Scottish Government

PART C

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION

1.0 DRUG EDUCATION LESSONS IN CONTEXT

A number of contextual factors helped to how drug education lessons were delivered. Background factors such as the physical environment and teacher characteristics are reported in section 1.1. Section 1.2 discusses lesson characteristics, including general classroom ethos, and section 1.3 discusses lesson formats.

1.1 Background Factors

1.1.1 The classrooms used

The lessons observed were overwhelming delivered in standard classrooms. In just over half of these, the children worked at tables in small groups. Just under a third of the lessons were in classrooms laid out more traditionally in rows of desks. These were usually grouped in twos.

Particularly in the primary sector, the drug education lessons were delivered in the usual classroom for the particular year group observed. In the secondary sector, 22 lessons were observed in rooms used specifically for PSHE teaching. There was very little visual reference to the PSHE-related activities, however, with posters or wall displays of relevant work not featuring to any great extent.

A small number of the lessons observed took place in the school hall. In all these cases, this was to accommodate a visiting drama group.

1.1.2 Classroom suitability

For the most part, the classroom set-up was felt to have been suitable for the activities conducted within the lessons, with only four per cent of activities perceived by observers to have taken place in locations which were unsuitable. This usually meant that the space available felt cramped for the numbers in the room, particularly for interactive activities.

A small number of lessons took place in computer rooms (though in one instance this location was important in that the lesson observed was addressing cross-curricular learning in both drug education and computer skills).

1.1.3 Class size

The most common class size was 17 or 18, though this was a factor which varied according to the school (e.g. the smallest class size noted was 5 in a very small rural primary school) and purpose of the lesson (e.g. when a drama group came and a whole year group took part in the lesson in the school hall). The average class size was 18.5. Class sizes were also very small in those lessons delivered to children with special needs.

Almost all of the lessons observed were delivered to mixed classes. Only three lessons were for single gender groups, one for a group of girls and two for groups of boys.

1.1.4 Professionals delivering the lessons

In the primary sector, the majority of lessons observed were delivered by the class teacher. In the secondary schools, for the most part, the teachers were either registration class tutors or teachers with pupil support responsibilities for the class observed.

However, one in ten of the lessons observed were delivered by teachers who either had PSHE training or who held specific PSHE responsibilities at school level. In secondary schools, these teachers often had another subject specialism, the most common being English, Physical Education and History.

Almost all of the lessons were delivered by teachers in their classrooms on their own. Eleven lessons were observed where an auxiliary or student assisted, and three where an external professional taught with the school-based teacher. In addition, twenty lessons were delivered by external professionals working independently of the teacher. For the most part, school-based teachers familiar to the children stayed for the course of these lessons, but none, other than the three noted above, took an active part in what took place. There was a range of external professionals:

• Eleven of the lessons were delivered by police officers, some of whom came from the Drug Enforcement Agency ( DEA), some held Community Police Officer posts and others held no specific responsibility (made known to the observers);
• Four lessons were undertaken by Community Health Workers often with a cross-service or inter-agency remit;
• Five were delivered by other external agencies, two of which were drama companies.

1.2 Lesson Characteristics

1.2.1 Lesson length

Though lesson times varied across the observations, most lessons lasted between 40 and 60 minutes. Just over two thirds (68 per cent) were within this time span, with the most common lesson length taking around 45 minutes. The full range included a small number of half-hour lessons and a number lasting up to one and a half hours. This was similar across local authorities, and though it was generally the younger age-groups which tended to have the half hour lessons, a small number of secondary schools also had short single periods of 35 minutes or so. The standard length, whatever the age group, fell within the 40 - 60 minute range.

One of the lessons delivered to children with special educational needs in primary six took place over the course of a morning - 120 minutes in all - with a mid-morning break. This, however, was exceptional.

1.2.2 Classroom ethos

For the most part, the lessons observed took place in a calm and focussed atmosphere with few disruptions or disciplinary incidents to distract teachers or pupils from the task in hand. However, this needs to be contextualised. These lessons were delivered by teachers confident enough to volunteer to be observed and this may have had an influence on general classroom management issues across the lessons as a whole. Notes made by the observers suggesting this can be exemplified by the comment made by one: "This was clearly a potentially disruptive class but the teacher managed to hold them together very well."

Across 100 lessons, observers noted 26 instances of unforeseen events or interruptions taking place. Examples included:

• Other teachers coming in to talk to the teacher delivering the lesson;
• The teacher having to leave the class to stop fighting in the corridor;
• A computer exploding (though this was the most dramatic event recorded).

Similarly, over the 100 lessons, observers noted 40 instances where teacher activity was diverted to handling disruptive incidents. Many of these were minor, often relating to quietening a class which had grown noisier or over-enthusiastic as the lesson progressed. They were generally short-lived and very much part of day-to-day classroom management. Only a very small number of these incidents were disruptive in any real sense and these often focussed on children or young people who had learning difficulties or other kinds of additional needs.

Observers made very few comments about factors on which they could judge the ethos of the classroom and these notes were not coded systematically for the analysis. The comments reported by the observers usually highlighted specific positive or negative factors. Notes on positive evidence focussed on a range of activities where teachers were seen to be working towards the following:

• Establishing an inclusive learning environment, often through ensuring that every member of the class could find valid ways of contributing (sometimes noted where children with disabilities were made to feel included in every aspect of the lesson);
• Reminding pupils of the rules negotiated in earlier lessons for discussions or group activities;
• Regularly preventing inappropriate disclosures and explaining to pupils why this was important;
• Highlighting where there were no right and wrong answers or generally agreed moral positions;
• Ensuring that discussions were conducted with sensitivity to the possibility that there was drug addiction within the children's families.

Sometimes teachers themselves made disclosures arising from their own experiences. This was typically noted in lessons dealing with smoking and most often occurred in discussions where teachers were seeking to build on pupils' prior learning and/or experiences. Comments made in post-observation interviews around such occurrences often mentioned the need not to frighten younger pupils with stories of ill-health.

Negative points made by the observers about classroom ethos almost all related to teachers who were not skilled at stopping disclosures. On very rare occasions, notes were made by observers indicated that disclosures on family matters were being encouraged by teachers. In these instances, the observers felt this was being done in order to enhance the broad basis of the ongoing discussions.

1.3 Lesson Formats

The observation schedule was designed to enable notes to be taken on how lessons were presented to the pupils. The lesson introduction was of interest in that it could define the platform for learning and explain the purposes and outcomes of what was planned and expected. Similarly, how lessons were ended also helped to provide a structure or contextualisation or revision of what had been addressed and what had been learned.

1.3.1 Introducing the lessons

For just over half of the lessons, no review of previous work was undertaken. (See Table C1.1 below.) Around a third began with some reference to what had been covered earlier. Sometimes this related to a previous lesson delivered recently and sometimes it related to work undertaken in a previous session or year. One in ten lessons did begin with a more comprehensive review of what had been covered in previous lessons or what they pupils had learned earlier.

Table C1.1. Previous Work Reviewed

In the lessons observed, taking time to introduce the lesson did not appear to be standard practice. (See Table C1.2 below.) In 56 of the lessons, observers noted that the focus of the lesson was announced. This was the most common type of information used for setting the scene for the lessons. In seven lessons, the teachers had identified what was expected in terms of learning or experiences (such as having the opportunity to work through values clarification). It is, however, important to highlight that the figures presented here are based on what observers described in the introduction narrative and therefore was not systematically noted or coded. Because of this, the figures can only be interpreted indicatively.

Table C1.2. Introductory Information on the Lesson

Note: number of lessons are greater than 100 because teachers could employ more than one introductory activity.

1.3.2 Lesson activities

The number of activities undertaken within each lesson was most frequently two, not counting introductions or end of lesson reviews. (See Table C1.3 below.) Lessons with two activities accounted for just over a third of the lessons observed; those with three activities accounted for about a quarter. There were eleven instances of lessons delivering more than four activities.

Table C1.3. Number of Activities per Lesson

1.3.3 Reviewing the lessons

Just over half of the lessons finished with at least some kind of review activities in place. (See Table C1.4.) Of the lessons in which the kinds of review actions were identified, all but three involved a combination of the following:

• Going over what had been covered;
• Reminding the pupils how that had been explored;
• Revisiting what had been learned.

The three lessons based on only one of the possible actions focused on reviewing what had been learned.

The review patterns were analysed by whether or not the teachers were PSHE specialists and by whether the lessons were based on published packages or not. Neither analysis provided any conclusive results.

Table C1.4. Review Activities