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8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
1/30
Assessing reflective
writing: A case study
Barry Stierer (CLT), Alison
Atkinson & Avril Loveless
(School of Education)
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
2/30
The programme
An accelerated two-year u/g programme
leading to qualified teacher status (QTS)
The programmeprovides an opportunity for mature students, possessing
relevant, advanced qualifications and experience, to
develop the personal and professional qualities required
to qualify as graduate teachers in shortage secondarysubject areas. The course covers the 11-18 age range
and leads to an honours degree with a professional
teaching qualification.
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
3/30
The students
Mature learners with considerable work
experience and a range of non-traditional
educational qualifications Engaged in an intensive transition to a
new professional identity that of
secondary school teachers in shortage
subjects (Design & Technology, IT, Maths,
Science)
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
4/30
The module
An Education Studies module, taken in
the first semester of Year 1, but described
as Level 2 The only Education element of Year 1
(everything else is subject-based)
The aim of the module is
to support the development of students professional
values through an informed and critical awareness of
current issues in learning to teach
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
5/30
The assignment
A reflective essay on the theme:
How might my experiences as a learnerinform my professional development as a
teacher in the current context of formal
education? (2000 words)
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
6/30
Assessment criteria for the
assignmentThe work should provide evidence that you have:
critically reflected on personal experience of
learning and the relationship with theories of
learning
critically discussed the identity and roles of the
teacher in the context of formal education
evaluated strategies, resources and networksused to inform critical discussion
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
7/30
The problem
Tutors troubled by:
the great difficulty students appeared to
have in (a) understanding the idea ofreflection and (b) doing reflection in their
writing
the great difficulty tutors had in assessing
the quality of students reflection some
of which was highly personal/revealing
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
8/30
My role
Alison (the module tutor) approached
Barry for advice in his role as an
Academic Developer
Barry has a long-standing interest in the
growing use of personal forms of student
writing in academic contexts
We agreed to treat The Problem as a
research opportunity
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
9/30
The data
Various course documents
Module Tutors feedback sheets andgrades for all 25 students assignments
Discussions with tutor and moduledesigner
For6 students in 2004-05 cohort (of 25):
Their assignments, as submitted forassessment
1-hour interviews with each student (tapedand transcribed)
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
10/30
Emerging themes
1. Ambiguities and inconsistencies in the
design of the module, and in the setting of
the assignment
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
11/30
What precisely is the function of this
module?
Is it to help in the transition from
lay person to teacher (overt purpose),
or from non-student to student?
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
12/30
What precisely is the concept of
reflection and reflective practice that
underpins the module and the
assignment?
Disparities between course documents,
tutor accounts and tutor feedback on
assignments
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
13/30
What precisely is the purpose of the
assignment?
Disparities between course documents
and tutor accounts
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
14/30
Why were students expected to write
autobiographically?
Was this the reflective element?
Or was this merely the material upon
which they were expected to reflect? High marks for personal revelation?
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
15/30
How precisely will students analyses of
their experiences as learners prepare
them to be reflective practitioners when
they begin teaching in the classroom?
Is there an implicit assumption that writing
about experience and analysing
experience are the same?
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
16/30
Emerging themes
2. Students struggles with the assignment
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
17/30
Students struggles with the
assignment The essay was their first piece of
assessed writing on the programme.
Few of them had previous experience ofwriting in a personal style within
academic contexts, or of writing about
educational ideas, or in some cases of
writing essays of any kind (most haveScience/Technology backgrounds)
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
18/30
Students struggles with the
assignment No separate provision of induction to HE, or
study skills support for this group of students,
since they are deemed to be Level 2
No specific attention to writing within themodule though tutor offered to comment on
drafts
A few students had previous experiences that
enabled them to recognise the assignment task
otherwise they were pretty bewildered
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
19/30
Students struggles with the
assignment Writing the assignment was variously
described as agony, nightmare, awful,
hated it
Writing about education a distraction
from the job of becoming a teacher?
Were particularly perplexed (and often
irritated) by the terms reflection,
reflective practice and reflective essay.
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
20/30
Students struggles with the
assignment
They offered a wide range of definitions of
these terms often drawn from
discussions with family members or fellow
students
Several claimed to have no idea what the
terms meant even after successfully
completing the task, and despite havingreceived high grades on the assignment
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
21/30
Students struggles with the
assignment
Analysis of their assignments suggests
that their writing was informed by a
number of different models of reflection,
ranging from linking theory and practice
to personal confession
Found it especially difficult to make links
between their previous learning and theirfuture development as teachers
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
22/30
Emerging themes
3. Students accounts of the actual process
of writing their assignments
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
23/30
Students were much more inclined to seek
help from, and show drafts to, their
spouses, children and fellow students,
than from the module tutor, despite the
offer of feedback on drafts.
Few students felt that they had learned
anything from the writing process itself.
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
24/30
The ambiguities and inconsistencies in the
design of the module and in the setting of
the assignment came to be experienced
by students aspersonal inadequacy
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
25/30
Emerging themes
4. Where and how do students learn to
do reflection?
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
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From tutor feedback
You have a naturally reflective approach to
learning and have used this to very good
effect.
Your opening comments suggest that you are
not a naturally reflective thinker and this has
probably made this assignment a difficult one
for you, which is reflected in the final grade.
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
27/30
From tutor feedback
Although you say you do not like discussing yourself(and this is fine so long as you know yourself) what
you demonstrate within this assignment is the ability
to reflect on your learning and on your schoolenvironment. You make some very pertinentcomments about your learning experiences
particularly in terms of the teaching you received.You have also reflected on the learning of another
group of pupils with whom you had little in commonbut for whose schooling you clearly have someaffinity.
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
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From tutor feedback
You have not really made explicit use of any of
the reflective tools we considered within the
module such as rich picture analysis, the
learning styles inventory etc. This would have
helped you to more effectively address the
assignment criteria.
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
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From interview with student
[speaking about experience as a volunteer on ayouth development programme]
[The programme] does it [reflection] as well.The purpose is not to provide kindergartens, it isto provide development for really, for the youngpeople, but also for the staff that go on it. Thatswhen they take you out of your comfort zone.
But then you talk about it afterwards, they do alot of reflection and after every activity you hadto discuss what you had done and how was itfor you?
8/9/2019 Stierer Atkinson Loveless July 15 L&T Conf Session
30/30
From interview with student
I went back to the first one or two [diary
entries] that I had done and looked at
them and talked to my wife about it and
she went This isnt reflective. You are not
putting down how you are feeling about it.
You are not putting down what did you
think about you had done. And I dontknow if thats right. But thats what she
seemed to think it was.