1. The EEF expects to grow its focus on social and emotional skills - or ‘character’ education
The report states: “There is growing evidence that children’s social and emotional skills - their ability to respond to setbacks, work well with others, build relationships, manage emotions and cope with difficult situations - are associated with success at school, as well as positive outcomes in adulthood.
“However, despite a growing interest in these skills, much less is known about what can be done to develop them.”
The report says the EEF has so far funded “over a dozen” trials with a focus on social and emotional skills, including “character” education.
It adds: “Alongside the EEF’s core focus on academic attainment, this is likely to be an area of our work that grows in future, including approaches that support students to manage their own learning, and a wider set of ‘essential skills’ that prepare young people for success in adult life.”
It comes after the newly appointed education secretary Damian Hinds said on Monday that it was the role of schools to develop pupils’ “character” and “workplace skills” - and that there was “nothing soft” about these so-called “soft skills”.
This was in contrast to Mr Hinds’ predecessor Justine Greening, who scrapped a flagship character education scheme set up by former education secretary Nicky Morgan, who has continued to lobby for it as a backbencher.
The EEF has commissioned the University of Manchester to review how to define and measure social and emotional development.
It has developed a database called SPECTRUM (Social, Psychological, Emotional, Concepts of self, and Resilience: Understanding and Measurement), compiling early findings from this work.
2. The reported impact of teaching assistants is expected to grow
The EEF’s teaching and learning toolkit shows the impact of particular teaching interventions, based on research evidence.
The toolkit currently shows that teaching assistants result in pupils making a month of extra progress - up from zero progress in 2011.
The report says, this “is likely to increase again once more new studies are included in the next update”.
3. A primary school programme had the biggest impact on learning, out of 16 separate trials - but results were mixed
In 2016-17, 16 evaluation reports of EEF-funded trials were published, including an indication of how many months of progress were made by participating pupils.
The programme with the biggest impact - four months of extra progress in maths - was ReflectEd, which aims to improve pupils’ ability to think about and manage their own learning.
Pupils are encouraged to record audio, photographed and written notes of their reflections about their progress. Teachers can look across these records to get an overview of the areas that pupils are enjoying or struggling with - and identify specific particular needs.
Pupils who participated in ReflectED made an average of four months’ additional progress in maths compared to pupils who did not. However, they also made an average of two months’ less progress in reading.
4. Six EEF-funded programmes out of 16 were found to result in zero progress by pupils
They included Achieve Together, a pilot involving Teach First, Teaching Leaders and The Future Leaders Trust and funded by J.P. Morgan and the EEF. It aimed to improve the quality of teaching in challenging schools.
And three programmes were found to have a negative effect on learning - including Project-Based Learning, which aimed to provide pupils with independent and group learning skills, as well as practical literacy skills.
Delivered by social enterprise The Innovation Unit, it led to pupils making two month’s less progress, according to the trial.
5. Four ‘promising’ projects are being expanded
They include:
ReflectEd: See above.
Nuffield Early Language Intervention: An approach to improve the spoken language ability of children during the transition from nursery to primary school, delivered by teaching assistants.
Abracadabra: An online early literacy programme comprising phonic fluency and comprehension activities, delivered by teaching assistants in small groups.
Magic Breakfast: A free, universal, before-school breakfast club aiming to improve attainment outcomes by increasing the number of children who eat a healthy breakfast.
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