Building capacity in the use of secondary data: undergraduate students in the field of Education

Dr Emma SmithSchool of Education

University of Birmingham

BA Childhood Culture and Education

Typical modules– Child Development– Cultural Psychology– Teaching and Learning– Gender and Education

Students’ background– Traditional A-level route, mainly Arts and Humanities– Access routes– CACHE diploma in childcare

Career destinations– Initial Teacher Training primary

Activity: Analysing inequalities in the post-16 education provision within one large urban Local Authority

The aim of the activity was to consider how one Local Authority could ensure that educational provision, in terms of breadth and choice of curriculum, was equitable among all its schools.

Students were provided with the following information about schools within the area:

– Academic attainment– Map of school locations– Post-16 curriculum– Contextualised pupil data

Students had to characterise each school and make as assessment as to whether provision was equitable and where they felt this was not the case to provide explanations and recommendations.

Project 1

Year 3 dissertation research project

Research question: What is the relationship between academic attainment in school and month of birth?

Data set: Pupil Level Annual School Census for England

Descriptive analysis of the relationship between birth month quartile, post-16 attainment (key focus on the A-level) and other demographic variables

Project 2

Year 3 dissertation research project

Research question:What is the relationship between family size and social and educational characteristics?

DatasetOne cross-sectional wave of the British Household Panel Survey

Descriptive analysis of the relationship between birth order and academic attainment, employment and demographic variables

Project 3

Year 3 dissertation research project

Research question: To what extent does parental involvement in reading vary in two different schools?

Data set: Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2006

Presentation of aggregate data from main study and replication of part of PIRLS parent questions to sample