Functional Skills Support Programme

1
Functional Skills Support Programme

• CPD Training Day 3

2
Days 1 and 2 session 1

• LA Days 1 and 2 very successful
• 93.4 of those consultants who responded rated
  training as mainly or very useful
• Of 62 summary evaluations received from LA
  training 86 rate training as good or better
• LA training visited showed effective working
  relationships emerging between schools and other
  providers
• Delegates valued sharing their experiences,
  planning together and establishing or moving
  forward collaborative partnerships
• Success of the 2 days very much dependent on how
  LAs had managed expectations and how extensively
  they had prepared prior to delivery

3
Days 1 and 2 session 1

• Main strengths
• high quality consultants leading discussion and
  interpreting materials
• clear explanation of how FS can be implemented
• clarification of issues and good understanding of
  FS standards
• senior leaders working alongside subject teams
• subject based sessions
• opportunities to plan together across consortia
  and within organisations
• opportunity to put FS within the context of 14-19
  reforms

4
Key areas covered in Days 1 and 2

• Why functional skills are needed and their place
  in 14-19 reform.
• What the standards represent and how to read
  them.
• Elements that underpin progression.
• The three stage process of skills acquisition
• building the full range of functional skills
• applying those skills in a range of contexts
• demonstrating mastery in a range of contexts.
• The notion of transferability and the
  significance of this in relation to mastery.

5
Objectives for Day 3

• To share progress made with the early
  implementation of the pilot.
• To gain an understanding of the summative
  assessment requirements for functional skills.
• To explore effective practices that underpin
  assessment for learning and their relation to
  functional skills development.
• To plan next steps for the delivery of functional
  skills within organisations and/or across
  consortia.

6
Key features of successful change

• Developments are led by the needs of the
  learners.
• Leadership is both top-down and bottom-up.
• Teachers work collaboratively to develop good
  practice and create a shared understanding.
• All teachers and subject teams actively monitor
  and evaluate their work.

7
10 critical success factors
1. Promoting a positive agenda
2. Implementing an effective curriculum model
10. Reviewing and planning ahead
3. Establishing clear roles and responsibilities
9. Delivering appropriate staff development
4. Coordinating activity across the institution/
consortium
8. Embedding quality assurance
5. Delivering effective teaching and learning
6. Establishing clear assessment procedures
7. Using resources efficiently and effectively
8
Day 2 activity preparation for Day 3

• Practitioners
• undertake an overview of how they will induct
  learners into functional skills in September
• do a lesson/series of lessons that embed
  functional skills delivery. (CSF 5)
• Senior managers
• outline their plans for monitoring and
  evaluating the implementation of functional
  skills in the pilot.
• (CSF 8,10)

9
Session 3

• Summative assessment of functional skills

10
QCA Design Principles for the assessment of
functional skills (1)

• Purpose
• Assessment model

11
QCA Design Principles for the assessment of
functional skills (2)

• Levels
• Coverage
• Range
• Assessment conditions

12
QCA Design Principles for the assessment of
functional skills (3)

• Duration
• Access
• DDA

13
Activity What is a task?

• In your centre or consortium you might find it
  useful to consider
• What is a task-based assessment?
• How does this differ from a test?
• How might your preparation of learners
  differ if you are preparing them for a
  task-based, task test, externally set
  assessment, or centre-devised assessment?

14
Contexts

• Work and education
• Community, citizenship and environment
• Media and communications
• Family, home and social issues

15
Activity

• Look at Handout 1 from Session 1.
• For CSF 6, consider
• Who?
• How?
• Which?

16
Session 4 Know your learners early assessment
17
Session 4 Know your learners early assessment

• Key Questions
• What do you do with the information you have
  gathered?
• What do you do when support needs have been
  identified?
• What impact does this have on teaching practice?
• What does it mean for managers allocating
  resources?

18
Sessions 5 and 6, Mathematics

• In order to plan for learner progression in
  functional skills these sessions will look at
• 1. what the standards indicate about progression
  for the learner and those planning learning
• 2. what this means for the teacher, especially
  when developing learners skills to tackle a
  problem
• 3. how we could assess learners level of
  functionality and progress
• 4. planning to use support strategies to
  improve learners performance.

19
The stated aims of functional skills

• The term functional should be considered in the
  broad sense of providing candidates with the
  skills and abilities they need to take an active
  and responsible role in their communities, in
  their everyday life, workplace and in educational
  settings. Functional mathematics requires
  learners to be able to use mathematics in ways
  that make them effective and involved as citizens
  and able to operate confidently in life, further
  study and work in a wide range of contexts.
• Functional skills standards, mathematics, p.2

20
The standards for functional mathematics

• Section 1 Process skills
• This section addresses what it means to be
  functional with mathematics and gives the
  description of the functional mathematical
  process skills involved in tackling a problem
  as representing, analysing and interpreting.
• Section 2 Level differentiation
• This section characterises the performance of
  the learners as the level of demand made upon
  them increases in terms of complexity,
  familiarity, technical demand and
  independence.

21
Factors that support independent learning

• The development of independent learning is
  complex and stems from the interplay between a
  number of teaching approaches including
• an approach using objective-led lessons, which
  goes beyond just focusing on the teaching to
  also supporting the learning
• teachers scaffolding what is to be learned
• teachers and pupils valuing the role of talk
  as a route to more independent learning.
• Adapted from Assessment for learning 8 schools
  project report DfES 00067-2007BKT-EN

22
Implications for teachers

• Teachers need to
• have a good understanding of the progression
  in the key concepts and skills in their
  subject
• move from planning for teaching (activity
  driven) to planning for learning (outcome
  driven) for all pupils of all abilities
• provide opportunities for pupils to learn
  through thoughtfully facilitated and supported
  questioning and dialogue
• provide effective feedback, especially
  written feedback.
• Adapted from Assessment for learning 8 schools
  project report DfES 00067-2007BKT-EN

23
Activity 4

• The local newspaper has commissioned you to do
  the research for an article which will have the
  following headline
• THE SMOKING BAN
• A BREATH OF FRESH AIR FOR TEENAGERS
• You have two weeks to do the research for the
  report. It should be presented in simple charts
  and sentences, backed up with sound evidence.

24
Mastery

• Mastery is achieved at a level when the demand
  made of the learner (of complexity, familiarity,
  technical demand and independence), allow for the
  functional process skills (for mathematics and
  ICT) and skill areas (for English) to be
  successfully applied in combination during an
  activity. The learners level of performance is
  indicated in the standards.

25
Sessions 5 and 6, Mathematics

• In order to plan for learner progression in
  functional skills these sessions will look at
• 1. what the standards indicate about progression
  for the learner and those planning learning
• 2. what this means for the teacher, especially
  when developing learners skills to tackle a
  problem
• 3. how we could assess learners level of
  functionality and progress
• 4. planning to use support strategies to
  improve learners performance.

26
Learners need to know

• 1. what they are trying to learn
• 2. how they can recognise achievement (ie
  learning outcomes)
• 3. what good work looks like (ie success
  criteria that enable learners to evaluate the
  quality of their work and then to understand how
  to improve it)
• 4. why they are learning this (ie links to the
  wider context of education, employment and life).

27
Research findings emphasise

• the importance of sharing explicit learning goals
  with learners
• encouraging learners to know and recognise the
  standards they are aiming for
• the significance of individuals being involved in
  peer and self-assessment
• focused classroom dialogue that encourages
  reflection and review and that provides learners
  with the opportunity to identify
• what they have learned
• what they need to learn next, and
• how they will achieve this
• providing feedback that is next-step focused and
  that supports success.
• Adapted from Assessment for learning beyond the
  black box Assessment Reform Group, 1999

28
Activity 2

• Using 6 Ma Handout 2, study plus template, 6 Ma,
  Handout 3, Key Stage 4 planning toolkit template,
  or an alternative, participants can begin to plan
  either
• a sequence of learning based on Investigating
  mobile phone usage (the problem given for
  the two assessed pieces)
• or
• a scenario or task they have already
  considered for functional mathematics
  development.

29
Activity 2 guidance

• Activities that are developed to enable learners
  to learn and apply functional mathematics should
  be
• purposeful
• set in a realistic context that is relevant to
  the learner
• achievable
• at the right level
• engaging and motivating.
• TL draft materials to support functional
  mathematics, p.56

30
Conclusion

• Knowing mathematics is doing mathematics. We
  need to create situations where students can be
  active, creative, and responsive to the physical
  world. I believe that to learn mathematics,
  students must construct it for themselves. They
  can only do that by exploring, justifying,
  representing, discussing, using, describing,
  investigating, predicting, in short by being
  active in the world.
•  
• Countryman, J. (1992) Writing to Learn
  Mathematics. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann, p.2

31
The project

• The project will focus on teachers reflecting on
  and developing their own practice. It will be
• small-scale focused on a particular context
• practical carried out by the teacher to inform
  and develop his/her own practice
• collaborative involving feedback from a
  colleague acting as a critical friend and from
  learners themselves
• cyclical is part of a continual cycle of
  improvement that includes self-reflective
  practice.

32
The basic steps in the research process

• Review current practice.
• Identify an aspect that is to be investigated.
• Imagine a way forward.
• Try it out.
• Take stock of what happens.
• Modify what you are doing in the light of what
  has been found.
• Monitor, review and evaluate the modified action
  and so on.
• Action research for professional development,
  Jean McNiff, 1996

33
The task

• Subject specialists will conduct a small scale
  project that examines the implementation of a
  sequence of learning where the development/applica
  tion of functional skills is a major component.
  They will bring the outcomes to Day 4 of the
  training.
• (CSF 5, 6)
• Senior leaders evaluate the impact of all the
  projects in an institution or within a
  collaborative and outline their plans for further
  functional skills development in 2008-09.
• (CSF 2, 4, 8, 10)

34
Activity 2

• In groups from institutions or across consortia
  (dependent upon the structure decided for the
  research project) participants, led by their
  senior leaders, should make decisions about

• 1. the focus of the research make links to work
  undertaken in subject groups in Session 5. How
  could this be harnessed and taken forward?
• 2. the organisation of critical friend(s)
  mention that there is an opportunity here for
  participants attending from the same organisation
  or within a consortium to work together in this
  role
• 3. the organisation of working time for
  undertaking the project
• 4. timescales
• 5. methodology of monitoring and evaluation the
  impact on learners
• 6. responsibilities for reporting on Day 4 and to
  senior institution staff and to the consortium.

35
Objectives for Day 3

• To share progress made with the early
  implementation of the pilot.
• To gain an understanding of the summative
  assessment requirements for functional skills.
• To explore effective practices that underpin
  assessment for learning and their relation to
  functional skills development.
• To plan next steps for the delivery of functional
  skills within organisations and/or across
  consortia.