Teaching for Mastery in FE: �the high-level narrative of the outcomes of a large-scale RCT

Geoff Wake

Marie Joubert

Context

Researching teaching for mastery

Aimed to �understand how improved teaching can lead to increased student understanding of mathematics which results in improved attainment.

​

The question more specifically being asked is: �Can adopting a teaching for mastery approach lead to improved student attainment in GCSE resits?

EDUCATION & TRAINING FOUNDATION

3

Researching teaching for mastery

EDUCATION & TRAINING FOUNDATION

4

2019 – 20

2020 – 21

2021 – 22

2022 – 23

TfM intervention RCT

EDUCATION & TRAINING FOUNDATION

5

TfM RCT: three-armed Randomised Controlled Trial

Researching teaching for mastery

6

Two intervention models:

ALL Group 1(full intervention) and Group 2 (partial intervention) teachers:

• provided with lessons A&B + 1 – 5 (lesson plans, presentation, worksheets etc);
• asked to teach the lessons at the appropriate times (Windows 1 to 5) to ALL their GCSE resit classes;
• asked to adopt the approaches modelled by the lessons in other lessons.

EDUCATION & TRAINING FOUNDATION

7

Two intervention models:

Group 1(full intervention) teachers:

• additionally took part in a modified lesson study process focused on each of the five lessons 1 – 5. three planned to be face-to-face and two (lessons 3 & 4) online.

EDUCATION & TRAINING FOUNDATION

8

Researching teaching for mastery

EDUCATION & TRAINING FOUNDATION

9

2019 – 20

2020 – 21

2021 – 22

2022 – 23

Impact evaluation

Implementation and process evaluation

Evaluation of the trial

Impact evaluation

GCSE scores of students in all groups (quantitative).

​

Implementation and process evaluation (IPE)

Data about how the intervention was implemented (mostly qualitative).

10

Research activity (IPE): quantitative data collection

ALL teachers and students:

• Pre-intervention teacher survey
• Post-intervention teacher survey
• Pre-intervention student survey
• Post-intervention student survey

​

ALL Group 1 and Group 2 teachers:

• Logs of lessons taught 
• PD evaluations

​

EDUCATION & TRAINING FOUNDATION

11

2 trial teachers for each of these lead teachers.

12

Group 1

(Full intervention)

Group 2

(Partial intervention)

Group 3

(Business as Usual)

4 trial teachers

​

4 trial teachers

​

3 lead teachers

​

​

Research activity (IPE): qualitative data collection

Case studies

Research activity (IPE): case studies

Case study teachers (Groups 1 and 2)

• Observations of lessons 1 to 5 (once or twice per lesson)
• Interviews (after the first PD sessions, lessons 2 and 4)

​

Case study teachers (Group 1 only)

• Student focus groups (twice in the year)
• Observations of cluster meetings (all meetings)

​

​

EDUCATION & TRAINING FOUNDATION

13

Teaching for Mastery in FE

Researching teaching for mastery

Initial discussion

document

EDUCATION & TRAINING FOUNDATION

15

Teaching for Mastery in FE: the handbook

EDUCATION & TRAINING FOUNDATION

16

https://www.et-foundation.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/CfEM_Mastery_Handbook.pdf

17

Teaching for Mastery: �Five Key Principles

Teaching for Mastery in FE: about the lessons

Define and inform an approach to TfM

​

Designed in alignment with, and exemplify, the Key Principles

Support teacher engagement with, and reflection on, TfM via two research questions per lesson

EDUCATION & TRAINING FOUNDATION

18

Outcomes

Implementation: Attrition

At data analysis

​

No. of settings: Full intervention 39 (-15)

Partial intervention 25 (-9)

Control 48 (-11)

No. of students: 3390

​

Implementation

Teachers in both intervention groups report that the PD intervention programme and exemplary Teaching for Mastery materials were

​

• effective as an introduction to the principles of Teaching for Mastery
• led to their improved understanding of Teaching for Mastery
• led to changes in their teaching practice and high levels of intended change in teaching practice (in subsequent years)
• led to improved student engagement and understanding.

Implementation

Implementation

Implementation

Implementation

Impact

The post-16 ‘covid’ cohort 2022

Impact

Our impact analysis detects a small positive effect for each intervention model. �There is most impact on students from the most deprived backgrounds (as measured by free school meals) who were taught by teachers in the full-intervention. 

​

​

The full intervention has greater impact against the business-as-usual control than the partial intervention model leading to the tentative conclusion that the lesson study practices of the full intervention add value to the Teaching for Mastery programme in terms of impact on outcomes.

Impact

The positive effect sizes (above business-as-usual practice) are 0.06 for the full intervention and 0.04 for the partial intervention.

​

Encouragingly the effect size for the most deprived students taught by full-intervention group teachers is 0.1 (we have 85% confidence in this result).

A similar differential impact for the most deprived students taught by partial-intervention group teachers is not detected

Impact

At a more detailed level we have investigated a sub-scale score for GCSE questions that are aligned with the exemplary 'Teaching for Mastery' lessons taught by teachers in both full and partial intervention groups.

​

This analysis confirms the analysis of the partial intervention and detects an even greater (admittedly a small increase to an effect size of 1.13), impact on students taught by teachers in the full intervention.

Impact

30

Impact

31

What does that mean for students and colleges

Impact

In line with Education Endowment Foundation reporting, these effect sizes suggest

Business as usual

Months of teaching

8

geoffrey.wake@nottingham.ac.uk�marie.joubert1@nottingham.ac.uk�