Learning @ Schools - Leading, Learning and Technological Trend

Breakout 5 - Karen Boyes - Assessing the dispositions and Key Competencies


What is Understanding?
Understanding is NOT THE SAME as knowledge,  I think our students are exceptionally good at developing 'knowledge'.  They know the right answers.  For me, though, understanding shows up in actions.  A child really understands when they autonomously, and independently, apply their knowledge in real-life (not artificial) situations.


Evidence of Understanding


Can your students

• Explain it accurately
• Give their interpretation
• Take another's perspective
• Empathize
• Ask further questions

"At the end of the unit children should have more questions than they began with." Art Koster.


What is thinking?
A good question to ask children?  Ask them to put it into their own words so we can see where their understanding lies.


What is it about your students that makes you think they need to learn how to think?

• Very surface answers (often arrived at very quickly because they are the 'right answers' they have been exposed to before)
• Disengaged - waiting for the 'clever kids' to answer

What do you see them doing?

• Thinking about what answer the teacher is searching for, rather than thinking about the problem posed.
• Blurting
• Questions that have 'worked in the past' eg:  "Did you like it?" at news time. 

Admittedly, perhaps the way I am organising my news routine fosters these low level questions.  

What does this mean for me?

This should indicate to me that I am perpetuating the process that fosters these low level answers.  I need to expend energy on approaching old activities / ideas (like 'being a successful learner') in a totally new and unfamiliar way in order to force children to think in a new and different way.


Realistically, I probably cannot do this for every activity BUT if I make a habit of thinking through old ideas in new ways, hopefully I will eventually do it autonomously - is this what TC does?


I still think that 'being a successful learner' is a teacher inquiry and not suitable for a child inquiry, especially at the beginning of the school year.  It is completely abstract, relying on brainsmarts without the support of rich hands on activities to draw on the other types of smarts.  I have tried to think of new ways of approaching this this year and the best I came up with was comparing a variety of pictures of 'learners' to foster discussion.  So it CAN BE DONE.  However, I've struggled to think of other hands on activities that foster that discussion and argument.  Y charts failed with this class, though they worked with previous classes, due to the lack of vocabulary these children had around learning.
Eg: In response to the question, "What would we see if we looked at a good learner?"


"They do good work."
"They do good learning."


The children found it impossible to articulate specifics and gave only broad, general, all encompassing answers that demonstrated to me a lack of understanding of the concept we were trying to draw out.




What do you hear them saying?

• Irrelevant statements - demonstrates a disengagement with the topic being discussed
• Questions that have 'worked in the past' eg:  "Did you like it?" at news time 
• Repeating things they have already heard or said previously 

How are they feeling?

• Anxious about 'being right' - perhaps a little apprehensive that they might be wrong
• Quite satisfied actually!  They have used this answer before, it requires little effort to retrieve it from memory and they have no reason to believe it won't be accepted this time, and then we can all move on.
• Disengaged - they can answer these questions without actually even delving deep.  (Probably an indication that I have asked the wrong type of question).
• Relaxed - they'll just keep their head down, one of the 'clever' kids will answer and then we'll all be able to leave the mat.

How would you like them to be?

• Hear them linking new knowledge to prior knowledge - making connections
• Be able to take a risk without fear of being put down
• Expecting to be given an opportunity to take a risk
• Not being passive - take responsibility for the learning
• Be expecting that the teacher WILL engage them in the activity and provide them with an opportunity to participate and not allow them to go under the radar
• Have lots of wonderings AND EXPRESS THEM
• Be able to hear some of the thinking processes, talking aloud, conversation, mulling it over, self talk

Labelling thinking skills and processes


Thinking verbs are specific




S    Stop
T    Think
A    Act
R    Reflect




Use the correct labels for the type of thinking.  eg: Lets look at the pictures OR lets compare the pictures


What does this mean for me?
MUCH more thought when planning even incidental activities - probably not a good idea to 'wing it' even when reading picture books, etc.  Any little activity aimed at developing critical thinking actually requires careful consideration of what I'm trying to teach my students.  TAKE THE TIME!!


Thinking like a subject specialist
 
eg: What are good habits for us to use when thinking in maths?  Thinking flexibly, applying past knowledge, taking responsible risks (chn often stop when they get stuck in maths - afraid of being wrong)




Criteria for thinking activities - ensure your criteria match exactly what you are assessing.


Cool idea for test taking.  Chn write the questions and put into balloons.  Then in teams they select and pop balloons and it's a race to answer correctly.


Kids should be journaling to show progress in their thinking. 
 
What does this mean for me?
I want to build in a regular reflection time - will need to think about how to structure it and who it is for, how it will be published and how children will know they are getting better and achieving.


I can add extra bits to the portfolios - let children choose their best bit of maths / writing etc that they have done and get the to write why they believe it is their best.  Open my eyes to what criteria they are setting themselves.


GOOD IDEA:  6 word evaluations on inquiry or units of work.




Questions for self reflection:
What am I learning?
How am I learning?
Why am I learning?
Who am I becoming?


What is working well?
What is not working well?
What would you change next time?


Implications and applications


http://www.spectrumcommunity.ning.com/


Breakout 6 - Karen Boyes - Anchoring for success


Our brain anchors what we learn.  It takes an experience, makes note of the location and emotions felt and then, in the future if those situations arise again then the memory returns unbidden.

We have visual, auditory, visual, olfactory anchors.