Scottish Government

6.0 PUPIL RESPONSE TO THE LESSONS

Three areas of interest associated with how pupils responded to the lessons emerged from the observations. Firstly, the observers' perceptions of the clarity of the main messages transmitted to pupils in the lessons, discussed in section 6.1; secondly, perceptions of whether the lessons enhanced the pupils' understanding of drugs and their impact, discussed in section 6.2; and thirdly, how the pupils engaged with the lessons (section 6.3). Section 6.4 examines pupil response in relation to the professional delivering drug education, and section 6.5 examines it in relation to the teaching methods used. Section 6.6 examines pupil response in relation to use of packages, and finally section 6.7 examines response in relation to the different drug education approaches used.

6.1 Clarity of the Main Message

The drug education lessons were typified by a number of activities. The observation notes suggested that while these activities were often well-coordinated around a main message, there were occasions when the observations indicated that the transmission of these main messages could be improved.

On the basis of the observers' notes, a rough classification was developed using three descriptors of whether or not the main message seemed to be understood by the class as a whole - Not Clear; More or Less Clear and Definitely Clear.

Observers were not able to use these descriptors in all of the lessons observed. However, the unfolding classroom processes did provide enough clues for using the rough classification in almost 90 per cent of lessons observed.

The number of lessons in which the main messages were perceived to be not clear to the pupils was very low (at 4), while the proportion of lessons perceived to be definitely clear to pupils was around two-thirds. On the other hand, this also meant that the messages could have been clearer in about a third of the lessons observed.

6.2 Perceptions of Pupils' Enhanced Understanding of Drugs

Sufficient information was provided by the observations to enable some judgements to be made about whether or not pupil's understanding of drugs had been enhanced by the lessons observed. (See Table 6.1.)

Table C6.1. Lessons Enhancing Understanding About Drugs

Just over half of the lessons (56 per cent) were considered to have definitely helped to the pupils to understand aspects or concepts associated with drugs and their impact.

6.3 Keeping the Pupils Engaged

Judgements were made in 92 lessons in terms of the proportion of pupils felt to be engaged in their learning. (See Table C6.2 below.) In ninety per cent of these lessons at least three quarters of the class were engaged at least to some extent and in almost two-thirds of the lessons (60 per cent) almost all the class was felt to be on task. The proportion of pupils almost all engaged is higher in the primary schools, where in 69 per cent of observed lessons this was felt to be the case compared with 51 per cent in the observed secondary school lessons.

Table C6.2. Pupil Engagement

6.4 Pupil Response and Professionals Delivering Drug Education

Comparisons between teachers who were PSHE specialists and other teachers need to be treated with caution because the numbers are relatively small. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note from Table C6.3 that three distinct patterns emerged:

• There is little difference between the two groups in terms of the perceived clarity of the main messages to pupils (with around three fifths of both groups teaching lessons perceived to be definitely clear).
• Other professionals who delivered lessons were perceived to have achieved the most positive results across all three measures of pupil response - clarity of message, drugs understanding being enhanced and pupil engagement. This related to the point made elsewhere in the report about the high credibility which visitors often have with the pupils.
• A larger proportion of the lessons where it was felt that pupils' understanding of drugs had been definitely enhanced were delivered by the class teachers and form tutors (57 per cent) in comparison with the PSHE specialists (35 per cent).
• Pupil engagement was felt to be higher in the lessons delivered by class and form teachers (at 65 per cent for the proportion of lessons in which all or almost all of the pupils were seen to be engaged) than by PSHE specialists (at 32 per cent). As was the case across the other measures, this was even higher for the Others group, with 75 per cent of their lessons engaging all or almost all pupils

Table C6.3. Pupil Response by Professional Description

6.5 Pupil Response and Teaching Methods Used

We also wanted to find out if pupils' responses to their drug education lessons were influenced by the teaching methods used. As noted earlier, the most common method employed in the lessons observed was discussion, both structured and unstructured. By comparison, direct teaching was used less often and rarely as the main method in the lesson - though there were many instances of information provision delivered within structured discussions. An analysis of the observations showed the following:

Direct teaching was slightly less likely to be perceived as definitely enhanced pupils' understanding of drugs (at 53 per cent of lessons) compared with the case for structured discussions (60 per cent or unstructured discussions (57 per cent.)

Direct teaching and unstructured discussion were also less likely than structured discussion to be associated with a high level of pupil engagement. (Sixty per cent of the lessons in which structured discussion was employed were felt to have engaged all or almost all of the pupils compared with 47 per cent for unstructured discussion and 44 per cent for direct teaching.)

However, it is interesting that the observations seem to indicate that the main message is more likely to be definitely clear to pupils if there is some direct teaching (85 per cent compared with 70 per cent for structured discussion and 65 per cent for unstructured discussion).

This highlights an issue raised earlier in this report, namely that pupil participation and a high level of engagement may need to be supplemented by some clear structures and even some direct teaching if it is going to help them to make connections between what they are learning, the world they live in and the situations they may encounter in the future.

6.6 Pupil Response and Lessons using Published Packages

Using published packages was likely to result in slightly more pupils understanding what the lesson was about than would otherwise be the case:

• Lessons with main messages categorised as definitely clear to pupils were seen in 64 per cent of lessons in which published packages were used compared to 56 per cent of lessons using other kinds of resources.

Otherwise, published package use made very little difference:

• Fifty three per cent of lessons based on use of published packages were perceived to definitely enhance understanding about drugs compared with 52 of lessons using other resources.
• Sixty per cent of all or almost pupils were engaged in the task when published packages were in use, compared with 62 per cent where this was not the case.

6.7 Pupil Response and Approaches

6.7.1 Mode of delivery

As outlined in the section on approaches, the most common mode of delivery used in the observed lessons was partly didactic and partly interactive. When clarity of the main message to pupils was considered, the highest proportion of lessons that were seen to be definitely clear were towards the didactic end of this continuum with fewer than half of the lessons identified as mostly interactive in this category. (See Table C6.4a below). However, numbers are small in some of these categories so percentages and proportions in all the following tables need to be interpreted with care.) However, at an indicative level, it reinforces the earlier suggestion of some structure for directions and clear explanation is likely to support good learning outcomes.

Table C6.4a. Pupil Response by Mode of Delivery: clarity of main message to pupils

The impact of mode of delivery and its impact on perceived understanding however was different and favoured the more interactive end of the continuum. (See Table C6.4b.) Here, 60 per cent of the lessons seen to be mostly interactive were felt to have enhanced pupils' understanding of drugs, compared with 33 per cent of the mostly didactic lessons. Again however, the figures must be viewed with caution as some of the cells have very low numbers.

Table C6.4b. Pupil Response by Mode of Delivery: understanding of drugs enhanced

The highest proportions of all or almost all pupils engaged in their learning were found with the more interactive modes of learning. Two-thirds of pupils were in this category where the mode of delivery for the lesson was mostly interactive. This compared well with 45 per cent of all or almost all pupils being on task where the delivery approach was mostly didactic. (See Table C6.4c.)

Table C6.4c. Pupil Response by Mode of Delivery: pupil engagement

What this analysis has highlighted is that the more didactic modes used judicially are likely to enhance pupils' understanding of what messages are being presented and that the more interactive delivery modes help to keep the pupils involved in the learning activities and to understand the more complex issues associated with drugs, how they are used and the impact they are likely to have.

6.7.2 Learning approaches

As outlined earlier, the most common learning approach was that of information acquisition. (This was the case whether the most dominant learning approach within lessons was selected, or where all learning approaches were considered.)

• When information acquisition approaches were compared against all other approaches, the main message was definitely clear to pupils in 70 per cent of instances compared with 59 per cent across the other approaches ⁹. (See Table C6.5 below.)
• The information acquisition approach accounted for more drug understanding enhancement than the other approaches, at 64 per cent compared with 44 per cent.
• Other approaches accounted for 66 per cent of instances where all or almost all pupils were observed to be engaged with what they were doing. This was greater that the 53 per cent where information acquisition approaches were in use.

Table C6.5: Pupil Response by Learning Approaches
(Note: approaches were also counted across activities and this is reflected in the table numbers.)