for outdoor and online play within UK early education also remain infrequent and varied

Inequalities in the dental health needs and access to dental services among looked after children in Scotland: a population data linkage study

Background: There is limited evidence on the health needs and service access among children and young people who are looked after by the state. The aim of this study was to compare dental treatment needs and access to dental services (as an exemplar of wider health and well-being concerns) among children and young people who are looked after with the general child population. Methods: Population data linkage study utilising national datasets of social work referrals for ‘looked after’ placements, the Scottish census of children in local authority schools, and national health service’s dental health and service datasets. Results: 633 204 children in publicly funded schools in Scotland during the academic year 2011/2012, of whom 10 927 (1.7%) were known to be looked after during that or a previous year (from 2007–2008). The children in the looked after children (LAC) group were more likely to have urgent dental treatment need at 5 years of age: 23%vs10% (n=209/16533), adjusted (for age, sex and area socioeconomic deprivation) OR 2.65 (95% CI 2.30 to 3.05); were less likely to attend a dentist regularly: 51%vs63% (n=5519/388934), 0.55 (0.53 to 0.58) and more likely to have teeth extracted under general anaesthesia: 9%vs5% (n=967/30253), 1.91 (1.78 to 2.04). Conclusions: LAC are more likely to have dental treatment needs and less likely to access dental services even when accounting for sociodemographic factors. Greater efforts are required to integrate child social and healthcare for LAC and to develop preventive care pathways on entering and throughout their time in the care system

Enhancing therapeutic vaccination by blocking PD-1–mediated inhibitory signals during chronic infection

Therapeutic vaccination is a potentially promising strategy to enhance T cell immunity and viral control in chronically infected individuals. However, therapeutic vaccination approaches have fallen short of expectations, and effective boosting of antiviral T cell responses has not always been observed. One of the principal reasons for the limited success of therapeutic vaccination is that virus-specific T cells become functionally exhausted during chronic infections. We now provide a novel strategy for enhancing the efficacy of therapeutic vaccines. In this study, we show that blocking programmed death (PD)-1/PD-L1 inhibitory signals on exhausted CD8+ T cells, in combination with therapeutic vaccination, synergistically enhances functional CD8+ T cell responses and improves viral control in mice chronically infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. This combinatorial therapeutic vaccination was effective even in the absence of CD4+ T cell help. Thus, our study defines a potent new approach to augment the efficacy of therapeutic vaccination by blocking negative signals. Such an approach may have broad applications in developing treatment strategies for chronic infections in general, and perhaps also for tumors