set 2011: no. 2

What does it take to develop and sustain innovative approaches to supporting students’ learning? This is a theme linking several of the articles in this issue of set: Research Information for Teachers, each illustrating some of the challenges and opportunities of stepping beyond conventional teaching and learning practices and seeking to do things differently.

Peer assessment is now considered a necessary and vital strategy to be embedded within an assessment for learning framework. Grounded in teachers’ practice, this article pays particular attention to the learning environments created by two teachers as they incorporated peer assessment into their primary school classroom programmes. It illustrates the kinds of experiences, interactions and opportunities needed to ensure peer assessment is infused into the learning environment prior to, during… Read more

What are the features of a positive work environment for early career teachers? This article examines this question through interviews with secondary school early career science teachers. Findings suggest a science department that is collegial and collaborative is essential in encouraging teachers in the early stages of their career to stay in the profession and engage in practice that supports student learning. While the article focuses on the science department work environment, the… Read more

This study investigated the practices involved in the transition to school for children with a range of special education needs. Certain factors emerged as most important for a successful transition, including good ongoing communication and collaboration between families and schools. Teachers’ use of differentiation practices was also beneficial. The article concludes that the critical factor for successful transitions was high levels of communication and collaboration leading to good home–… Read more

This article critiques a recent professional development course for history teachers that explored how students could use memorials and heritage sites to engage with the concept of significance and how this could contribute to them developing expertise in historical thinking. The course challenged teachers to consider historical significance in terms of disciplinary characteristics (as opposed to memory-history), to move away from the teacher transmission/storytelling model and to… Read more

That students find working on multimodal texts engaging isn’t surprising—but what would be surprising is if that spilled over into increased engagement and achievement with traditional print texts. This is exactly what the author of this article found in an exploratory e-learning research project. Here she discusses this finding and explores some of the possible reasons behind it.

This article describes one primary school’s approach to countering the “summer drop” in reading achievement. By the deliberate sharing of strategies to support reading at home during the holidays through a “summer reading contract”, Clayton Park School has successfully reduced the drop in reading achievement over the summer, including for the lowest performing students across all ethnicities.

It has been suggested that focusing on the metacognitive skills secondary students need to make informed decisions about literacy challenges they encounter is a central element in raising literacy achievement. However, it is also recognised that struggling students are often not metacognitively skilful and are reluctant to use skills once taught them. This article uses findings from years 3 and 4 of a 5-year project in the south-west of the United States to discuss the approaches used to… Read more

The literature about 21st century learning argues that we need to think differently about education. Rather than simply “knowing about” things, we want students to be able to do new things with what they know. If this is the case, we need to make sure students are provided with opportunities to develop competencies to do so, and that assessment activities reflect that this is what is valued.