Case Study: English Teacher focus groups

The background

With qualification reform on the horizon, OCR wanted to understand more about teacher experiences and opinions on the current GCSEs. They had already developed a substantial amount of insight in-house from their own customers, but were lacking insight from schools that use competitor exam boards. They commissioned Insightful Research to run focus groups with teachers who they would not normally hear from in their usual customer research.

Our approach

We used our Insightful Research Teacher Panel to recruit teachers who were using exam boards other than OCR for their GCSE curriculum. We then ran a series of online focus groups with teachers to explore their levels of satisfaction with the current GCSE curricula and exams, and understand their priorities for change in the future. Our focus groups covered a wide range of issues and a deep dive into some of the key problems with the current specifications.

The outcome

We provided OCR with an in-depth report which covered all the findings from the groups. Although some of the findings reinforced insights they had already developed from conversations with their own customers, our research did provide a new angle and way of looking at some issues which had not previously arisen in existing research. Our insights contributed to a wider report and white paper subsequently published by OCR, see https://teach.ocr.org.uk/striking-the-balance  

“I attended 3 of the focus groups run by Jill and thought they were fantastic. Not a moment was wasted in gathering really important views and opinions from teachers. Jill was great at fostering discussion and capturing themes and patterns. Her report was very illuminating too. We now have a much clearer picture of where to channel our energies.” OCR