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Investigational work refers to those activities where pupils are given a degree of initia-tive, autonomy and responsibility towards planning and conducting their own learning in order to investigate some topic or task set by the teacher. The essential ingredient of genuine investigational work is that it involves a degree of problem solving and/or discovery learning, which is in part or totally independent of teacher support. Its prime value lies in the qualities and skills it fosters in pupils, although in addition it has been widely advocated as an effective way of promoting deeper understanding. Indeed, teaching and learning in schools places much greater emphasis than in the past, on pupils developing investigational skills rather than simply acquiring knowledge. The most notable examples of this are in the teaching of science and history, which, as subjects, have moved very much away from being the accumulation of facts towards being seen as investigational and interpretive activities.

Effective use of discovery-learning and problem-solving activities in schools requires teachers to:

clearly formulate the problem that is to be undertaken

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explicitly foster the types of information-gathering skills that are required

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systematically debrief pupils on the learning that should have occurred.

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S^{ETTINGUPTHELEARNINGEXPERIENCE} 49 The ability of pupils to undertake investigational work also has to be cultivated care-fully, otherwise such activities may result in little learning actually occurring. Indeed, pupils are adept at appearing to be active and looking busy, when they are making little productive progress in the ways the teacher intended.

Another important aspect of investigational work is that of developing the pupil’s ability to go beyond the recording and description of what they have done towards making interpretations and explanations. Some problems may appear to involve investigational work, but in fact merely foster simple information gathering. For example, asking pupils to give three reasons why the Romans invaded Britain after reading a page of a textbook that clearly lists three reasons is not investigational, although it might be a precursor of such work. Now, asking pupils to analyse some information about both Britain and Rome at the time from which to identify possible reasons for the invasion would involve a genuine investigation based on analysis and interpretation.

Investigational work does not only foster intrinsic motivation but also those qualities and skills that pupils need to be able to apply to meet many demands in adult life.

Attempts to facilitate such transfer of skills from school to the real world have involved setting tasks that have real-life relevance. For example, a mathematics task might ask pupils to plan all the arrangements for a class trip by using maps, train timetables and a budget for meals and other expenses.

Another benefi t of investigational work is that it can foster creative thinking. One of the key skills of effective teaching in this context is indeed to encourage pupils to explore their own ideas. Quite naturally, teachers often have in mind the type of responses and comments they are seeking from pupils. Unfortunately, this can some-times foster an atmosphere where pupils are encouraged to guess what the teacher has in mind (often assisted by the teacher through giving clues and prompts). Pupils will be inhibited from making creative responses if they feel there is a danger that their comments and ideas will be publicly judged by the teacher to be unwanted or incorrect.

Indeed, it takes a fair degree of skill by the teacher to encourage genuinely creative exploration of a topic by pupils that is not unnecessarily constrained by the teacher’s expectations. As such, it is imperative for the teacher to be very supportive of all pupil efforts, particularly as the giving of such efforts is exactly what investigational work is attempting to foster.

A particularly interesting development in a number of schools is the use of resource centres to support investigational work. Such centres have tended to develop from their original function as school libraries to include a whole range of materials and equipment (such as ICT packages, internet sources, video and audio tapes, slides and photographs, objects, and self-access learning packs). These resources are then linked to particular pieces of investigational work that a pupil or small group of pupils can undertake. The investigation set by the teacher will specify the type of information that needs to be gathered or the problem that needs to be addressed, along with the sources and activities housed in the resources centre that need to be used. Such centres have been developed widely in both primary and secondary schools, and appear to be very successful.

3 Individualised programmes of work

Individualised programmes of work refer to a substantial piece or course of academic work extending over a number of hours or days, which the pupil is able to undertake

on an individual basis. The major advantage of such an individualised programme of work is that it enables pupils to work at their own pace and at their own level. Given the importance of matching pace and level to the pupil in order to maximise the quality of the pupil’s learning experience, it is not surprising that such programmes of work have been widely used.

The three main types of individualised programmes commonly used in schools are proj-ect work, computer-based learning programmes and schemes based on structured word cards and booklets. There are however two major dangers facing the effective use of such schemes. First, the teacher can spend a great deal of time dealing with a range of trivial resource and organisational matters, rather than actually teaching and giving the pupil on-task support when needed. An over-reliance by a teacher on the content of the materials used for the development of pupils’ understanding can easily lead to problems.

Indeed, the main rationale for such schemes is not that they replace the teacher, but rather that the teacher is given more time to teach on a one-to-one basis. Second, it is commonly assumed that the most crucial task for teachers is indeed to help pupils when they get into diffi culties. In fact, the major task is to brief pupils properly before they begin about what they are expected to do and achieve as result of the activities.

Project work has been widely used as a means of developing independent study skills, and has been widely incorporated into national examination assessments. Project work can act as a very important source of motivation (particularly of intrinsic motivation) through the degree of choice and control it offers to pupils in undertaking the work.

However, it is very important for teachers to make clear to pupils what qualities will be looked for when project work is assessed and, if possible, for them to see examples of project work produced by other pupils. It is very easy for pupils to feel that as long as the work displays evidence of much time and effort being devoted to it, that of itself will largely contribute to a good mark. This can lead pupils to spend insuffi cient time on polishing up its intellectual and academic content because too much time has been spent in accumulating bulk.

The use of individualised programmes of work has also become widespread. The tasks and activities may direct pupils to support resources. The crucial aspect of using such schemes effectively is to maintain a careful record of the progress made by each pupil.

While some degree of pupil self-assessment is often involved, teacher assessments are essential if a whole range of qualities (such as spelling, handwriting, presentation and explanation) are to be monitored. One danger with such schemes is that pupils may waste much time waiting for a teacher to help, mark and give direction, before they can proceed further. As such, an effective system of organisation that minimises such problems is very important. Indeed, there is little doubt that a teacher supervising a class of pupils who will be working on different topics, at different speeds, and who demand different types of help, requires a high level of sound planning and organisa-tion, as well as a high degree of mental energy.

4 Small group work

One particularly healthy development in schools over the years has been the greater use of small group work. Small group work refers to academic tasks and activities undertaken by a group of pupils, which involves some degree of discussion, refl ection and collaboration. The optimum size for small group work for most types of tasks is probably about fi ve, although small group work can be undertaken by groups as small as two (termed ‘paired work’). Advocates of the value of small group work have

S^{ETTINGUPTHELEARNINGEXPERIENCE} 51 stressed the importance of the skills developed by the processes involved in small group work (e.g. social and communication skills) as being educationally as important, if not more important than, the intellectual quality of the work produced (i.e. the aims may often be process rather than product oriented in emphasis). The importance of the collaboration involved in such work has received particular attention, and this is often referred to as ‘collaborative learning’. The point is frequently made is that effective small group work must involve genuine collaboration, not simply pupils working alongside each other relatively independently and occasionally sharing answers. The value of small group work includes:

creating a climate in which pupils can work with a sense of security and

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confi dence

offering the optimum opportunity for pupils to talk refl ectively with each other

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promoting a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect.

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Studies of small group work (Gillies, 2004; Kutnick, 2006) have indicated that its effectiveness is enhanced when the teacher:

helps pupils to understand and develop the skills involved in doing group work

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makes clear to pupils what they are expected to do and gives a positive lead before

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the group work begins

follows up the group work by pooling the discussion and giving feedback on the work

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produced.

Many might regard science practicals, usually involving two or three pupils working together, as a common example of small group work. However, many science practicals simply involve pupils carefully following instructions and directions given by the teacher.

They thus offer little room for discussion and collaboration other than the cooperation required for the conduct of the practical. In fact small group work involving genuine collaborative learning occurs most often in English, history and social studies in second-ary school, and in topic and project work in primsecond-ary school. The greater use of small group work in science and mathematics will depend on these subject teachers recognis-ing the value of the skills berecognis-ing fostered as an important part of their own subject area and not regarding them as the more proper concern of others.

There are two main types of small group work. The fi rst is where the pupils are given a specifi c task to achieve (e.g. ‘Prepare a leafl et about the working conditions a sailor could expect to fi nd on a seventeenth-century ship from the materials given’). The second is where pupils are asked to explore an issue through information gathering and discussion (e.g. whether fox hunting should be banned). The former is thus focused on the production of a tangible end product as the stimulus, whereas the latter is open-ended. Other types of small group work range from activities based on pairs of pupils interacting (a common feature of modern languages teaching) to ‘buzz sessions’ (where pupils are asked to identify ideas connected with some problem).

The use of group work in primary school has, however, been the subject of some controversy, in part because it has been discussed in the context of the debate over the relative effectiveness of ‘formal’ versus ‘informal’ teaching styles. Group work has been seen as a key feature of progressive teaching, characterised as involving the use of more open-ended investigational tasks, pupils being seated together in small groups around a table, a more relaxed classroom ethos, and greater pupil involvement in the pace and direction of activities. In contrast, traditional teaching is characterised as involving more whole-class teaching, pupils being seated at individual desks in rows, the use of

expository teaching, and greater teacher control and direction over classroom activi-ties. One danger with the use of small group work, is that teachers may assume that pupils already possess the skills and maturity to produce a high of quality work within this context when in fact they do not. As such, it is important for teachers to help pupils develop these skills and to behave appropriately in order to use such approaches to best effect. Unfortunately, some teachers avoid using group work simply because pupils do not appear to already possess the necessary skills, when in fact it is part of the teacher’s task to help such skills develop. It must be remembered that the develop-ment of group-work skills by pupils takes practice and confi dence, and that a substan-tial period of teacher support and guidance is needed before pupils can show what they are capable of.

A particularly interesting development in schools has been the use of peer-group tutor-ing, which involves one pupil helping or teaching another on a one-to-one basis. The most common application of peer-group tutoring has involved older pupils helping younger pupils, for example, in learning to read or in arithmetical computations. Inter-estingly, the older pupils themselves often benefi t from the exercise, as having to teach leads them to improve their own competence and understanding. This form of tutoring has been widely used to help less confi dent younger pupils. Earlier in this chapter, men-tion was made of paired reading programmes, which involve pupils reading to their parents at home. Studies of such programmes indicate that it is often an older brother or sister, rather than a parent, who acts as a tutor, particularly among minority ethnic communities, which is in fact a form of peer-group tutoring. For some reason, the use of confi dent pupils helping less confi dent pupils in the same class appears to have been less successful than the use of older pupils, in part perhaps because a classmate as tutor may serve to highlight one’s sense of failure and relatively lower status.