An Roinn Oideachais and Eolaíochta
Department of Education and Science
Subject Inspection of Gaeilge
REPORT
Breifne College
Cootehill Road, Cavan
Roll number: 70380I
Date of inspection: 25 January 2008
This subject inspection report
Subject provision and whole school support
Summary of main findings and recommendations
Report on the Quality of Learning and Teaching in Irish
This subject inspection report
This report has been written following a subject inspection in Breifne College as part of a whole school evaluation. It presents the findings of an evaluation of the quality of teaching and learning in Irish and makes recommendations for the further development of the teaching of this subject in the school. The evaluation was conducted over two days during which the inspector visited classrooms and observed teaching and learning. The inspector interacted with students and teachers, examined students’ work, and had discussions with the teachers. The inspector reviewed school planning documentation and teachers’ written preparation. Following the evaluation visit, the inspector provided oral feedback on the outcomes of the evaluation to the subject teachers and to the principal.
Subject Provision and Whole School Support
Breifne College is a post-primary school operating within the County Cavan Vocational Education Committee scheme. The school participates in the Department’s action plan for educational inclusion Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS). There are 520 students, between boys and girls, registered on the school roll for the current 2007/08 school year. A significant number of students have exemptions from Irish, numbering in total twenty per cent of all students in that category. Such a high number poses a large challenge to the school to make appropriate arrangements when Irish is on the timetable. It was reported that there are, on average, three students with exemptions sitting in on the Irish classes due to the absence of any alternative programme for them at that time. The teachers understand the management’s difficulties in these matters. It is recommended that this issue should be reviewed as a matter of course at the end of each school year and that the timetable should be planned for the following year in order to ensure the optimum arrangements. The objective of such a review would be to ensure that the lowest possible number of students with exemptions would be in attendance at the Irish lessons.
As a context for the subject’s standing in the school, it was explained that a negative attitude towards Irish prevails amongst the students on entering first year and that there is a great challenge to promoting a positive attitude among them. The indifferent attitude of some parents towards the subject was mentioned, as well as an unrealistic attitude in other cases regarding the students’ ability to undertake higher level in the Leaving Certificate. From the discussion with the Irish teachers it was understood that they were keen to guide more students towards higher level but that it was necessary to be realistic about the subject’s context in the school. The teachers aim to guide the students to the level which best suits their ability in the subject and to attain the highest grade possible at that level in the certificate examinations. The teachers’ efforts to keep the number of students undertaking foundation level as low as possible and to resist the temptation to take the line of least resistance are commended. The effective outcomes of these efforts, especially in the junior cycle, were encouraging. These efforts face a particular challenge in the senior cycle where a significant number of students are undertaking foundation level.
There are five Irish teachers in the school and Irish is a central part of the teaching programme for four of them. All members of the Irish department were proficient in Irish and some teachers are from the Gaeltacht. The teachers expressed concerns about the changes to be introduced in the allocation of marks in the certificate examinations under which greater emphasis will in future be placed on the spoken language. The teachers regard this aspect of language skills as the most challenging for their students. The teachers are advised to agree an approach to develop spoken language skills more from first year on. As a first step towards this it is recommended that contact be made with the Second Level Support Service (SLSS) for Irish and that teachers are registered for the in-service courses run by that service. In the current year those courses deal with the implementation of methodologies with first year students to develop communication skills.
Consideration should also be given to strengthening links with teachers in the feeder primary schools regarding the students’ spoken language competency. It would be worth consulting the primary school teachers to draw attention to developing the students’ learning objectives in spoken Irish as a necessary step for Irish at second level. There would be merit in setting out a competency test in Irish for all the students at the start of first year as a guide to targeting the first year teaching and learning programme specifically to the students’ learning requirements.
The number of class periods provided for Irish in the junior cycle is limited. Four periods per week are provided for the three years of that cycle. The provision for the established Leaving Certificate is five periods per week, and two periods per week in the two years of the course for the Leaving Certificate Applied. It would be worth reviewing these numbers of periods in order to provide more periods, if possible, especially in the junior cycle for the higher level class. A related matter worth reviewing is the number of subjects studied by students. The number of class periods provided for Irish is a question of resources about which the teachers and school management must be realistic as the management cannot allocate unavailable resources. The numbers of students in the Irish classes in the senior cycle are lower at present in order to make more progress in teaching and learning of the subject. It may be the case that more students might need to be placed in the classes, and the number of classes cut back, in order to make a greater provision of class periods. The Irish teachers, in conjunction with the principal, are best placed to make this decision. Whatever decision is arrived at in this matter should be reviewed together after a trial period.
Classes in first year are mixed ability. Classes are formed in keeping with the various levels in the subject from second year onwards and classes are held concurrently to give students the opportunity to change levels in the subject. The teachers arrange to teach a differentiated programme in most classes in order to keep the number of students in the classes reasonably equal. This arrangement is sensible but the teacher and higher level students are set an additional challenge in covering that course in detail, especially in the junior cycle when there are only four periods available per week. Most of the students in the Irish class in the Leaving Certificate Applied undertake the subject ab initio, having had exemptions from Irish until then. The school’s efforts to promote communicative Irish for those students are to be commended.
Each of the Irish teachers has charge of a classroom. Most of those rooms had a good appearance and atmosphere conducive to learning. It would be worth extending those creditable efforts to all the classrooms. The school has ordered CD players for the Irish teachers as replacements for the tape-recorders which are still in use. There were personal computers and televisions with DVD players available in certain rooms. It was indicated that the Irish teachers do not as yet habitually use information and communication technology (ICT) resources in the teaching and learning of Irish. Guidance in this matter would be provided on SLSS in-service courses also. It is recommended that a reasonable programme of resources and renewal be set out for the Irish department and submitted to the management at the end of each school year together with estimates of costs. There is no provision for reading material in Irish in the school library at present. The teachers should give priority to the resources which, in their opinion, would best assist teaching and learning in the subject, submit the application to the management and register it in the subject plan.
Applications for Gaeltacht scholarships are made on behalf of the students under the Vocational Education Committee scheme and an additional application is being made under the Gaelic Athletic Association Gaeltacht scholarship scheme. There was a good display of information brochures for Gaeltacht colleges in one of the classrooms and the school’s efforts to encourage the students to attend Gaeltacht summer colleges are to be commended. A poster design competition is organised among the students leading up to St. Patrick’s Day as an encouragement for Irish throughout the school.
The Irish teachers are urged to undertake innovative schemes from time to time, with the support of the school management, that promote Irish in the school outside the classroom. It is recommended that consideration be given to inviting a well-known figure, identified with the Irish language and who would be of interest to the students, to visit the school and speak to them. It would be well worth while asking their colleagues who can speak Irish to use it in other school activities with the students for a limited period and to speak it amongst themselves. During the inspection it appeared that students in certain instances seemed surprised at hearing a natural conversation in Irish between the teacher and the inspector. It would be good to broaden their experience of hearing Irish as a language of oral communication as frequently as possible. The more examples of Irish being spoken naturally among the teachers that can be provided, the better, and this would be greatly helped by hearing it spoken by other teachers.
Planning and Preparation
The subject plan presented showed that the teachers had considered and discussed the challenges associated with teaching the subject in the school. Specific mention is made here of the lack of motivation among the students as one of the greatest obstacles. The plan displays a frank review of the strengths and areas which must be developed in relation to the subject in the school. Among the strengths recorded are the results attained by the students in the certificate examinations, that the teachers are succeeding in covering the various courses in detail and the co-operation and support available among the Irish department members. Among the areas for development, mention is made of difficulty associated with mixed-ability classes, too low a number of periods for teaching the subject, especially at higher level with Leaving Certificate classes, and the lack of resources, technological resources in particular. Some of these issues have been mentioned, and recommendations made, in the section on subject provision and whole school support.
There is a co-ordinator in the Irish department and time is provided for co-ordinated planning in the subject three or four times a year. These meetings last about one hour each. These arrangements are good. In the discussion held with the Irish teachers about planning for the subject the teachers’ desire to effect improvements in the subject that will result in a more positive experience of teaching and learning for both teachers and students was to the fore. The teachers are urged to keep this aim as a core feature of planning in order to ensure a positive experience of the subject. The subject plan concludes on a positive note as regards the teachers’ objectives for the subject in the forthcoming school year. These objectives include promoting a positive attitude towards the subject among the students while at school and adding to their cultural awareness by drawing attention to Irish as it is rooted in the area’s placenames. This commentary is commended and should be brought forward as the first objective of the plan. It is understood that the Transition Year programme is to be introduced in the school next year (2008/09). Every opportunity should be taken to produce an innovative programme which will provide another view of the Irish language to those students as a living contemporary language and not to tie the programme to the demands of the certificate examinations.
Rote learning is identified as the first effective teaching methodology recorded in the subject plan. Rote learning of passages and essays was recorded as one of the teaching methods in another individual plan. Though rote learning has a certain place in learning it is recommended that assigning priority to this skill to learn the language should be reconsidered. In another part of the same plan there is an account of the use of drama as an effective tool in learning. This active, pleasant approach is to be commended and it would be worth recording this method in the master plan in order to spread this practice. Recognition is also given in the subject plan to a list of other methodologies which provide more pleasant learning activities, such as group work, games, interviews, role play but it is not clear what use is being recommended for those activities. It would be worth clarifying the guidance recommended in the plan.
Helpful guidance regarding the planning work will be available from the SLSS service. In the meantime the teachers are advised to focus on the aims and objectives of the various Irish syllabi relating to second level. It is also recommended that the item in the plan under the heading ‘curriculum content’ should be completed. Some of that work was already completed and included in the minutes of the Irish teachers’ meeting dated 27 March 2007.
It was understood from the teachers that their individual planning was focussed on the requirements of the certificate examination papers and the teaching observed with classes later was in keeping with that approach. At the same time teaching and learning objectives should be set out in the subject plan which are in the first place consistent with the aims of the syllabi and that planning should not focus solely on the examinations. It should be remembered that the certificate examinations are ultimately an attempt to measure the progress made in attaining the more ambitious aims and objectives of the syllabi, as opposed to being a focus in themselves.
As a next step towards improving the profile of Irish in the school, planning for the subject should concentrate on presenting the subject from the outset as one that can be pleasant to learn and where honest efforts at learning are rewarded in the certificate examinations. Learning objectives should be clearly specified, year by year for the various levels in the subject. These should be shared with students and their parents and attempted positively by the team of Irish teachers with the support of management and the whole school.
Teaching and Learning
Seven classes were observed during the inspection – three in the junior cycle and four in the senior cycle. There were five teachers involved. The teachers displayed self-confidence in the teaching and appropriate work was being undertaken with all classes. Handouts were prepared in some cases as a learning support for the students. The teachers spoke in Irish for the vast majority of the time. In some cases it was obvious that the students had great difficulties in understanding that talk and the teacher’s instructions were repeated in English in places to help students’ understanding. In other cases a prose story was revised by asking the students to provide a version in Irish of a summary of the story made with English sentences. The students fared well in answering those questions. However, this indicated the limited ability among the students to express themselves in Irish. Good efforts were made in this class to use pictures as a stimulus to the students to give an account of the same prose story. A small group of the students fared well in doing this.
The teacher in this mixed-ability class faced a big challenge in encouraging higher level standard work from the students. The students’ efforts were quite limited throughout. The teacher had to repeatedly rehearse the content of the prose story to ensure that the students were succeeding in grasping the drift of the story and to discuss the story themselves. The teacher was to be commended for the patience expended on these efforts. A crossword was practised later to inject variety into the learning activities.
The management of all lessons was well ordered. Good attempts were made to practise the spoken language with classes in the junior cycle and the teachers had a kind, encouraging personality in their attempts to encourage the students to talk. However, there was a limited function to the questions asked in that part of the lessons which dealt with the student’s own immediate environment. Most of these questions were to individual students, about themselves and their families, where they lived and questions about school. Links were not made between one person’s answers by asking another person a question. It was understood from the teachers that it was necessary to practise those basic things first and to practise the little bit of talk about themselves with the students before the subject could be extended to the usual topics of discussion.
As a result the lesson work depended greatly on the teacher and the students’ part in the talk was quite limited. Simple verbs from the first conjugation were revised in one case in order to give the students definite guidance about the manner in which to deal with the past tense. In another case an attempt was made to practise the future tense by setting a conversation about themselves in that tense. The students were asked what they would do the following day. Again the students showed limited ability with the answers but they accepted the guidance given and those answers were practised.
The range of resources in use was quite limited. The overhead projector and tape recorder were the only two examples of audio-visual resources used in the observed classes. A series of Irish-English pocket dictionaries were in use with one class. A television and DVD player were available and it would be worth availing of opportunities to present items of live Irish from TG4 to students, even if they are highly challenged in understanding that speech. In order to present Irish as a language of convenient communication, authentic samples of conversation should be provided to the students. The best way to do this is by well-chosen items from TG4 programmes on subjects in which the students themselves have an interest. In this respect the certificate examination aural comprehension items are of limited value as they do not contain natural speech but speakers reading pre-composed pieces. They are useful, however, for sharpening listening and pronunciation skills. In one case good use was made of an aural comprehension item to reinforce the future tense which had already been practised.
A fine effort was made to present Irish in an attractive manner to a class undertaking the Leaving Certificate Applied. These efforts were particularly commended as most of these students had not studied Irish since starting first year as they had exemptions. The students had done a project on their holidays in the form of a poster, decorated with photographs with Irish vocabulary inserted. They were set the task of writing a letter home. This work was done while the teacher went among them, guiding them. The task was concluded with a crossword which the teacher had made out as a reminder of the vocabulary used during the lesson. The students performed these tasks diligently.
Active work was practised with two classes in the senior cycle and these efforts were commendable. One lesson concerned a poem from the Leaving Certificate course. The teacher explained the poet’s background and the poem’s background and notes on these were shown on the overhead projector. A handout was prepared to support this information. The meaning of the poem’s lines was explained in Irish without recourse to translation. The students were then asked oral questions to reinforce that information. This work was done very carefully. It was understood that this is how prose and poetry is presented, relying fully on the information the teacher gives about the text and the students’ responsibility is to learn that information.
In another class in the senior cycle oral work was practised with the students on describing themselves. The account was written out and certain students were asked to read that aloud to the class. Those efforts were recorded to go back over them in order to correct pronunciation, a commendable approach. This was very limited work as practice for the questions which would arise in the Leaving Certificate oral examination. In another class in the senior cycle the same practice of oral examination questions continued for the duration of the lesson. The questions related to the students themselves, school subjects, school rules, school games and the students’ hobbies at lunchtime. There is no doubt that these students would be well prepared for the requirements of the oral examination. However the questions were the same, more or less, as those being practised with the youngest students seen in the junior cycle.
It was not evident that an ability to practise free communication was developed with a significant number of students and the emphasis in the lessons was always on the requirements of the certificate examinations rather than acquiring the language itself for the purposes of free communication. It was understood from the teachers that the limited ability and interest of many students in the subject had to be taken into account in the approach used in the class and that achievement in the certificate examinations was the main concern to be complied with.
This care for the requirements of the certificate examinations was being implemented by all the teachers and there was evidence that many of the students were succeeding in tackling these challenges at a particular level in the subject. The teachers’ efforts were commendable. In order to ensure a greater satisfaction for the students and teachers in class activities it is recommended that the language should be presented and practised more as a language of spoken communication from the start. It would be worth making great efforts to practise speech and communication from the start in first year on matters of interest to the students instead of concentrating on topics which might arise in the oral examination. There would be a big challenge associated with this approach and would nearly be akin to relaunching the subject in the school programme. The emphasis in the certificate examinations for Irish will soon be towards the spoken language and this should be prepared for.
It would be worth considering the postponement of reading and writing skills for a while in first year in order to focus on immersing the students in speaking and listening. This would require a common teaching programme and great co-operation among the teachers, something that was claimed as one of the strengths in the Irish department. Good information and communication technology (ICT) resources would need to be available to the teachers so that they can compile an attractive programme of materials that would reflect a range of topics of interest to the students for discussion in the lessons. The support of the whole school would also be required for this change of direction and a welcome given to every person in the school who is willing to promote spoken Irish in some way in the life of the school to participate in that initiative.
These recommendations are made in order to make the subject more attractive and more effective as regards teaching and learning and to advance the objectives of the syllabi. There are very competent teachers in the Irish department well capable for this challenge.
Assessment
New first year students’ proficiency in Irish is not assessed at present. It is recommended that an assessment be conducted in accordance with the learning objectives of the revised primary school curriculum for Irish. It is recommended that oral proficiency be included in that assessment and that information on those tests be shared with the feeder primary schools. It is recommended that the results of these tests should be recorded in the subject plan for Irish as a reference source for achievement to date and as a guide for planning. Assessment of spoken Irish should be an integral part of the assessment of language skills that is carried out in the junior cycle as soon as possible. This change of emphasis should be recorded in the school policy on assessment currently being developed. It is recommended that parents be informed of the change of emphasis towards spoken Irish and that a notice to this effect be placed on that part of the school’s website dealing with Irish as a subject.
It is recommended that consideration be given to entering first year students in the current school year (2007/08) for the optional oral examination in the 2010 Junior Certificate examination. It is recommended that the same percentage of marks to be awarded for that optional oral examination (forty per cent) should be made available on a phased basis in the internal examinations held in the meantime for students of the current first year.
At the moment formal internal examinations are held in the summer only. It was understood from the teachers that various practices applied regarding continuous assessment. It is recommended that common practices be agreed regarding assessment of the subject. That part of the Irish department’s plan dealing with assessment of the subject should be clarified and include all the language skills.
The students’ participation rates at the different levels in the certificate examinations in the subject were noted in the course of the inspection. These statistics gave an indication of the extent of the challenge faced by the teachers in getting the students to engage with the subject above a particular level. A record of this information should be kept in the Irish department’s plan and there should be a focus on improving these statistics over a reasonable period. With the change of direction which will soon come into effect in the assessment of the subject in the certificate examinations it is an appropriate time to set out an ambitious plan to increase the standing of Irish in the school and to provide satisfaction to learners and teachers in the teaching and learning process.
Summary of Main Findings and Recommendations
The following are the main strengths identified in the evaluation:
· In the area of subject planning the teachers share a common desire to effect improvements that will result in a more positive experience of teaching and learning the subject for both students and teachers.
· The teachers’ efforts to keep the number of students undertaking foundation level as low as possible are commended
· Applications for Gaeltacht scholarships are made on behalf of the students under the Vocational Education Committee scheme and an additional application is being made under the Gaelic Athletic Association Gaeltacht scholarship scheme
· The arrangements for formal planning meetings in the subject are good – three or four meetings per year, each lasting about an hour.
· The teachers displayed self-confidence in the teaching and appropriate work was being undertaken with all classes and the management of classes was well-ordered.
As a means of building on these strengths and to address areas for development, the following key recommendations are made:
· That a focus remain in subject planning, in whole-school support issues and in classroom practice on the teachers’ desire to make the teaching and learning of the subject a more positive experience for both students and teachers.
· That contact be made with the Second Level Support Service (SLSS) for Irish and that teachers be registered for the ongoing in-service courses.
· That the priority given in the subject plan to rote learning as an effective teaching methodology be re-considered.
· That teaching and learning objectives be set out in the subject plan that are in the first instance in keeping with the syllabus aims and that planning does not focus solely on the examinations.
· That the Irish teachers would agree on a common approach to develop oral skills more from first year onwards.
· That assessment of spoken Irish be made an integral part of the assessment of language skills in the junior cycle as soon as possible and that consideration be given to entering the first year students in the current year (2007/08) for the optional oral examination in the 2010 Junior Certificate examination.
· That the number of periods for Irish on the timetable be reviewed in order to provide more periods, if possible, especially in the junior cycle for the higher level class.
Post-evaluation meetings were held with the teachers of Irish and with the principal at the conclusion of the evaluation at which the draft findings and recommendations of the evaluation were presented and discussed.
Published November 2008