Pupils pool brains to improve GCSEs

TEACHING children to think for themselves can dramatically improve children's exam performance, educationists at King's College, London, have shown.

A study by the college's school of education discovered that a fifth more pupils achieved grades A to C in the 1996 GCSE after being taught using a method called cognitive acceleration through science education (CASE). The method was used in 90 classes at 13 secondary schools during 1991. These pupils were charted as they progressed through school.

Teachers were trained to structure science lessons in small groups so that children fed off each others' knowledge and suggestions in solving problems. The groups reported their deliberations and conclusions to the rest of the class.

The average gains in their GCSE science result was equivalent to raising the national average from 43.7 per cent gaining grade C or above, to 62.5 per cent. But to researchers' surprise the science-based project also improved pupils' performance in the maths and English GCSEs. In maths, the improvement was equivalent to raising the national average for grades A to C from 41.9 per cent to 56.8 per cent and in English from 50.3 per cent to 65.9 per cent.

Philip Adey, CASE co-director, said: "This year's GCSE results offer the first complete long-term, large-scale test of our methods."

The King's team has run a similar project for maths teachers for four years. CASE project director Michael Shayer wants to extend the method to other subjects but funding has prevented this. The Government should support cognitive acceleration, he says.