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Overview of presentationWhy raising achievement is important
Why investing in teachers is the answer
Why formative assessment should be the focus
Why teacher learning communities should be the mechanism
How we can put this into practice
Why, what & how?
Raising achievement mattersFor individuals Increased lifetime salary Improved healthLonger life
For societyLower criminal justice costsLower health-care costs Increased economic growth
Why?
Where’s the solution?Structure Smaller schools/larger schools Middle schools/getting rid of middle schools
Alignment Curriculum reform Textbook replacement
Governance Specialist schools Academies
Technology Computers Interactive white-boards
Why?
School effectivenessThree generations of school effectiveness researchRaw results approaches
Different schools get different results Conclusion: Schools make a difference
Demographic-based approaches Demographic factors account for most of the variation Conclusion: Schools don’t make a difference
Value-added approaches School-level differences in value-added are relatively small Classroom-level differences in value-added are large Conclusion: An effective school is a school full of effective classrooms
Why?
It’s the classroomVariability at the classroom level is up to 4 times that at school level
It’s not class size
It’s not the between-class grouping strategy
It’s not the within-class grouping strategy
It’s the teacher
Why?
Teacher qualityA labour force issue with 2 solutionsReplace existing teachers with better ones?
No evidence that more pay brings in better teachers No evidence that there are better teachers out there deterred by
burdensome certification requirements Improve the effectiveness of existing teachers
The “love the one you’re with” strategy It can be done We know how to do it, but at scale? Quickly? Sustainably?
Why?
Cost/effect comparisonsIntervention Extra months of
learning per yearCost/yr
Class-size reduction (by 30%) 4 £20k
Increase teacher content knowledge from weak to strong
2 ?
Formative assessment/Assessment for learning
8 £2k
Why?
The research evidenceSeveral major reviews of the researchNatriello (1987)Crooks (1988)Kluger & DeNisi (1996)Black & Wiliam (1998)Nyquist (2003)
All find consistent, substantial effects
Why?
Unpacking formative assessmentKey processesEstablishing where the learners are in their learningEstablishing where they are goingWorking out how to get there
ParticipantsTeachersPeersLearners
What?
Aspects of formative assessment
Where the learner is going
Where the learner is How to get there
TeacherClarify and share
learning intentions
Engineering effective discussions, tasks and
activities that elicit evidence of learning
Providing feedback that moves learners
forward
PeerUnderstand and share learning
intentions
Activating students as learningresources for one another
LearnerUnderstand
learning intentionsActivating students as owners
of their own learning
Five “key strategies”…Clarifying, understanding, and sharing learning intentionscurriculum philosophy
Engineering effective classroom discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of learningclassroom discourse, interactive whole-class teaching
Providing feedback that moves learners forward feedback
Activating students as learning resources for one another collaborative learning, reciprocal teaching, peer-assessment
Activating students as owners of their own learningmetacognition, motivation, interest, attribution, self-assessment
(Wiliam & Thompson, 2007)
…and one big ideaUse evidence about learning to adapt teaching and learning to meet student needs
What?
Keeping Learning on Track (KLT)A pilot guides a plane or boat toward its destination by taking constant readings and making careful adjustments in response to wind, currents, weather, etc.
A KLT teacher does the same:Plans a carefully chosen route ahead of time (in essence building the track)Takes readings along the way Changes course as conditions dictate
What?
Implementing FA/AfL requires changing teacher habitsTeachers “know” most of this already
So the problem is not a lack of knowledge
It’s a lack of understanding what it means to do FA/AfL
That’s why telling teachers what to do doesn’t work
Experience alone is not enough—if it were, then the most experienced teachers would be the best teachers—we know that’s not true (Hanushek, 2005; Day, 2006)
People need to reflect on their experiences in systematic ways that build their accessible knowledge base, learn from mistakes, etc. (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999) How?
A model for teacher learningContent, then process
Content (what we want teachers to change)Evidence Ideas (strategies and techniques)
Process (how to go about change)ChoiceFlexibilitySmall stepsAccountabilitySupport How?
Strategies and techniquesDistinction between strategies and techniquesStrategies define the territory of AfL (no brainers)Teachers are responsible for choice of techniques
Allows for customization/ caters for local context Creates ownership Shares responsibility
Key requirements of techniquesembodiment of deep cognitive/affective principles relevance feasibilityacceptability
How?
Examples of techniquesClarifying learning intentions and success criteria“sharing exemplars”
Eliciting evidence“mini white-boards”
Providing feedback that moves learners forward“find it and fix it”
Activating students as owners of their learning“coloured cups”
Activating students as learning resources for one another“pre-flight checklist”
How?
Design and interventionOur design process
Teachers’ implementation process
cognitive/affectiveinsights
synergy/comprehensiveness
set ofcomponents
set ofcomponents
synergy/comprehensiveness
cognitive/affectiveinsights
Teacher learning takes timeTo put new knowledge to work, to make it meaningful and accessible when you need it, requires practice.A teacher doesn’t come at this as a blank slate. Not only do teachers have their current habits and ways of teaching—
they’ve lived inside the old culture of classrooms all their lives: every teacher started out as a student!
New knowledge doesn’t just have to get learned and practiced, it has to go up against long-established, familiar, comfortable ways of doing things that may not be as effective, but fit within everyone’s expectations of how a classroom should work.
It takes time and practice to undo old habits and become graceful at new ones. Thus… Professional development must be sustained over time
How?
That’s what teacher learning communities (TLCs) are for:
TLCs contradict teacher isolationTLCs reprofessionalize teaching by valuing teacher expertiseTLCs deprivatize teaching so that teachers’ strengths and struggles
become knownTLCs offer a steady source of support for struggling teachersThey grow expertise by providing a regular space, time, and structure
for that kind of systematic reflecting on practiceThey facilitate sharing of untapped expertise residing in individual
teachersThey build the collective knowledge base in a school
How?
King’s-Medway-Oxfordshire Formative Assessment Project“Polyexperiment” design24 teachers, each developing their practice in individual waysEach teacher chose which class to explore these ideas withEach teacher chose how to measure successDifferent outcome variables, so no possibility of standardized controlsSynthesis by standardized effect sizeImpact on student achievement0.3 standard deviations (i.e., about 8 months extra learning per year)Other small-scale replications (Hayes, 2003; Clymer 2007) find similar
effects
How?
How to set up a TLCPlan that the TLC will run for two years
Identify 8 to 10 interested colleaguesShould have similar assignments (e.g. early years, math/sci)
Secure institutional support for:Monthly meetings (2 hrs each, inside or outside school time)Time between meetings (2 hrs per month in school time)
Collaborative planning Peer observation
Any necessary waivers from school policies
How?
A ‘signature pedagogy’ for teacher learning?Every monthly TLC meeting should follows the same structure and sequence of activities
Activity 1: Introduction & Housekeeping (5 minutes)
Activity 2: How’s It Going (50 minutes)
Activity 3: New Learning about AfL (50 minutes)
Activity 4: Personal Action Planning (10 minutes)
Activity 5: Summary of Learning (5 minutes)
How?
The TLC leader’s roleTo ensure the TLC meets regularlyTo ensure all needed materials are at meetingsTo ensure that each meeting is focused on AfL To create and maintain a productive and non-judgmental tone during meetings To ensure that every participant shares with regard to their implementation of AfL To encourage teachers to provide their colleagues with constructive and thoughtful feedbackTo encourage teachers to think about and discuss the implementation of new AfL learning and skillsTo ensure that every teacher has an action plan to guide their next stepsBut not to be the AfL “expert”
How?
Peer observationRun to the agenda of the observed, not the observer
Observed teacher specifies focus of observation
Observe teacher specifies what counts as evidencee.g., teacher wants to increase wait-timeprovides observer with a stop-watch to log wait-times
How?
“Tight but loose”
Tight about Teacher choice Strategies “How’s it going?” & action planning Size of TLC
Loose about Timing and location of meetings Techniques New learning about AfL Make-up of TLC
… combines an obsessive adherence to central design principles (the “tight” part) with accommodations to the needs, resources, constraints, and particularities that occur in any school or district (the “loose” part), but only where these do not conflict with the theory of action of the intervention.
How?
Some reforms are too loose (e.g., the ‘Effective schools’ movement)
Others are too tight (e.g., Montessori Schools)
The “tight but loose” formulation
SummaryRaising achievement is important
Raising achievement requires improving teacher quality
Improving teacher quality requires teacher professional development
To be effective, teacher professional development must addressWhat teachers do in the classroomHow teachers change what they do in the classroom
AfL/FA + TLCsA point of (uniquely?) high leverageA “Trojan Horse” into wider issues of pedagogy, psychology, and curriculum
Why, what & how?