penny robotham 26 th june 2009 action research palava

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Action Research

Palava

http://palava.wikispaces.com/

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Some of our interests

• Effective use of exercise books

• Revision strategies and intervention

• Modelling

• Cognitive dissonance

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Science revision - what is it in practice?

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Overview

• I wanted to know how pupils were preparing for exams

• and what I could do to facilitate their revision

• and improve their exam performance.

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Starting point….

• It was obvious on ‘book return day’ that the majority of pupils had not appeared to have ever referred to their textbooks

• It appeared that pupils favoured ‘revision guides’ and did not refer back to their class notes.

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Was this the case?

• In light of the changes to the GCSE specifications – should we buy text books that would be ‘unused’?

• Or should we invest in revision guides only?

Cost GCSE textbook £3000

Cost revision guide and workbook £500

Saving £2500

Cost AS and A2 textbook £3500

Cost revision guide and workbook £400

Total Saving £5600

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

So how do you revise?

• Asked – KS4 pupils

• Year 11 pupils who had just prepared for Mock Examinations (2008 cohort)

• Year 10 pupils who had just sat module examination. (2008 cohort)

• Follow up data – now they have sat GCSEs

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

The findings…

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Year 10 Revision Strategies

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

use exercisebook

revisionguide

intranet pastpapers

A4 reviewsheets

revisionw heel

mindmaps w orkbook bitesize otherrevisioncards

Revisionsession

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Year 10 Males

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

use exercisebook

revisionguide

intranet pastpapers

A4 reviewsheets

revisionw heel

mindmaps w orkbook bitesize otherrevisioncards

Revisionsession

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Year 10 Female

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

use exercisebook

revisionguide

intranet pastpapers

A4 reviewsheets

revisionw heel

mindmaps w orkbook bitesize otherrevisioncards

Revisionsession

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Surprises?

• Significant majority of pupils worked through their ‘workbook’ independently

• More using exercise books than previously thought

How did my practice change?

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

What do you use most?

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

use exercisebook

revision guide intranet pastpapers

A4 reviewsheets

revision w heel mindmaps w orkbook bitesize other

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

So what have we done?

• Developed a range of tasks to help pupils when using their revision guides

• E.g. Choose a diagram from any page of your revision guide and then describe it in words

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Increasing the A-A* pass rate through active learning

How have I changed my practice?

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Pupils Wanted More

• Games

• Instant feedback

• More mocks

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Traffic light books

Making more effective use of revision guides

Learning Talks

Intranet

Active revision

Some of the revision

strategies

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Follow up questionnaires

Year 11 (2009)

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Any changes?How do you revision (2009 Cohort)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Exercise Book Revision Guide Past Papers Making ownnotes

Teacher providedsummary notes

Mindmaps Workbook Bitesize

Boys

Girls

When in Year 10

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Any changes?What do you use most? (2009 cohort)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Exercise Book Revision Guide Past Papers Making own notes Teacher providedsummary notes

Mindmaps Workbook Bitesize

Boys

Girls

Year 10

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Where next

• Develop own use mind maps (Petty)

• Questionnaires Year 12 (Original 2007 cohort)

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

Does it matter if we don’t have textbooks?

A*-C A-A*

2004 96% 66%

2008 100% 90%

Biology Chemistry Physics

2004 26 29 14

2009 44 53 23

Post – 16 Option Uptake

% pupils choosing subjects

Any Questions?

Penny Robotham 26 th June 2009

More info?

http://sciencevideobank.wikispaces.com//

http://palava.wikispaces.com/

Email: drprobotham@yahoo.co.uk