Nuffield Curriculum Centre

Creative innovation

Nuffield Exeter Extending Literacy project (EXEL), 1992 onwards

Directors
David Wray and Maureen Lewis

Background
The Exeter Extending Literacy project was funded by Nuffield Trustees under the Open Door programme. David Wray and Maureen Lewis developed ways of helping teachers to develop pupils’ reading and writing skills in different genres of non-fiction texts..

Impact
At first it seemed that the Nuffield Curriculum Centre would have a role in disseminating the approaches, but then the work of the team was incorporated into the National Literacy Strategy. The EXEL approach became an integral part of the Literacy Hour in every primary school in England without further Nuffield assistance.

Nuffield Exploratory Data Skills Project

Directors
Jon Ogborn and Richard Boohan

Aims
This project set out to develop resources to show how ‘exploratory data analysis’ could be taught in schools and colleges. The aim was to help students gain greater confidence in handling quantitative data.

The emphasis throughout was on being able to ask questions, find meaning in data and to discuss the interpretation of data. So group work was was an important feature of the approach.

The approach
Exploratory data analysis concentrates on making sense of data rather than on applying sophisticated statistical tests. There is much emphasis on effective ways to visualise data. The methods often involve simple paper-and-pencil ways of getting to know data and seeing what it has to say. They can be applied to data about important everyday issues found in newspapers, magazines and official reports.

The resources
In 1991 the project published a very flexible set of resources all supplied in a big blue box. The materials were designed to use in a wide range of curriculum contexts and with students of varying ages and abilities.

There were three types of resources:

• Reference sheets presenting the concepts and techniques of data analysis
  
• Mini-courses developing these ideas in particular contexts
  
• Topic resources indicating how the ideas could be used in other subject areas.

Impact
The publications were little used, though they contain much which is still of value. The resources were almost too flexible – for individual teachers the whole box seemed hard to engage with.

Energy and change

Directors
Jon Ogborn and Richard Boohan

Aims
This project was an attempt to find a language and imagery for teaching about ‘energy and change’ to pre-16 students in a way that is true to the principles of the laws of thermodynamics. The resources were published by the Association for Science Education in 1996.

Impact
Energy and change has, so far, had little impact on the teaching of energy in schools. QCA discouraged Twenty First Century Science from adopting a modified version of the approach.

'The ideas have been developed in the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme's (SEP) publication Energy Now, which represents the approach in a more accessible form. Gatsby SEP is running courses at the Science Learning Centre London to introduce the new resource to teachers.