Class and the Eleven Plus

There is a fascinating article in the New Statesmen today by Danny Dorling.

One of the points he made was that in time gone by more boys were able to attempt Eleven Plus examinations because there were more places for boys.

He argued that the Grammar School boys created a class classification based on men's occupations.

If we look forward to twenty years time, our present Eleven Plus boys and girls will be busy building a new world.

I have the feeling that ability, money and privilege will still count.

Sleep and the Eleven Plus

There is great excitement in the shires tonight. A mother has just re-invented a Sleep Learning.

She spent the afternoon going over percentages with her ten year child. At one stage both parties were in tears. There were hugs and kisses – and a general air of reconciliation developed – and emerged.

The much loved daughter went to bed – and mother sat beside her for an hour reading the notes they had developed on percentages.

“To find ten percent of a number, simply divide by ten.”

We understand that the daughter finally dropped off to sleep with her mother’s voice extolling the delights of percentages. A few minutes later the mother fell asleep in mid sentence – but continuing to read percentage rules to her daughter.

The mother is working on the theme that the brain keeps working - even when the body is asleep.

Eleven Plus Class Sizes

Class sizes up to sixty children were common a hundred years ago. There used to be a single teacher who was both revered and feared. Discipline had to be taut. Control had to be absolute. Pain and beatings were administered for small misdemeanours.

The teachers used lots of drill exercises. The class could not progress at the speed of the most able. The teacher could only allow the class to move forward at the speed of the slowest. The children who learnt quickly were expected to help the less able.

Gradually teachers and educationalists were able to argue that education was there to help a child achieve his or her potential. To achieve this laudable aim class sizes had to drop.

We still have one teacher teaching a class. The size and composition of the class can show considerable variation.

Many of our Eleven Plus children are very bright. We tested a child in one of our centres this week who only made three mistakes on two standardised tests. This places the class teacher in his school under tremendous pressure.

Group Tests and the Eleven Plus

Most of the children are writing Eleven Plus examinations will be writing in a group setting Some children will be in their own school. Other children could be at a variety of venues including the local grammar school, the Authority headquarters and sometimes, a different primary school.

Some children will have the advantage of sitting the examination with their own peer group – while others will be working with strangers in an unfamiliar environment.

Some children will relish the idea of a new setting – because they will be pleased to show just what they can do. Others will be less sure of the physical surroundings.

Before the children go into the examination the test will have been standardised and validated on a large number of children. All children, therefore, will be offered the same set of written and oral instructions.

The reliability of the test can only be questioned if the physical circumstances are vastly different from one group of children to another.

Group tests are naturally going to be less accurate than a test administered on a one to one or more personal basis.

Talk to your child – explain what you think will happen in the actual examination room or hall.

Discuss the toilet facilities.

Explain that even in a group setting, with unfamiliar children all around, that it is essential that your child asks for help if there is a problem. There will be little help once the examination is under way – but your child should ask if he or she does not know exactly what to do.

The Challenge of the Eleven Plus

We have been told over and over again that an individual’s intelligence develops as a result of interaction between nature and nurture. We would also like to think that the majority of the children writing the Eleven Plus will have had a broadly normal development. All things being equal; the Eleven Plus children will have enjoyed the fruits of a similar environment. We must presume that if a child attends a good school he or she will be stimulated and extended. We all hope that a good home background will contribute towards good results on intelligence tests.

Psychologists, however, can not agree on what intelligence is so the Eleven Plus Authorities have turned towards reasoning tests as a primary selection tool. A reasoning test is designed to use pre-planned questions in order to arrive at a normal curve of distribution. The questions are analysed on an item by item basis. Questions that do discriminate are kept – and the rest discarded.

The scores on Reasoning Tests are then validated against similar tests – and if all is satisfactory – the test is standardised. All books, papers and Eleven Plus exercises are designed to try to help a child to do as well as possible on the reasoning tests.

At the start of the first `real’ Eleven Plus test we all hope that test sophistication will have a bearing on the final scores. It does not necessarily follow that eleven year old children need to do a practice Eleven Plus paper every day. After all ability to do well on reasoning papers is a combination of a number of different abilities. It would be exciting for all of us if provenance of the present reasoning tests could be challenged.

Eleven Plus Relationships

“Thank you, but why do we need to learn algebra?”

Some children are not simply passive learners – they want to know why and how.

Algebra deals mainly with equations, which are mathematical statements. The statements contain an equals sign such as 3x + 6 = 12. Early on in the primary school the algebra is mainly shown in diagrams and drawings. As children move towards the end of KS2 into KS3 more formal notation is used.

When children say that they `love mathematics’ they are often talking about the creative side of mathematics – where they are encouraged to solve problem. We sometimes work with our more able Eleven Plus children on the equation: y = mx + c.

There would be a general outcry if Eleven Plus papers asked children to cope with ‘y = mx and c’, but bright ten year old mathematics can cope – and enjoy.

“Algebra helps to describe relationships between numbers.”

Some teachers and parents are to be envied if there is time to be able to spend a morning exploring the relationships between numbers.

Eleven Plus Marking Problems.

There has been lots of discussion on the recent debacle with the results of the SATs tests.

At the turn of the century the `early’ objective tests often had essay questions. The problem then, as today, was that there was considerable difference in the marking. Different examiners marking the same paper would give different marks. The same examiner marking the same paper on a different occasion could give different marks.

This lead objective testing to tend towards lots of short answers. Then along came multiple choice testing. Multiple Choice is the commonest form of objective testing.

The construction and standardisation of tests is done by the large organisations like (NFER) and Moray House.

Reuters has prepared an informative article on the state of progress towards nationwide SATs results.

Within this BBC website:there is a fascinating article on the problems facing markers.

Eleven Plus examinations are now, however, usually multiple choice.

We sometimes have the pleasure, however, of preparing children for Eleven Plus tests where there are no multiple choice questions on certain papers.