rochford review – Barry Carpenter Education

Episode 17: Engagement (Part 1) – What you really need to know about Engagement

The episode explores the genesis of Engagement, its relevance and application to vulnerable children with a whole range of learning needs. In a lecture presentation entitled “What you really need to know about Engagement”, Prof. Barry Carpenter CBE OBE FCCT and Beverley Cockbill ask the question, of all children, of all ages and abilities, “how does this child learn?”

Discussion is given to how Engagement illuminates the learning pathway; how the lens of Engagement can refine the focus of the learning process, leading to the capture of attainment and achievement.

They look at the research evidence for Engagement, and its contribution as a fundamental building block in child development. A multi – dimensional perspective is adopted – to pedagogy. to the processes of teaching and learning, to its use for formative assessment, through to the existing initiative for the Engagement Model, (DfE 2019), as statutory summative assessment for children ’ not engaged in subject specific learning ” – a recommendation from the Rochford Review (2016).

The message of the podcast is timely, not only for the statutory implementation from September 2021, but for the consequences for children’s learning and well being arising from the Coronavirus Pandemic. Many children will return to school, post Lockdown, with a ‘spikey profile‘ of learning , and are disengaged from the curriculum. Monitoring the ways the child can be re engaged, identifying the ‘hooks’ that can draw the child back to authentic engagement in the curriculum, is key. On this journey of re-engagement, the Engagement Profile is an invaluable tool, for baseline assessment, observation and formative assessment.

Through case studies which define and clarify the 5 Areas of Engagement, the podcast illustrates how the Engagement approach can ‘wrap around’ each child, and illuminate their learning pathways. This will be a much wider group than originally conceived, but the capacity of Engagement to be a bedrock upon which teachers can rebuild the child as a learner is unequivocal, and its potential for change and transformation in learning, undeniable.

Here’s the episode page (below) which includes the episode overview, links to articles and the Engagement4 Learning website .

https://www.evidenceforlearning.net/learningshared/engagement-part-1-what-you-really-need-to-know-about-engagement/

The video (only) of the presentation is here:

The Engagement Model

The DfE has now released the final guidance on The Engagement Model.
The guidance describes the formative and summative assessment of children as “not engaged in subject specific learning”. It will be statutory assessment in schools for those children and young people.

The guidance is an output of the Rochford Review , who have piloted the Model. It builds on the research led for the ‘DfE’, by Professor Barry Carpenter as part of the Complex Learning Disabilities and Difficulties project.

This project identified, through a systematic review of the international literature around learning in children with SEND, that ‘engagement was the single best predicator of successful learning in children with special needs/disabilities’ (Carpenter et al, 2015.)

From this solid evidence based, a pedagogy evolved through systematic research across UK schools, and a series of International trials , which created the Engagement Framework for Learning, ( www,engagement4learning.com) This includes the ‘Engagement Profile’ which aids baseline assessment, and gives insight into the learning pathways of the child with Complex Needs. The Engagement Profile is a classroom based planning tool which links to formative assessment . Both are compatible, and indeed inform , the summative assessment opportunities of the new Engagement Model.

Professor Robin McWilliam , Professor, Special Education and Multiple Abilities at the University of Alabama, USA , and a prolific writer on the subject of Engagement said of this new DfE publication ,”You are to be congratulated! In the U.S., we have “alternative assessment” for what, in the U.K., is known as pupils with complex needs. But states differ on what they use and none of them that I know of are focused on engagement. So, well done!

Professor McWilliam and Professor Carpenter, will present further on Engagement for Learning to an International Conference in Turkey in April, 2020 . The UK, which leads the World in so many aspects of special and inclusive education, has a major contribution to make in the area of assessment for children with Special Needs through this ground-breaking work from the Rochford Review.