Moving on: the challenges for foreign language learning on transition from primary to secondary school

Europe's commitment to language learning has resulted in higher percentages of pupils studying foreign languages during primary education. In England, recent policy decisions to expand foreign language learning at primary level by 2010 create major implications for transition to secondary. This paper presents findings on transition issues from case studies of a DfES-funded project evaluating 19 local authority Pathfinders piloting the introduction of foreign language learning at primary level. Research on transition in other countries sets these findings in context. Finally, it investigates the challenges England faces for transition in the light of this expansion and discusses future implications.

Motivational trajectories for early language learning across the primary-secondary school transition

The transition from primary to secondary school is an area of concern across a range of curriculum subjects, and this is no less so for foreign language learning. Indeed problems with transition have been identified in England as an important barrier to the introduction of language learning to the primary school curriculum, with implications for learners’ longer-term motivation for the subject. This longitudinal study investigated, through a questionnaire, the development of 233 learners’ motivation for learning French in England, during the transition from primary to secondary schooling. It also explored whether levels and patterns of motivation differed according to the type of language teaching experienced, comparing a largely oracy-focused approach with one with greater emphasis on literacy activities. Learners showed high and increasing levels of motivation across transition, placing particular value on learning French for travel. Being taught through an oracy or a literacy-focused approach had less impact on learners’ motivation than broader classroom experiences, with the development of a sense of progress and feeling that instruction met their learning needs being especially important. A growing disjuncture emerged between valuing the learning of French for travel/communication and learners’ low levels of self-efficacy for communication with native speakers, together with a desire for more communication-based activities. By the end of the first year of secondary school less positive attitudes towards learning French and less optimism about the possibility of future progress were beginning to emerge. The paper concludes by outlining the implications of the study for classroom practice in language learning.

Children's sociospatial (re)production of disability within primary school playgrounds

There is a contemporary shift in the institutional context of 'disabled' children's education in the United Kingdom from segregated special to mainstream schools. This change is tied to wider deinstitutionalised or reinstitutionalised geographies of disabled people, fragile globalised educational 'inclusion' agendas, and broader concerns about social cohesiveness. Although coeducating children is expected to transform negative representations of (dis)ability in future society, there are few detailed explorations of how children's everyday sociospatial practices (re)produce or transform dominant representations of (dis)ability. With this in mind, children's contextual and shifting performances of (dis)ability in two case study school playground (recreational) spaces are explored. The findings demonstrate that children with mind-body differences are variously (dis)abled, in comparison with sociospatially shifting norms of ability, which have body, learning, and emotional-social facets. The discussion therefore places an emphasis on the need to incorporate 'intellectual' and 'emotional' differences more fully into geographical studies of disability and identity. The paper has wider resonance for transformative expectations placed on colocating children with a variety of 'axes of difference' (such as gender, 'race, ethnicity, and social class) in schools.

Children's lives, children's futures: A study of children starting secondary school

This title presents a fascinating analysis of how children in their first year of high school feel about their schools, its place in their lives and its role in their futures. This highly topical monograph focuses on how children in their first year of high school feel about school, its place in their lives and its role in their futures. The theoretical context of the study is the focus in educational studies on children's voice and children's active role in education, together with the focus in the sociology of childhood on children as active constructors of their lives and childhood as a subject of serious study. The importance of young people's life plans and the alignment between education and ambitions was recognized in the Sloan Foundation study of American teenagers. In many Western societies there is concern that children from less advantaged social backgrounds have limited aspirations, and are disproportionately unlikely to go to university. This book is highly relevant to understanding the nature of children's engagement with education, the choices and constraints they experience and the reasons some young people fail to take advantage of educational opportunities. "Continuum Studies in Educational Research" (CSER) is a major new series in the field of educational research. Written by experts and scholars for experts and scholars, this ground-breaking series focuses on research in the areas of comparative education, history, lifelong learning, philosophy, policy, post-compulsory education, psychology and sociology. Based on cutting edge research and written with lucidity and passion, the CSER series showcases only those books that really matter in education - studies that are major, that will be remembered for having made a difference.

Creating teaching and learning in Europe: promoting a new paradigm

The tides of globalization and the unsteady surges and distortions in the evolution of the European Union are causing identities and cultures to be in a state of flux. Education is used by politicians as a major lever for political and social change through micro-management, but it is a crude tool. There can, however, be opportunities within educational experience for individual learners to gain strong, reflexive, multiple identities and multiple citizenship through the engagement of their creative energies. It has been argued that the twenty-first century needs a new kind of creativity characterized by unselfishness, caring and compassion—still involving monetary wealth, but resulting in a healthy planet and healthy people. Creativity and its economically derived relation, innovation, have become `buzz words' of our times. They are often misconstrued, misunderstood and plainly misused within educational conversations. The small-scale pan-European research study upon which this article is founded discovered that more emphasis needs to be placed on creative leadership, empowering teachers and learners, reducing pupils' fear of school, balancing teaching approaches, and ensuring that the curriculum and assessment are responsive to the needs of individual learners. These factors are key to building strong educational provision that harnesses the creative potential of learners, teachers and other stakeholders, values what it is to be human and creates a foundation upon which to build strong, morally based, consistent, participative democracies.

Establishing a sexual identity: case studies of learners with autism and learning difficulties

The physical and emotional changes that occur in adolescence are part of the process of sexual maturity. These changes occur irrespective of ability and are often aligned with psychological and social factors. When the nature of a disability has an inherent limitation in social awareness, as is the case for individuals with autism, the achievement of personal sexual identity can become much more complex. Challenges in supporting individuals in this respect can be caused by the sensitive aspects of inappropriate behaviour, the abstract nature of teaching the topic, and the general reluctance on the part of parents and staff to discuss sexuality in individuals with disabilities. This article explores how a residential school addressed this gap. It provides details of how this need was met for seven students and the process undertaken to involve staff, parents and other stakeholders to establish ongoing support.

Once upon a time, there was a pulchritudinous princess…: the role of word definitions and multiple story contexts in children’s learning of difficult vocabulary

The close relationship between children’s vocabulary size and their later academic success has led researchers to explore how vocabulary development might be promoted during the early school years. We describe a study that explored the effectiveness of naturalistic classroom storytelling as an instrument for teaching new vocabulary to six- to nine-year-old children. We examined whether learning was facilitated by encountering new words in single versus multiple story contexts, or by the provision of age-appropriate definitions of words as they were encountered. Results showed that encountering words in stories on three occasions led to significant gains in word knowledge in children of all ages and abilities, and that learning was further enhanced across the board when teachers elaborated on the new words’ meanings by providing dictionary definitions. Our findings clarify how classroom storytelling activities can be a highly effective means of promoting vocabulary development.

Languages Learning at Key Stage 2. A Longitudinal Study. Final report.

In 2006, The Open University, the University of Southampton and Canterbury Christ Church University were commissioned by the then Department for Education and Skills (DfES), now Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to conduct a three-year longitudinal study of languages learning at Key Stage 2 (KS2). The qualitative study was designed to explore provision, practice and developments over three school years between 2006/07 and 2008/09 in a sample of primary schools and explore children’s achievement in oracy and literacy, as well as the possible broader cross-curricular impact of languages learning.

The 'algebra as object' analogy: a view from school

Treating algebraic symbols as objects (eg. “‘a’ means ‘apple’”) is a means of introducing elementary simplification of algebra, but causes problems further on. This current school-based research included an examination of texts still in use in the mathematics department, and interviews with mathematics teachers, year 7 pupils and then year 10 pupils asking them how they would explain, “3a + 2a = 5a” to year 7 pupils. Results included the notion that the ‘algebra as object’ analogy can be found in textbooks in current usage, including those recently published. Teachers knew that they were not ‘supposed’ to use the analogy but not always clear why, nevertheless stating methods of teaching consistent with an‘algebra as object’ approach. Year 7 pupils did not explicitly refer to ‘algebra as object’, although some of their responses could be so interpreted. In the main, year 10 pupils used ‘algebra as object’ to explain simplification of algebra, with some complicated attempts to get round the limitations. Further research would look to establish whether the appearance of ‘algebra as object’ in pupils’ thinking between year 7 and 10 is consistent and, if so, where it arises. Implications also are for on-going teacher training with alternatives to introducing such simplification.