Moving from Primary School to Technology College

Bob Burden and Sue Chedzoy

Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the British Educational Research Association, University of Exeter, England, 12-14 September 2002

Introduction

This report presents the main outcomes of a preliminary investigation, sponsored by the Technology Colleges Trust, into the reactions of the students to their transfer from Primary to Secondary education.

The investigation focussed on four main aspects of the students’ development:

their educational attainments in literacy and numeracy

their conceptions of themselves as learners

their concerns and expectations with regard to life at secondary school and whether these were borne out

Information was gathered also about the special arrangements between schools to facilitate the transfer process and the student reactions to these.

The nature of the study

Students attending 5 primary schools in two counties in the South West of England were administered various tests and questionnaires in the term prior to their transfer to local Technology Colleges. Towards the end of their first term at College they were administered the same or similar materials. These consisted of

Key Stage 2 SATs in literacy and numeracy

the Myself as Learner Scale (MALS)

a structured questionnaire relating to the students’ expectations of life at secondary school

a similarly worded questionnaire concerned with the ‘reality’ of secondary school as they found it

a further open-ended questionnaire asking the students to indicate their anticipations and concerns, as well as what they would miss most about primary school.

Each school was visited by the researchers in order to gain information about the procedures prior to and following transfer.

A selected sample of students was interviewed during Year 7 in order to enquire into their reactions to life at secondary school.

Action

All five primary schools provided SATs raw scores for

Reading

Writing

Spelling

Handwriting

Maths Tests A & B

Mental Arithmetic

Despite difficulties in obtaining sets of the same SATs test papers, three technology colleges were eventually able to provide re-test results on the same students. However, the attrition rate was quite high and variable across subject areas.

All five primary schools administered the MALS but only three colleges were able to provide re-test data. All primary schools administered the questionnaires but only three colleges were able to provide follow-up data.

Results

(a)Reading – of the 82 students assessed on both occasions, 115 (18%) increased their raw scores by more than 2 points, 3 (4%) decreased their scores by more than 2 points and 3 (4%) showed no change.

(b)Spelling – of the 72 students assessed on both occasions, 2 (3%) increased their scores by more than 2 points, none decreased their scores by more than 2 points and 27 (38%) showed no change.

(c)Handwriting – of the 66 students assessed on both occasions none increased their scores by more than 2 points, none decreased their scores by more than 2 points and 26 (39%) stayed the same.

(d)Maths Test A – of the 121 students assessed on both occasions 10 (8%) increased their scores by more than 2 points, 33 (27%) decreased their scores by more than 2 points and 12 (10%) showed no change.

(e)Maths Test B – of the 82 students assessed on both occasions 7 (9%) increased their scores by more than 2 points, 16 (20%) decreased their scores by more than 2 points and 8 (10%) showed no change.

(f)Mental Arithmetic – of the 71 students assessed on both occasions 4 (6%) increased their scores by more than 2 points, 9 (13%) decreased their scores by more than 2 points and 7 (10%) showed no change.

Learning self-concept

For the purpose of this report the summary responses of the primary school students (n=177) to specific statements on the MALS will be provided. One third of the students indicated that they got anxious when faced with new work, 16% didn’t feel confident about doing new work and 23% felt that they needed lots of help with their work. Although 63% considered that they know how to be a good learner, 15% indicated that they definitely didn’t, and 18% conveyed that they couldn’t work out what to do when they got stuck with their work. Just under 50% considered that learning was easy, but 27% on the other hand felt that it was difficult. 54% of the respondents admitted enjoying using their brain, but 24% definitely didn’t. This relates to 42% who liked having problems to solve, compared with 25% who didn’t.

Looking forward to transfer: students’ expectations and later perceptions of reality

Between 175 and 178 students completed the ‘before’ and ‘after’ questionnaires regarding their anticipations about life at secondary school and what they actually experienced during their first year there. What follows is an analysis of the most striking findings to emerge in relation to six main issues.

General anticipation vs overall reactions

Just over 90% of the Year 6 students indicated that they were definitely (59%) or quite (33%) looking forward to moving to secondary school. By the end of their first term in Year 7, a similar proportion confirmed that they had enjoyed the move, but up to 10% had not enjoyed the move compared with only 3% who had not been looking forward to it.

2.Academic work

Nearly 70% of the Year 6 students were certain that the (academic) work at secondary school would not be easy, but this appears to have been confirmed for only 41% after their first term in Year 7. Moreover, whereas only 1% of Year 6 were sure that the new work would be easy, this had risen to 12% indicating that they were definitely finding work in Year 7 easy. This was confirmed by a further question which revealed that whilst 65% felt that they would have to work harder at secondary school, only 40% considered that they were having to do so. Moreover, 46% indicated that the work they were doing in Year 7 was somewhat (31%) or very much (15%) as at primary school.

One of the aspects of secondary school that the vast majority (81%) of Year 6 students did not anticipate with pleasure was homework. This feeling had not dissipated much by Year 7 when 72% indicated that they did not enjoy homework.

As far as the curriculum subjects were concerned, just over 70% of the Year 7 students considered that the subjects they were particularly looking forward to studying were as good as they hoped they would be.

3.Relationships with teachers

Just under 80% of the Year 6 students anticipated that the teachers in secondary school would definitely (49%) or probably (30%) be stricter than at primary school. In fact, only just over 50% found this to be the case. At the same time, the anticipation that most of the Year 6 students showed for expecting to enjoy having lots of different teachers was borne out at secondary school. One the other hand, a higher proportion of Year 7 students (26%) felt that their new teachers did not know who they were than did know who they were (24%).

The general ambience of secondary school

Nearly two thirds of the Year 7 students considered that their new school was definitely (24%) or quite (40%) a friendly place, but 15% indicated that it was definitely not. A significant proportion also felt that it was quite (36%) or definitely (25%) an exciting place to be, but 25% disagreed. Whereas three quarters of the Year 6 students (76%) anticipated that there would be lots of interesting things to do at their new school, only 48% had found this to be borne out. Similarly, whereas 65% had been looking forward to lots of ‘out of school’ activities, only 8% found this to be the case.

Friendships and social relationships

Just over half (55%) of the Year 6 students anticipated that they would make lots of new friends at secondary school. In the event, this had risen to 69% who felt that this had definitely occurred after a term in Year 7. A very small proportion (3%) who did not have such expectations remained the same after transfer.

Just over 50% in Year 6 believed that they would be picked on by older pupils at secondary school, whilst only 35% considered that this was unlikely. In reality, only about 20% indicated that this had actually occurred, whilst 70% were very clear that it had not.

Perceptions of personal development

Just over 80% of the Year 6 students felt that moving to secondary school would give them the opportunity to make a fresh start, whilst only 3% did not feel this to be true. Although up to 70% of the Year 7 students continued to feel this, almost 20% now displayed their doubts. At the same time, whereas only 30% felt that they would be a different person at secondary school, by the end of the term in Year 7 up to 40% considered that they had in fact changed. Nevertheless, whereas just under 50% considered that they would definitely be better learners at secondary school, the number of students who believed in Year 7 that they actually were learning better had fallen to below 40%.

Implications for possible future action

Considerable doubt is thrown by this data on the reliability of the results obtained on the Key Stage 2 Maths results. This confirmed by the secondary schools, most of which implemented their own ‘home-grown’ Maths tests in Year 7.

Further research with a wider sample would be warranted together with more in-depth investigation of why the apparently large variability in results should occur.

Even by the end of their primary school careers a significant minority of children were demonstrating anxiety about school work and felt in need of lots of help. Up to a quarter of the sample found work difficult and admitted that they didn’t like using their brains or enjoying problem-solving.

This suggests that more work could be done at primary level in exploring children’s notions of ‘work’ and focussing on the intrinsic enjoyment to be gained from learning and problem-solving.

Further research is warranted into whether these children’s learning self-concepts alter for better or worse during their secondary school careers.

For most students the experience of moving from primary to secondary school appears to have been a positive one, but for a small minority it proved extremely distressing. Better ways of identifying this latter group could and should be employed by schools, one aspect of which might be their learning self-concepts.

An important further possibility for research might be to monitor the progress of these students throughout their secondary school careers.

Only a small proportion of students were finding the work at secondary school more difficult than at primary school, even though they had expected it to be so. This gives rise to further questions about appropriate ‘stretching’ of students’ cognitive abilities in Year 7.

The issue of homework warrants further consideration as it is almost universally disliked and its purpose is not at all clear to many students, who often feel that school protocols in this area are not fairly applied.

6.Even in secondary schools where high quality transfer and induction arrangements are in place, the perceptions of the students is likely to be somewhat at odds with those of the school staff. The pupils in our sample indicated yet again how much could be gained from asking their opinions about different aspects of school life and giving them the opportunity of taking responsibility for themselves and others. A particularly promising avenue in this respect is the development of peer mentoring teams to help smooth the transition of vulnerable pupils over the transfer period from primary to secondary education.

c:transition/moving from primary to technology college bera paper