Schools needed for our Impact study
Be a part of our vital work
We would like to invite you to play an important role in helping us improve Holocaust education. In a nutshell we would like some of your Key Stage 3 students to take part in two surveys designed by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education. The findings will help us to know more about the impact of teaching about the Holocaust. To take part we do not require you to have any specialist knowledge or expertise. We also do not expect your students to have any in-depth knowledge. To the contrary, we want to know more about the impact of teaching on Key Stage 3 students in general. Certainly, the specific responses of individual students and participating schools will be anonymous and no aspect of the study is intended to make judgements about individual students, teachers or schools. Most importantly, to make this national impact study meaningful we need volunteers and we really hope you and your class would be willing to give us a few moments of your precious time.
Who we are and why our work is important
The UCL Centre for Holocaust Education is the only institution of its kind where pioneering empirical research is placed at the heart of work to support teachers and their students encountering this profoundly important yet complex and challenging subject in schools. We recently published the world’s largest study to explore students’ knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust. We are now embarking on another significant piece of research to explore the impact of Holocaust education, including the impact of our CPD programmes and education resources on students’ learning.
Last year, the Parliamentary Education Committee published its report on Holocaust education, stating that “the curriculum should enable teachers to plan lessons and outcomes for each stage with an understanding of progression and a framework for teachers to assess impact” (page 47). OFSTED also highlighted that Inspectors should be aware of the work being done in schools with UCL’s Centre for Holocaust Education:
Inspectors should familiarise themselves with the training and other resources that are available to schools and be aware that schools may refer to this as evidence during inspections. This might be relevant to the content of the curriculum across different subject areas, as well as being used as evidence of how the school is contributing to pupils’ learning, including their personal development.
Participation in our research could help you to respond to the Parliamentary Education Committee Report and the March 2016 School Inspection Update.
How you can help
The Centre is now embarking on a new project to look at the impact of Holocaust education and we are looking for control schools to take part in this research. That is, schools whose teachers have not attended the UCL (IOE) Centre for Holocaust Education CPD programmes. The research would involve students in Key Stage 3 completing two surveys: one before and one after they have learned about the Holocaust in their history lessons. We will then look at how their knowledge of the Holocaust has changed from before to after these lessons. We will also compare their answers to students whose teachers have attended the Centre’s CPD programmes. Each school that participates will receive a £50 book voucher by way of a thank you.
This is an excellent opportunity for schools to be part of the Centre’s world class research, respond to some of the recommendations of the Parliamentary Education Committee and be at the forefront of impact research in Holocaust education. Participating schools are very welcome to take part in the Centre’s free CPD courses later in the year. Schools will also get a bespoke report of findings for their school that could be used as evidence for self-evaluation processes and or to demonstrate engagement with research. Teachers who have previously participated in our research have commented on how valuable and interesting the process was for them and their students:
Our students thoroughly enjoyed their participation in the research process and I feel their involvement has further cemented their appreciation of the importance of Holocaust learning and education. The research findings have been incredibly illuminating in terms of how we teach the Holocaust and how, going forward, we can improve our scheme of work, our overall pedagogy, as well as fostering a more cohesive approach to Holocaust learning across the whole school. (History Teacher)
The report is really interesting reading – fascinating – wish we could do it in this much detail for everything we teach. (History Teacher)
If you are interested in being a control school or would like further information, please contact Dr Becky Hale: r.hale@ucl.ac.uk
