"Even with all we now know about assessment our innate desire for neatly tabled data can compromise how deeply we understand our children.”
I read a great post by Pete Hall about assessment and the inadequacies of relying on an individual assessment tool to give a full picture of a student’s abilities.
We have been focusing on ‘Learning Stories’ lately, at our System Leadership Meetings. I think having to sit down and write a learning story for an individual child made me realise how important the ‘added extras’, (the bits of information we could add by talking about and including observations, conclusions and incidental data), were in allowing us to get a ‘full picture’ of a student’s progress and where they are ‘at’. We also used multiple assessment results (especially as we knew we had to share our Learning Story
at a meeting). Until I had to really sit & do it properly, I didn’t realise how important that extra data was. I was lucky that our Leadership Team worked together to develop our ‘Story’ and in doing so made the ‘data’ richer, as discussion and questioning of the assessment data took place naturally. I know that teachers do this implicitly every time we set tasks and assess…..but the information we add is often limited by time restraints and the lack of opportunities to discuss the data with others.
I’ve begun reflecting on ways now to try and make opportunities for these experiences to occur for every class teacher, about their students in our school. I’ve been thinking about our “Learning Conversations” we began in previous years. As Pete Hall states in his post:
“Every conversation we have to compare different sources of data informs the way we look at our children and empowers us to challenge or contribute to the conclusions made.”
Our Learning Conversations could be used, from now on, to focus on individual students and ‘where they are at’. I think setting aside that time & focusing on students individually, discussing the data available & adding information from different sources so that a single layer of data is not relied on…that would be a significant step in the right direction. We could look at different students in each class each term.
Pete Hall sums up the issues in this statement:
“Assessment systems are a great chance to up-skill teachers to gather and use data but when we discourage real dialogue about the validity of a single layer of data, we cripple the best learning we could do.”
School’s need to start finding ways to enable teachers to get the opportunities to discuss and draw together multiple pieces of data/information about students in order to develop a comprehensive picture of their learning journey. We need to make this a priority by allocating adequate time & opportunity to make it a reality.
"Now that an entire infrastructure for instant online delivery is widely in place, all that's left is the hard part of changing what happens in the classroom"This statement is in the concluding paragraph of an article that is in fact endorsing a 'low tech' solution to classroom boredom. It is an interesting article, in that it draws on research that states:
"The least boring teaching methods were found to be seminars, practical sessions, and group discussions"
Some ideas to think about!"His philosophy is that the information delivery common in today's classroom lectures should be recorded and delivered to students as podcasts or online videos before class sessions. To make sure students tune in, he gives them short online multiple-choice tests.
So what's left to do during class once you've delivered your lecture? Introduce issues of debate within the discipline and get the students to weigh in based on the knowledge they have from those lecture podcasts...... Class time should be reserved for discussion, he contends, especially now that students can download lectures online and find libraries of information on the Web."
"The established role of the library as a physical space housing racks of books is looking increasingly out of step with the needs of students and researchers."
"The physical look of the Library of the Future would be like a beehive...it's all about creating a sense of community and excitement about the discovery of ideas.... you have a lot of transparency so people can see and be seen, you have spaces where people can actually have a conversation together..."
"Service-learning is an approach to teaching and learning that combines classroom academic instruction with civic duty in the community and reflection. I think service-learning is a key vehicle for students to gain 21st century skills, to better prepare them for the workforce and to keep them excited about learning."
'the benefits are positive -- young people are more likely to be committed to volunteerism in adulthood that will last a lifetime, and it has positive impact on their social behavior, habits and attitudes.'Education encompasses more than just teaching core curriculum subjects. Service Learning provides an opportunity for students to learn skills and attitudes that will form the fabric of the societies in which they will live.
