Board-work: Students using Whiteboards to Make Their Learning Visible

There is nothing more exciting as a teacher, when you have that moment, the moment that you get out of the way and listen to what the kids are saying and they are just exploring ideas. Today I listened and watched a number of students talking about how to create a Lewis dot diagram for a number of molecules that they have yet to encounter. I listened to them say; “Try this. . . that doesn’t work, what should we do?, Try this. . .. I stood back in utter excitement knowing that they were in the full throws of learning something. THEY WERE LEARNING. I did not need to give them a test. I did not need to give them a quiz. They were in the zone, that special zone where it is not too easy but yet not too hard. Just at the end, when they exhausted all their ideas, I was called over and they asked for help. I gave them a couple of suggestions and then, the insight, the HUGE smile on their faces and the laughter that followed. It is just that moment that we as teachers all live for. Needless to say I felt as though I was making a difference.

I have to be quite honest that these moments seem to be occurring more and more for me as a teacher. I have to give credit to where it is due. I would like to share with you my insight.

Last year I was given the opportunity to teach in a classroom with a colleague who was teaching a math course. Our math department, phenomenal I might add, has been exploring an idea of how to get students more engaged in Math. After attending a conference with Peter Liljedhal from Simon Fraser University, our math teachers were inspired.  Who can doubt inspired education? Not me. As a result they have made a movement toward the incorporation of the latest and greatest technological advance in teaching, the whiteboard, and lots of them. The intention in their math classes is to have students doing math up out of their seats and doing it in small groups on a whiteboard. They have put up whiteboards on all the walls of their classrooms where there is space. The work that they are getting to do is affectionately referred to as “Board-work”.

Board-work is

1.       Cooperative and active

2.       Visible for others

3.       A great opportunity for formative feedback

4.       Time saving

5.       Engaging

6.       Promotes risk taking 

So what does board work look like in a classroom? Board-work is corporative and active by design. Students are working together in small groups. Often the teacher will have their students assigned into random groups of anywhere from two to six students. These groups will be assigned a set of problems for which all are responsible to try and solve. Students work together on a whiteboard, one writing others helping, monitoring, learning in the moment. If a group gets stuck, they can just look around the room and see what other groups are up to. Group learning is at the forefront of this organizational approach to learning.

Board-work is a visible for others and a great opportunity for the teacher to provide formative feedback resulting in lots of time saved. Students see that there are a number of different ways to solve a problem. As a teacher it is mind blowing. Rarely is there such an opportunity to provide such instant formative feedback to student work. Often we are organized in such a way that students work at their desk, a teacher circulates, provides individual help, and students may get some help from a neighbor. With board-work a teacher can help four students at a time and neighboring groups can listen in. Common mistakes become instantly visible for others to see and the teacher can address the whole class quickly to correct the issue. Making student work visible for others by bringing the work up off the worksheet and into a public form is another of its strengths.

Students love it. In a conversation with a colleague out in the hallway, I was asking, do you think that this approach could be extended beyond math and be used in a science classroom? His response, “Let’s ask.” He proceeded to stop numerous students in the hallway and ask them two questions: 1. “What do you think of board-work?” and 2. “Do you think that it could be done in Science?” It was a fantastic insight for me as I listened to student after student just light up and respond with how much they liked it. Additionally it was an overwhelming yes to the thought of doing it in a science class. One student even went as far as to say, “Could you convince my Chemistry AP teacher to do it?” Board-work in my experience is engaging.

Finally, board-work promotes risk taking in the simplest of ways. As students write on a piece of paper, and there is a mistake that needs to be corrected it seems to be so much more difficult to correct. When writing on a whiteboard, a student is more likely to feel the freedom to explore a variety of different ideas. With others, students will explore these ideas through conversation using the whiteboard as the visual for the exploration. Students often will say that is it so much easier and acceptable to make a mistake on the whiteboard as it is easily corrected. “I can simply erase it.”

It has been my goal has been to incorporate more board-work into my practice as a science teacher. Recently, inspired by the work that our math department has been doing I have discovered what structures might enhance the opportunity for these moments. I have found that taking a large group of students and dividing them up into 6 large tables (merging 6 individual desks) I have created an environment whereby I have enough room to visit everyone comfortably, students are ready to converse and get involved in group learning. Having each of these groups sitting next to a whiteboard is an open invitation for students to explore their ideas on the board. There is the opportunity for peer teaching, collaboration on a problem and me as the teacher to provide formative feedback.

If you are looking for one approach which can have a dramatic impact on teaching and learning, making learning visible in a classroom for you and others alike, I would have to say board-work is a great answer.

Highlighting Barriers of Learning for Students- Making Visible Student Learning

In my experience as a teacher I have used a number of different approaches to beginning the semester with my high school science classes. There is the dissemination of information approach; students arrive, I hand out a number of informational pieces, we review them, students get their textbooks, we talk about classroom expectations and then move into the first lesson. There is the” let’s get hands on” approach: students are given a task to get started with, a lab exploration exercise, completing a hands-on activity, we review the experience and then use the dissemination of information approach above. This year I tried something a little different. The conversation centered on learning and where the students were in regards to their own learning.

At the heart of this approach is a little seven question survey that a colleague of mine, Brett Dibble, created based on reading from John Hattie’s (2012) book “Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning”. According to Hattie (2012), from his extensive meta-analysis of educational research, there are ten self attributes that students bring to the classroom which impact their ability to learn. These include: self-efficacy (the confidence or strength of belief that we have in ourselves that we can make our learning happen); self-handicapping (when students choose impediments or obstacles to performance that allow them to deflect the cause of failure away from themselves); self-motivation (is the learning itself the source of satisfaction or are extrinsic rewards the source of motivation); self-goals (students view “ability” to be something that can be developed by increasing effort); self-dependence (students have the ability to self-regulate, keeping themselves on task); self-discounting and distortion (students do not accept feedback as valuable, accurate and worthwhile); self-perfectionism (setting standards for yourself that are so demanding that we cannot meet them and thus are not worthwhile to try); hopelessness (a student’s view of themselves as a helpless individual unable to change their situation); and social comparison (comparing your work and abilities to others). Each one of these attributes are worthy of bringing to the attention of all learners. In doing so, we offer an opportunity to set goals for improvement. Enter a little survey with great insights for students and teachers alike.

Brett  took this list of self attributes and turned it in a 7 question survey. The survey responses are use a six point Likert scale, one being strongly disagree and six being strongly agree. The survey reads as follows:

Answer questions 1-7 based on (1) being strongly disagree and (6) being strongly agree:

1.       I compare my marks and success based on other classmates

2.       I am a perfectionist when I do schoolwork

3.       I feel like I cannot improve

4.       I find feedback that I get from my teacher to be useful

5.       I can monitor my own learning (example: making sure you are handing in assignments, studying for tests ahead of time, not having to be told to do your work)

6.       I am able to focus on my work and not procrastinate

7.       I find I am appropriately challenged in class

 As well all do, when as a teacher we see something we know would be great for students, we borrow it. This semester students completed the survey as the first task that they had in my class for the semester. To me, in this act, I have shown to my students that learning is going to take priority in this class. It is my full intention to ensure that students improve, not only in their understanding of science but in their learning overall.

Upon completion of the survey we had a discussion about the different items on the list. I conveyed to them that each one of these pointed to a barrier that could exist to their success in learning.  For example, in comparing your work to others you take the focus off yourself. Success, as defined by John Wooden (one of the great coaches and mentors in modern history), is “peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.” His definition is one which turns the focus on self- improvement as opposed to an external measurement for growth. To those students that tend to compare their work to others and use it as a justification for what they do I hope to open their eyes to a new possibility. There-in lies the possibility to reaching a greater happiness, the great satisfaction of self-improvement. This is only one of the seven items that I speak to. Each one addressed and displayed as an idea for consideration.

After our discussion I asked students to set goals for themselves in their own learning for the rest of the semester. The students were asked to focus on one of the areas on the survey that they felt that they could improve upon. My hope is that in an effort to bring their attention to the different barriers that exist for learners that they might grow in their own understanding of themselves as a learner making it more visible for themselves.

References

Hattie, J.  (2012).  Visible Learning for Teachers- Maximizing impact on learning.  New York, N.Y.: Routledge.

Wooden, J.  (n.d.).  The Official Site of Coach John Wooden. Retrieved from http://www.coachwooden.com/index2.html