BERA 2004

Symposium on transfer organised by Beth Gompertz and colleagues,

Exeter University: Friday September 17

Some neglected aspects of transfer and transition

Jean Rudduck, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

In research and development work on ‘transfer’ and the school system the focus has tended to be on the Big Organisational Moves, such as the move from primary to secondary school and, earlier, from school to work. The pre-occupation has been with the ‘exits and entrances’ years which, not insignificantly, tend to coincide with national tests and examinations. In this paper I want to argue that there are other organisational moves that merit attention, such as the move from one year to another within the same school, and personal moves such as the move from one learner identity to another.

I shall refer to the move from one institution to another as ‘transfer’ and the move from one year to another, and from one identity to another, as ‘transition’. This paper is about transitions1. As examples of neglected organisational transitions I shall focus on the move from year 2 to 3 in the primary school and from year 7 to 8 in the secondary school (research on the former was funded by Ofsted and on the latter by the DfES. As an example of the importance of personal transitions I shall draw on data from a current study funded by the Wallenberg Foundation.

In all the studies discussed in the paper the researchers were interested in the perspectives of the students as well as their teachers.

The significance for pupils of year on year transitions

i. Pupils’ perspectives on the move from year 2 to year 3

Both year 8 and year 3 have been identified as times where pupils’ learning appears to slow down. These two periods represent distinctly different stages in pupils’ school careers: year 8 can be a somewhat ‘fallow’ period between the excitement of transfer (year 7) and the ‘serious’ test and examination years (years 9 to 11) whereas year 3 marks the step-over point between the first two Key Stages of the National Curriculum when pupils and teachers have to adjust to a new set of academic demands. (In some cases, year 3 can also be a point of transfer where pupils move from infant to junior school with all the associated excitements and uncertainties of becoming part of a new physical and social environment.)

Chris Doddington and colleagues (2001) undertook a study of pupils’ and teachers’ views of the move from year 2 to year 3. Eight schools in each of two LEAs took part; pupils and teachers in the two target years were interviewed. The research showed that all pupils were keenly aware that the move to year 3 was important in social as well as academic terms. The year 2 pupils interviewed had high expectations of moving up to year 3 and the year 3s could identify, with a certain pride, changes in teaching and learning that marked their new seniority:

(Now we’re juniors)..... we have to call our speech marks just actual speech marks and in the infants we could call them 66 and 99's but we have to use the proper word now ….. (y3, b)

I've noticed something - in Year 2 we didn't count up to 100 because she thought it was too hard and in Year 3 I just sort of learned it straight away. . (y3, g)

The next comments highlight pupils’ pleasure in being treated in a more adult way. What is interesting is the assumption that the changes are triggered by the move into year 3 rather than being the outcome of the normal process of personal and cognitive development:

In year 3 you can do more things, you’re not treated like little kids, you’re treated more grownup-ly and you don’t have to be shown about because we can look after ourselves. (y3, b)

We have to think for ourselves sometimes. (y3,b).

Teachers were clear that learning was more demanding in year 3 - and pupils’ comments bore this out. But not all were coping well with the new demands – Year 3 was not turning out entirely as they had expected:

What is hard about the work is that some of it has to be done all in one day – that is tricky’. (y3,b)

Well, you have loads more writing than in year 2. (y3,g)

Sometimes I don’t like English because bits of it are too hard – everyday it gets a tiny bit harder. There’s too much writing. (y3,b)

For many the new demands are not too disconcerting – things were described as ‘tricky’, ‘a bit awkward’, ‘a tiny bit harder’ but there were some sharper indications of strain and stress: pupils’ confidence in themselves as learners in the more advanced stage of education that they had looked forward to was already being stirred, if not shaken!. These small indicators of strain reflect the pressure on year 3 teachers who see their task as very different from that of year 2 teachers, in terms both of academic and personal development. In year 2, says a year 3 teacher, ‘ they’re molly-coddled and they can get a lot of attention whereas now, in year 3, they have to cope on their own more’. Year 3 teachers seemed eager to distinguish their work from that of their colleagues' teaching of the year 2s by emphasising that learning is tougher, more demanding in year 3. So, while year 3 pupils like feeling more grown-up and enjoy the status of knowing that they are now doing more advanced work, for some the learning curve is steeper than they had expected.

One factor in what Ofsted (1999) identified as a fall off in progress in year 3 may be that some parents, hearing that pupils are expected to be more independent in year 3 and that the work will be harder, offer less support – either because they feel the content is beyond them or because they feel that pupils should be learning to work without their help. Clearly, the dips in progress, whether at year 3 or year 8, cannot just be attributed to poor teaching; the situation is more complex than that and needs to be looked at through the eyes of the pupils.

Schools which have a clear awareness of what the transfer or transition can mean for pupils can plan support strategies to help them cope with the new demands and sustain a positive sense of self as learner. For example, Doddington et al found that where schools gave careful consideration to introducing and explaining the new aspects of learning required by the Key Stage 2 curriculum, pupils across the ability range were more confident and robust. In contrast, where liaison between year 2 and 3 teachers was haphazard and where there was no systematic preparation for what lay ahead, then less confident learners were vulnerable to losing ground in the face of a faster, tougher pace of learning.

Sadly, some pupils – both boys and girls - were, at this early stage in their school careers, beginning to see learning as a burdensome struggle and there were expressions of self-doubt and anxiety. And, as Woods points out, negative views of learning, acquired early on in pupils’ school careers, can have serious, long-term repercussions:

Life-chances are determined or constructed for many people in the early years. The channels of their educational potential which is realised at secondary school are already formulated before they arrive there…the 7-8 age group is a crucial one in the development of those attitudes, abilities and relationships that go into the making of educational success at that level. In this sense the transition is not only of infant to junior. Like joined-up writing and the second set of teeth, there are other ultimates here, and they lay down the means for the next transfer to secondary, and indeed for later life. (Woods, 1987 p120)

ii. Pupils’ perspectives on the move from year 7 to8

There are two sources of evidence for identifying Year 8 as a difficult year: the Chief Inspector’s Annual Reports and the recorded commentaries of pupils and teachers (see Rudduck and Flutter , 2004a). They tell the same story but in different ways: the former indicates that there is a problem of sustaining progress in learning; the latter helps explain why the problem has occurred.

The 1996-97 Report (para. 79) argues that ‘pupils get off to a sound start in Year 7 but progress slows in Years 8 and 9 before picking up again in Key Stage 4’. The 2000 – 2001 Report (para. 63) echoes the earlier Reports: ‘The fall-off in pupils’ attitudes to learning between Year 7 and Year 8 continues to be a distinct feature …. and is not reversed until Year 10’. Newspaper coverage of the Chief Inspector’s 2002-3 Report notes that within a framework of ‘promising’ signs of improvement, ‘ a falling off in pupils’ attitudes to learning between year 7 and year 8 …. continues to be a feature in many schools and poor behaviour begins to show up’ (Guardian, 4 March 2003).

The basis of the judgments made in the Reports is the lower percentage of individual lessons observed, compared with similar figures for other years, in which pupils appear to be making acceptable progress; the percentage difference in the comparisons of Year 8 and other years may be small but it is persistent.

The Ofsted Reports have highlighted an issue that warranted a more detailed investigation. However, the overall impression they give is that the dip in progress is largely attributable to the quality of teaching in Year 8. Our own research, which involved extensive interviewing of year 8 pupils and their teachers in a range of schools, suggests that the situation is more complex than that. The interviews exposed and explored a set of issues to do with school organisation, the particular character of each school year, ‘hidden curriculum’ messages about ‘what matters most’ in secondary schooling, the turbulence that characterises this stage in pupils’ social development– and also the quality of teaching.

The interview data enabled us to unravel some of the complexities of pupils’ feelings about Year 8. There were two main issues:

a.  the way that learning is organised in school and the ‘hidden curriculum’ messages about the status of different years that pupils pick up;

b.  pupils’ sense of maturity and their expectations about responsibility and autonomy.

Year 8 can seem dreary compared with Year 7: the novelty of being at secondary school wears away quite quickly and once pupils feel confident in managing the new physical environment of school and the sharp edges of the move have been softened by familiarity, then they may look for other sources of interest and amusement to rescue them from boredom and routine. Many pupils are ready for new challenges.

Some primary schools teach their pupils Year 7 and sometimes Year 8 work. This makes the year very boring for the pupils who have done it before. (in Galton et al, 2003)

One problem with Year 8 is that there is nothing new to do.

(in Galton et al, 2003)

(Pupils) do not think they have to work so hard…so slacking may be seen. (in Galton et al, 2003)

The problem of Year 8 being experienced by pupils as a bit of a non-event is compounded by their perception that it is ‘just an in-between year’ – and it is therefore not surprising if their commitment to learning wobbles a bit or even dips.

Our interviews revealed that across schools pupils were receiving the same kind of messages about what was important. These messages come from parents, from teachers and from the media. One commented: ‘Some teachers behave as if school is just about doing your GCSEs and nothing else’. By reinforcing the impression that tests and the Year 11 examinations are what really matter, schools may be giving unintended messages to pupils that the earlier years don’t matter so much.

Once you start to think that Year 8 doesn’t matter then it can follow that Year 8 pupils don’t matter either. Some headteachers have said that they usually put their most challenging teachers with the top sets and/or with the examination groups; they also think about which teachers are good with Year 7 pupils. But is seems that relatively little attention is given to the kind of teacher that Year 8s need or to styles of teaching and learning that will challenge them and sustain their engagement. We are also aware that the mentoring schemes that some secondary schools are introducing to support pupils who are at risk of disengaging are more likely to focus on Year 10 and 11 pupils whereas there is a case (and schools are increasingly doing this) for introducing such schemes with Year 8 pupils.

The move from the first to the second year of secondary school is particularly significant because it marks the first step on the ladder to regaining a sense of social status. During Year 7, pupils become steadily more knowledgeable about their new environment and its codes of behaviour, but they do not necessarily feel any real sense of status relative to other pupils in the school. In Year 8 pupils can feel less vulnerable - and they identify the fact of no longer being the lowest in the pecking order as one of the advantages of moving into Year 8.

In our most recent work on Year 8 we presented pupils with an analysis of the problems, as other pupils had talked about them, asked whether they were finding similar problems, and if so what might be done to improve the situation. Interestingly, the solutions they came up with were almost entirely to do with status – uniform changes that marked them out as year 8s were enthusiastically explored.

They also suggested giving Year 8s more responsibility.

Being a year older matters to young people and marking their chronological progress in school can help them to sustain or re-establish positive attitudes to school and its purposes. They want more responsibility and more opportunities to make choices about things that matter to them. We need therefore to think about progression not just in terms of curriculum content but also pupils’ social maturity. Schools might create, each year, more opportunities for pupils to exercise responsibility as learners and as members of the school community. Offering pupils more choice is a concrete way of signalling that the school believes them capable of making decisions. At the moment, the importance of social progression is masked by the prominence of more traditional assumptions about academic progression within the curriculum. By tuning into pupils’ accounts of Year 8 we might be in a better position to lift and sustain their commitment to learning.