Thinking about my thinking: A metacognitive reflection for 4P02 and 4P06.

As the two assessment courses wind down I am reflecting on what I had hoped would happen in the courses. I made certain decisions as I was drafting the course that affected the original Syllabus. Over time the Syllabus would change somewhat. This change could be alarming. But I am hoping that with an explanation students will understand why I did what I did and the risks and rewards that go with teaching this way.

I am a constructivist at heart. Learning needs to be personally relevant. Students learn best when they learn by doing and learn with others. Relationships are important and that teaching-learning works best when I know a student by name as well as by their work.  I believe in problem-based learning where the student is given an open-ended, complex, ill-structured problem. There is no one right answer. In my long experience, I have found that students really respond to this type of assignment well and demonstrate creativity and knowledge at the same time.  But I also know this type of assignment can  cause anxiety as students seek an answer - especially in a mark-based culture where there is supposed to be a right answer.  Following this formula is a little hard in a large class, but I tried to accomplish all these dimensions in both 4P02 (80 students) and 4P02 (25 students).

I learned some things about my own assumptions. For one, I assume students are self-directed. For example, when one student said in an exit card that he was interested in learning more about the Kahn Academy he also added that he would look it up online. To me, this is the way it is supposed to be. If you are interested you will find out about it yourself - by hook or crook. Second, I assume that students learned the day-by-day assigned content (text and videos) through the collaborative reflections and discussions with your peers rather than chronological lectures of the text.

Third, I expected that 4P02 students could find their way around creating a standards-based disciplinary curriculum with like-minded colleagues. The process was a bit of a discovery process - but to me that is what problem-based learning is all about. It is messy and challenging and rewarding once all the pieces fit. And no one can do it for you in a linear simple way.

 For 4P06 I could not predict what the posters and portfolios will look like. Each of you was in a completely different context and thus each of you will have something completely different to present. Yet in the final outcome, I do expect/want to see depth of thought.

The Collaborative Reflections have always been popular with students and I have assumed that students learn a lot because they have each other to bounce ideas off and to help each other grow. By seeing what others do helps one to think in new ways.

The Guest Speakers were designed to add an element of real-life context to the class. The text was chosen carefully because it is used extensively in schools. As much as possible I tried to provide elements that would make this course relevant to a prospective teacher.

I also put a lot of emphasis on Participation. If I believe that students learn by doing they need to be there to do it. And when they are there they need to be fully there -  not on Facebook or texting friends etc. Of course I can't make anyone participate even if their body is present. So there is a long list of things to do to show that you are there and actively involved. As best Mike and I took observational records of this. We know, for example, when folks are there for the Collaborative Reflections and not there for the lecture. We know when  social network was preferable to the class activity. None of this matters really unless there is a pattern of non-participation that is noticeable over time.

On assessment. This is an assessment course but I continually talk about all the other ingredients of education. Why? In my way of looking at the world, assessment is a part of a system. You need to know what you want to teach in order to assess the right thing. You need to be clear about instructional strategies because assessment is supposed to be embedded into all instructional activities. And, of course, you need to be connected to expectations because you need to be accountable. It is an interconnected system where when one part changes the other parts change too. The BIG IDEA an ENDURING UNDERSTANDING  (I also know that you are supposed to learn the specifics of how to create a good rubric and a good test in your other Teacher Ed assessment course, so I do not cover this.)

My goal has to simulate an assessment for learning (AfL) environment.  Fortunately AfL is deeply grounded in constructivism - which means that my personal heart-felt beliefs are upheld. In this course you have experienced AfL  techniques as exit cards, traffic lights, thumbs-up and thumbs down, popsicle sticks, white boards (brown envelopes), no grades with feedback only, peer assessment, and  higher-order questionning. Some of these have been more successful than others. The brown envelopes were not used that often for 2 reasons: 1. I was not that skilled at embedding them in the lesson and 2. And more importantly, the brown did not work as well as the white envelope would have as I could not see the answers on them very well.  My lesson learned and thanks for getting your envelope laminated.

But AfL is not about a series of techniques. The Spirit of AfL is LEARNING. A key goal of AfL is to give both student and teacher feedback. Hopefully you did see places where you gave us feedback - whether it was from your one-on-one questions or exit cards. We also gave some feedback on the Collaborative Reflections and addressing questions in class. 4P06 helped to recreate the major rubric for this course. 4P02 helped us to refine it slightly for 4P02. You also know that you were a bit uncomfortable with feedback only - although we assured you that if you were at risk of getting a poor mark we would communicate with you personally. The only people with such a risk are those who did fully participate. This anxiety is one of the byproducts of being in a mark culture, such as the one that dominates our lives at university. I'm am still wrestling with how to change this.

The piece that opened my eyes was the teacher feedback aspect. The purpose of this student feedback is so that the teacher can shift the direction of the class to help more people learn. It is intended to be a learner-friendly environment and the shifts in the "original syllabus" are meant to make learning easier. The Aha for me was that in a constructivist AfL learning environment, nothing is carved in stone except the ultimate outcomes expected from the course. Now that I understand this I can explain it better to my next group of students. Change will happen and should happen. The fundamental goals need to stay the same. The KDB.

One last thing re grading the Collaborative Reflection. AfL thinking is that when you do  a series of similar activities you will get better and better at it given the feedback that you get. The traditional way of marking was to average all the "activities" across the year. But AfL thinking says to take the best and most consistent grade. The point, of course, is that once a student has learned a certain skill they should get the benefit of a grade that demonstrates that he or she has learned it. Similarly a student should not have do pages of the same math problem when he or she has shown that they have already acquired that skill. The 4P06 suggestion that the students select the Collaborative Reflections for grading and that the teacher selects one is "smart marking".  As  a teacher you may find yourself mired in feedback. You don't want to mark it all - but you need to find a way that keeps students on their toes while giving them the best shot at getting a good grade (in the summative final grade stage). Smart marking helps you to do this.

Missing in this reflection is an assessment tool of my own making. I leave this up to you in your teacher evaluations. I take a risk by writing this metacognitive reflection  and laying bare my perceived hopes and weaknesses. Perhaps you will only remember the things I did wrong. But perhaps this reflection will offer an example of a self-assessment. It is also a reflection of an experience that you were a part of. Hopefully through this self-assessment, you can see more clearly the Spirit of AfL and continue your own learning through the trial and error of trying new things with the intention of helping students learn...  

Preparing for Classroom Assessment Concurrent Course

We have finished our first class and I believe we are off to a good start. I have read your exit cards and will address the major issues in next class. One question is what does collaborative reflection look like so I am offering you an example with this blog. Most of your issues will be resolved as we get deeper into the readings as they are hard to explain since much of it is "learn by doing". Using the white boards for broad-stroke diagnostic assessment  allowed me to see where you are as a class in your understandings of assessment. The exit cards are also a method of AfL and helped me see where individuals might need for further learning.

The new ways of thinking about assessment emerged during a time of heavy criticism toward standardized tests as the antithesis to real learning. AoL, AfL and AsL really represent an integrated system of assessment/learning that interconnects with instruction and curriculum.   In many jurisdictions this system is known only as AfL. Across Canada AfL is differentiated into the 3 different areas. Most importantly, this "system" is not about a series of techniques (some of which you will learn/experience in this class). Experts talks about implementing the "spirit of AfL". The spirit of AfL refers to the spirit of learning rather than the dominance of the grade (Earl, Volante & Katz, 2011).


The first chapters on TAA revolve around basic principles of assessment. They sound so simple and make common sense - but it is surprisingly hard to implement these ideas. In Cooper's first book (2007), he presents 8 principles and then explains the principle(s) in each chapter. The book is rich with examples that make the learning come alive. By (2010) Cooper has written his high school book. The principles remain the same but he now includes much more context. He recognizes that assessment is taking place in changing times - largely affected by technology.

I am advocating for technological literacy because we really do need to have some of it for 21st Century teaching. One of you pointed out that we always should have a hard copy of what we are doing or have the presentation on a USB stick as well available online. This is because technology is notoriously unreliable at times - and, of course, more so when the user is uncertain of her skills. So when you are to do your technological literacy, please try it out as it turns out the university blocks certain sites.

For one, the university does not support Skype . Skype is a fabulous tool to talk to people all over the world for free (or a small price). You can also see each other at the same time. Recently, Skype added an educational arm that provides for classrooms around the world to connect to other classrooms or experts in the field. Yet, last year we could not connect with educators from Bluewater Board of Education because we could not get through on Skype and the university platform did not work well. Look at  Skype in the classroom to see how a 5th grade class in Missouri connected with a class in Peru for collaborative learning. (Skype is very easy to download.)

Another site that you might find useful is Google. There are a number of fantastic applications that are very useful for education. One of the ones you might find useful is google.docs at google. You will need a gmail account to use this. Google.docs allows you to save your work and have it accessible at all times as long as you have Internet. Its most useful feature is to be able to work collaboratively with others. You might work with your colleagues on a presentation and all may be in your own homes. Many teachers use google.docs to so that students can collaborate with each other (and sometimes it is used so both teacher and parent can follow the child's work).  To do this, one person uploads or creates a document on google.docs and then invites others to work with him or her.

I am currently collaborating with 2 others on a book on assessment and curriculum. One co-author just finished her M.Ed at Brock and the other is a doctoral student here. But they live in Chesley and Bracebridge. We meet on google.docs and can all write at the same time. We also talk on Skype so that we are talking and writing at the same time. We record the sessions on GaageBand'11as the one of us who is a doctoral student is doing her dissertation on collaborative writing in the age of technology. We have interviewed several teachers across Canada using this process where we all participate at once. (We have met our 21st Century educators through  Twitter@susanmdrake).

I hope that you will learn many things in this course and that you will not be afraid to try new things. You will have some successes and some failures but eventually you will have a new repertoire that you are comfortable with. It is two steps forward and one step back if you are a digital immigrant as I am. And chances are you are also a digital immigrant as the first class of digital natives (Tapscott, 2007) just entered university and were born in 1993 Beloit College Mindset List. . That means that the students that you will be teaching grew up in the 21st Century and take digital literacy for granted. Take a look a the Mindset List. Scary?

References

Earl, L. Volante, L. & Katz, S. (2011). Unleashing the promise of Assessment for Learning, Education Canada, 51, 3, http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/unleashing-promise-assessment-learning

Tapscott, D. (2007). Growing up digital. New York: McGraw Hill.  .

What does research mean to me?

What does research mean to me?

May 9, 2011

When I think of research I think of many things. In my daily life I do make decisions based on quantitative research. Over the years I drank coffee and then stopped and then started again. Each time was in response to research that said it was good or bad for you and then good again. Currently the research seems to claim that coffee is good for you. BUT I choose not to drink coffee because I choose another “poison”. Chocolate!

Research claims that 70% chocolate is good for you (DeNoon, 2003).  So that is how I get my caffeine kick! The only problem is that more recent research suggests that dark chocolate is only good for you in moderation (Parikh, 2011). Oops. Who do I believe? I need to look at my sources. Both of the references I have used here are web-based. Are they trustworthy? Both claim to be medical sites. But?

In this case I need to add my personal experience to help me make this judgement. If I eat too much chocolate I feel sick. And I feel a bit woozy like I do if I have too much caffeine. When I have just a little I feel good and I always love the taste. I have also read that 70% chocolate in moderation is good for you in many other reputable places such as the health newsletters that I get Nutrition Action and Consumer Report Health. The Web sites confirm what is said in my ongoing newsletters and my own experience.  Thus I continue to eat dark chocolate to feel good and to get a small jolt of caffeine  (instead of coffee).

At work, I am often the researcher and not the decision maker. I am trying to explore what is to increase understanding.  My research on assessment is actually based on a seminal piece of work by Black and Wiliam (1998). They did a meta-analysis of existing robust studies on classroom assessment to conclude that a certain type of assessment “assessment for learning” improves student achievement.  This was a very bold conclusion that changed the face of assessment and how educators think about it. Now educators strive to use assessment so that the student actually learns from it – rather than regurgitates memorized facts and promptly forgets. Further work done by Black et al. (2004) further describes assessment for learning.  Still it is an ongoing battle and educators are slow to implement this proven strategy.

My own research is qualitative and asks the question “What was your best experience with assessment?”  My team of researchers decided that we really don’t know what is the best way to assess until we ask how people how they actually experience successful assessment. So I have been involved in a 3-year federally funded qualitative study with 2 school boards where we have asked educators about their best experiences. As well, we have collected stories of best assessment from education students and other teachers and administrators in the field. We have over 220 stories so far. A summary of this research is being presented this Tuesday at the Ministry of Education/Faculty of Education conference May 10, 2011 (Drake, Beckett & Reid, 2011).

You will learn about my research in class as we explore qualitative research and how your stories fit in with what we have learned. Hopefully it will be interesting and enrich your understanding of both qualitative research methods and assessment for learning.   I look forward to hearing your stories.

I also want you to know that there are other kinds of research beyond quantitative and qualitative. For example, there is historical research and conceptual research. These types of research use the same process as “empirical” research but do not actually use living human participants. More on this later.

References

Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C, Marshall, B., & Wiliam, D. (2004). Working inside the black box: Assessment for learning in the classroom. Phi Delta Kappan, 86(1), 9-21.

Black, P. & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80,  45 - 52

DeNoon, D. (2003). Dark chocolate has its benefits not seen in other varieties. WebMD News. http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20030827/dark-chocolate-is-healthy-chocolate

Drake, S. Beckett, D. & Reid, J. (2011, May). Exploring best stories of assessment experiences. Paper presented at MOE/FOE Conference, University of Toronto, ON.

Parikh, L. (2011). Is dark chocolate good for you? Clinical correlations. http://www.clinicalcorrelations.org/?p=4150

What does accountability mean to me?

To me, accountability is a daunting word that conjures up an image of a big thumb squashing the little guy. At least that is the way it had always seemed to me before I looked at the concept with a more professional and academic lens.

I think back to my physical education and health classes. We did not have a set of expectations such as mandated now in the Ontario Curriculum, but there were some common objectives to guide every teacher.  Although I did use these objectives in my planning, I went well beyond the objectives. I had developed some interesting material that was holistic in nature. We explored the mind, body and the spirit. The health text was the students’ life stories.  The classes were very popular and my high school had more students in the program than any other school in the area.

One day, the Inspectors visited. I was nervous.  I knew that I was in uncharted territory. By the end of the day they had determined that I was not following the Ministry curriculum. My principal came to deliver the bad news. He took me for a long walk around the corridors outside the gym. By the end of the walk, he told me that he believed in what I was doing and that to solve the problem I was to change the titles to what the Ministry wanted and to continue on doing exactly what I was doing.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I would be able to continue to do the work that I loved and that I thought was so valuable.  Now my administrator had confirmed that what I was doing was the right thing to do. The students seemed to confirm it was right in that they attended the classes in large number.  This was a turning point for me -  and the future directions that I would take.

Accountability? As I reflect on this story I realize that my sense of accountability was to myself and to my students.  But I was not aligned to a bigger picture. I had no sense of extrinsic accountability -  to my administrator, to my district or to my provincial system.  I walked my own path.  Is this good or bad? Who is to say that what I thought the students needed to learn was actually what they should learn?

In an age of accountability I believe there is a middle path.  My questions have always revolved around improving the education system. How do we make it better? What is most important to teach?  To me the answer is rarely embedded in the ways things are “supposed” to be done.  How do we push the boundaries at the same time as we keep them? Much of my own research has been in how to push and maintain the boundaries at the same time. (Drake, 2010; Drake & Reid, 2010).  Instead of an EITHER/OR, it can be a BOTH/AND.

As an academic, I believe in accountability. I understand the need for some standardized measures of where we stand as a province and how we compare internationally. I can also sympathize with individual teachers who are very unhappy with EQAO. Is there a way we can attain some measure of students’ achievement that does not involve the problems of EQAO? What does the middle path look like?

I like the “new” classroom methods of assessment (Black & Wiliam, 1998) Assessment Reform Group, 2002). I think students fare much better when expectations for performance are demystified. Well prepared rubrics help. Exemplars show us what is expected (as long as they don’t limit us).  Ongoing feedback is extremely useful. At the same time I have found that when I apply a “pedagogy of ambiguity”, students produce the best work although they are uncomfortable with the lack of clear expectations. What is the balance between the two?

What is accountability? And what does accountability mean to me as I strive to be a 21^st Century teacher?  These are the questions that I wrestle with as we move forward in our explorations.

References.

Assessment Reform Group. (2002). Assessment for learning: 10 principles. http:www.assessment-reform-group.org.uk

Black, P. & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Rasing standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80. 2, 139-148.

Drake S. M. (2010). Enhancing teacher education using a story framework. Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.   1, 2, http://www.cjsotl-rcacea.ca

Drake, S. M. & Reid, J. (2010). Integrated curriculum:  Increasing relevance while maintaining accountability.  What works? Research in Practice. http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/WW_Integrated_Curriculum.pdf

onward

Another week has passed and it seems like one step forward and two back. Yet I can see huge strides when I look back at the last 4 or 5 months and my conscious efforts to become technologically literate. Just the tip of the iceberg - but I do see how technology has the power to fundamentally change education. I have been writing about the new story of education for a long time. Long before such technological breakthroughs. Interestingly the values of the new story stay the same - but technology acts as a catalyst for breaking down boundaries. Look at my article at   http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=cjsotl_rcacea  .   This will show the values in the new story.

Today March 6, 2011

I spent all day updating my Live Binders and figuring out how to publish then on Sakai. I think I finally did get it! So check in Sakai and you might find it.

How do we capture the potential of Web 2?

Hi. Well, the course is half over. One of my personal goals was to become technologically literate. In 3 months!!  One of my hoped for outcomes was to create a successful blog. But that has not happened. One, I have been too busy trying out other sites to concentrate on my personal blogging. Two, I feel like I am writing to myself. Only James Hoeffler seems to be connected to me. I'm not quite sure why and have tried countless different methods to get some connection with either other students, or the TAs, or the outside world. Still working on it. A New Story in progress! Meanwhile I have become a lot more literate in other ways. I have been able to find useful sites on Twitter and even have Tweeted a few times myself. Somehow I have some followers too. I can see that it is a very useful tool and connects me to a world much larger than myself. I have also found some sites to organize my digital data - such as Live Binders, Diigo and Jog the Web. Very helpful to have storage on the Internet and not on my overflowing bookshelves!  Still I need to do more exploration of these sites to be able to use them to my full advantage. The Big Question for me is how other teachers are going to "catch up" in all of this. I have dedicated a lot of my time to it and know that this is the tip of the iceberg. Yet I also know that we can't stop this train from going out the station. The digital world is absolutely astonishing and its potential for the New Story of Education is mind boggling. Any ideas?

Welcome

Welcome to the future of the 21st Century. You will exploring new literacies across the curriculum and what they might look like in the context of education. Much of the work that you do will be collaborative - as tasks in the 21st Century tend to be - and many will be new to you and require a different set of skills than we have traditionally taught in schools. One thing you will need to know and be able to do as a future educator is understand how people and systems change and have the flexibility to change. What remains constant through this change is your values as an educator - although perhaps these will change for you with new knowledge and skills.  So part of what you need to do is sort out what you do value as an educator. As well, you will need to be open to the new and to taking risks and perhaps making mistakes.  ENJOY the journey. Susan      Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Integration with the Hoff: Welcome!

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Glad to see you start your blog and hope you get other replies. As you think about writing you need to think about exploring the issue more than superficially as the Checklist/criteria hold for this assignment too. Interesting thoughts re videogaming and there is some evidence that gaming facilitates the creation of new and useful life skills. Many suggest that this IS a necessary skill for the future (see James Gee for example). If you put this blog on Twitter or even put out a call for info on any topic on Twitter I'm sure you will get responses. And of course you can go the traditional path and get literature to support your position. Bravo for beginning this blog. I hope it leads to great learning. Susan

Creating a New Story for Education

January 10, 2011

Welcome. As I write this blog I welcome you as a collaborator in creating a New Story for Education. A UTube featuring Sir Ken Robinson shows us graphically what a New Story might look like.  You can download it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U.  A recent article in the Canadian Journal for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CJSoTL) will explain to you how I see what creating a new story in education looks like.  The link is http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cjsotl_rcacea/vol1/iss2/2/. Hoping that some of these ideas connect with your concept of a New Story in Education.