I am wanting to address the tension that exists between being a “learner” and being a “successful student”. I have honed in on this area due to the interest I have in formative feedback, and in particular, how to get students to “value” assessments that have formative value and are crucial to the process of learning, but may not be assigned summative value. This has led me in recent years to significant re-shaping of assessment tasks to emphasize process over product, and to assess what I value: risk taking, depth of thought, and metacognition. How can we move the needle from “How do I get a level 4?”, to “How can I take risks, reflect, revise, and grow”? I am excited to leverage the expertise and drive of the Cohort 21 community to support me in my exploration and evolving practise in this area.
I chose the strand “Pedagogy and Wellbeing 7-12: How might we best engage, support, and assess our 7-12 learners both on campus and remote?”, as this strand is focused on the pedagogies and assessment strategies to support student wellbeing and academic success. I feel like this area is both urgent and easily dismissed. A focus on summative assessment provides a path to traditional markers of academic success (high grades, affirmation, university entrance) – but also sells students short as lifelong learners and creative, reflective thinkers. In terms of moving forward – I am trying to do so already – but want to do so by learning from other educators who are on similar paths or share an interest in this area. This includes examination of literature that offers perspectives on this tension between learning and success as a student, which is something I have not yet tapped into.
So glad you joined Cohort 21! Looking forward to your posts.
@mphillips
Looking forward to your response on our first two Season 10 prompts. Here is a video explaining how https://bit.ly/c21season10firstpost
@lbettencourt @gnichols
These are great considerations, Matt. Here is an article I remember reading that might be of interest – https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/06/why-grades-are-not-the-key-to-achievement/530124/
Looking forward to hearing more!
@mphillips – thanks for sharing your thinking with the C21 community! 🙂 I know the battlefield you speak of with regard to shifting the mindset of our students from mark-focused to growth-focused, and I also know the fight is worth it! I like the idea of focusing on students not only having a growth mindset, but specifically naming parts of what go into that way of learning – taking risks, reflecting, revising, and growing as learners (and perhaps for us as teachers too!). I am curious about what you have already explored and/or might hope to explore in terms of triangulation (specifically observations and conversations) as well as your thoughts on what defines something as formative and/or if feedback on something summative is still meaningful (and if so, how?)? Looking forward to connecting throughout the year!
Hey Matt! May I suggest, if you haven’t already, that you chat with @lbaragar about some of the work she has been doing to shift her students’ mindsets from grade-focused to feedback-focused. While the step of ‘going gradeless’ might not be feasible for everyone, I suspect you two might be able to have great discussions about how to create greater emphasis on the process of learning.
@mphillips
We are looking forward to connecting this weekend. If you have a free moment before Saturday; create a 2nd post that answers the following 2nd F2F reflection questions and post your HMW question.
This will be really helpful to your coaches/facilitator in their support of your Action Plan. It should not take more than 5 minutes so don’t overthink it. We just want to pile on the support and the blog is the most efficient way to do it.
1) What was the process like in coming up with your HMW question at the last face-to-face? Where did you land? Share your first attempt so we can see where your action plan is headed.
2) Who should you talk to next to help guide your inquiry? In order to answer your HWM question, what voices and perspectives need to be consulted? What did you learn when you talked to them?
3) Why are you engaging in this line of action and inquiry? What important unmet need sits central to your question?
See you Saturday!
Justin