Do you do maths on paper? "No, I do it on my chair!"
Emma Owens, Research Fellow
Over the summer, the Observatory ran a pilot in preparation for our larger primary and secondary cohort study. Four primary and four secondary schools kindly agreed to help us with about 200 Reception children completing the primary survey and numeracy screening tests and approximately 400 Year 7 students completing the secondary pupil survey. To find out how the schools got on, I went on a road trip to meet with teachers and talk about their experience to gain invaluable feedback that just wouldn’t be captured in the analysis of survey data.
I was lucky to be able to sit in on a Reception child completing both the survey and Numeracy screening test. It was great to watch the child’s facial expressions in response to each of the questions. It was obvious that she was enjoying the experience, and she had a big smile when asked if she liked doing maths. Talking to the Reception teachers and Teaching Assistants and watching a child complete the survey, unearthed a wealth of information that (unfortunately) discussions about research instruments in a university can’t produce. For example, it was clear that we need to look at the response sheet we used for one of the survey sections based on many children looking confused when completing this section.
Another piece of feedback showed me that we need to think about how literally children think when answering questions. When asked about doing maths “on paper”, one child responded immediately, “No, I do maths on my chair!”. There is a message to us here, to have a look at the questions we are asking through the eyes of a four-year-old.
The feedback from the Year 7 teachers was straightforward with a suggestion of a glossary of terms that would help students understand some of the wording used in the pupil survey. An example of this is the word ‘tense’ which some students interpreted as meaning the ‘present tense’ rather than a feeling similar to nervousness (as we had intended). Each of the schools commented that the pupils were all engaged whilst doing the survey and they were happy to have the opportunity to express their opinions.
We had created videos explaining the research to pupils (Oscar-winning in our eyes), which were received well by the pupils especially with the emphasis on having their say on their experiences of maths education.
Overall, the feedback was largely positive. Each of the teachers I spoke with were really interested in the study and expressed the value they perceived in conducting this. Something that struck me was the teachers’ delight with the easiness of the process and clarity of instructions. As professionals who are often swamped with complicated and lengthy paperwork; the instructions for this project were a welcome contrast.
However, I did learn that we had overlooked some of the practicalities of life in a busy school when we had envisaged aspects of the study. It was consistent across all the schools that the return packaging needed to be addressed – we can’t expect teachers to keep track of, and then reuse, the envelopes used for delivery which were understandably ripped open and thrown into the bin without a second thought. While this may seem a trivial point to make, the impact of this at the scale of the main study would create significant logistical issues.
At the end of the day, pupils’ voices are the best indicator of what is happening in classrooms. We are grateful to the schools that welcomed taking part in the pilot and invited me in to talk to their staff. All feedback – positive and negative – has gone into shaping the final plans for the delivery of our full-scale study which will involve up to 200 primary schools and 150 secondary schools. The process has been an excellent reminder that all of us are always learning. And that, sometimes, four-year-olds can outsmart university academics.
Author information
Emma is Research Fellow in the Observatory.
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