UPDATE
(September- 1st Post)
It is exciting to see my Signature project become a reality. Ms. Skott is trying it in her math and science support class by administering a pre-assessment of skills that the students would like to work on. They selected four of them to start with and once a month they are going to go back and revisit them in order to reflect on how they think they are doing. Ms. Skott will then comment on how she thinks they are performing and a conversation will follow. Once students master a certain skill, they will choose a new one to replace it with to keep growing in distinct areas. Next week will be the first reflection and students will fill out their learning cycles.
PROJECT BASED LEARNING
(September - 2nd post)
Project Based Learning (PBL) is an approach to education in which students are encouraged to acquire knowledge by doing meaningful projects for a long period of time. The purpose of the projects is to research and answer a challenging question that explores real-world problems, and to allow students to gain a deeper understanding of the topic investigated by permitting self-reflection. I created the mind map below to illustrate what PBL is about and to show its distinct categories and the idea behind them.
THE SEVEN LEARNING STYLES
(October - 1st Post)
I have been exploring the different learning styles there are because I believe it is important to understand that not every student learns the same way. This is of vast significance because the education system has to be geared in order to ensure that there is an opportunity for every student to succeed and also be able to explore new learning styles to grow in diverse areas. Each learning style employs different areas of the brain, and the more areas involved in the learning process, the more knowledge the student gains. Below is a visual I created in order to explain each of the learning styles and their requirements.
Source: https://www.learning-styles-online.com/overview/
CONFIDENCE AND LEARNING
(October - 2nd post)
Academic confidence is the ability to believe that tasks assigned at school can be successfully accomplished, and is related to ability and personality traits. This type of confidence is a very important aspect in education that is truly reflected in the success of students. The amount of confidence a student has directly affects achievement, motivation, and performance. This is because students who believe that they can accomplish any given task are more prone to seek different solutions if there are any difficulties along the way, and persevere in the face of obstacles. However, people with a lower academic confidence tend to constantly give up if the task at hand seems complex. This occurs because they do not perceive themselves as capable to accomplish certain assignments. Studies have shown that if these patterns are prevalent, the actual ability of students can be affected, which results in either an increase or decrease in achievement. I believe this is a very important factor that is not usually given the proper consideration in the academic environment. I think it would be interesting to attempt to develop academic confidence workshops in order to ensure that students trust themselves whenever they are given a task so their performance can be improved.
Source: https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/self-efficacy-and-learning/
Source: https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/self-efficacy-and-learning/
UPDATE
(November - 1st post)
Implementing the skills-based rubric is off to a good start. As I mentioned before, students in the math and science support class are using it and they have gotten comments and revisited the skills they have been working on. I discovered that there are still some points of improvement in order to make the use of the rubric more efficient. For instance, I learned that it would be better if the rubric is edited electronically instead of on paper in order to make the change of skills when some are mastered easier. When a student masters a certain skill, it remains with skills that have not been mastered, so there is no space to replace it with a new one. I would also like to make a sheet for mastered skills that would be similar to a reflection. The student would talk about the steps taken to master the skill, what that certain skill has helped with, and the amount of time that took the student to master it. I am going to work on creating the sheet and a way to edit the rubric electronically, and then send it back to trial to see how it turns out with these improvements.
MASTERY JOURNAL
(December - 1st post)
This is an example of a learning cycle filled out by a math and science support student. The student identified the four skills she is working on and wrote where she thinks she is in terms of proficiency for each skill. Ms. Skott marked the student's level of proficiency and then provided her with feedback and points of improvement.
After observing this example, I decided to create a mastery journal. I chose to do this in order for students to be able to write about skills separately, and be able to replace the mastered ones with a new one that they have not mastered yet. The mastery journal gives the student space to reflect on each skill on the learning cycle and talk about steps taken and future steps in order to improve. I believe this is helpful because once a student masters a skill on the learning cycle, she will have it documented in the mastery journal and will be able to replace it. I think this is also beneficial because it serves as a personal report for the student where she can find all her achievements and comment on her performance.
UPDATE
(January - 1st Post)
Having resolved the problem of having a place for students to reflect on their progress, Ms. Skott is going to try the mastery journal in her classes. She will evaluate how the students are reflecting on their skills in order to see the effectiveness of it. Once students reflect, they will be able to note future steps they want to take in order to have a guide for their learning. I believe the mastery journal will allow them to think more deeply about what they should be doing to improve each skill and will be helpful to let the teacher know what students think about their progress and what they have been doing to master each skill.
UPDATE
(January - 2nd Post)
Students in the Math and Science Support class filled out the Mastery Journal this week and it proved to be successful. After analyzing its effectiveness, I discovered that it is easier to have the Mastery Journal for smaller skills, and have the Learning Cycle for overarching ones and those that take more time to be assessed. The Mastery Journal allows students to add smaller skills every time, which support mastery for the four larger skills in the learning cycle. The overarching skills would be assessed once per semester in order for both the students and teacher to reflect on their progress in the bigger picture.
Below is an example of a completed Mastery Journal and Learning Cycle...
Below is an example of a completed Mastery Journal and Learning Cycle...
Mastery Journal Progress
(February - 1st Post)
Students in the Math and Learning Support class revisited their mastery journals to reflect on their progress after filling it out for the first time. It proved effective because they can change their mastery level depending on what they are learning in the class, and if it is challenging, they have the ability to readjust their progress as necessary. For instance, if a student believes she is close to mastering a certain skill because she was able to solve an assignment containing it, but later on she gets a more challenging one and realises it is not completely mastered yet, she can modify it in her mastery journal and discuss specific steps to achieve total mastery of the skill.
Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Lessons
(February - 2nd Post)
POGIL is a newly developed learning strategy focused on using real life experiences to learn and includes social and constructivist components. Students are given a text along with questions, and the only way for students to find answers is by really exploring and diving into the topic. In order for this system to work, teachers cannot give students the answers and their role is to continue asking questions so students can get a solid understanding of the text and derive complex conclusions. This system has proven to increase the level of mastery in the topics it is used for, and also makes students passionate about them.
Creating a Survey
(March- 1st post)
I wanted to know the effectiveness of my project in the Math and Science support class, so I decided to create a survey that asked the students several questions about this system. I was looking for qualitative feedback on the rubrics and how they were or were not effective. I asked about the learning cycle in particular, which was the first piece of the project, and then about the mastery journal which targeted smaller skills. I wanted to see if they thought one or the other was more helpful or if both working together were more beneficial. I believe that the feedback is the most important thing for my project, since I need to learn from students if this way of removing grades was helpful and helped to reduce their stress levels. I also decided to ask about the pros and cons in order to learn from the students what could be changed that could make the system better. An update will follow in order to analyse the responses to the survey.
Survey Responses pt. 1
(March- 2nd post)
I asked the students to tell me how they feel about having to identify particular skills to improve on, and they said it is helpful, since it lets them to focus on specific skills that allow them be more prepared for assessments. They also mentioned that it is hard to narrow down topics of the down to certain skills, but since it supports their learning, they are willing to try and do their best. I then asked about the pros and cons of having to work with the mastery journal. The students mentioned that it helped them to be consistent and work on the skills until they achieved proficiency, that it helped them to take small steps towards mastery, and gave them motivation to keep trying until they fully understood the concepts. However, for cons they mentioned that they would rather just work on the topic than having to examine their skills and reflect on them, since it takes more time and is in addition to their other work. They also said that it can be subjective because it could end up being based on what you think you know rather than what you actually know. However, that is why there is a lot of space for the teacher's feedback so both the student and the teacher are on the same page regarding the student's learning journey.
Survey Responses pt. 2
(April- 1st Post)
I decided to ask the students about the pros and cons of using the learning cycle to assess their skills. They mentioned that some of the pros were that it is well organized, which makes it easy to track their goals and visualize the skills they have to master, that they liked getting a lot of feedback from teachers on specific skills, and that they enjoyed being able to physically see what they have improved on. For the cons, they mentioned that sometimes it felt like unnecessary work and that there is not too much room for the skills. Since we are not trained and taught to learn in a way that allows for reflection on our learning, we are not used to taking the time to think about what, how, and why we are learning. I believe that because of this, taking time to actually do it might seem like a lot of extra work, but overall once the students get used to this system, it could prove incredibly beneficial.
Survey Responses pt. 3
(April- 2nd Post)
In order to try to target the stress, I asked about the advantages and disadvantages of working in an ungraded class setting. They mentioned that there was less pressure that made doing the work an easier task, they were able to go at their own pace and were not stressed about grades, and it gave them a lot of time to improve and ask questions without being defined by a number. The con they discussed was that there was less reward for doing well, which makes it hard to find motivation. My last questions was if whether or not they would like to apply this system in other classes. They answered that grades give them motivation to try hard, but that this is a good additional support, that they liked having the opportunity to express how they feel about certain topics in comparison to only having the teacher assigning them a grade, and it also made them feel motivated to not give up and be consistent in their learning.
REFLECTION
(May- Final Post)
I truly enjoyed working on this project for two years and learned a lot throughout the process of coming up with a new curriculum to replace grades. However, I found it very challenging to change the entire education system, and came to the realisation that although it is hard completely get rid of grades, we can still add small things that give additional support to students to make learning more enjoyable. My project suggests a way of shifting the way we think about learning and makes giving and receiving feedback a key component, which in the long run could be incredibly beneficial for students that could teach them how to love learning.