EDUCATION STUDIES Extra classes for poor performers in grade 8 have long-term benefits which may not show clearly early on. This finding from an 18-month study brings hope that the big challenge of how to improve the performance of learners who are far below par at any school stage, specifically in mathematics and English, can still be met, writes Cas Prinsloo.The HSRC, Western Cape Education Department and Shuttleworth Foundation worked together to study the performance of a group of grade 8s after exposing them to an hour of extra tuition in mathematics and English during each of 20 weeks from August to November 2007. The aim was for participating learners to gain ten percentage points more than a comparison group. And better performance in English and mathematics, researchers believed, would eventually spill over into other areas of learning. About a hundred learners each from eight schools in the Metropole-South Education District, stretching from the Cape Flats to the small coastal towns on the Peninsula, participated in the study. Four schools formed a control group, while the other four received the extra teaching after school (project schools). Performance resultsTested directly after completion of the sessions, the results were not encouraging. The effects of the extra classes were not as strong as hoped for, and extra tuition seemed to have come too late for many learners. But one year later, in analysing the results of the same learners who had in the meantime completed grade 9, the news was more optimistic. It seems as if the 18 months that went by since the extra lessons had started brought clear benefits to project learners. This was true especially of those learners who had not missed more than three of the 20 sessions in grade 8. There was even better news: when comparing the year-end results of learners in the project group to those in the control group, the first group also showed widespread benefits across learning areas other than mathematics and English. This brings hope that one can still address one of the education system's biggest challenges by improving the performance of learners who are far below par. New key findings Learners from project schools who attended their mathematics lessons well gained 7.4 percentage points more over time than learners from the control group. The result was consistent across all project schools. It is therefore possible to improve learner performance as late as in grade 8 through an intervention of as little as six months, and even though initial effects may have been small, there is a lasting effect 12 to 18 months later, as long as learners and tutors are very committed. | |  |
A similar but smaller gain for project-school learners was noted regarding the effect of English tuition on learner performance in English as an additional language. Learners from project schools who attended their English lessons consistently experienced a gain of 4.9 percentage points over time compared to the learners from control schools. This finding was consistent across all project schools except one, where no high-attendance learners were available to allow a comparison. Learners with English as a home language did not benefit significantly, perhaps because they already performed at the level at which the extra lessons were taught, that is, addressing foundation-level knowledge gaps. The effect of initial tuition on learning areas other than mathematics and English was even stronger. English tuition in particular had very strong effects on later learner performance in Arts and Culture and Life Orientation (with learners from project schools gaining ten to 14 percentage points more over time than control-school learners). The greater benefits (from English tuition) to project-school learners were also in the range of eight to 12 percentage points more over time in numbers-based learning areas such as Mathematics, Economic and Management Sciences (EMS), Natural Sciences and Technology, especially after high attendance. Mathematics tuition also benefited learners' later performance in most of their other numbers-based subjects. In conclusion, the findings support the focus on literacy and language development, as observed in the enduring and widespread benefits (across the curriculum). Such a focus should prevail from the Foundation Phase (grades R to 3). Features for future interventionsImplementation of more interventions such as this one seems to make good sense. Their core features would include the following conditions: Extra tuition should be provided as soon as learners start falling behind in primary school (grades 4, 6, 7), but not later than early secondary school (grade 8). Extra classes should be internal (‘home-grown') to the school in a convenient, neutral and fun venue with facilities, thus avoiding extra costs and practical difficulties. The classes should make use of a senior school coordinator and be run by the school's best teachers/tutors, who are proficient in all aspects of their subject and are highly motivated. Learners should volunteer for putting in the extra effort of about 20 one-hour extra lessons after school, focusing on catching up work that they struggle with, literacy/language first, mathematics next, but not simultaneously to avoid overload and to ensure high attendance. The classes should be driven by the district (and circuit), dealing with meals, transport, and security, varying lesson approach/nature of contents, with well-selected and well-designed worksheets, keeping learner groups below 20 to 25, openly dealing with concrete teacher/tutor incentives and rewards, and having a dedicated district manager for about six months.
| The greater benefits (from English tuition) to project-school learners were also in the range of eight to 12 percentage points more over time in numbers-based learning areas |
The research report, Extra classes, extra marks? Report on the PlusTime project, Prinsloo, C.H. (2008); and follow-up reports, including a technical support and a short supplementary report, Extra classes, better marks ... also later, may be downloaded below: Dr Cas Prinsloo is a chief research specialist in the programme on Education, Science and Skills Development.
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