INTRODUCTION

Using Looking at Learning to affect student learning

School improvement efforts that do not monitor the resulting

instructional changes often fail.

“What gets measured gets done!”

is an innovative assessment tool used to measure and guide

classroom-level instructional changes during school improvement efforts.

Looking at Learningis an intuitive software program that

automatically calculates duration and student participation for all activities

generates reports including graphs for individual observations or aggregate reports for any combination of observations

allows observers to add comments during observations

is effective when used by teachers observing each other

is a unique tool for staff development - not teacher appraisal

Looking at Learningmeasurement focus

Is based on the student’s point of view, not on the teacher’s point of view

Is based on constructivist learning strategies

Recognizes the importance of lesson design that emphasizes the cognitive purpose for activities

Recognizes that what happens in the classroom is the true indication of whether any reform effort has had the intended effect

The need for quality information

“Organizations need to turn ‘information’ into ‘information that cannot be ignored’ and then confront the ‘brutal facts of reality’ in the data.” In other words given our mission and desired results, what data are needed and what do those data tell us, especially about what is not working well?”

-- Jim Collins (2005)

The need for quality information

“When teachers see what they are doing it is not often what they think they are doing.”

-- Robert Marzano

Nothing personal, but…

This requires collective analysis of teaching practice based on data.

This requires acting on feedback in how and what is taught and assessed.

we MUST separate out the person from the teaching practice.

Eliminating the buffer

“Teachers and students suffer terribly when we protect-when we buffer-teaching from inspection and scrutiny, and when we conveniently assume that ‘everyone is doing a good job.’ Like no other profession, we are denied the all-important opportunity to study and learn from our actions and our results. Hence, instructional decisions get ‘buried in the individual decisions of classroom teachers and buffered from external scrutiny.’ Such ignorance is bliss. . .

Eliminating the buffer

. . . But it is hurting kids and teachers as it allows us ever so mistakenly ‘to assign causality to . . . weak family structures, poverty, discrimination. Lack of aptitude, peer pressure, etc. Such fatalism is a direct result of the buffer, the quiet but pervasive superstructure that is death to smart, constructive improvement efforts.”

-- Schmoker, Results Now

From the kids’perspective…

“Most students complain that so-called academically rigorous college prep high school courses are incredibly boring and irrelevant to their present and future lives. Even many of the kids who do well in these courses—in hopes of getting into a ‘good’ college’—complain about the lack of challenge and the incredible amount of trivia they are asked to memorize—most of which they forget as soon as the test is over. . . The content of ‘academic’ subjects is only half the problem, though. The other half is how it is usually delivered. . . John Goodlad found that the one constant in high school classrooms around the country is how much teachers talked—more than 70 percent of the class time on average.”

-- Tony Wagner, Making the Grade

Key questions revealed through the use of this

toolWhat are the actual priorities of school,

as reflected by which goals and actions get the most time in class?

Is the minute-by-minute use of our time in school consistent with our mission? Does it hold true for all learners?

Can we see changes in instruction resulting from school improvement initiatives?

What makes this observation worth the effort?

Principled

Efficient

User-friendly

Ease of analysis and reporting

Focus for professional learning

Improved student learning

Key features of this observation tool

It is a formative in nature.

It is focused on what the learners are doing, not what the teacher is saying and/or doing.

It is limited to an established set of categories and subcategories.

It is a database designed in a platform to run on virtually any school computer with no need for additional software.

Key features of this observation tool

It is user-friendly both in the collection of data and the production of reports.

It is grounded in key principles about effective teaching practice and curriculum design.

It is designed to facilitate professional learning and cultivate a knowledge base of expert practice.

It is a collaborative endeavor.

The need for observation and feedback

“When teachers see what they are doing it is not often what they think they are doing.”

-- Robert Marzano

Looking at LearningMost data entry is done by clicking buttons and

checkboxes

Allows observers to create their own data category based on local school improvement efforts

Helps observers and teachers focus on the important cognitive aspects of learning

How to use these measures

These measures are different than teacher appraisal

Can most effectively be used in team planning

Can be used by teachers to observe each other

Give a unique look at what it is like to be a student in your school or class

How do many teachers usually feel about data?

Data are scary.

Data are my enemy.

Data point out what is wrong with what I’m doing and emphasize how I don’t measure up.

That they collect data shows they don’t trust that I’m doing a good job.

What’s at the root of these responses?

Since teachers traditionally teach behind closed doors and have little context to be able to evaluate instructional strategies---there is unease about a tool that de-privatizes instruction and:

Opens the door to classroom assessment of student learning

Prompts change

Necessitates increased communication with stakeholders in the school community

Keep focused on the link between instructional design and learning

results

Collaborate through work and discussion on teaching and learning

Act on learning

Gather assessment and other data to inquire into and evaluate progress and problems over time

(Adapted from Andy Hargreaves)

What it takes to be successful

“Improvement is more a function of learning to do the right things in the setting where you work. The problem is that there is almost no opportunity for teachers to engage in continuous and sustained learning about their practice in the setting in which they actually work, observing and being observed by their colleagues in their own classrooms and classrooms of other teachers in other schools confronting similar problems of practice.”

-- Richard Elmore (2004)

What it takes to be successful

“Teaching needn’t be exceptional to have a profound effect; continuous commonsense efforts to even roughly conform to effective practice and essential standards will make a life-changing difference for students across all socio-economic levels.”

-- Mike Schmoker

What it takes to be successful

People begin to change their behaviors before they change their beliefs.

Shared vision and ownership are less a precondition for success than they are an outcome of a quality process.

Learning in context is key.

It doesn’t matter where the change starts as long as it is systemic thereafter.

Adapted from Fullan, Hill, and Crévola (2007)

What the data looks like in classrooms where the

students are “beating the odds”

These summary data show the proportion of time students spend in the various activities and configurations based on two observation of two teachers in middle level math—these teachers students show almost twice the expected growth when controlled for ethnicity and poverty.