11 plus coaching effects

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pippi
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Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:33 am
Location: Bucks

11 plus coaching effects

Post by pippi »

There is a newish report at http://www.york.ac.uk/res/herc/documents/wp/10_11.pdf that includes analysis of coaching effects. Around p22 it concludes: "The coaching effect is large and statistically significant". This is pretty much in line with the last comment on the Nfer pages that coaching gains are substantial http://www.nfer.ac.uk/nfer/research/ass ... n-plus/#10.

While I'm at it, some other conclusions on coaching that inexplicably haven't yet made it onto the Nfer pages:
"the moderately bright tend to gain most" (Jensen, 1980)
"The results clearly indicate that coaching has a massive effect on 11+ marks." (Egan & Bunting, 1991).
"Those who did not receive coaching, regardless of ability as assessed by the Raven's matrices, obtained very poor marks in the 11+, and in no case would one of these students have passed this selection process" (Egan & Bunting, 1991).
wonderwoman
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Re: 11 plus coaching effects

Post by wonderwoman »

I have only had a brief scan over these documents - but I tend to agree with the first part of the Nfer study.

I have been teaching in 11+ areas for more than 20 years now. During this time the use of coaching has grown massively. Now almost all those entered are tutored or their parents are DIYing for a year or more.

In that time I have not noticed much difference to the type of child that passes. I have never known a child of average or below average ability pass however much coaching they have had and however hard working. The bright and very bright (top 25%) almost always pass, unless there is some reason (eg dyslexia, tragedy in family etc). The group in the middle, borderliners (top 35% - top 25%) sometimes pass and sometimes don't and I haven't seen a massive amount more of this group passing with more coaching. So if coaching did have an effect more of this group should pass.

Of those borderline cases - I'm not saying that all children who fail are not suited to grammar, some would do well because their attitude is excellent and their backup at home is good, but their actual ability may only be just above average. Of course some of these children who do make grammar school find it demoralising and give up.
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