Abstract
This paper describes a piece of research carried out for the Department of Education and Science and administered by the University of Oxford. It looks into the effectiveness of teacher-based identification of 3rd form secondary pupils in four subjects (Mathematics, Physics, English and French). Subject specific identification was found to be more effective than previous research (identification of children with high general ability) has found. There were, however, indications that teachers did not always know their pupils sufficiently well for their identification strategies to be bias-free. The use of checklists as an aid to identification was studied.
The paper describes how checklist-aided identification was no more effective than unaided identification. It also highlights where the problems lie and describes how checklists can be used effectively.
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