Earning or Learning?

Just over a week ago, we distributed first term report cards to students. In the days that led up to this, many of the comments I overheard students say reminded me of the question, "Is the focus on earning or learning?"

Here are a few examples of students comments:

"I have to get the assignment done. I need the marks so I pass the term!"

"I'm already getting an ok mark in that class. I need to spend time studying for the test in the (other) class so I can raise my mark for the report card."

"It's marks cut-off time. I have to finish it before the cut-off otherwise it'll be too late and won't be counted towards my report card mark."

"Whatever...I totally don't know what I'm doing in that class. I'm failing anyways. What's the point in doing the assignment?"

"Seriously, why does every teacher have to give us a test right before marks cut-off? Couldn't some of them wait until next week? I need to keep my grades up and this is stressing me out!"


When I hear comments such as these, a number of things come to mind about these kids.

Their motivation to do the work and study for tests is marks and grades.

Not even the threat of a low mark/grade is enough to motivate some students.

Our obsession with marks and inflexibility about due dates is causing stress for some students.

Sadly, these kids seem more interested and concerned about earning marks than learning.
Is their focus on marks something they have arrived at independently or have we, as educators placed such a high value on marks that we have coached them into this thinking this way?

I think back to the beginning of my career, full of energy but very inexperienced. I remember wanting my students to believe that every class period is important. So, I attached marks to almost everything my students did. This would teach them to come to class and hand in all their work...so I thought! By the end of a term/year my marks book was bursting with entries. Of course, I figured the mark I would assign each student would have to be valid. I'd have so many entries as evidence to back it up.

But what I started to notice is that my students were asking lots of questions about their marks, how to gain more and how much an assignment/test would be worth. Fewer and fewer of my students'  questions related to their learning. Rather than motivating my struggling learners, many were getting overwhelmed and turned off by a lack of success. They were disengaging, withdrawing and some were avoiding class. The impact on the higher achieving students was no better. They were becoming so consumed with point gathering that they were afraid to make mistakes and they were no longer asking deep questions. The constant pressure of meeting deadlines and having their work judged was contributing to leading to anxiety and in some cases caused them to cheat!

As I look back, I realize I was really missing the point.

I should have placed much greater emphasis on formative assessment.

I should have provided greater opportunity for students to make mistakes without punishing them in the gradebook.

I should have provided much more descriptive feedback that would point out to students what and how to improve.

I should have been more flexible with my arbitrarily decided due dates.

When determining grades, I should have exercised my professional judgment when looking at the data I had collected on each student. Data should be nothing more than a guide.



So now think about the students in your class..."Is their focus on earning or learning?"

Leading Learning from Within

A few days have now passed since the Association of Delta School Administrators (ADSA) Annual Conference so it's time for some reflecting. As an organizing committee we have long since heard from our colleagues that they value the networking component to our conference, desire for more opportunities to talk about what is going on in their respective schools, share ideas and learn with each other. From these comments evolved our question of inquiry, "Will a focussed effort on collaborative inquiry around administrators' interests and unique capabilities accelerate leadership performance and commitment to professional development?"

In an effort to follow our inquiry, this year we opted for a new conference model, one without a keynote, without a 'guru', without any 'sit and get' presentations. This year, there would be no chance that an external expert would come in and push his or her ideas on us without being aware of our context. Instead, we asked our colleagues to volunteer to facilitate conversations on topics they are passionate about. We knew we were taking a bit of a risk. What if our colleagues didn't volunteer to lead sessions? What if it turned out that we were less connected with each other because we weren't all sitting in the same room listening to the same presenter?

Well, taking the risk paid off! The theme of the conference could very well have been 'Leading Learning from Within'! We offered a total of nine sessions, with three sessions running concurrently at any one time. In fact, because almost 1/3 of our ADSA colleagues volunteered to lead conversations, we actually chose to host only the most popular sessions. Session topics included Demystifying Human Resources, Student and Educator Blogging, Empowering Students Through Leadership, Easy to Use Technologies that can Change Education, Supporting Teacher Inquiry, Relationship-Based Mentoring, Creating a Culture for Inquiry-Based Learning, Technology to Help Us With our Jobs and Assessment for Learning. 

Conversations were rich and engaging because they were led from within. Colleagues shared their experiences, knowledge, successes and failures. It was a great chance to ask questions, benefit from each others' learning and share strategies for overcoming challenges.  As you can tell by the google docs from some of the sessions, colleagues were very much engaged in sharing and building a collection of ideas and resources.  New connections  were established and previous connections between colleagues were strengthened, largely because people had the opportunity to discuss topics they are interested in and passionate about. The tone to the conference was comfortable, friendly and supportive. People felt safe in putting their ideas, challenges and mistakes forward because they knew that others were there to help! View a short clip of conference reflections from colleagues.

Our experience is another encouraging step toward creating a collaborative culture amongst ourselves, where we go beyond sharing to truly collaborating on projects with each other. As excited as I am about the steps we took at the conference, I'm also enthused about Delta School Disrict's commitment to collaboration and learning through inquiry. With teacher collaboration time built into the schedules of many schools, Coordinators of Inquiry heading up teacher-directed inquiries and the sharing of stories and ideas taking place through the 180 Days of Learning Blog and the new Delta Learns Portal, I feel we are in an exciting time as we build a culture of collaboration throughout the district.

First WHY, then WHAT!

I am currently reading Simon Sinek's (@simonsinek) book, 'Start with Why - How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action'. In it, he stresses 'that people don't buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.' This has got me thinking a lot about how this applies to teachers, students and how students don't buy WHAT teachers do, they buy WHY they do it.




Consider Sinek's ideas in the classroom. Telling students WHAT to do (or even HOW to do it) isn't enough on its own to generate long term motivation. Instead, teachers who communicate WHY...the values and beliefs inherent in WHAT they are asking students to do are more likely to inspire long term action on the part of their students.

"When we communicate from the outside (WHAT) in, when we communicate WHAT we do first, yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information, like facts and features, but it does not drive behaviour. But when we communicate from the inside (WHY) out, we're talking directly to the part of the brain that controls decision-making, and our language part of the brain allows us to rationalize those decisions."  Sinek

As educators we must be mindful of this. We communicate to students a lot about WHAT challenges will look like and HOW they can go about accomplishing them. The WHAT involved in any particular challenge may interest and engage a certain group of students but it likely won't interest all students and definitely won't contribute to any lasting engagement. If our goal is to engage students in meaningful tasks, we must communicate the WHY! For learners, understanding the WHY is what creates the meaning in a task.

"We're drawn to leaders and organizations that are good at communicating what they believe. Their ability to make us feel special, safe and not alone is part of what gives them the ability to inspire us. Those whom we consider great leaders all have an ability to draw us close and to command our loyalty."  Sinek

In the classroom, we are the leaders! Our ability to consistently motivate, inspire and convince students to do what is asked of them comes in large part from whether we communicate the reason(s) WHY we do WHAT we do! Our WHY'S should include explanations such as 'caring about students', 'wanting what is best for them in the present and their futures' and 'doing what is in their best interest'! Of course, these are not words we can say just once and expect they will believe. We must remind them of our beliefs and convince them through our actions! It is through our consistent words and actions that we tap into our students' emotions and build the loyalty and trust we all hope to create with our students. Once we've established our students' trust and loyalty, they will go beyond our expectations and agree to challenges even when they know they may not be to their liking.

Each of us can recall stories of specific students who truly seemed to work for us, regardless of their ability, the level of challenge or their fondness for a task. They are great examples of students who obviously bought into WHY we do WHAT we do! Through consistently supportive words and actions we demonstrate how much we care about our students. Once we establish trust and loyalty with them, they appear even better, more committed students. They consistently complete tasks when assigned to them, follow through on instructions and embrace challenges even when they know it will require considerable effort. Rather than questioning the logic behind completing such difficult challenges, their rational brains generate reasons to justify WHY they should embrace these challenges.

People may refer to all this as building rapport while others may call it fostering relationships. Most importantly, they both rely on a foundation of trust and loyalty that has been established by teachers who emphasize WHY before WHAT!

So the next time you catch yourself describing to students WHAT they are about to do, I urge you pause and consider whether you have emphasized WHY they should do it!

Here is clip of Sinek's TEDx Talk.

Fruitful Reflections on Learning

Earlier this week, I ventured to a local blueberry farm to pick some blueberries. What a great day to have been outside. It wasn't easy picking today as the farmer sent us out to a section of the field that had obviously already been picked over. Nonetheless, it offered me lots of time for reflection.

Perseverance
In my previous post I also wrote about perseverance. Let me tell you, picking blueberries definitely tested my perseverance. The berries were harder to find than usual and the plants were short, which meant for lots of crouching and kneeling. My knees ached, my shoulders were sore and there were a number of times where I felt like calling it a day and simply buying some ready-picked berries from the stand. But I had committed to picking a boxful and I wasn't going to leave until I had finished. Now, what is the connection to education? When students arrive at reasonable and manageable challenges, we must demand they persevere to the point of completion. On the other hand, we must not criticize their lack of perseverance when they lack the skills and ability necessary to complete certain challenges.

Uniqueness

I observed blueberries of all different colours. sizes, shapes and other unique characteristics. Some were very ripe and barely required my helping in falling off the bush. Others were nowhere near ripe and even with a gentle tug resisted falling off the bush. Again, how does this relate to education you ask? Each of our students is unique in his or her own special way. And much like berries, each of them matures and develops at his or her own pace. As educators, it is our responsibility to judge each student's development and gently pull them on to new challenges when the time is right.

Look Beyond the Obvious
Initially, it was discouraging not to find berries very easily. But I quickly learned that when I took a moment to look under some branches and peel back some leaves that there were many ripe berries to be found. I believe this is another important lesson for each of us who works with children. Rather than making judgments and assumptions about children based on what we see them demonstrate on the surface, it's important that we make the effort to get to know our students, find out who is truly behind the eyes we see on a daily basis and recognize each student's individual abilities and potential.

Assessment Confessions & Apologies

Let me begin by making some confessions. When I started my teaching career 16 years ago as a Science teacher, I wanted students to believe that every class was important. So what I did on most days was assign work that counted for marks. I marked a lot of assignments, I entered a lot of numbers into spreadsheets and I frequently updated students with their marks. I sometimes assigned zeros when students failed to submit work and I sometimes assigned late penalties when students submitted work late.  This system seemed to work for a good majority of my students. My most motivated students appeared diligent about completing high-level work and most others seemed to comply to and complete a reasonable amount and level of work. Unfortunately, at least one group of students for whom this approach didn't seem to work for was my struggling learners...those who often appeared to lag behind. The other question that I now realize I should have asked is 'what was motivating my students to learn?'

Fast forward to just over a week ago and I had the opportunity to participate in an online panel discussion using Google+ and share my perspective on the 'no zeros' policy that has recently caught the attention of educators and the general public. While I don't consider myself to be an 'expert' on this topic, the chance to join the panel of Tom Schimmer (@tomschimmer), Tom Hierck (@UMAKADIFF), Joe Bower (@joebower) and Lorelie Lenaour (@LLeanaour) and respond to questions from a PLC organized by Rose Pillay (@rosepillay1) proved to be an excellent learning experience for me. I'd like to thank Rose for inviting me to participate and for challenging me to further clarify my thoughts and ideas on this high profile subject.

In the days following our discussion I have had the opportunity to reflect on my previous assessment and grading practices. I now feel I owe many of my former students some apologies.

I apologize if...

I assigned you a 'zero' when you failed to submit work.
A 'zero' signifies that you knew 'nothing' about the topic in question. If it really was the case that you knew 'nothing' about a given topic after I worked with you, then the person who should have received the 'zero' is me. After all, it was my job to help you learn. Each time you failed to fully complete work on time, I should have asked you 'why?' instead of assuming you didn't care, couldn't be bothered or forgot.

I discouraged you from learning or provided you an excuse not to learn.

If you had truly tried, struggled to understand a concept and consequently failed to submit work, receiving a zero would have been very discouraging. Instead of incenting you to continue trying, I likely demotivated you by signalling to you that you were unable to learn 'on time'. And at some point, when your discouragement contributed to your disengagement, I provided you the ultimate excuse not to continue learning. You probably told your friends and parents that there was no point in completing the work because I had already assigned you a '0'. I should have provided more flexible timelines and more opportunities for you to demonstrate that you could meet the learning outcomes.

If I didn't make learning mandatory for all of you, all the time.

When I witnessed you failing to complete work, I shouldn't have allowed you to walk away without insisting that you learn. Whether it meant spent additional time during class or outside of class, I should have sat with you, supported you and demanded that you learn.

I emphasized point-gathering rather than learning.
So many of the tasks I assigned you had marks attached to them. Each time I told you how many marks each assignment was out of and explained how to achieve those marks, I shifted the emphasis to point-gathering, not learning. In doing so, I used grades as a motivational tool to encourage you to complete work and not to communicate your progress towards learning outcomes as I should have. In some cases I may have extinguished your genuine passion and inspiration for learning and turned you into a desperate and competitive point accumulator. Instead of spending so much time marking your work with numbers, I should have spent the time providing descriptive feedback so that you would have known what and how to improve. This would have shifted our conversations towards 'learning'.

I assigned you an inaccurate grade.

Each 'zero' I assigned for work you didn't submit, was invalid, inaccurate and contributed to a distorted representation of what you actually knew. The zeros may have said more about your work habits and less about your ability to meet some of the learning outcomes. Needless to say, the grade I assigned you was likely a confusing combination that reflected your work habits and your ability to meet the learning outcomes. 

I made you feel like you were being judged and ranked.
Far too often and far too quickly I assigned numbers to your work. I know you compared numbers with your classmates and determined where your mark ranked within the class. For some of you, achieving a  high rank in the class became your motivation (which it shouldn't have) and for others, knowing you consistently ranked towards the lower portion of the class must have been extremely discouraging. Simply put, school should not be about surviving punitive grading practices. It should be about LEARNING!

What motivates your students?

Recently, a short conversation with a Grade 12 student reminded me of the role of intrinsic motivation in learning.

Hers's how our conversation went:

Student: How was your day today Mr. Akune?
Me: Very good thanks. How about yours?
Student: Great! I went to Ms. Lewis' French 11 class during my study block today!
Me: French 11? During your study block?
Student: Yes, I enjoy learning French and Ms. Lewis is super cool.  I wanted to go. It was my choice! It's feels way different than when you 'have' to go to a class because someone else tells you to.
Me: That's pretty neat that you would do that during your study block. (Jokingly) Did Ms. Lewis assign you homework also?
Student: Actually she did! I don't 'have' to do it but I want to anyways. Being there made me realize how much I've learned in the past year. It's good practice and will help me improve.
Me: Really?
Student: Yeah, I like it. You know, I enjoy doing the work when I get to choose what I'm learning instead of being told what to learn. (Laughing) It's similar to cleaning my room. When my mother tells me to clean it I'm not so happy to do so, but when I decide on my own, I'm perfectly fine doing it.

In one of his webinars, author Daniel Pink (@Danielpink) described three factors that he believes are critical to enduring human motivation in the workplace. Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

Autonomy
Pink's ideas can be applied to student learning as well. For starters, he suggests that the key to engagement is providing autonomy over task, time, team and technique. This can sound challenging to offer within the structured curricula and schedules that seem to control the school day. So, what can we do?

• Expose students to real-world challenges/problems and offer them the opportunity to solve the problem(s) they are most passionate about. Even within structured curricula, teach students to assess their own learning and allow them to choose the areas they wish to expand, deepen or strengthen their learning in.

• Embrace the fact that no two students are alike and different students require different amounts of time to master their learning of different topics. As educators, this means constantly assessing student learning, building in flexible timelines and adjusting the pace and course of instruction to best meet the needs of individual students.

• Encourage students to help each other. Be flexible and consider student input when grouping students together. Students are more likely to be engaged when they choose and are compatible with the people they are working with.

• Differentiate! Allow students to choose how they demonstrate their learning. Don't force students to use a certain technique and consequently limit their ability to fully demonstrate their learning.

Mastery

Pink says the "single biggest motivator for people is making progress in meaningful work." The emphasis needs to shift from point gathering to learning! In classes characterized by an 'if you do...then you will receive...' environment, marks are used as a carrot.  This kind of environment may ensure the completion of simple, routine tasks, but will not stimulate the creative, deep thinking we wish to see from our students. Students may work to gather points but only until the point at which they have gathered enough.  Marks provide only temporary and extrinsic motivation.

On the other hand, feedback lets students know they are making progress and how they can continue to improve their learning. Feedback capitalizes on people's "inherent desire to get better at stuff."  Since students by nature want to get better, when we show them how they can improve, why wouldn't they try? When offered in the absence of a mark, feedback evokes the intrinsic motivation necessary to sustain prolonged learning.

Purpose
Pink suggests we ask the question, "Why are they doing the work?" Students must see a purpose, a 'real' reason for learning, a reason far superior to 'point gathering'. When students seek solutions to real-world problems, promote self-chosen initiatives and direct their own inquiries, intrinsic motivation drives their commitment.

So ask yourself...

What is your goal for your students?
Engagement or compliance?

What motivates your students? 
Learning or marks?