Low attainment in GCSE Mathematics and excessive teacher workload Not Applicable
Conditions
Interventions
This study seeks to examine whether pupils’ exposure to ED formative question setting platform and marking system for mathematics in secondary schools raises attainment in mathematics at GCSE. It als
Sponsors
Education Endowment Foundation
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: Schools identified in UK Education Endowment Foundation databases, AQA and EdExcel examining board databases and through Eedi’s own data base of teachers are approached in order to gauge their interest in participating in the study. It was felt important to only admit schools to the trial where existing use of ED was either completely absent or minimal. However, ED is available to schools, teachers and pupils across England, making it difficult to find schools in which there is no existing use of the system. Once a school has signalled their interest, Eedi (the developers and implementers) assess existing usage of Eedi at the school through examining their administrative data records. These records indicate which schools, teachers and pupils have existing accounts on Eedi and the extent of their current usage. Only schools with 30 or fewer existing pupil accounts were considered for inclusion in the trial. This threshold was devised by the developers based upon their knowledge of existing usage and how best to measure it and is considered to be low existing usage. All schools with more intensive usage according to this criterion are excluded from the trial. It is important to note that schools can only enter the trial if they agree that access to Eedi is disabled completely for the duration of study should they be allocated to control conditions. This step is taken to avoid non-compliance among control schools. In each school, all pupils currently in Year 9 during the school year 2017/18, whose parents do not withdraw their child from the study are considered to be in range of intervention. Pupils in intervention schools will receive instruction in mathematics using Eedi for two school years – 2018/19 (Year 10) and 2019/20 (Year 11).
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: Pupils whose parents opt to withdraw their child from the study are excluded from the study sample
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Attainment in GCSE Mathematics at the end of Year 11 | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Teacher workload assessed by surveys of teachers responsible for delivering instruction in mathematics to the focal cohort of school pupils described above in both intervention and control schools. The survey will be administered online via email. Surveys will be administered online to teachers in both intervention and control schools at four points in time. The first of these occasions will be prior to the commencement of the intervention in the summer term 2018. Post randomisation teacher surveys will be administered in December 2018, March 2019 and March 2020. At each measurement occasion teachers will be asked to provide an estimate of the total amount of time they were engaged in the following tasks during a specified reference week: Setting maths homework Marking maths homework Giving individual feedback to students in mathematics Giving group feedback to students Lesson planning in mathematics From this information, the total mathematics related workload will be calculated as the total amount of time spent across these five dimensions per teacher per week. | — |
Countries
England, United Kingdom
Outcome results
None listed