01/10/2023 - 31/08/2024
3: Learning environments based on scientific evidence to address underachievement
3: Learning environments based on scientific evidence to address underachievement
The teams working on WP 3 will look in detail at the way that some schools have been able to successfully support their students’ learning and ability to thrive in all aspects of their development. Case studies will explore the specific ways these schools are supporting their students to gain the basic skills they need and to feel included in the learning environment. Based on this research, the teams will produce a toolkit for teachers and school leaders. It will feature resources for planning and delivering successful learning opportunities for the benefit of the children in their school life and in terms of their psychosocial development.
There are three tasks in WP3. The first task will be studying twenty schools in ten different European countries selected on the basis of:
- serving families from socially or economically disadvantaged settings, from refugee or migrant backgrounds or from Roma communities and
- having reduced the number of children not acquiring basic skills and/or the rate of students leaving school early in the past 10 years (to at least 20%) and those which are below the European average.
The researchers will write up case studies about each school, taking account of different aspects of students’ learning, the way that teachers are trained and deliver their teaching, and how families and the community support the students’ whole development, including how schools keep their spaces safe from bullying and violence. Information will be collected from school records from the past five to ten years regarding students’ achievement in maths, reading, sciences and digital skills, rates of absenteeism and children leaving school early. Alongside this, in-depth interviews and focus groups will take place with teachers, school staff, students, their families and stakeholders. There will also be systematic observations across the learning environments (minumum of 20).
The case study datawill be analysed to identify the factors that foster or hinder quality education and whole child development. At this point, the participants of the case studies will be invited to discuss the conclusions drawn from the case studies in a process of co-creation. On the basis of this joint work, a report will highlight the pathways to school success.
The second task is ‘a research brief’ which will report on the features of successful schools in enabling children to do well at school and thrive in their lives. The writers will draw together published research on this topic and include findings from the experiences of children and families reported in the case studies.
The third task is a toolkit to guide teachers and school leaders who wish to improve opportunities for their students to acquire basic skills and to promote the psychosocial development of the children. It will be co-created by the case study participants and other stakeholders. It will feature useful teaching and learning resources (available online) relating to the planning and delivery of successful learning activities and be available in a number of different languages. The toolkit will be piloted in WP4.
WP 3 leader: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom