Activating students—as learners, and as learning resources for one another

Dylan Wiliam

Hawker-Brownlow Education Conference

Melbourne, Victoria, May 2011

www.dylanwiliam.net

Activating students

Sharing, communicating, and understanding learning intentions and success criteria

Activating students as learning resources for one another

Activating students as owners of their own learning Student observation of teaching Personalizing learning and differentiated instruction

The view from the student’ desk

“The analogy that might make the student’s view more comprehensible to adults is to imagine oneself on a ship sailing across an unknown sea, to an unknown destination. An adult would be desperate to know where he [sic] is going. But a child only knows he is going to school...The chart is neither available nor understandable to him... Very quickly, the daily life on board ship becomes all important ... The daily chores, the demands, the inspections, become the reality, not the voyage, nor the destination.” (White, 1971, p. 340)

[White & Frederiksen, Cognition & Instruction, 16(1), 1998].

Sharing criteria with learners

3 teachers each teaching 4 year 8 science classes in two US schools

14 week experiment 7 two-week projects, each scored 2-10 All teaching the same, except: For a part of each week

•Two of each teacher’s classes discusses their likes and dislikes about the teaching (control)•The other two classes discusses how their work will be

assessed

Sharing criteria with learners

7.47.26.7

6.65.94.6

Reflective assessment

Likes and dislikes

High

MiddleLowGroup

Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills

Learning intentions and success criteria

In general, it is a good idea that students know where they are going

But,•It is not always possible•It is not always advisable•It is hard to do well

Quality

Polanyi (1958)•“The aim of skilful performance is achieved by the observance of a set of

rules which are not known as such to the person following them” (p 31).•“Rules [...] are maxims which can serve as a guide to an art” (p49).•“Maxims cannot be understood, still less applied by anyone not already

possessing a good practical knowledge of the art. They derive their interest from our appreciation of the art and cannot themselves either replace or establish that appreciation” (p50).

Pirsig (1991)•“Quality doesn’t have to be defined. You understand it without definition.

Quality is a direct experience independent of and prior to intellectual abstractions” (p64)

Goals and horizons

Sometimes, you want all students to learn the same thing•Goal-directed teaching•Key aim: all students reach the same understanding

Sometimes it is OK when students learn different things•Horizon-directed teaching•Key aim: all students learn something of value in the subject

A standard middle school problem…

Two farmer have adjoining fields with a common boundary that is not straight.

This is inconvenient for ploughing. How can they divide the two

fields so that the boundaryis straight, but the twofields have thesame area asthey had before?

How many rectangles?

Learning intentions: detaching contextConfused learning intention

Clarified learning intention Context of learning

To be able to write instructions on how to change a bicycle tire

To be able to write clear instructions

Changing a bicycle tire

To be able to present an argument for or against assisted suicide

To be able to present arguments either for or against emotionally charged propositions

Assisted suicide

To know what the local priest does

To know the duties and responsibilities of religious leaders

The local priest

To produce and analyze a questionnaire about movie-going habits

To be able to construct and analyze questionnaire data

Movie-going habits

Design an experiment to find out what kind of conditions pill bugs prefer

Design fair tests for scientific questions

Preferred habitat of pill bugs

Three issues with learning intentions

Task-specific versus generic scoring guides/rubrics Product-focused versus process focused rubrics ‘Official’ versus student-friendly language.

Sharing success criteria (English)

Sharing success criteria (German)

Practical techniques: sharing learning intentions

Explaining learning intentions at start of lesson/unit•Learning intentions•Success criteria

Intentions/criteria in students’ language Posters of key words to talk about learning

•eg describe, explain, evaluate Planning/writing frames Annotated examples of different standards to ‘flesh

out’ assessment rubrics (e.g. lab reports) Opportunities for students to design their own tests

Benefits of structured interaction

15-yr-olds studying World History were tested on their understanding of material delivered in lectures Half the students were trained to pose questions as they listened to the lectures At the end of the lectures, students were given time to review their understanding of the material

Individual Group

Unstructured Independent review Group discussion

Structured Structured self-questioning

Structured peer-questioning

Impact on achievement

Improvements attributed to:•Students discovering their

own and peers’ misconceptions

•Students motivated to ask more difficult questions

•Students provide each other with more elaborate answers

•Students to examine material from multiple perspectives

King, A. (1991). Applied Cognitive Psychology, 5(4), 331-346.

[Fontana & Fernandez, Br. J. Educ. Psychol. 64: 407-417]

Self- and peer-assessment: Portugal

Teachers studying for MA in Education•Group 1 do regular programme•Group 2 work on self-assessment for 2 terms (20

weeks)•Teachers matched in age, qualifications and experience

using the same curriculum scheme for the same amount of time

Pupils tested at beginning of year, and again after two terms•Group 1 pupils improve by 7.8 marks•Group 2 pupils improve by 15

Peer-assessment: a research success story

Four mechanisms•Motivation: students help their peers to learn because, in

well-structured cooperative learning settings, it is in their own interests to do so, and so effort is increased;•Social cohesion: students help their peers because they care

about the group, again leading to increased effort;•Personalization: students learn more because more able

peers can engage with the particular difficulties a student is having;•Cognitive elaboration: those who provide help in group

settings are forced to think through the ideas more clearly.

One technique has been to put the students into small groups and give each student a small part of the unit to explain to their colleagues. They are given a few minutes preparation time, a few hints, and use of their exercise books. Then each student explains their chosen subject to the rest of their group. Students are quick to point out such things as, ‘I thought that the examples you chose were very good as they were not ones in our books. I don’t think I would have thought of those.’ Or, ‘I expected you to mention particles more when you were explaining the difference between liquids and gases.’ These sessions have proven invaluable, not only to me, in being able to discover the level of understanding of some students, but to the students too.

Philip, Century Island

Peer- and self-assessment 5

DEEP AfL

The students’ role

They feel that the pressure to succeed in tests is being replaced by the need to understand the work that has been covered and the test is just an assessment along the way of what needs more work and what seems to be fine. [...] They have commented on the fact that they think I am more interested in the general way to get to an answer than a specific solution and when Clare [a researcher] interviewed them they decided this was so that they could apply their understanding in a wider sense.

(Belinda, Cornbury Estate School)

Student agency

• “I know if I get it wrong that I can just ask the teacher and that will help me improve my work because if I never know what I got wrong, I will never learn the right way to do it.”

• “As a girl I feel more confident now doing these questions. I feel that I can answer questions without being worried about getting it wrong. I can even explore my answer without being worried about it.

• “I like when we do the (ABCD) cards. It’s fun. I like how everybody puts up the cards and I am not afraid to raise my hand anymore because I don’t care if I get it wrong anymore. Now I raise my hand more often.”

26

As well as assessing and marking (through discussion and clear guidance ) their own work they also assess and mark the work of others. This they do in a very mature and sensible way and this has proved to be a very worthwhile experiment. The students know that homework will be checked by themselves or another girl in the class at the start of the next lesson. This has lead to a well-established routine and only on extremely rare occasions have students failed to complete the work set. They take pride in clear and well presented work that one of their peers may be asked to mark. Any disagreement about the answer is thoroughly and openly discussed until agreement is reached.

Alice, Waterford School

Peer- and self-assessment 2

We regularly do peer marking—I find this very helpful indeed. A lot of misconceptions come to the fore and we then discuss these as we are going over the homework. I then go over the peer marking and talk to pupils individually as I go round the room. Rose, Brownfields School

Peer- and self-assessment 3

Students leading the lesson

Students owning their learning and as learning resources for one another

Students assessing their own/peers’ work •Daily sign-in•Choose-swap-choose•+/—/interesting•Learning portfolio•“Two stars and a wish”

Training students to pose questions/identifying group weaknesses

Self-assessment of understanding•Traffic lights•Red/green discs•Coloured cups

Technique review

Secret student

Pros and cons of self/peer assessment

+ —Teachers

Students

Student observation of teaching

Force-field analysis (Lewin, 1954)

What are the forces that will support or drive the adoption of student observation of teaching in your school/state/territory?

What are the forces that will constrain or prevent the adoption of student observation of teaching in your school/state/territory?

+ —

Models of differentiated instruction

The premise•Teaching is interesting because students are so different•Teaching is only possible because they are so similar

Differences in students:•Problem•Asset

Area of a trapezium

b

a

h

Parallel cut and rotate

b a

½h

a

Group task

How many conceptually distinct ways can you find for calculating the area of a trapezium given the length of each of the two parallel sides, and the distance between them?

Self-assessment (Raychaudhuri, 1988)

My red folder in the fourth yearwants me to be clearand positiveabout what I achievein school"in my own words”which are foreign to me.

In my own wordsin my own language(which has no place here)how can I feel clearand positive?

My red folderin the fourth yearwants me to be positiveabout my grade Ein English History:the heritage and gloryof the British Empire"in my own words”.

My red folderin the fourth yearsuddenlyout of nowherewants me to assertwhat I achievein school"in my own words".How can I blow the trumpetthey've taken from me?

Comments/questions?

Learning Log Complete at least three of the following sentences to

reflect on this session.•Today I learned…•I was surprised by…•The most useful thing I will take from these sessions is…•I was interested in…•What I liked most about today was…•One thing I’m not sure about is…•The main thing I want to find out more about is… •After these sessions I feel…•I might have got more from today if …

42