Young women are the best educators

YOUR child is more likely to get a better primary education if their teacher is young or female or if they attend a single-sex or fee-paying school.

A ESRI report found younger teachers are more likely to use more interactive methods in classrooms, such as group or pair work, which they are expected to use in the curriculum.

However, the study of 8,500 nine-year-olds found older “chalk and talk” teaching methods still dominated classrooms, more so among older teachers.

Girls and children at fee-paying schools, gaelscoileanna or non-disadvantaged schools are more likely to experience active learning in their classroom. Teachers at all-girls’ schools are also more likely to use more active methods.

However, at schools with more disadvantaged pupils, teachers used more traditional approaches. One of the authors, Selina McCoy, said this could also be due to a higher prevalence in such schools of children with special needs or behavioural and emotional problems.

“Schools and teachers have flexibility and you need to preserve that, but not by having it so flexible that children in one school are having very different experiences to those in a neighbouring school.

“We’re not saying all teaching has to be more interactive but maybe there has to be a different balance. It’s surprising that traditional whole-class teaching still dominates and that probably needs to be addressed.”

The study also found that active teaching methods were less common in larger classes, saying this reflects greater logistical and space constraints on the teachers.

The ESRI suggests the extra hours being worked by primary teachers under the Croke Park Agreement should be used to allow staff share their approaches with colleagues and wider use of ongoing training.

Ms McCoy said the findings about recent graduates showed that teacher training had been effective in responding to the child-centred curriculum introduced in 1999, but the finding in relation to older teachers reflected on the effectiveness of continuous professional development.

The study also found signs that pupils with special educational needs were almost twice as likely as other pupils to never look forward to school, although more than 80% of special needs pupils do.

Boys were found to be less engaged by school and there was a notable dislike of Irish among nine-year-olds, particularly when compared to reading or maths.

The INTO said the finding in relation to the dominance of traditional teaching methods was not surprising given that 100,000 (20%) of primary pupils are in classes of more than 30, making active learning and group work more difficult.

Its general secretary Sheila Nunan said the differences in methods used by older teachers might be explained by the Department of Education’s reliance on teachers undertaking their own continuous training rather than investing more in professional development.