Dylan Wiliam

PBAS Teacher Learning 2015

Published by Nick

Professional Learning

John Hattie – Hattie’s research tells us the most important factor in student learning, within the school, is the teacher. It is not, among others, funding, school buildings, ICT or how good your camps program is. While all of these are valuable it is teacher quality in the classroom that has the biggest impact.

Dylan Wiliam believes “every teacher needs to get better”, not just those that are seen as struggling but every teacher. Taught for one year? Taught for 25 years? The teaching landscape is constantly changing and we must change with it demonstrating the attributes we seek in our students as learners.

AITSL – The crucial role of the teacher – ‘The greatest resource in Australian schools is our teachers. They account for the vast majority of expenditure in school education and have the greatest impact on student learning, far outweighing the impact of any other education program or policy’.

Below are some examples of types of professional learning. This list is not exhaustive but does provide a variety of types of professional learning:

  • Conferences
  • Workshops
  • Face to face professional learning communities
  • Online professional learning communities
  • Professional reading (education publications)
  • Professional reading (online including blogs, Twitter, education publications)
  • Classroom observations (peer to peer)
  • Student feedback
  • Visit another school

Professional learning should not be seen as “the extra thing we need to do” or “the 60 hours we need to keep our registration”. It should be seen as a part of our job that is central to our role as educators.

Classroom Observations and Student Feedback

Classroom observations and student feedback provide a different lens for us to view our teaching by. In a supportive and committed environment were all staff help each other to develop their practice this lens can be a valuable learning tool.

For example, without the help of an observer or student feedback we may never identify that:

  • we don’t use small group work effectively
  • we only ever use direct instruction
  • we talk too much and do not allow for student input during class
  • we heavily weight our questions to the boys and forget the girls
  • we only ever use closed questions
  • we only ever call on the loudest children at the front of the class
  • we rarely give students options and choice
  • we provide little formative feedback
  • we never ask our students to use higher order thinking skills
  • we forget to find out what students already know
  • we need help developing relationships in our class
  • we do not challenge our students regularly enough
  • we only ever use one method with students to communicate their learning i.e. essay writing

Below is an example timeline of undertaking observations and collecting student feedback.

  1. Term 2 2015
    1. Student feedback – TfEL Compass survey tool. Domain 2 Create safe conditions for rigorous learning.
    2. Classroom observation week 7 Focus  – questioning
    3. Classroom observation week 8 Focus – questioning
    4. Classroom observation week 9 Focus – questioning
  2. Term 3 2015
    1. Student feedback – TfEL Compass survey tool. Domain 3 Develop expert learners.
  3. Term 4 2015
    1. Student feedback – TfEL Compass survey tool. Domain 4 Personalise and connect learning.

While undertaking this plan during terms 2-4 constant consideration must be given to changes that can improve your teaching. 

The PBAS Classroom Observation Process

The Foundation Document

This document should be an integral part of the observational process. It allows teachers to see what is considered quality teaching. The document should be used as a starting point for professional discussions and classroom observations and can be found in your white PD folders.

Peer observers

Observers should be people who are respected and trusted by their colleagues.

Pre observation meeting

The observer and the teacher need to agree and be clear to what the observation is about. This needs to be specific and easily definable. Consideration needs to be given to where this fits with TfEL, the Australian Professional Standards and School Priorities.

Observe the lesson and the learners

What are the students doing, writing and saying? There should be no hidden agendas. The focus of the observation should be about improving student learning and not ranking/grading the teacher. A new observation tool will be implemented in 2015 based around TFEL but with the flexibility for the teacher to focus on what is most relevant to them at that point in time. This proforma can be accessed by clicking here.

Follow up meeting

Both parties will meet after the observation preferably within 48 hours and discuss professional development ideas. Initially the meeting needs to provide specific feedback based on the original goals set prior to the observation. After this questions like, “How can I use the feedback to improve future lessons?”, “Where to now?”, “How will I get there?” and “When will my next observation occur?” are important to consider in terms of improving teacher quality. There are a number of reflective questions on the back of the 2015 observation proforma we discussed in our week 1 staff meeting.

Got Feedback? Used Feedback?

Published by Nick

Have you had someone observe your students learning in your classroom?

  • If yes have you been able to use this information to plan some professional improvement goals for the remainder of 2014 and into 2015?
  • If no then when do you plan to invite someone into your class to observe your students learning?

Have you invited feedback from your students about your teaching?

  • If yes have you been able to use this information to plan some professional improvement goals for the remainder of 2014 and into 2015?
  • If no then when do you plan to invite your students to provide feedback to you based on your teaching?

John Hattie tells us the most important factor in student learning (outside of the student themselves) is the teacher. Dylan Wiliam also believes “every teacher needs to get better”, not just those that are seen as struggling but every teacher.

Of all the things we have to do, and there are many, helping students to learn is at the centre of our professional responsibilities. It therefore stands to reason that improving our ability to do this is also at the centre of our professional lives. We all attend T & D but how often does traditional T & D support us to drill down and examine our practice at the coal face, in the classroom?

If we only ever attend traditional T & D and rarely have our classroom practice analysed then I am suggesting that our T & D is going to be less effective than it could be. No doubt we need to attend conferences, develop networks, share ideas and keep up to date with the latest educational information and traditional T & D can do this. However all the great conferences in the world mean nothing if we choose not to find the time to change our classroom practice for the better. A conference may help us identify aspects of pedagogy that we need to improve but the disconnect between the conference and classroom is often too great with all our enthusiasm dissipating by the time we return to the real world. Conferences also struggle to identify our pedagogical blind-spots. There are certain things that we cannot identify in our own teaching without the assistance of observation by our peers, students or video. The idea that “We don’t know what we don’t know” (blindspots) is a key reason why we need to have others provide feedback on our teaching. This is not to say that traditional T & D can’t change practice for the better, I am just suggesting that classroom observations and student feedback provide a different lens for us to view our teaching by. In a supportive and committed environment were all staff help each other to develop their practice this lens can be a valuable learning tool.

For example, without the help of an observer or student feedback we may never identify that:

  • we don’t use small group work effectively
  • we only ever use direct instruction
  • we talk too much and do not allow for student input during class
  • we heavily weight our questions to the boys and forget the girls
  • we only ever use closed questions
  • we only ever call on the loudest children at the front of the class
  • we rarely give students options and choice
  • we provide little formative feedback
  • we never ask our students to use higher order thinking skills
  • we forget to find out what students already know
  • we need help developing relationships in our class
  • we do not challenge our students regularly enough
  • we only ever use one method with students to communicate their learning i.e. essay writing

So how might this all look? How do I get started, if I haven’t already? What do I do with all the feedback I get?

To be reminded about the PBAS observation process click here for a post I did in early September.

To help demonstrate the practical application of using classroom observation and student feedback I would like to share my use of student feedback and classroom observation and how they have helped me to develop some learning goals for the remainder of 2014 moving into 2015.

Below is a timeline of when I collected my feedback:

  1. Term 2 2014
    1. Student feedback – TfEL Compass survey tool. Domain 2 Create safe conditions for rigorous learning.
  2. Term 3 2014
    1. Student feedback – TfEL Compass survey tool. Domain 3 Develop expert learners.
  3. Term 3 2014
    1. Classroom observation week 7
    2. Classroom observation week 8
    3. Classroom observation week 9

Time is often a reason for not getting to things. If we can aim to gather information over time rather than think that it all needs to be done now we will be much more likely to maintain a process that provides regular (term by term) feedback. I have estimated that over the first 30 weeks of the year I have spent approximately 2.5 – 3.5 hours in total organising, collecting and analysing feedback on my teaching.

Below is what I have taken from my feedback to work on over the next 6-12 months. I still have the TfEL Domain 4 student feedback survey to complete in term 4.

I intend to try and complete one thing per term for terms 2, 3 and 4 in 2015 that is around classroom observation and student feedback. I want to leave term 1 2015 free to try and continue to develop what I have already identified below.

Issues/Concerns for me:

  • Will I get to focus much on these things in term 1 2015? It is a big term  for me with sports day, inter school sports day and SANTOS athletics.
  • Are there too many things to work on in the document below?
  • Will future feedback change my direction?
  • How will I go about improving in these areas? Where/how can I access support to get better?

Feedback

Access the TfEL Compass tool via the LearnLink staff portal.

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For me, this quote (a modified Robert John Meehan quote) sums up what our attitude towards professional learning should be.

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How is your professional learning going?

Published by Nick

I don’t think that anyone disputes that to become better teachers we must engage in professional learning. How we go about engaging in that learning will have a significant impact on how effective that learning is. Some professional learning provides little support after the learning is completed while other professional learning allows for ongoing support. Below are some examples of types of professional learning. This list is not exhaustive but does provide a variety of types of professional learning:

  • Conferences
  • Workshops
  • Professional learning communities (face to face)
  • Professional learning communities (online including Twitter, Edmodo and Facebook)
  • Professional reading (education publications)
  • Professional reading (online including blogs, Twitter, education publications)
  • Classroom observations (peer to peer)
  • Student feedback
  • Visit another school

All of these forms of professional learning can be effective (assuming they are quality opportunities in the first place). Some provide more ongoing support than others which can impact on our ability to follow through with implementing real change in our teaching. However if we have a strong desire to change and develop our teaching then we will find a way regardless of the type of professional learning we have undertaken.

If, as I said at the start of the post, professional learning is so important it should not be seen as “the extra thing we need to do” or “the 60 hours we need to keep our registration”. It should be seen as a part of our job that is central to our role as educators.

So what is it that we could be doing over the remainder of this year to improve our teaching?

1. A lot of us have attend workshops and conferences this year i.e. Anne Baker and Dylan Wiliam. Trying to implement our learning from these events is ongoing and important. Can we use the next two things to help us determine how well this is going?

2. Classroom observations. As a teaching staff we agreed to have trusted peers come in and observe our teaching to provide feedback. How is this going? Personally I have not got there yet but have decided to stop procrastinating and get organised. Below is my information to Denise who will be observing 2 lessons over the next three weeks for me. Pick a time/class, a peer and a reason for your observation and jump in. 

  • Friday 22 August (week 5) – Lesson 2 9/10 Pastoral Care. Focus of observation is: Do I engage all students and levels of ability or are there students getting left behind?
  • Friday 5 September (week 7) – Lesson 3 R/1 PE. Focus for observation is: Do I provide feedback to students in relation to skills being developed and behaviour?

3. Student feedback. As a teaching staff we have discussed the use of student feedback and from year 5/6 up have had the opportunity to learn how to use the Compass TfEL survey tool. Have we implemented this with our students? My goal is to implement surveys for Domains 2,3 and 4 at the end of terms 1, 2 and 3. I will complete Domain 4 at the end of term 3 which will provide me with a range of feedback from my Year 9/10 class about my teaching.

The above three forms of professional learning should not be overwhelming. Don’t try to do to much with each of them.

1. Dylan Wiliam formative assessment – we all came away from this excited. Have we tried to implemented too much? Have we let it drop away? Have we embedded strategies or just tried a range of things without genuine persistence? Focus on one thing and do it well was Dyaln Wiliam’s advice to us.

My focus – develop feedback processes

2. Classroom observations – select one simple aspect of your teaching. Don’t be too broad. This will assist your observer and you in making real change in your classroom.

My focus – providing feedback and catering for all students

3. Student surveys – read your students surveys and highlight one or two items that are more common across the surveys. Again don’t try to take on everything, select one thing to focus on.

My focus (from feedback so far) providing students with some choice.

Remember that change takes time and commitment. Our professional learning should be continually evolving, not quickly but gradually over time.

Formative Assessment Reflection

Published by Nick

I hope that staff were able to get something out of this weeks staff meeting, being able to reflect where they are at with developing formative assessment techniques with students. It is important to remember that formative assessment is something we have been doing our whole teaching careers. It is not so much about implementing something new but building on what we have always done – moving student learning forward.

As we all took the time to reflect this week I thought it was important to provide you with resources that explain some of the formative assessment techniques that teachers have discussed in their plans along with a few that teachers may not be as familiar with. The Teach. Learn. Grow. The education blog  is where I have sourced the links below. This blog is part of NWEA – “Founded nearly 40 years ago, NWEA is a global not-for-profit educational services organization known for our flagship interim assessment, Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®). Educators trust our assessments, professional development offerings, and research to help advance all students along their learning path.” It is my understanding that this group has worked closely with Dylan Wiliam in the past.

I have also created a Formative Assessment page for the blog which also contains the links below as well as some other formative assessment resources. Go to the top of the blog and click on the Formative assessment page to have a look.

Each article is short and concise and provides insight into the technique and its value.

Visit the following two blog posts “22 Easy Formative Assessment Techniques for Measuring Student Learning” and “10 Assessments You Can Perform In 90 Seconds”.

Techniques in the posts include:

The Popsicle Stick, The Exit Ticket, The Whiteboard, Corners, Think-Pair, Share, Two Stars and a Wish, Carrousel Brainstorming, Jigsaw, ABCD Cards, Basketball Discussions, Student Centered Learning Strategies – Two Ideas for Providing Feedback

New clothes, Do’s and Dont’s, Three most common misunderstandings, Yes No chart, Three questions, Explain what matters, Big picture, Venn diagram, Draw it and Self directed response.

Formative Assessment

Published by Nick

In our staff meeting this week (week 1 term 3) we will be revisiting our formative assessment action plans from early term 2. What formative assessment strategies did we say we were trying to accomplish in our classrooms and have we had any success? If you don’t have your personal action plan at hand then you can access it by clicking here. This will take you to the post Teacher Personal Action Plans: Formative Assessment where we shared our plans with each other. I will print a copy of all those shared on the blog and bring them to the staff meeting. Those that did not put their plans on the blog will need to bring them to the meeting.

The main focus of the meeting will be to reflect on where we are at and how we will continue to move forward using formative assessment. Some time will be given to plan in more detail what it is you would like to achieve and determine timelines around implementation and reflection. Our focus on formative assessment is about improving our ability to move student learning forward.

Have you made a genuine attempt to improve your use of formative assessment or is it on the back burner (if it is why is it?)? If what you have tried or try in the future does not work for you the need to persist, adapt and modify is important. The quote from Dylam Wiliam below reinforces why formative assessment is important.

‘Formative assessment describes all those processes by which teachers and learners use information about student’s achievement to improve their achievements. So it’s about using information to adapt your teaching, to adapt the work of your pupils to put the learning back on track … to make sure the learning is proceeding in the right direction and to support that learning. So it’s what happens when you don’t just lecture students and rattle through the material and then ask them if they understood OK.’  Dylan Wiliam, Nov 2006

Below is a graphic that has some of those formative strategies on it. There is also some video, text and images embedded into the poster to help explain some concepts.

Unfortunately the video embedded could only be up to 30 seconds long as the app I used (ThingLink) was a free version, the paid version is a $250 subscription for a year designed for businesses. Due to this concepts are not explained in any detail, however revisit Dylan Wiliam’s book Embedding Formative Assessment for full explanation of all strategies.

Teacher Personal Action Plans: Formative Assessment

Published by Nick

After seeing Dylan Wiliam in term 1 and making a commitment to develop formative assessment as a site it is great that we can now share our formative assessment goals (via Personal Action Plans) on the blog. This gives us the opportunity to see what others are doing in their classrooms. The benefits of sharing our formative assessment goals include:

  1. We have publicly displayed our goals and therefore much more likely to go through with them.
  2. We can see what others are doing, hopefully generating more professional conversations away from staff meetings.
  3. We can select teachers who are using a particular technique and ask to sit in and observe their use of the technique broadening our understanding of its application.
  4. Teachers can use the Personal Action Plan as a basis for their observation lesson(s) with a peer. Have someone observe and give feedback on your formative assessment strategies.

Below are the Personal Action Plans of teachers at PBAS which outline how they have used and will continue to use formative assessment strategies based on Dylan Wiliam’s book Embedded Formative Assessment.

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Dylan Wiliam Formative Assessment

Published by Nick

As the end of term 1 approaches I thought was timely to remind staff of our commitment as a school to formative assessment and in particular the work of Dylan Wiliam.

My initial proposal that all teaching staff select at least one strategy around formative assessment to put into their performance development plan seems to have had a successful start (based on the response to the initial blog post). The school has purchased Dylan Wiliam’s “Embedding Formative Assessment – a two year professional development program for schools”. I am currently working my way through this resource to see how we can use and adopt the processes in it at PBAS.

Click here to refer back to my initial proposal if you need to revisit this information or want to read through the comments made by staff.

I think it is also important to remember that this is not a sprint and that as as school we are looking for teachers to embed one or two strategies into their teaching during 2014 rather than trying five or six that all disappear in three months.

In the hope that the discussion continues I am asking that staff contribute to this blog post by updating where they are at with formative assessment, what have you been trialling and how is it going and what direction are you heading?

To get the ball rolling I would like to share my progress with my formative assessment focus, quality self and peer assessment, which to paraphrase Dylan Wiliam, “improves learning by up to twice the speed of students who do not engage in rigorous self and peer assessment”. I must admit I have a fair way to go to improve students knowledge of how to give quality feedback and then use that feedback to effectively move their learning forward. We have managed to discuss these issues though and through our athletics and badminton units students have had plenty of opportunity to provide feedback and use feedback to move their learning forward. I have included a video below that includes some student videos showing how they had to present their learning to me for assessment.

Peer and self assessment process:

Step 1 involved the discussion of ‘what is meaningful feedback?’

Step 2 required a peer to video a student performing a skill using an iPad and downloading it to their MacBook.

Step 3 involved me ensuring there was some consistant expectations about how the skills were to be performed. Use of You Tube, teacher modelling, peer modelling and written criteria helped achieve this.

Step 4 required peers to review the video taken at step 2 and provide feedback on how that skill could be improved. This was written down in their PE books using a proforma created by me that provided success criteria to guide the students.

Step 5 allowed students to select one piece of feedback provided by a peer. They spent a few lessons trying to improve this area of the skill. At this point I contributed feedback to assist students.

Step 6 required students to take a second video that would demonstrate their learning. Both videos were put side by side in iMovie with students adding text to acknowledge the feedback they were given and also explain where the improvement occurred.

My aim is to continue this process throughout 2014, refining the process and the students ability to provide and use feedback.

The Australian Curriculum HPE requires students to demonstrate the ability to provide feedback as well as use feedback to improve performance.

The case against grades

Published by Nick

This is not my title I have stolen it from Alfie Kohn a long time promoter of the negative impacts that grades have on student learning. It is the title of the article that I am suggesting you should read if you have any interest in this topic.

The purpose of putting this article out there is not to suggest we should no longer use grades but to broaden our knowledge and understanding of what research says about such a deeply embedded policy in our educational system. By doing this we have a broader base of knowledge to then approach the issue in our own classrooms and at a whole site level.

Among other things the article covers the following:

  • Grades tend to diminish students’ interest in whatever they’re learning.
  • Grades create a preference for the easiest possible task.
  • Grades tend to reduce the quality of students’ thinking.

The following information (a quote from the article) was reinforced to us by Dylan Wiliam in week 2 this term.

“It’s not enough to add narrative reports.  “When comments and grades coexist, the comments are written to justify the grade” (Wilson, 2009, p. 60).  Teachers report that students, for their part, often just turn to the grade and ignore the comment, but “when there’s only a comment, they read it,” says high school English teacher Jim Drier.  Moreover, research suggests that the harmful impact of grades on creativity is no less (and possibly even more) potent when a narrative accompanies them.  Narratives are helpful only in the absence of grades (Butler, 1988; Pulfrey et al., 2011).”

To access the full article click here. The link can also be found on the Pedagogy page of this blog under Domain 2: Create safe learning conditions for rigorous learning.

Broaden your Professional Learning Network

Published by Nick

We all have a professional learning network whether we recognise it as that or not. It may be peers in our work place, colleagues at another school that we speak with regularly, our line manager, a blog we follow etc… Having key people to discuss educational philosophy, listen to , bounce classroom ideas of off or discuss aspects of behaviour management is vital if we want to improve.

To add another dimension to your professional learning network I have added five Twitter feeds to the bottom of the blog. You don’t even have to have a Twitter account!

If you have a spare 5 minutes take the time to find out what it is that Dylan Wiliam (international), Sir Ken Robinson (international), AITSL (Australia), TFELTalk (South Australia) and EMPIRIEDUCATOR (South Australia) are tweeting about.

Dylan Wiliam – Where to now?

Published by Nick

I really enjoyed Dylan Wiliam’s presentation on Wednesday and we have been very lucky to have all our teaching staff see him at the same time. It gives us a rare opportunity as a teachers to discuss formative assessment and how it can be done better at PBAS in a way that had only 3 or 4 attended would not be possible.

Some of the things that I got out of the day that were new or reinforced beliefs I held included:

  • It was great to hear Dylan acknowledge how hard the teaching “game” is and how no one ever perfects it.
  • Pedagogy trumps curriculum every time.
  • Focus on the things that matter.
  • We fail all the time and that’s ok as long as we avoid repeating mistakes and strive to improve.
  • We should worry about growth mind set in teachers. There is no place for teachers who think they can’t get better.
  • Formative assessment is most effective when it is used every day in every lesson (at least once every 20 minutes).
  • Always ensure students understand the learning intention and direction of the lesson.
  • Planning questions is important and using statements rather than questions can promote deeper responses.
  • Dumbing things down does not help our students.
  • Questioning should cause one of two things or both: 1. The student to think and 2. produce data that informs teaching.
  • Hard work and practice can trump talent.
  • Grades do not contribute to improved learning.
  • Comments do contribute to improved learning.
  • Combining grades and comments do not contribute to improved learning. Once a grade is seen the comment is ignored.
  • A great range of strategies to improve formative assessment.

Now that we have heard Dylan Wiliam’s research and classroom strategies and have his book as a resource we should discuss the “where to now?”.

Proposal – Formative assessment

My initial reaction is to take on formative assessment as a focus for 2014 (and maybe 2015). When I say focus I mean as part of our personal development plans where every teacher commits to improving an aspect of formative assessment. Team meetings will provide time to discuss formative assessment and allow staff to share what they are doing in terms of improving formative assessment in their classroom. I also believe there is plenty of scope for choice within formative assessment for teachers to select what they think will help improve their teaching and student learning.

My proposal is that all teaching staff select at least one strategy around formative assessment to put into their performance development plan.

Formative Assessment also allows us to engage in sections of TfEL and the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers as well as giving focus to classroom observations if a teacher chooses.

How does Formative Assessment  link with TfEL and Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

By focusing on formative assessment we will also be covering part of TfEL Domain 2, Element 2.4 and the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers Standard 5.1 and 5.2.

TfEL: Domain 2 Create Safe Conditions for Rigorous Learning

Element 2.4 Challenge students to achieve high standards with appropriate support.

  • (Teacher) Teach students how to seek feedback and offer timely feedback to move their learning forward.
  • (Teacher) Engineer learning conversations that extend students thinking.
  • (Student) Look forward to getting feedback from others to help take the next step.

Australian Professional Standards for Teachers: Standard 5 Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning

I have only included the Proficent and Highly Accomplished levels below. To view Graduate and Lead descriptors go to the AITSL page at the top of the blog. 

5.1 
Assess student learning

Proficient

Develop, select and use informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative assessment strategies to assess student learning.

Highly Accomplished

Develop and apply a comprehensive range of assessment strategies to diagnose learning needs, comply with curriculum requirements and support colleagues to evaluate the effectiveness of their approaches to assessment.

5.2 
Provide feedback to students on their learning

Proficient

Provide timely, effective and appropriate feedback to students about their achievement relative to their learning goals.

Highly Accomplished

Select from an effective range of strategies to provide targeted feedback based on informed and timely judgements of each student’s current needs in order to progress learning.

I believe it is important that all teaching staff who attended the day contribute a comment about where we should go now with Dylan Wiliam’s work. What are your opinions/thoughts around PD, classroom observations, TfEL and the Australian Professional Standards and using formative assessment to tie them all together? Can we make this work?