Paper 501 presented at BERA Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007 What students say about their learning - how can this improve learning? Dianne Smardon and Sue Bewley The University of Waikato, New Zealand Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007 Abstract This paper reports on a project that is exploring teaching and learning through the eyes of students and documenting changes to teacher practice that occur based on the sharing of these student perceptions. The inquiry is situated in the work of the New Zealand Assess to Learn Professional Development Project (AtoL PD) which is a national project that aims to improve student learning and achievement and to shift teacher assessment knowledge, practice and beliefs through implementation of assessment for learning principles. The ethnographic nature of the inquiry has had practical value for teachers and students because it is concerned with their issues and problems. Teachers have been able to add to their strategies and skills through studies of themselves, their students and teacher-student interactions (Woods, 1986). The inquiry process provides opportunity to construct knowledge through reflection on local theories alongside more general theories from the research literature. The inquiry is embedded in the professional development though an observation and interview process. As part of the professional development, classrooms and teachers of Year 1 to 13 students are visited. Teachers are observed on at least four occasions over a two year period and a running commentary of teacher talk is recorded on a specifically designed template. The intention is to capture as much as possible the actual words the teacher says. Aspects of the classroom environment are also noted. Student voice is collected through questions posed to students during lessons. These questions act as a guide and prompts are used to gain deeper insight into the student’s response, and thinking. This process provides an opportunity for participants to share their ‘truth’ through what is described by Woods (1981) as ‘insider accounts’. One advantage of this process is that students have the opportunity to explore their learning through their talk. In each classroom at least 12 students are interviewed over the two year period. To date, 1200 students have been interviewed and specific themes identified in their initial voice. In a follow up unstructured interview, teachers examine and validate the data, set goals and plan specific actions to further improve their practice on the basis of evidence from student voice. Further AtoL professional development in the form of professional reading, AtoL team led dialogue and discussions focussed on assessment for learning take place. Consideration of student voice data seems to be a non threatening way to show teachers what their current practice looks like and provides opportunities for them to reflect on their practice in relation to their espoused theories of practice. The authenticity of context is significant in establishing rich data which is perceived to be valid and useful. Student voice data creates dissonance challenging what teachers believe about learning and how learners learn. The use of student voice data has proven to be catalytic to teacher practice. It is motivational for teachers and they display a continuing willingness to listen to the voice of their students and to scrutinise and reflect on their practice. Analysis of student voice indicates changes in the nature of student responses along a continuum of indicators as teachers’ practices change. Changes in students’ ability to talk in-depth about their learning are apparent. This inquiry supports research, such as that of Flutter & Rudduck, (2004), Maws (2005) which indicates that consulting and listening to students is beneficial. Analysis of data from this inquiry has advanced the AtoL PD project. The inquiry into the benefits of talking with students for the purposes of improving student and teacher learning is ongoing. It is however apparent that deliberate and focussed attention to what students say has the power to impact on and improve their learning. Why this inquiry? Michael Fullan (1991) posed the question “What would happen if we treated the student as someone whose opinion mattered?” This question underpins the philosophy of the professional development this inquiry is sited within and is reflected in the collection of student voice data and the process of reflective dialogue with the teacher as learner. Indeed who else should we ask about their learning but the learner themselves? -1– Dianne Smardon diannes@waikato.ac.nz Sue Bewley suebewley@clear.net.nz Paper 501 presented at BERA Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007 In accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, U.N. General Assembly Document (see Appendix One) articles 12 and 13 clearly indicate that students have the right to be consulted and to share their views, in this instance about their learning, and that due consideration should be given to the comments that they make. However we do not believe that this is the issue. The reality appears to be that in many classrooms students are not invited to talk about, let alone think about, the notion of learning in a manner that has any depth. Most of the dialogue appears to occur more by accident than in a deliberate, conscious and planned manner. Therefore the inquiry we have conducted explores teachers’ learning, through the eyes of their students, how their practice is viewed by the students and notes the consequent changes they make to their practice based on these student perceptions. We are finding that that the adjustments made by the teacher to their practice result in students’ improved knowledge of: what they are learning a purpose for the learning how they will know they have learnt it what they need to do to improve or get better with this learning. This inquiry was conducted within the context of the Assess to Learn (AtoL) Professional Development Project which is founded on the view that effective formative assessment is embedded in a view of teaching and learning of which it is an essential part. The principles and beliefs underpinning the AtoL project include: sharing learning goals with students. helping students to know and to recognise the standards they are aiming for involving students in self-assessment providing feedback which leads to students recognising their next steps and how to take them is underpinned by confidence that every student can improve involves both teacher and students reviewing and reflecting on assessment data. The importance of these principles for improved student learning is discussed widely by other researchers such as Bell and Cowie, Black and Wiliam, and Flutter and Rudduck. Anecdotal evidence is emerging to suggest that Assessment for Learning practices may be becoming ritualized and be better suited to particular groups of students (Webb & Jones, 2006). This is one of the reasons why we are interested in exploring student’s perceptions of their learning and changes in these perceptions. We would endorse the view of Alexander (2005) that working with others, where learning is viewed as a partnership, and engaging in dialogue around their learning also supports students to develop their learning. Classroom observations Classroom observation is one of a variety of professional development approaches used within AtoL to facilitate teacher reflection on their practice and their students’ learning. Data from three or four observations with each teacher over a period of two years has been collected, analysed and interpreted within this inquiry. In each observation a pro forma sheet is used to record a running commentary of teacher talk capturing as much as possible the actual words the teacher speaks (15-20 minutes). Aspects of the classroom environment are also recorded – visibility of learning intentions, criteria, student produced work, exemplars, learning goals, charts or displays, and evidence of differentiated learning such as grouping of students according to their needs, for example. Student voice is also collected during this observation time, through individual response to set questions, recorded in most instances against the student’s name on the recording sheet. Follow up prompts were used at the discretion of the adviser in order to elicit further information directly linked to the purpose of the question. Teachers were invited to select students whose perceptions they might have an interest in – this was also an intentional step to ensure teachers did not feel threatened by the process but could see that there would be benefits for them at the outset. This was not an ad hoc process but carefully planned, the questions were piloted and adapted to become more invitational to students. Students were asked: (1) ‘What do you think you are learning?’ This question is designed to establish student perception of the learning and whether it might be the intended or unintended learning. -2– Dianne Smardon diannes@waikato.ac.nz Sue Bewley suebewley@clear.net.nz Paper 501 presented at BERA Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007 (2) ‘Why do you think you are learning this?’ The purpose of this question was to establish whether the student can make connections or see the relevance of the learning. (3) ‘How will you know you have learnt it?’ This was asked to find out if students perceived that models, examples, and shared criteria helped them. (4) ‘How does your teacher help you with…?’ ’ This question is used to explore student perceptions of the ways teachers work to support their learning and provide help. It can also elicit where the student sees the locus of control - whether they see themselves as responsible for their own learning. More specifically, students are asked these follow-up questions ‘How do the comments your teacher makes about your learning help you’ and ‘What do you need to do next and how do you know?’ What the students said - Initial student voice Many students, at all year levels, said they didn’t know what they were supposed to be learning when asked ‘What do you think you are learning?”. They responded with comments like I don’t know even when prompted. Many had difficulty articulating what they thought they were learning. Their responses were often short. Two typical student responses to the question ‘what do you think you are learning?’ were; stuff about the sea and we are doing a worksheet. They would often talk about the task they were involved in rather than the learning e.g. Find the question and then find the answer in the newspaper. When students could talk about what they were learning there was often a mismatch between the students’ and teacher’s knowledge or interpretation of the intended learning e.g. the teacher identified the intended learning outcome as “Why winds occur”. The student response to the question ‘What do you think you are learning?’ was, How to predict weather using maps. Again, the student is making links to the task rather than the learning. Even when the learning intention displayed on the whiteboard was we are learning to use decoding strategies and read for meaning students were often not able to articulate the learning as outlined by the teacher to the adviser. We are interested to know how relevant students perceive the learning to be to their lives. When asked about the purpose for learning, most students talked about this in terms of future relevance, the distant future. Because when you are older you might need to look something up. If we want to have jobs doing that sort of thing. Students did not attribute any relevance of the task to their own learning. One student explained, I’m just doing it. Mrs …. said. And another said, Because my teacher said to pick something to write about. This sense of disconnection and irrelevance was evident in their answers to the question ‘how will you know when you’ve learned it?’ Students would often refer to an external source as the final arbiter. They construed the teacher as the judge, explaining that they had learned something when the teacher marks it and ‘when the teacher says’ or when We can predict the weather and get it right. One student explained that, When you are good at them all then you could pass a test that is really hard. Students talked about the strategies or the deliberate acts of teaching that their teachers used to help with their learning in a generalised way. They did not appear to have a language to talk about learning or teaching. She tells us a little bit about how to do it and She explains stuff were typical responses to the question ‘How does your teacher help you with this learning?’ If there was this on-going dialogue would the students have been able to better answer our question? Discussions with teachers Follow up discussions were held with teacher where the student voice data and their own talk were examined. “Voice” implies singular but it is the accumulation of student voice data (student voices) that provides the balance of evidence for teacher scrutiny. Teachers are able to compare intentions with the perceptions of the four or five students interviewed. Through this Figure 1 reflective discussion teachers plan actions they will take to further improve their practice based on the data collected and shared. The recording form in Figure 1 was developed to capture and formalise this reflective process and encourage collegial discussion, supporting teachers with the use of evidence as the basis of -3– Dianne Smardon diannes@waikato.ac.nz Sue Bewley suebewley@clear.net.nz Paper 501 presented at BERA Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007 strengthening their professional learning community. These actions become the focus for further professional reading and reflection as well as the next classroom observation. Due to the ethnographic nature of this inquiry it has had practical value for teachers because it is concerned with their own issues, problems and in their terms, thus teachers can add to their strategies and skills through the studies of themselves, their students and teacher-pupil interactions (Woods, 1986 as cited in Jones). The intervention strategies within the process focus on enhancing teacher and student identification of appropriate learning outcomes and the criteria for progressing towards achievement of these outcomes, the use of models and exemplars, questioning skills, and constructive, focused feedback about the learning. Examination of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge may underpin this. This sharing, analysis and discussion of student voice between AtoL advisers and teachers supported the planning of teacher actions e.g. to involve students more in talking about their learning. These actions were the focus of our next visit where observational data and student voice was again collected. Through analysis of the data the AtoL team identified changes to practice made by teachers. These have been collated under the following three themes: Making connections; Making learning intentions explicit; Involving students in dialogue about learning. What the teachers did Making Connections Teachers made changes to planning by making links between long term, short term and daily planning. In both their planning and teaching they were making explicit connections to previous learning with the students. Teachers were making more frequent reference to the purpose of the learning. Teachers were using more specific feedback to support learning e.g. What are you going to use to describe the scene, think about phrases? Making learning intentions explicit As a result of observations and follow-up discussions teachers realised that for them to make learning intentions explicit with students they needed a clear understanding of the intended learning themselves. Teachers need to corroborate the meaning of the achievement criteria with each other. Teachers realised that just giving criteria to the students was not enough and they explored ways of using exemplars, and involving the students in the construction of achievement criteria for the learning. Using the New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars with teachers to support professional learning in curriculum content, pedagogy and assessment has also promoted team or whole school discussion about curriculum expectations and school achievement. This other layer exists in the intervention which was occurring in the school through the professional development with the AtoL Project and the teacher’s professional learning, dialogue with colleagues and in many instances with students. Consequently specific learning intentions were made clearer in planning, teaching and learning. Some of the strategies used by teachers were: vocalising the learning intentions more often during the learning. breaking the learning down and using more specific criteria. writing the criteria on overhead transparencies daily. referring to the achievement criteria throughout the lesson using the criteria as a teaching and learning tool. using examples of quality work to support the learning setting up opportunities for self and peer assessment. providing scaffolds for learning in the form of vocabulary charts to help students improve their writing. developing rubrics with students using examples of work. Through these strategies the most significant overall change has been the increased involvement of students in learning and assessment. Involving students in dialogue about learning Other strategies that we saw teachers using during our subsequent visits indicated this shift towards involving students as expert commentators. Teachers are supporting students to articulate the learning in conversations -4– Dianne Smardon diannes@waikato.ac.nz Sue Bewley suebewley@clear.net.nz Paper 501 presented at BERA Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007 with peers and with the teacher. They were using mind-mapping and brainstorming to co-construct the achievement criteria. Students were being assisted in the co-construction of achievement criteria by using examples of quality work. Teachers were spending less time in front of the class as a whole group and were grouping students more. This notion of involving students in dialogue about their learning is defined by Earl as co-construction “to practice self reflection and facilitate a reflexive process in others about learning through a collaborative dialogue” (2003). This collaborative dialogue is recognised by Tunstall and Gipps (1996) as a practice through which students can construct ways forward for their own learning.. This recommendation comes from research on the types of feedback that teachers use. According to Askew and Lodge (2000) the use of feedback that is constructed through loops of dialogue and information is the most effective. The responsibility for learning is shared with the feedback and reflection becoming intertwined. This results in the learner reviewing their learning in the context and also in relation to their prior experience and other knowledge. Student voice revisited (Third or fourth classroom observation) Our observations and discussions with students told us they had a deeper understanding of their learning and from our analysis we have noted the following as indicators of improved learning. The students were using the learning language Students were more articulate and eager and confident to talk. Students could understand and were keen to respond to our questions and talk about them. They used the language of the intended learning we are learning to write an introduction to our narratives and we are learning about elements and the periodic table. The students look for and use visual clues of the learning and associated criteria. There was correlation between the students understanding of the intended learning and the teachers learning intention e.g. teacher learning intention written on the whiteboard said we are learning to write to keep the reader interested. An example student response to the question What do you think you are learning? was How to make a story interesting and not just long and boring? The students were more able to link the learning to themselves (immediacy of relevance). One example response to the question why do you think you are learning this was, Because if I don’t (edit) people will read it and think it doesn’t make sense and Because I can’t do it (form letters) properly now. The use of the first person indicates the student is able to link the learning to themselves. Students were able to identify their own learning goals. An example response to the question what do you need to do next? Was to use more adjectives, similes and metaphors and not drag out the plot. Students could readily identify examples of their learning, the criteria and their response to feedback, in their work. Adviser. How will you know when you have learned it? Student. By looking at my work and seeing if I have all the stuff. (The student pointed to the achievement criteria on the board and aspects of their own work.) Adviser. Can you show me some feedback a teacher had written in your book….what does that mean to you? Student. I had to get better at Adviser. Do you think you have done that? Student Yes… see here…. The students were less reliant on the teacher for judgements about their learning. One example student response to the question How will you know you have learnt it? was, I’ll read it through and if I know how to do it, I’ll know. There was evidence that students were taking more responsibility for their learning as shown in this longitudinal example. How does your teacher help you? One student on three different occasions (April, June, and November) said she says things that give us ideas she gives us ideas. She reads a story out loud so everyone can hear. Her comments make us think harder. She’s given us ideas on the board. Bit by bit- we started it yesterday. We have time to think about what we’re going to write. While the student is still talking about what the teacher can do for him/her they are also talking about their own learning through the use of the word ‘think’ in the responses. Students were able to respond more easily to the question about how the teacher helps them and were able to identify strategies for learning that were directly related to the learning they had identified as opposed -5– Dianne Smardon diannes@waikato.ac.nz Sue Bewley suebewley@clear.net.nz Paper 501 presented at BERA Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007 to the earlier visits where students made generalized statements about how they perceived teacher interventions that were often unrelated to the identified learning. We believe that this may indicate a higher level of metacognition. Analysis of shifts over time: The ongoing process of data collection for use with teachers for their professional learning also provided a wealth of information that could be collated across the entire project. This became phase two of the inquiry. As a team we trialed and developed two matrices which we plotted teacher and student responses on over several occasions to determine these shifts over time. The judgments of student and teacher voice were moderated extensively within the AtoL team. This process of moderating was used to ensure the resulting judgments were reasonably dependable. Typical responses of statements made by students or teachers were also recorded as specific examples. In many instances teachers used the evidence to plot their position and that of their students on the matrix. This was too was moderated by the advisers. These collations are included as appendices to this paper. (Appendix Two student shifts and Appendix Three teacher shifts). In examining the student shift graphs it was puzzling to note that the progress made from visits one to three did not seem to be sustaining in visit 4. Further inquiry into why this might be, led to anecdotal comments that teachers were trying “something new” in visit 4. As part of the professional development process when teachers examined this evidence they were able to provide explanation for the student voice responses. Partially this was relating to the degree of “comfort” they now felt with the classroom observation process. In some instances teachers were working in different curriculum areas or approaching their teaching in a different manner. This is an area that is worthy of further examination. What literature is saying. Sadler, along with Black and Wiliam, discuss the notion of students having a clear concept of the learning that they are engaging in. If there is on-going dialogue between teachers and students using a shared language of learning and teaching then a culture where students are not afraid to ask for help will exist (Black and Wiliam, 1998a). As discussed by Nisbet, Schuchsmith, McCallum et al this dialogue focused on the intended learning is useful strategically for both identifying student’s difficulties with aspects of their learning and as a way of developing their capacity to reflect on and improve their own learning. The term ‘metacognition’ refers to the ability to think about one’s own thinking and learning processes. This capacity lies at the heart of effective learning. (as cited in Flutter & Rudduck, 2004). As Paul Black and his colleagues propose it is important that teachers consider the effectiveness of the feedback they give to students. Feedback should make more explicit to pupils what precisely is involved in a high quality piece of work and what steps they need to take to improve. At the same time it should enhance pupil’s skills and strategies for effective learning. (Black et al, as cited in Flutter & Rudduck, p.102, 2004). Sadler (1989) recommends that students be viewed as expert commentators on, rather than consumers of, assessment practices. Conclusion So…what students say about their learning – how can this improve learning? In posing this question, the title of the paper, the reader has been presented with evidence from a New Zealand context of teacher professional development in an Assess to Learn Project. We would invite you to form your own conclusions. We consider that if the ability to articulate learning is an indicative measure of learning then the changes made by teachers have improved learning. From the evidence we have collected teachers did use the initial student voice to make changes to their practice. The impacts of this were evident in student voice data gathered on the second and third visits. These changes were planned and deliberate as a result of teachers reflecting on and discussing with an adviser what their students were saying in response to the set questions. During the subsequent discussions with the teachers there was also evidence of their thinking about how students learn and the importance of involving students more. The student responses in these subsequent visits are evidence of achieving learning if we believe that what they are saying is useful for diagnostic purposes as well as being an indicator of learning. This inquiry has been conducted over a short time frame and the dynamic, complex nature of learning makes it difficult to measure and make claims about. There is still a need to continue with this inquiry because of the probable impacts on teacher practice and student learning. Hattie (1998) suggests that the focus should be -6– Dianne Smardon diannes@waikato.ac.nz Sue Bewley suebewley@clear.net.nz Paper 501 presented at BERA Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007 upon the greatest source of variance that can make the difference-the teacher and that there is a need to optimise this influence in order to enhance student learning opportunities. The authenticity of context is significant in establishing rich data which is perceived to be useful and valuable. When Lieberman and Miller (2000) considered the changing context of teaching they identified several change forces including the “new social realities of teaching” which require teachers to make transitions for example from teaching at the centre to learning at the centre. This is ultimately the reason for inquiry into teaching and learning and, in this case, assessment for learning. As we moved our focus from shifts in teacher beliefs and practices to student response to our questions, the conversations that resulted have led us inexorably towards the question of “How can dialogue create opportunity for students to think and express their ideas?” However that is another paper to be presented in the following session This project was funded by the Ministry of Education through an Agreement with “the Contractor”. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of either the Ministry or “the Contractor”. Thanks to Bronwen Cowie, Alister Jones, Jenny Mills, Colleen Sayer, Kim Millwood, Lisa Morresey, Jennifer Charteris, Raelene Bennett and all the teachers involved in the AtoL Project (2005-2007) for participating in the reflective practice that underpins this inquiry. Appendix One Extracts from Articles Convention on the Rights of the Child, U.N. General Assembly Document A/RES/44/25 (12 December 1989) Article 12, 1. States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. Article 13 1. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice. -7– Dianne Smardon diannes@waikato.ac.nz Sue Bewley suebewley@clear.net.nz Paper 501 presented at BERA Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007 Appendix Two: Shifts in student voice Question One: Student identification of the learning Percentage of students on each visit at each level 100 90 Level One: The student is unable to articulate what the intended learning is 80 70 Level Two: The student is able to articulate aspects of the intended learning 60 50 40 Level Three: The student is able to articulate aspects of the intended learning 30 20 Level Four: The student is able to explain the intended learning 10 0 Visit 1 Visit 2 Visit 3 Visit 4 Question Two: Student able to explain the relevance of the learning Percentage of students on each visit at each level 100 Level One: The student is unable to say why they are engaging in this learning 90 80 Level Two: The student when prompted makes tentative links to why they are engaging in this learning 70 60 50 Level Three: The student is able to say why they are engaging in the learning 40 30 20 10 0 Visit 1 Visit 2 Visit 3 Visit 4 Level Four: The student makes relevant links between their classroom learning and situations outside the classroom in ways that are personally meaningful Question Three: Student use of achievement criteria Percentage of students on each visit at each level 100 90 80 70 Level One: The student makes no reference to achievement criteria or there are no explicit criteria to refer to 60 50 Level Two: The student makes reference to the provided achievement criteria 40 30 Level Three: The student identifies and uses the criteria for achieving the learning 20 10 0 Visit 1 Visit 2 Visit 3 Visit 4 Level Four: The student is able to describe how they are using the achievement criteria to improve their learning -8– Dianne Smardon diannes@waikato.ac.nz Sue Bewley suebewley@clear.net.nz Appendix in Conference, teacher practice Paper 501Three: presentedShifts at BERA Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007 Question One: Teacher identification of the learning Percentage of teachers on each visit at each level 100 Level One: The teacher has not identified the intended learning 90 80 70 Level Two: The teacher has identified the intended learning independent of the students 60 50 Level Three: The teacher has identified the intended learning and shared this with the students 40 30 20 10 0 Visit 1 Visit 2 Visit 3 Visit 4 Level Four: The teacher has made deliberate reference to the intended learning involving students in a conversation about their learning Question Two: Teacher exploring the relevance of the learning with students Percentage of teachers on each visit at each level 100 Level One: The teacher does not consider how relevant the learning is to the student 90 80 Level Two: The teacher shows they have considered the relevance of the learning but does not share this with the student 70 60 Level Three: The teacher has told the student some reasons why they are learning this 50 40 Level Four: The teacher has discussed and explored with the student the relevance of the learning to the student 30 20 10 0 Visit 1 Visit 2 Visit 3 Visit 4 Question Three: Teacher negotiates learning achievement criteria with the student Percentage of teachers on each visit at each level 100 90 80 Level One: The teacher has no criteria for achievement of the intended learning 70 Level Two: The teachere provides criteria but this is not necessarily linked to the intended learning or the purpose of the criteria is not explicitly communicated 60 50 Level Three: The teahcer develops achievement criteria supporting the learning and shares this with the student 40 30 Level Four: The teacher continually negotiates with the student to develop clear achievement criteria to support and challenge the learning 20 10 0 Visit 1 Visit 2 Visit 3 Visit 4 -9– Dianne Smardon diannes@waikato.ac.nz Sue Bewley suebewley@clear.net.nz Paper 501 presented at BERA Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007 REFERENCES Alexander, R. 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