The aim of this project was to increase student intrinsic motivation and overall attainment in National 5 Chemistry following the second school covid closure. This would be achieved using reflective placemats and learner conversations, alongside growth mindset past paper structured task.
As a school there is a culture of low expectation from students, resulting in students being motivated extrinsically by staff or other stakeholders. Evidence shows that this is most visible with boys within the National 5 cohort. They tended to underperform when compared to their female counterparts and were at increased risk of being moved to National 4 prior to the examination diet within S4. This was very visible when conducting target setting meetings with students, where many students would prefer to set a low target grade, rather than one which is aspirational and more challenging.
We worked with students specifically around summative assessments and used reflective sheets to support them to identify next steps, areas of focus, what help might be needed from others and how they were going to challenge themselves. We also undertook past paper tasks using growth mindset language and using mistakes positively in the class environment as learning opportunities.
This project was important because many students from the school were from a lower socio-economic background and tend to underperform compared to students from a more affluent background. Evidence shows that this can influence attainment and leavers destinations and have a knock-on impact for future generations. The attainment gap has also been shown to increase during Covid due to school closures and the introduction of home learning. A project which aimed to improve mindset and challenge the attainment gap, was seen as vitally important.
Due to school closures during covid, this mindset project took place over a more condensed period. Longer-term growth mindset cultures and behaviours were unable to be fully established. There is much evidence to suggest that the impact of own and community beliefs takes a long time to over-turn, and that negative beliefs tend to dominate. Thus, a larger scale cultural change across the school, working with other stakeholders within the community, would be needed to make a lasting impact upon attainment and student motivation. If we were to conduct a project again, we would run it over a full academic year to track any changes and have longer-term follow ups throughout secondary school.
To measure the impact of the project, we used a Likert scale survey. These are commonly used in educational and social science research, and they help to determine student perceptions and opinions. We adapted the Likert scales, however, to include an option for indecision or neutrality for the respondent. The surveys were supposed to be supplemented with a focus group to allow deeper discussion and mitigate some of the biases and limitations of survey only data collection. However, this was not able to take place due to timing.
Summative assessments were also used to analyse changes within student performance. Students who dropped to National 4 were not included in the final analysis group. If we repeated this project, we would follow these students and analyse their attitudes and opinions as compared to those who continued with National 5.
Overall, this project had a positive effect on student attitudes to learning and assessment, as shown through increased engagement with the reflective placemats and learner conversations. However, it did not deliver a statically significant change in attainment outcomes following the second school closure.
Due to school closures during covid, the mindset project took place over a more condensed period. We were unable to conduct the baseline growth mindset surveys until after the students returned following the Easter holidays. This was due to students only returning to school prior to Easter on rotation, and not timetabled with their class or teacher. The summative assessments were completed as planned throughout the session, and in May and June. These assessments enabled us to still measure changes in student performance using the same criteria and question types, allowing for a more robust measurement of performance.
Focus groups were planned to take place at the end of the project but were not conducted due to other demands on student time. Instead, we used a follow up survey, but many students did not take part in this due to the busy assessment diet. If we were to conduct this project again, we would ensure an opportunity to conduct the focus group, as this can provide invaluable information and can allow easier access to vulnerable or hard to reach groups.
Due to covid mitigations and rules, we were unable to hold focus groups. This was due to changes in the school timetables and restrictions on mixing of groups. This was also made more difficult as students required to miss class time following assessments, to allow them to complete other subject’s assessment opportunities for SQA. Instead, a small survey in addition to the pre/post mindset survey was created and used with open questions to gauge students’ feelings about the impact of the project.
Through participation in the growth mindset project students began to make more detailed reflections following summative assessments and make informed choices as to how to increase their attainment. Students showed a more solution focussed attitude towards their studies and became more intrinsically motivated. Anecdotally, this also seemed to allow teachers to feel they were having a more positive learner conversation following summative assessments.
Following the second Covid-19 school closure, all students within the selected cohort showed a decrease in attainment from previous summative assessments. Following the implementation of growth mindset techniques and practices, almost all students regained attainment to a similar level or increased their scores prior to the final SQA submission. In future years it is hoped that the implementation of these techniques will show an ongoing increase in attainment for students within the senior phase leading to overall better outcomes. Note that there was an increase in students who moved to National 4 or units only in the session, when compared to previous years. This may have impacted the overall positive attainment shown within the National 5 results, as student who were failing were withdrawn and entered at a different level.
Attitudes of students to learning remain relatively unchanged when we compare pre/post surveys, with results almost identical when comparing agrees versus disagrees in both surveys. For example, 80% of students in both surveys indicated that they thought mistakes were good for learning. This seems to reinforce the belief that long-term cultural change is required to make la longer and larger impact upon attitudes to learning.
This project has also had an impact upon classroom practice. We have become more mindful of word choice, how to design learning activities, have a greater focus on mistakes being part of learning, and encouraging students to try more difficult and challenging activities. This has had an impact upon senior phase students when working towards final examination preparation. By changing our focus, we were able to think less about correct answers and how they should be worded, and more on the learning and have more students try the more difficult questions.
Overall attainment for students in chemistry was impacted negatively by covid-related school closures. We had to present many students for National 4 level, and some sat units rather than full course awards. Those students who remained in the National 5 cohort following the lockdown, and who participated in the growth mindset project, either returned to their pre lockdown attainment or increased attainment (apart from one student).
Feedback from colleagues was very positive, with other departments now using a similar structure of learner conversations in the senior phase. Colleagues within the department saw a difference in the students’ intrinsic motivation during the very different SQA assessment diet, which anecdotally provided students with a more positive experience and better SQA examination outcomes. One improvement identified by colleagues was to implement this approach over a longer period and start in the lower years to allow a culture of growth mindset to develop. Others thought that the sharing of reflective learner conversations and next steps with carers/parents would allow them to also take a more active role in their child’s learning.
Growth mindset tasks and learner conversation structures have now been rolled out for all senior students within the Chemistry Department. We are also now sharing the outcomes with parents and carers through the school's group call system, to ensure that all stakeholders can take an active role in increasing the attainment of each student. In the next academic session, the Chemistry Department will continue to implement the project roll out across all classes and will build in the reflective placemats and learner conversations with the S3 Chemistry cohort. This should create a deeper culture of growth mindset and high expectations within the department.
Outcomes from the project have also been shared with other Principal Teachers across the school, who are now implementing similar learner conversations as part of regular ongoing learning coaching. This links into other work across the department around goal setting and for students struggling to pass current subjects.
Classroom changes will also be made going forward. We are very mindful of the period running up to SQA assessments and intend to focus more on growth mindset tasks and making mistakes a positive step in learning. This will be a change to the previous focus on ensuring the correct techniques and answers.