Abstract
This paper addresses the issue of how to develop students' basic skills in communication so that they can access the curriculum and improve their performance in literacy.
A project is described in Leicester primary and secondary schools that aims at improving thinking and communication. A framework called the Communication Opportunity Group Scheme (COGS) was used by teachers on an intensive and periodic basis with groups of students. The scheme has 12 goals or levels and after 810 one hour sessions students are assessed on the competencies they have worked to acquire.
Comparisons were made between the COGS taught students and control groups. There was a significant difference in the groups receiving COGS in their overall school performance. Both confidence and competence were enhanced by specialist teaching in communication and students benefited from the opportunity to explore the whole notion of communication as the basis of their learning. The project also involved parents in some of the activities of the group which increased their awareness and interest in the learning process. The COGS groups are felt to be an ideal model for after school clubs as students regarded them as fun as well as being rewarding.
INTRODUCTION
The project, involving 7-15 year olds in a primary school, began in mid 1999. Teachers have identified communication opportunity as a fundamental need for pupils who fail to comprehend and express themselves adequately in social and academic situations. The project aim is to demonstrate awareness of the importance of communication and train teachers, helpers and parents to provide opportunities in school and at home.
Reviews of research literature from the 1970s, summarised by Brigman et al (1999), have emphasised instruction in communication because of its strong correlation with positive peer relations and academic achievement. Successful strategies for teaching have involved individual, small group and whole class instruction. Although documented internationally over the last thirty years, the problems of pupils lacking requisite communication skills for learning persists at all levels of the education system and may be the main reason for inadequate school and life performances. A Carnegie Foundation (1992) survey of 7000 infant teachers in America estimated 98% of the nation's children had insufficient skills in language and communication to engage in formal learning successfully. Of this group, 51% of the problems were judged serious. Teachers' anecdotal evidence suggests a similar situation in Britain, indicating a gap between research and practice in present educational policy.
The COGS*, under evaluation in this study, attempts to translate what is known about developing personal and academic success skills. It is based on how spoken and written ideas are developed and expressed in a sequence spanning 14 levels. Four aspects of a message are targeted: clarity, content, convention (rules of presentation) and conduct (personal impression). They are considered alongside attitudes, personality, intelligence and opportunity that affect transmission of information. The 14 COGS levels cover primary, secondary, tertiary education and job training needs for using language and communication. Each level requires 8-10 hours teaching, after which participants are assessed on target competencies in speaking and writing. The split of tasks - 80% oral and 20% written - reflects the use of these skills in daily life. The content of activities in teaching and assessment complements and reinforces on-going learning. The strategy uses a tell, show, do and coach approach, which includes systematic sequencing of teaching with review, demonstration, guided practice, corrective and supportive feedback. There is group and independent activity, encouraging pupils to take control of their learning. In appraisal of 50 years of research, Wang et al (1994) found this to be the most effective mode of instruction.
METHOD
Participants
The Primary School with 230 pupils from 3-11 years old has 35% on the special needs register. The Secondary school has 1,035 senior girls of wide ethnic mix and 17% on the special needs register. A random selection of students were selected using the following criteria:
The subjects included 11 boys and 25 girls. There were 2 COGS teaching groups (weekly and intensive) and a control one which had no specific communication teaching.
Project format
The project is taking place over one year (1999-2000) in four phases:
The COGS weekly sessions took place within the curriculum and intensive groups were taken off time-table for a school week. Testing of pupils took place before and after COGS teaching.
The COGS framework
The COGS was developed from a Medical Research Council grant to look at why pupils failed in school despite extra support (Sage,1986). The conclusion was these children lacked school success because they were expected to perform in literacy at a level well beyond their oracy development. The reductionist nature of many assessments does not show up pupil problems in dealing with the overall meaning of chunks of talk and text, resulting in their needs not being clearly identified. The COGS was developed to target thinking and language in a developmental framework that matched speaking and listening with reading and writing. The scheme has demonstrated success in small scale British studies (Sage & Shaw, 1992; Nelson & Burchell, 1998, Sage,1992, 1998, Sage & Whittingham,, 1997).
Assessments: pre and post teaching conditions For this research phase two instruments were used to record pupil performance:
1) The Test for Reception of Grammar (TROG) (Bishop, 1989)
2) The Sage Assessment of Language and Thinking (SALT) (Sage, 1992)
The TROG assesses comprehension of grammatical contrasts. The format is a verbal statement (e.g. The boy is running) with a choice of four pictures from a page, one of which matches the spoken words. The test looks at comprehension at the level of a single sentence. It was standardised on 2,000 children between 4-12.11 years, throughout a wide area of Britain, that is reasonably representative of social class distribution. This test comprises 1 measure of performance in this study.
The SALT is a story re-telling task and 10 question interview, with a 4-17 year age range. It encourages responses at the participants' own linguistic and cognitive level. Tasks aim for the expression of a number of ideas in sequence, demonstrating narrative thinking that joins up notions into an overall meaning. The assessment locates the level at which participants organise ideas as a guide to teaching. A student giving 1 word responses to questions, suggesting difficulty in producing constructs, would be put on GOGS goal 1, which aims at developing ideas. Standardisation has been carried out on 1,200 participants in Midland counties and a large city in Scotland. At this stage of test development there has been no attempt to make the sample fully representative of social class and geographical distribution. These tests comprise 6 measures of performance in the study, described below:
SALT 1 - a story re-telling task with simple language form; SALT 2 - a story re-telling task with complex language from
10 interview questions with responses scored for: CONTENT - the number of ideas expressed; CONVENTION - the language forms demonstrated CLARITY - the quality of the spoken response; CONDUCT - the impression made on the listener (self-esteem displayed)
Assessments of reading and self-concept were also administered but are not included in this research phase. Testing was carried out by 2 different assessors and these were checked for reliability, reaching a satisfactory mean level of 0.91.
RESEARCH DESIGN
The research question was: 'What are the performance trends regarding thinking, language and communication for pupils receiving COGS teaching versus controls?' A between-factors and within-factor multivariate design was used. Participating groups were given pre and post teaching measures. The between-subjects variable was COGS teaching and with-in subjects variable was time. Dependent variables were assessment performance components. A 0.05 level of significance was used in the study.
RESULTS
Quantitative
The 3 conditions (weekly, intensive, control) were considered before and after teaching using ANOVA procedures on test data. The resulting raw regression coefficients land between +1 and -1, (perfect correlation between conditions before and after COGS intervention (+1) and inverse correlation (-1)). A notable score is a 0.94 correlation for the primary group on the TROG. The intensive and weekly conditions show a strong correlation (p=0.84). Therefore, the evidence suggests scores for both COGS conditions vary independently from controls, showing an influential effect of the COGS teaching.
The direction and degree to which scores moved is clarified in Table 1, which summarises the data giving the mean totals from tests. In intensive and weekly conditions, all scores increased after the completion of COGS teaching and of these 75% were significant at the level p=0.05. Intensive and weekly mean score rises were from 122.7-179.2 (difference 57.0). However, in the control conditions there was a drop in mean scores, from 155-141.6 (difference 13.4). Initially, performance in the control group showed higher mean scores than the teaching groups, but after the COGS intervention, the difference in scores is not only reversed but greatly magnified. Figure 1 presents this graphically.
Before intensive and weekly teaching, there was little difference between groups, and similarity in scores is apparent in the grand totals. In both COGS groups, the discrepancy between the magnitude of mean score increase was 14.2 points (42.8 for intensive and 57.0 for weekly), with room for improvement limited in the intensive condition by a relatively elevated pre COGS score. This suggests that the type of COGS presentation, intensive or weekly, has little to no significance in this short term programme. This is in spite of the fact that the intensive group had extra activities in the afternoon which aimed to complement and extend morning COGS sessions.
| Group | Test Totals | Mean differences |
| Primary intensive (I) before after |
143.9 186.7 |
42.8 |
| Weekly (W) before after |
122.2 179.2 |
57.0 |
| control (c) before after |
155.0 141.6 |
-13.4 |
| Secondary (I) before after |
127.2 179.0 |
51.8 |
| (W) before after |
130.4 181.9 |
51.5 |
| (c) before after |
141.7 120.2 |
-21.5 |
Family: Nine family members of both groups were interviewed informally, either after the final COGS assessment, which they were invited to attend, or when collecting their children from school. The families were well versed in the COGS project, demonstrating good communication between themselves and school. All were happy to have their children involved and twelve families suggested that the COGS had made a difference in willingness to attend school: 'For the first time ever, I did not have to kick…. out of bed'! In general, parents felt their children had gained in confidence from the course. Several mentioned that it was the first time their child had achieved real success in school. All parents wanted children to continue this type of teaching if possible.
Pupils: One third of pupils, in the project, was questioned by an independent assessor. They were interviewed for 20 minutes each. Those attending groups were asked about their experience, whilst the controls were questioned about communication. What emerged was that the COGS groups enjoyed communication activities more than general lessons. They liked chances to talk, feeling they normally had to be quiet in school. They expressed the view that 'talking makes you better at school', saying that 'when you talk ideas come and become real'; 'the clever ones are good at talking'; 'more talking makes things easier to get help from other people'; 'help with talking helps with asking questions in class'. One boy said that talking with others 'helps to do more work on my own'. Although saying he had learnt 'quite a lot' from the COGS, it was clear, from answers, that there were many issues in his life that needed resolution before a positive feeling about school learning could emerge.
Schools: For many of the pupils a difference in school performance has been noted and is presently being monitored. School reviews have produced evidence of improved confidence, motivation and work output. An independent evaluator attended 5 COGS sessions and reported positively about student performances and the teaching method.
DISCUSSION
The research question was whether pupils receiving the COGS would show significant increases in communication skills vital for learning. Results indicate a significant and positive difference between those receiving weekly or intensive COGS, when compared with controls. The average for controls on the pre test is higher than the teaching groups (by chance rather than design), but this is reversed on the post test. Multivariate repeated measures account for these differences. In fact, the control group scores significantly lower on assessment 2. This may be explained by end of term exhaustion (noted by the independent evaluator). However, since the COGS pupils demonstrate the reverse, it suggests that new experiences maintain interest and increase performance in spite of a general feeling of tiredness.
The project design included 2 data points - pre and post test. This type of trend analysis is recognised as one of the most promising methods for project evaluation (Knapp, 1995). Gains are evident across measures and sources for data collection in areas of interest (thinking, language and communication). Findings suggest that the processes and skills, considered most predictive of long-term school success, can be taught by teachers and produce significant gains in a short time. The limited number of subjects in the study, and the project design, does not represent a viable sample, but findings are consistent with similar small scale interventions. More research is needed to look at long term effects in promoting school success and decreasing school failure from teaching that emphasises thinking, language and communication. Questions requiring attention are:
CONCLUSION AND FURTHER PLANNED DEVELOPMENTS
This study suggests it may be possible to raise students' performance by systematic teaching of thinking, language and communication. Weekly and intensive teaching produce similar results, so mode of delivery is a matter of personal preference. The COGS would be suitable for after school clubs as well as part of the curriculum. Implications for education include more training to focus on communication, which is now being implemented in certificate courses at Leicester University. Teaching communication is fundamental to school learning, as we live in a world where people and words are no longer the main message givers. Now pictures do the telling, through mass media which delivers in a passive, speedy, unchallenging way to ensure information is received effortlessly. It remains a fact that school learning depends on words but children are unused to striving for their meaning. Therefore, we need to know how to facilitate communication to support the academic and social performance of all students so they can access the curriculum successfully.
The main findings of the study that students receiving COGS teaching are: more confident at home and school; use an increased range of language and communication skills; show increased levels of reading and writing performance; demonstrate improved behaviour.
References
Brigman, G., Lane, D. and Switzer, D. (1999) Teaching Children School Success Skills. The Journal of Educational Research.Vol.92, No.6.Pg.323-329.
Knapp, M.S. (1995) How shall we study comprehensive collaborative services for children and families? Educational Researcher, 24(4),5-16.
Carnegie Foundation (1992) Ready to Learn: A mandate for the nation. New York: Carrnegie Corporation.
Nelson, D. and Burchell, K. (1998) Evaluation of the Communication Opportunity Group Scheme. Pg. 1-31. Pub. South Warwickshire Combined Care NHS Trust, Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Warwick.
Sage, R (1986) A Question of Language Disorder. MRC Trent Research Report. Sage, R (1992) Communication in the Classroom. Ph.D. University of Leicester.
Sage, R (1998) Communication Support for Students in Senior School. University of Leicester.
Sage R. and Shaw P (1992) Collaborative Teaching and Learning. London: CSSD publications.
Sage, R and Whittingham, J (1997) Using the Communication Opportunity Group Scheme in Senior Schools: A Speech and Language Therapy and Teaching Initiative. Warwickshire LEA/AHA.
Wang, M. C., Haertel, G. D. and Walberg, H. J. (1994) What helps students learn? Educational Leadership, 51(4),74-79.
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