Evaluation of stages for early arithmetical learning (SEAL) for East Lothian Council (2014)
Published: 20 February 2021
UGEAN members Louise Hayward, Carolyn Hutchinson and Ernie Spencer comprised the research team.
UGEAN members Louise Hayward, Carolyn Hutchinson and Ernie Spencer comprised the research team.
The project, commissioned by East Lothian Council, provided answers to the following questions:
- What are children learning in number through the implementation of the Council’s early number curricular and pedagogical policy, and how are the policy contributing to their learning?
- Knowledge, concepts, strategies, skills, language ….
- Policies, experiences and outcomes, progression frameworks, courses, resources ...
- How are children learning?
- Teachers’ approaches to learning, teaching and assessment
- Children’s approaches to particular tasks.
- How well are children learning?
- Observation of children interacting one-to-one with teachers
- Written assessments.
The researchers gathered and analysed information from 3 case-study primary schools:
- Staff
- School policy and its implementation in Primary 2 and Primary 4
- Teachers’ views about the advantages and disadvantages of the school’s approach.
- Children
- Observation of individual Primary 2 and Primary 4 children carrying out number tasks one-to-one with their teachers (diagnostic interviews)
- Performance of Primary 4 children in a written test of number knowledge and strategies.
- The relationship between the policy and the staff’s understanding of it, on the one hand, and, on the other, the children’s actual behaviour in carrying out the tasks they undertook.
The report is available at https://www.edubuzz.org/makingmathsmatter/wp-content/blogs.dir/2337/files/2015/04/SEAL-Report_Final_1-Nov-2014.pdf
First published: 20 February 2021