Assessment shift: Learning or Learning on time?

The classroom is a busy place for a teacher. In high schools, every block means roughly 30 more students, each bringing his/her own strengths, weaknesses, interests, personalities, etc to the class. We know that each student is unique, will learn in different ways and at different rates, but too often we make a generalization and refer to them as our 'English 9 class' or our 'Block G class'. Likewise, because we are faced with the organizational challenge of working with so many students we put expectations on our students that they will all learn at roughly the same pace. Too often, the unintended consequence is that we emphasize 'learning on time' instead of what we should emphasize...LEARNING!

This post focusses on a few assessment practices that educators can implement within a busy 'class' that will embrace each student's individuality and support...

• students learning at their own pace
• learning as an ongoing process
• students learning from their mistakes

Learning Logs

There is a lot for students to learn each class. Sometimes students grasp concepts immediately but most of the time the end of a class signifies a forced interruption to their learning process. When you consider students repeat this same process four times each day, you can start to understand why it's quite easy for students to forget precisely what they were working on when they were interrupted, what they've already mastered and what they need to continue practicing. 

Enter the learning log! Learning logs can exist in a variety of forms. What is important about a learning log is that a student writes down the specific learning targets for the class and self-assesses his/her own progress towards these targets at the end of each class period. The self-assessment could be as simple as a 'green light, amber light, red light system' where students assess themselves a green light if they've mastered a target to the extent that they could teach a peer, amber light if they are getting there but need some more practice and a red light if they need to stop, ask a question, then practice with some guidance from the teacher.

What is most important about a learning log is that it encourages students to track their own progress towards the mastery of learning targets.  Learning logs focus students' attention on their learning progression towards targets rather than simply trying to meet deadlines for completing work. Learning logs also offer students a way to go back in time and update their progress towards a target that they were previously unable to meet, even if the learning target came from a previous unit or term.  Learning logs also recognize that we should be encouraging our students to learn from their mistakes. Say a student uses teacher feedback to correct a process he/she was previously applying incorrectly to solve a certain type of problem.  Even if a student goes beyond the initial timeline for the class to demonstrate he/she has made an improvement, his/her progress is still valid and should be acknowledged.

Flexible Deadlines
Too often, our practices indicate to our students that we are more interested in the timeliness of their learning and less about the depth and quality of their learning.  Inflexible due dates, late penalties and zeros for work not yet completed all send the message to students that as much as we value learning, we place greater value on the fact that they learn certain things by a certain date. These practices penalize the slower learner and force him/her to hastily complete work rather than learn for the sake of understanding. If we truly want to encourage deep learning, we must allow students the necessary time to do so and our assessment practices must reflect this belief.

Here is where the flexible deadlines come in! Does it really matter whether a student learns to solve an algebraic equation or write a chemical formula today instead of next week or next month? Ultimately, are we more interested in seeing students learn or learn on time? I'm not suggesting we should eliminate deadlines completely, but I do think we need to offer our students a little bit of flexibility and acknowledge that some students are going to require a little more time to master certain concepts. Furthermore, our assessment practices should reflect students' most recent improvements in learning.  Just as the new learning of a concept replaces the previous learning of the same concept, new assessments of a student's level of mastery of a concept should replace previous assessments of student's level of mastery of the same concept.

Redo's

Say a student, despite his efforts, struggles to master a concept by the time the class writes a major test. The student performs poorly, receives a low mark, but seeks the assistance of his teacher, who re-explains the concept so that the student understands. Days later, when the teacher checks with the student to assess his level of understanding, the teacher determines that the student now has a solid understanding of the concept. Shouldn't the student's mark on the test now reflect the teacher's most recent assessment? Or at the very least, doesn't the student at least deserve the opportunity to rewrite a similar portion of the test that he struggled with the first time? I would say so! After all, if we want students to accept our feedback, learn from mistakes and we acknowledge that our assessments should reflect students' most current learning, then allowing redo's is a logical step. I'm not suggesting that redo's become a free-for-all. I believe students need to earn their chance at a redo by creating and following through with a plan for improvement. It is ok for students to 'fail' at things but it is unacceptable for them to be 'failures'. By offering redo's we send the message to them that when they make mistakes they will have the opportunity to learn from and improve upon them.

Surviving or Thriving?

Consider the profile of a student who is 'surviving' school.

He/she...

• appears disinterested, disengaged and bored in class. 
• seems lazy and unmotivated     
• requires the push from the teacher in order to get going on anything in class. 
• appears to be going through the motions and just 'doing school', seemingly without purpose.         
• is content with simply 'passing' each course.

Why are some of our students just 'surviving'?

Unlike life outside of school, much of the learning in schools (high schools in particular) is organized in a manner that lends itself to learning in silos. Students attend separate classes for Math, Science, Social Studies, English, etc. Students are asked to learn course-specific concepts and skills independent of what they are being asked to learn in other courses. Of course, there are interdisciplinary connections between the different courses but we too often force students to create the connections on their own. As a teacher it is easy to focus on the course curriculum at the expense of pointing out to students how their learning connects across disciplines. Because we often fail to help students see how their learning fits into a bigger picture, students can feel as though they are being asked to learn decontextualized nuggets of information. And since the lives they live demand the application of interconnected skills and knowledge from various disciplines, they struggle to see the relevance of what they are learning at school.

Compare this to the profile of a student who is 'thriving' at school.

He/she...

• is highly motivated and passionate about learning new things and ask questions beyond the scope of the class.
• regularly talks about what is happening at school.
• takes initiative and explores new ideas. 

• has high expectations and works hard to achieve his/her goals.
• sees how his/her learning will lead to future plans

What can lead to more of our students 'thriving'?

Daniel Pink (@danielpink), author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us argues that three factors (autonomy, mastery & purpose) contribute to enduring motivation. The following are some quotes from one of his recent webinars.

• Autonomy: "the technology for engagement is self-direction"
• Mastery: "the single biggest motivator is when people are making progress in meaningful work"
• Purpose: "how & why are they doing the work?"

I believe we need to create more opportunities for 'big-picture' learning, where students explore big, important questions from a range of angles. Through self-driven inquiries, challenges and initiatives students should engage in authentic interdisciplinary learning opportunities that they are passionate about and can see are relevant to their present and future lives.

Consider how much different school might look and feel if we allowed greater opportunity for students to have input into and self-direct their own learning. What if, under the guidance of a teacher, students could...

• propose problems and challenges they wished to solve?
• propose initiatives they wished to accomplish in their school and community?
• share their learning and progress towards self-directed inquiries and initiatives with the school, community and the world using a variety of technologies?

An example of what this might look like is the Pathways program at Mount Abraham Union Middle/High School where students, through a personalized program, develop their own curriculum and become invested in inquiry.

My guess is that if we allow students greater opportunity to personalize their learning, they will be more motivated to learn and experience more fulfillment from their learning. I would hope this would contribute to fewer of our students surviving and greater number of them thriving!

What are students saying about Edcamp?

This is my third reflective post about Edcamp Delta. This time it's about the value of student voice and recognizing student input and perspectives when it comes to improving teaching and learning.

15 students from Delta Secondary, 2 students from other Lower Mainland high schools and a few recent high school graduates participated at Edcamp Delta. Although they comprised just under 15% of the participants, they had powerful voices and their contributions enriched the dialogue.

Alex (@alex_gaio) led a discussion about the use of Google Apps in Education. He and a group of other Delta Secondary students also facilitated a conversation about Focus Groups and Student Engagement. Antony (@AntonyTsui) facilitated a session called Are you assessing my REAL learning? Meanwhile, Mackenzie and Gloria (@gloriakhj) shared their perspectives in a panel discussion about successes and challenges in education.

Following Edcamp Delta, I was fortunate to speak with many of the student participants about their experience. Here are some of the comments they volunteered.

"The teachers listened to us. I feel like they cared about what I had to say."
"The adults made sure they included us in the conversations."
"We all felt like equals at Edcamp. The only time I felt like I was a student was when the adults specifically wanted to hear the perspective of a current student."
"I think the teachers learned a little bit about where we're coming from as kids. I also learned about some of the pressures that teachers are facing."
"At school we get taught. At Edcamp we got to participate."

As I reflect on these comments, I think about how different an Edcamp is compared to a traditional classroom.  In a traditional classroom, a hierarchy exists between the teacher and the student. The teacher is the 'expert' and the student is the 'learner'. The culture is such that the student is expected to learn from the teacher but not the other way around.

At an Edcamp, there is no hierarchy. People aren't cast in the role of 'teacher' or 'student', 'expert' or 'learner'. The expectation is that educators can learn from students equally as much as students can learn from the educators. In most instances, students and teachers learn together at an Edcamp.

The key difference at an Edcamp is that each participant approaches the event with a curiosity and desire to learn. Rather than asking students questions that the teacher already knows the answer to, at an Edcamp teachers are asking questions that they don't know all the answers to. So instead of the teacher quizzing students and dispensing information, at an Edcamp teachers are learners who seek the input, opinions and ideas of students.

Imagine how different the culture and tone of a typical classroom would be if teachers were regularly posing questions that they didn't already know the answers to. Imagine if students viewed their teachers as 'learners' rather than 'experts'. Imagine if students and teachers regularly learned together.

When it comes to education, adults tend to make most of the decisions for students. We do have more life experience, and yes, we have all gone through school. This cannot be ignored. But what also can't be ignored is that the world is changing and our students are living a different experience than we did.

If we truly hope to prepare our students for their current reality and their lives in the future, we MUST create opportunities for student voice. BC Student Voice, the BC Education Plan and Edcamp Delta  are a great start!

In 'Flow' at Edcamp

This is my second reflective post following my participation and involvement in planning for Edcamp Delta. Having now participated at two Edcamps (Edcamp Vancouver was my first), what has struck me is that on both occasions, I have been in 'flow' throughout the events.

For those of you less familiar with the concept of 'flow', Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi refers to it in his book 'the psychology of optimal experience'.  He summarizes the common characteristics of flow as:

• …a sense that one’s skills are adequate to cope with the challenges at hand, in a goal-directed, rule-bound action system that provides clear clues as to how well one is performing.
• Concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over to think about anything irrelevant, or to worry about problems.
• Self-consciousness disappears, and the sense of time becomes distorted.
• An activity that produces such experiences is so gratifying that people are willing to do it for its own sake, with little concern for what they will get out of it, even when it is difficult, or dangerous.

As learners, we are intrinsically motivated to seek conditions of flow. According to Csikszentmihalyi (see graph), “skills” and “challenges” are the two key variables in the flow experience. As a learner's skills (and knowledge) about a particular topic grow, the level of challenge must increase in order for him/her to stay in 'flow'.

What attracts me to most education conferences is the specific topic and presenter. I approach these conferences with genuine enthusiasm since it isn't everyday I have the opportunity to listen to an expert in the field of education. Unfortunately, in some cases I have come away disappointed. It's not that I've disagreed with the information or advice but sometimes the presenter has provided information I've already heard, strategies that are already part of my daily practice or some combination of information and strategies which either don't apply to my work or which I lack the requisite knowledge to build on.  In other words, I quickly became bored because I wasn't challenged to learn something new or I tuned out because I lacked the prior knowledge to connect the new ideas to. Compounding this is the fact that 'experts' often take a transmissive approach and as a result it has been difficult to interact with the content and personalize the learning to my own context.

Edcamps are different! Participants display an energy and enthusiasm that is contagious. Throughout the day participants introduce themselves to one another, reacquaint themselves with old colleagues and engage passionately in conversation. Sessions do not consist of 'experts' telling passive listeners new information. Rather, edcampers ask questions, seek advice and share their successes, failures, challenges and learning. They contribute ideas and are equally as interested in helping build others' knowledge and skills as they are their own. Participants engage in dialogue and respond directly to one another.  There is a wealth of expertise in the room but there isn't one expert at the front of the room. Because participants have chosen the discussion topics they are interested in, the sessions are lively, engaging and allow each participant to make meaning and contextualize the conversations they've heard.

I have never been bored at an edcamp because the conversations challenge my thinking and force me to reflect on my current practice.  If anything, as sessions conclude I find myself with the desire to continue the discussions into breaks and over lunch.  As Brian Kuhn (@bkuhn) recently tweeted, "Edcamp is like a hallway conversation on steroids!"


The social nature of an edcamp also occurs through a conference backchannel.
The Twitter backchannel at Edcamp Delta was so popular that at one point in the afternoon the hashtag #edcampdelta was trending.

Similar to the face-to-face conversations, participants use the backchannel to tweet comments they've heard, ask questions, reflect on their learning and share resources. The backchannel also allows people who are unable to participate in person to follow the discussion and contribute from a distance.

I'm always shocked when each session concludes and when the day draws to a close at an edcamp. Being so intensely focussed, time seems to slip by so quickly. Because I've been concentrating so hard throughout the day, I find myself mentally exhausted as the day wraps up. However, I also find I'm inspired by the ideas and experiences that people have shared with me during my many conversations.

I'm thankful to have engaged in so face-to-face and backchannel conversations at Edcamp Delta and Edcamp Vancouver and I know they have allowed me to construct meaning and apply my learning to current situations and challenges I face at school.  I'm also grateful to the participants who have peaked my curiosity, led me toward new challenges and kept me in 'flow' at Edcamp!

Edcamp Delta: A Personalized Learning Experience

Recently in British Columbia, much is being said about the need for personalization. The Ministry of Education's new BC Education Plan emphasizes the importance of personalized learning.

We must not confuse personalization with individualization and differentiation.

"Personalized learning is not individualized learning, in which students share the same learning goals but progress through the curriculum at their own pace. Nor is it differentiated instruction, in which students also share learning goals but receive instruction that is tailored to their learning needs.

Personalized learning is an instructional approach that encompasses both differentiation and individualization, but is also flexible in content or theme to match the specific interests and prior experiences of learners."

Personalized learning really takes into consideration that long tail of interest, of prior motivation, of languages. It leverages all the different things that people have in their repertoire to add value to their learning. In any personalized learning model, the student - not the teacher - is the central figure."  Karen Cator

But what does personalized learning actually look like? feel like?

Well, on Saturday January 14th I participated in a personalized learning experience at Edcamp Delta.

For those of you less familiar with how an edcamp works, let me briefly explain.

• There is no keynote speaker and no set topics.
• Participants propose discussion topics leading up to and in person on the morning of the event.

• Participants vote for topics that interest them and based on the popularity of the respective topics, the organizers arrange the discussion topics within a grid and create a schedule for the day.

• Participants choose to participate in sessions they are most interested in.
• One or more participants step forward to initiate the conversations in each session. 
• Participants share ideas, perspectives and experiences with each other. They respond to each other's questions and queries.

So, what key features of an edcamp contribute to such a personalized (not just individualized or differentiated) learning experience?

• Participants arrive with different goals for the day. Some wish to network, others want to share ideas about specific topics and some want to ask questions.
• The content is flexible and participants choose discussion topics based on their specific interests and prior experiences.
• Each participant contributes and adds value to the other participants' learning.
• Face-to-face and backchannel conversations take place within each session but participants may choose to extend their conversations throughout the day.
• There is an absence of hierarchy. There is no 'teacher', no 'expert' and no passive attendees trying to soak up information being delivered by the 'guru' in the room. All participants are learners, helping one another.

What transpires from this is truly remarkable. Each participant is deeply engaged and exudes a passion for learning. Being surrounded by such energy and enthusiasm is both motivating and inspirational. And one is guaranteed to walk away from an edcamp event curious about a new topic and wanting to continue a conversation started earlier in the day.

So, in British Columbia as we look to reshape education in a way that supports personalized learning, maybe we should be considering the success of recent Edcamps and borrow key aspects from the 'unconference' model of learning.

Imagine how the notion of school might change if learners had the choice to investigate self-directed inquiry topics based on their curiosity and interests?
Imagine if learners shared questions and problems with their local and global network and challenged each other to think critically and be creative problem-solvers.
Imagine if learning was made more social, with more emphasis on learning together, where learners communicated, cooperated and collaborated in an effort to build shared knowledge and understanding?

Undoubtedly, this would lead to more questions about our current model of 'schooling'.

Organizationally, how might this look in a class? in a school?

How might this impact curriculum? Would this lead curriculum to emphasize skills more than knowledge?

How would this alter the traditional role of the 'teacher' and 'student'?

I recognize these are not easy questions to answer, but neither is the challenge of envisioning a personalized learning system for all students in BC!

Engaging the Senses in Learning

Students in Ms. Morrison's Psychology 11 class have recently studied a unit on the 'brain'. Students entered the unit of study with various levels of prior knowledge about the brain and its functions, so it was important for students to have opportunities to engage in learning at their own level.  The unit was designed so students would actively engage their senses throughout their learning and decide on how to best demonstrate their learning to an authentic audience . The idea was that 'engaging the senses would engage the learner.'

Students created 'neural cookies', where they were invited to create neurons out of edible bits.

Students also participated in a 'neural dance' where they learned and rehearsed  the parts and functions of the brain.  In the days that followed, students could be heard singing and seen re-enacting parts of the dance as they recalled the parts of the brain.

'Brain surgery' quickly followed. Using an orange to represent the brain, students attached and embedded materials such as straws, candies, etc to represent the different parts of the brain.

Students then assessed their own understanding of the brain's lobes, areas and functions by using an interactive online program featuring a drag and drop tool.

Students' interests then shifted to the effects of drugs on the brain.  Students chose a specific drug to research and designed their own way to present their findings in a manner that could be understood by their classmates and other students.  The students seen below researched the effects of heroin on the brain and baked their own 'brain cake' to represent a healthy brain and a heroin-addicted brain.

The students also created a Prezi, 'Heroin: Chasing the Dragon" to help educate youth about the dangers of heroin.

These examples demonstrate what students are capable of when allowed the opportunity to be creative, set their own directions and take ownership of their learning. In the video below you can listen to the students reflect on their own learning process.

Global Partners in Learning: Edcamp Delta & Edcamp Santiago

Back in April, I helped organize and participated at Edcamp Vancouver. I found it to be such an engaging networking and learning experience that in the days that followed I couldn’t help but rave to others about my experience. You can read my reflections here.

When I spoke with Jonathan Kung (@coolpuddytat) and Nancy Gordon (@ngg37), both of whom participated at Edcamp Vancouver, we felt that the unconference model of professional development is something that our colleagues in Delta would be interested in and could benefit from.  We quickly invited a few others, including Mark Douangchanh (@markdouangchanh) to join our planning committee and there we had it…Edcamp Delta was born!

We quickly realized that the real work lay ahead!

We needed to…

• Find a venue: Delta Secondary School
• Decide on a date: January 14, 2012
• Create a website: http://edcamp.deltasd.bc.ca
• Create a registration page: http://edcamp.deltasd.bc.ca/registration 
• Promote using social media: www.twitter.com/edcamp_delta 
• Create a hashtag: #edcampdelta
• Create a place where participants can propose topics: http://edcamp.deltasd.bc.ca/forum/15

Our next questions were “Who will sign up?” and “Will we actually be able to attract enough participants to allow for rich discussion?”  In the weeks and months since then our questions have been answered. Over 110 people have signed up to attend Edcamp Delta. The majority of registrants are from the Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland areas of British Columbia, but we also have people signed up who are from Prince George, Cariboo-Chilcotin and as far away as Pakistan. Seeing these registrations come in confirmed for us that the word is getting out amongst educators.

We needed to get the word out to our partner groups!

We promoted Edcamp Delta to the Delta Youth Advisory Council (DYAC) and to leadership students at various schools. We spoke to District Parent Advisory Committee (DPAC) members and to various school Parent Advisory Committees (PAC). The result is we are seeing a healthy number of parents and a growing number of students register.

We have global partners?

As we continued to promote our event on Twitter we learned that there are three other Edcamp events (Edcamp Santiago, Edcamp San Diego & Edcamp Coquitlam) planned for the same day. 

After reading numerous tweets from @EdcampSantiago, I was able to strike up a Twitter conversation with Thomas Baker (@profesortbaker), one of the planners of Edcamp Santiago. It was clear we share the same goal of bringing together people from around the world who have a passion for education to share their ideas and perspectives. We know that participants at Edcamp Delta and Edcamp Santiago can interact quite easily through Twitter. We also know that a live connection could be very powerful. In the days that followed, Thomas introduced me to his co-planners Damian Rivlin and Kyria Finardi and we all began to brainstorm how we might be able to connect our events. LiveStream? Ustream? Video Conference? Skype? Google Hangout?  After corresponding back and forth through email, late last week my co-planners Nancy Gordon, Jonathan Kung, Mark Douangchanh and I spoke live with Thomas Baker via Skype.  What an awesome experience it was to connect with someone across the globe! (This will be the subject of a future blog post.)

We agreed that…

·      Participants in both countries will love the idea of connecting globally with other Edcamp participants.

·      Live interactive conversation will be the most engaging.

·      Participants will be interested to learn about the successes and challenges in education that others are experiencing in other parts of the world.

·      Networked participants such as those people who choose to attend an Edcamp will want to continue the conversations and sharing beyond the event.

So, how are we planning to connect our Edcamps?

To the best of our knowledge we are going to attempt something unique in the brief history of Edcamps. And this is what makes it so exciting!

Each Edcamp is going to randomly select 4 or 5 volunteers to compose a discussion panel. In keeping with the unconference philosophy, each panel will be composed of people with a variety of perspectives and experiences in education. The intention is for randomly selected people to discuss their perspectives, not for ‘experts’ to share their research and beliefs. The topic of the discussion will be ‘Successes and Challenges in Education’. During the first of two global Skype sessions, the panel in Santiago, Chile will share their successes and challenges with and answer questions from participants in British Columbia, Canada. During the second global Skype session, the roles will be reversed. We anticipate there will be many questions, comments and some unbelievable stories shared! 

Continuing the conversations…

Each Edcamp will be setting up Skype connections that allow participants to have 1:1 conversations that stem from the Global Sessions or a Twitter conversation earlier in the day. We will also be creating a collaborative document where participants at both Edcamps can provide their names and interests. We hope that this enables Edcampers to connect locally and globally with people of similar interests long after Edcamp Delta and Edcamp Santiago conclude.

So with all of these opportunities available at Edcamp Delta and Edcamp Santiago, if you are a student, parent, educator or simply possess a passion for education, I strongly encourage you to sign up for FREE for one of these events on Jan 14, 2012!

Edcamp Delta: http://edcamp.deltasd.bc.ca

Edcamp Santiago: http://edcampsantiago.wordpress.com/