Plain English Summary
Background and study aims:
Metacognition is awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes. It is increasingly recognised as valuable for student learning for students of all ages, valuable in terms of additional progress that can be made for something that is relatively low cost to implement. Research suggests that there is a link between metacognition and student attainment. ReflectED is a metacognition-based programme developed by Rosendale Primary School, in partnership with London Connected Learning Centre (London CLC) and the National Education Trust (NET). A previous evaluation of ReflectED reported a positive impact on student progress in maths. Research about metacognition also suggests positive links to reading. ReflectED is a whole school approach delivered through a series of pre-prepared lesson plans spanning Reception to Key Stage 2 (KS2). Teachers provide opportunities for pupils to make reflections and make use of the metacognitive skills in their day-to-day learning. The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the whole school application of ReflectED on attainment in maths and reading for students in KS1 and KS2. This study is also exploring the impact of ReflectED on student’s self-reported levels of metacognition in KS2.
Who can participate?
Students in schools that have signed up to participate in the evaluation of ReflectED. The evaluation focuses on students who are in year 5 and year 1 in January 2018 and who will therefore be in year 6 and year 2 respectively in July 2020.
What does the study involve?
Schools are randomly allocated to one of two groups. The schools in the first group receive ReflectED, and also receive funding to cover the costs of releasing specified staff to attend training. ReflectED is a whole school approach delivered through a series of pre-prepared lesson plans spanning Reception to Key Stage 2 (KS2). Teachers provide opportunities for pupils to make reflections and make use of the metacognitive skills in their day-to-day learning. The whole school approach to ReflectED being evaluated includes a visit to Rosendale School, an initial day of training (launch event) for head teachers and their nominated lead practitioners and termly local hub training sessions which they then cascade to the remaining teachers in each intervention school. The schools in the second group continue as usual in their approach to teaching, they are an offered alternative (one session) training opportunity, are given the option to access ReflectED after the study and are offered a small financial incentive (£250). At the end of the school year, students' math and English exams results are reviewed to see if there has been any change in their achievement levels.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
Participants may benefit from potentially improving their mathematics, reading or metacognition skills. There are no notable risks involved with taking part in this study.
Where is the study run from?
The study is a collaboration involving York Trials Unit, University of York; the School of Education, Durham University and the Department of Education, University of York. The study takes place in primary schools in the UK.
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
February 2017 to March 2020
Who is funding the study?
Education Endowment Foundation (UK)
Who is the main contact?
1. Dr Louise Gascoine (public)
2. Prof. David Torgerson (scientific)
Trial website
https://www.york.ac.uk/healthsciences/research/trials/research/trials/reflected/
Contact information
Type
Public
Primary contact
Dr Louise Gascoine
ORCID ID
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5688-6176
Contact details
York Trials Unit
Department of Health Sciences
University of York
York
YO10 5DD
United Kingdom
Type
Scientific
Additional contact
Prof David Torgerson
ORCID ID
Contact details
York Trials Unit
Department of Health Sciences
University of York
York
YO10 5DD
United Kingdom
Additional identifiers
EudraCT number
ClinicalTrials.gov number
Protocol/serial number
ReflectED protocol September 2017_1.8
Study information
Scientific title
Independent Evaluation of ReflectED metacognition: a pragmatic two armed cluster randomised controlled trial
Acronym
Study hypothesis
Primary research questions:
1. How effective is ReflectED in improving pupil outcomes in maths at the end of KS2?
2. How effective is ReflectED in improving pupil outcomes in reading at the end of KS2?
Secondary research questions:
1. How effective is ReflectED in improving pupil outcomes in maths at the end of KS1?
2. How effective is ReflectED in improving pupil outcomes in reading at the end of KS1?
3. How effective is ReflectED in improving pupil outcomes in grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) at the end of KS2?
4. How effective is ReflectED in improving primary and secondary outcomes for pupils with Free School Meals (FSM)?
5. Does ReflectED have an impact on metacognition for pupils in KS2, as measured by the Junior Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (JrMAI)?
Ethics approval
School of Education, Durham University, 09/10/2017, ref: 2840
Study design
Pragmatic two-armed cluster randomised controlled trial
Primary study design
Interventional
Secondary study design
Cluster randomised trial
Trial setting
Schools
Trial type
Other
Patient information sheet
Not available in web format, please use contact details to request a participant information sheet
Condition
Students in year 1 and year 5 at the beginning of the intervention period (academic year 2017/2018) in trial schools
Intervention
Randomisation is implemented at school level, ReflectED is a whole school intervention taught across Reception - KS2 (aged 4 - 11 years, primary school). The data collected in this study, for the purposes of evaluating ReflectED, will have a dual focus on KS1 (pupils aged 5 - 6 years in year 1 at the beginning of the intervention period in January 2018) and KS2 (pupils in year 5 aged 9 - 10 years at the beginning of the intervention period in January 2018). Randomisation will be stratified by geographical location, school size and percentage of EverFSM (a record that shows if students have been entitled to FSM (free school meals)). Participating schools will be randomised to one of two conditions: the intervention group or the control group.
Participating schools allocated to the intervention group will receive ReflectED as described below:
ReflectED is a metacognition based programme developed by Rosendale Primary School, in partnership with London Connected Learning Centre (London CLC) and the National Education Trust (NET). ReflectED focuses on metacognition skills (helping learners to think about their own learning and reflect on ‘learning moments and strategies’) to support attainment (ReflectED, 2017). ReflectED is a whole school approach delivered through a series of pre-prepared lesson plans spanning Reception to Key Stage 2 (KS2) (including technology aided reflection and other visual scaffolds). Teachers provide opportunities for pupils to make reflections and make use of the metacognitive skills in their day-to-day learning. The whole school approach to ReflectED being evaluated includes a visit to Rosendale School, an initial 1 day of training (launch event) for head teachers and their nominated lead practitioners and termly local hub training sessions. Training received by the lead teacher and head teacher is cascaded to the remaining teachers in each intervention school. Intervention schools will be expected to release specified staff for training, for this they will be provided with funding to provide cover to release the specified staff.
Participating schools allocated to the control group will be required to continue with business as usual (usual teaching). Control schools will be provided with a choice of local and high quality professional development options during the intervention period and will be eligible for a financial payment of £250 following their submission of the final data collected at the end of the trial. Control schools will also have free access to ReflectED for the following academic year (2019-2020).
Intervention type
Behavioural
Phase
Drug names
Primary outcome measure
Raw KS2 scores in maths and reading for the Year 5 pupils (at the end of Year 6, when they will be aged 10-11 years), collected from the National Pupil Database (NPD). The NPD holds information (exam results, student characteristics) about all students who attend schools in England. This primary outcome data will be collected in summer 2019.
Secondary outcome measures
KS1 maths raw scores and the KS1 reading raw scores collected from schools (encrypted and transferred securely) for the Year 1 pupils (at the end of Year 2, when they will be aged 6-7 years old)
Additional secondary outcomes for KS2 will be:
1. Grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) score collected via NPD in summer 2019
2. Junior Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (JrMAI, version A). This data will be collected by the evaluation team at baseline (autumn 2017) and at the end of the intervention period (summer 2019). The JrMAI is a self-report measure that will be administered by class teachers and returned in an anonymous form to the the evaluation team
Overall trial start date
08/02/2017
Overall trial end date
31/03/2020
Reason abandoned (if study stopped)
Eligibility
Participant inclusion criteria
Schools will be eligible to participate if they are not currently implementing ReflectED Metacognition and are willing to implement the programme throughout the school (including participating in training), if they are randomised to the intervention group. There will be an emphasis on recruiting schools with average or higher proportions of disadvantaged pupils (as measured by EverFSM in the National Pupil Database).
Participant type
Other
Age group
Child
Gender
Both
Target number of participants
140 schools (8400 children)
Participant exclusion criteria
Not meeting inclusion criteria (as specified)
Recruitment start date
09/10/2017
Recruitment end date
30/11/2017
Locations
Countries of recruitment
United Kingdom
Trial participating centre
York Trials Unit
University of York
York
YO10 5DD
United Kingdom
Trial participating centre
School of Education, Durham University
Leazes Road
Durham
DH1 1TA
United Kingdom
Trial participating centre
Department of Education
University of York
York
YO10 5DD
United Kingdom
Funders
Funder type
Charity
Funder name
Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), UK
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
Funding Body Subtype
Location
Results and Publications
Publication and dissemination plan
1. Study documents (SAP, protocol etc) will be published on the funder website as soon as possible: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/
2. Publication of a final report by the Education Endowment Foundation
3. Planned publication of the outcomes of the research in academic journals
IPD sharing statement
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study will be deposited in the EEF Data Archive (in association with the Fischer Family Trust). Enquiries to FFT’s Datalab can be made via educationdatalab@fft.org.uk.
Intention to publish date
30/06/2021
Participant level data
Stored in repository
Basic results (scientific)
Publication list