Can We Make Learning Visible on Tests?

Testing and Reggio Emilia are clearly two ideas that seem to be philosophically incompatible. Yet given the context that I am working in, I asked the question can we use tests to demonstrate learning? It became apparent to me during parent teacher interviews that there are a number of students that, despite their time in school (10 to 11 years), cannot recognize the gaps that they have in terms of the content they are required to know or the skills they need to write a test. In addition, they seem not to have any idea why they are not successful, and are at a complete loss. They have yet to be empowered to improve in this area. Listening to the desperation in their voices and seeing the tears in their eyes as I state to them that clearly they want to do well, they are working extremely hard, yet the performance on these evaluations is really not a representation of their effort or desire to do well. It was after a period of time of reflection that I asked myself: “What do I do to help students better understand what these examinations are telling them?” , “How can I support them and uncover gaps that they have in their learning, specifically in their preparation for these academic displays?”

As a result of these questions I began to apply an approach of self-evaluating performance on tests for students. I started small. My first attempt at bringing out their learning was during a quiz. Upon completion of the quiz we corrected it together. Students were given the opportunity to talk with others in the class and share their quizzes. “The answer is out there in the class. Find someone who got it right”, I stated. Students milled about talking to friends and classmates, trying to determine why they got certain questions wrong. I remind them: “Ask yourself, why did I not get this question?”

Emerging from the moment were three simple questions which I have been using with students to help them evaluate their work: 1. Did I have the background knowledge to answer this question? If not, why not? 2. If I did have the background knowledge, what was it about the question that I did not understand, was it the question that I did not understand? What is it about this question that I did not get?” 3. Did I just make silly mistakes? If so, what can I do next time when I write a quiz or test to ensure that I do not make the same silly mistakes?

Asking these three questions is important but more important is taking the opportunity to make their learning visible for themselves. To do this I extended this activity to unit exams, asking students to write on their tests after getting the corrected test back. I asked them to write beside each incorrect response why they got it wrong. Was it because they made a silly mistake? Was it a result of not having the back ground knowledge? Was it because the question itself tripped them up? Taking the time to write out the reason why they got the questions wrong gives them an opportunity to see that they need help in test taking; they need help ensuring that they are studying properly or they need to be more careful when writing tests. After completing this self-evaluation I asked the students to write themselves a letter about the test. In the letter I asked them to give themselves hints about what they need to do differently for the next test as well as ideas about what to study at the end of the year for their final exams.

The feedback that I received from students about this approach to documenting learning after a semester was very positive. I gave them a survey at the end of the term and asked students to “Describe what you found most helpful in this course.” Students responded with answers like:, “I found that your teaching style in the aftermath of an exam, writing down how we can improve, greatly increase my awareness” and “I liked going over my unit exams to see how I did, and write notes to myself about what I need to pay extra attention on.” It is clear to me that taking the time to have a student document “the why” of their performance on any test is valuable to student learning. Providing these questions as a framework as a starting point is clearly important. Having students articulate why they did not perform well is a great starting point for them to see that they need help on test writing, they need to improve in their studying or need to be more aware of making silly mistakes. When it comes to taking a test, the devil is in the details and students need to be aware of that. Documentation helps to make this visible for students.

References

Jaruszewicz, C. (2006). Opening windows on teaching and learning: Transformative and emancipatory learning precipitated by experimenting with visual documentation of student learning. Educational Action Research, 14(3), 357-375.

Turner, T. and Wilson, D. G. (2010). Reflections on documentation: a discussion with thought leaders from Reggio Emilia. Theory Into Practice, 49(1) 5-13.

Bringing Reggio Emilia Inspired Education to a High School science classroom- setting the context

Teaching within the secondary context it becomes apparent that there are a number of opportunities for teachers who are looking to bring about the philosophy of Reggio Emilia and all that it embodies. Primarily the aspect of the philosophy that I am using to inspire my practice is that of documentation. My hope is that through this blog I will document my own experience and how it has changed my approach in the classroom.

To begin, I feel that it is important to set the context with which I am working to provide some insight of the struggles I have encountered. Currently I am working within a secondary school located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The students are from a relatively high socio-economic standing. There is ample access to technology and there is a wealth of resources for students. The school has a lab science lab that can accommodate 80 students at a time. As well there is a provincial park that is within walking distance of the school and provides a great amount of potential.

Teaching in high school science in Alberta involves a great amount of accountability. Standardized testing is the norm in terms of evaluation. Students who are completing their last year of their high school education will find that their final grade is determined in large by multiple choice exams. One of which, their final exam, is a provincially administered test worth 50% of their final grade. Teaching to the test is not uncommon and students expect that school is all about preparation for those exams. Learning is reduced to a final grade in high school and learning opportunities are only valued if they are marked and are part of the grade. Test preparation dominates our understanding of learning and how to evaluate it.

How does Reggio Emilia fit into such an understanding of teaching and learning? We have embarked on a journey where we are hoping to explore the use of documentation as well ideas that gain their inspiration from the “Project Zero-Making Learning Visible” out of Harvard. What does documentation look like for this situation?

Throughout this semester I have been trying to bring the Reggio philosophy to my secondary science classroom. The intention of this series of blogs will be document the ideas that I have implemented as well as talk about the ups and downs associated with these attempts. Good reading.

Lateral Power to Lateral Education, Enter Reggio Emilia

Jeremy Rifkin has planted a seed, an idea, which he has been fleshing out for a very long time. I have been wrestling with his question and have been preoccupied with thinking about its importance. He poses the question of how we as a society can move beyond our current carbon dependant era. He outlines the fact that our society today is built upon a resource that is dug up out of the ground. He identifies the true currency of our modern economy as that of photosynthesis. Using history and the development of the human experience, through tribal relations to the modern first and second industrial revolutions which have been built on the convergence of new energy regimes with emerging communication technologies, Rifkin sets the stage for a new human experience. This new experience is where biosphere conscience guides our decision making and is realized though the convergence of the relatively recent ecofriendly energy regimes and the development of global communication technologies.

Being an educator with the knowledge that the lessons I teach today will be preparing a generation of individuals to face a reality which we the vast majority of the population cannot picture is a daunting task. It is easy to continue with the approaches and understanding that has been developed over the past 400 years through the Enlightment. It is easy to continue with this factory based approach to education where the autonomy of the educational experience is the norm and problems can be reduced to a single solution. It is easy to accept that knowledge is kept in one location, with the keeper of the keys, the leader of the lesson, the teacher at the front. These individuals will let me know if I have made a mistake. They will inform me of the right answer that I need to put on the test. We are completely familiar with the industrious nature of education and continue to prepare students for this future experience. We are called to recognize that this is not going to be the reality of our student's future. Rifkin provides a picture of what this new reality will be through his description of the Third Industrial Revolution.

Rifkin highlights the foundation of this new future as an extension of the empathic bond from the nation state to that of the entire globe. The far reaching nature of globalization has brought the human experience of individuals around the world into each other's living room. There is recognition on the part of the net generation that we can no longer sustain the carbon based dependence for survival as a species both due to the far reaching implications to our fragile coats of varnish on the globe (Bryson, 2004, p. 255), the biosphere, and the mere fact that there is a limited supply. A supply that some predict will be gone by the end of this century. There is a sense of tremendous urgency that we bring about this change and our future citizens of the planet are beginning to sense it.

How must our approach to education change to properly prepare our students for this future? Rifkin devotes an entire chapter to this idea of education and its importance for the preparation of future generations to understand, embrace and essentially save the human species. He highlights the fact that educators need to create experiences that uncover the knowledge that is distributed throughout the class. He recognizes that "[i]f knowledge is something that exists between people and comes out of their shared experiences, then the way our educational process is set up [top-down and autonomous] is inimical to deep learning" (Rifkin, 2011, p. 246). This is echoed by Starratt, 2005 in his essay which examines the moral character of learning and teaching and the related implications for educational leaders. He indicates that a "virtuous approach to learning, [is] an approach that seeks the good inherent in the dialogue between the learner and the worlds he or she is studying" (p. 399). Creating a dialogue that accomplishes this level of authentic learning experience, I feel is embodied in the Reggio Emilia philosophy.

In his opening speech at the world exhibition on the Wonder of learning in Denver Colorado in October of 2008, Harold Gothson, Senior Consultant for Reggio Emilia Institute from Stockholm, Sweden,
highlighted the importance of the Reggio Emilia approach to education and it's contribution to critical questions of our time including: issues of power and empowerment, issues of dominance and participation, issues of hope rejecting despair, issues of us as glocals – thinking global and acting local, issues of schools as a place for democratic meetings, and the issue of the teacher as a community worker and finally the issue of children as true members of citizenship. Reggio Emilia is grounded in 10 principals that achieve all which I feel Rifkin is looking for to ensure the proper preparation of students for the future. Fraser and Gestwick (2002) highlight the principles at the heart of the approach to learning including: the image of the child (competent, strong, inventive, and full of ideas); environment as teacher (designing an environment that facilitates learning); relationships (with the environment, the people in that environment, and its involvement in the co-construction of knowledge); collaboration (amoung teachers, children and teachers, children and parents, children and children and the larger community); documentation (a verbal and visual trace of the experiences and work and opportunities to revisit, reflect and interpret); progettazione (making flexible plans for the further investigation of ideas and devising a way to carry them out); provocation (listening closely to children and devising a means for provoking further action and thought); one hundred languages of children (making symbolic representations of ideas and doing so through a number of different media; and transparency ( using light as a symbol of the openness to ideas and theories from other parts of the world) ( p. 11). The fact that Reggio Emilia approach for learning was established in a post war time with the ideal that education at the earliest level was the most important way to change a society, I feel that it lends itself to the future that is embodied by the Third Industrial Revolution and thus can see it as a key component in ensuring the our future.

It is my hope that visionaries that have a voice on the world stage would bring forward the ideas embodied in the Reggio philosophy to the forefront for it is these types of ideas that will strengthen us.

References

Bryson, B. (2004). A Short History of Nearly Everything. Anchor Canada.
Fraser, S., & Gestwick,i C. (2002). Authentic childhood: Exploring Reggio Emilia in the classroom. Albany, NY: Delmar- Thomson Learning.
Rifkin, J. (2011). The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Starratt, R. J. (2005). Cultivating the moral character of learning and teaching: a neglected dimension of educational leadership. School and Leadership Management, 25(4), 399-411.

Effective Professional Development

There is no question of the importance of professional development and its impact on teacher and student learning. The following is a presentation that I made with two colleagues on it's implications, the characteristics of effective professional development and three types: PLCs, peer coaching and action research.

Effective Professional Development for Teaching and Learning on Prezi