Just ask the kids

Who is school for?

An easy enough question on the face of it - but if your answer is - "for the students of course" then my next question is - so how do we know it is working for them? Mmmm....

It was asking ourselves these questions that led us out to one of our local schools. And so....

Two weeks ago a couple of us met with 12 students from Hutt Intermediate. We decided we needed to ask the students how they were using e-devices and digital materials to assist their learning. Great kids.

Of little surprise was the ubiquity of the cell phone and it's place as number one gadget for texting and music. Magazines and newspapers seemed to be off the diet (although this group was still reading books), largely replaced by liberal doses of on-line face-booking and to a lesser extent games.

As a result of this meeting we invited the students and their teacher and principal to Learning Media. We were keen for them to have a look at some of the resources we had created and think about how they could be enhanced digitally to support their learning. The students worked in small groups and then shared their thinking with the whole group at the end.

As a result of the students feedback it became clear that they wanted the digital enhancements to do at least 3 things:

- amplify the meaning embedded in the resource through use of video, audio, diagrams, and games

- clarify the words or phrases of the text or diagrams through audio and links to dictionaries or definitions

- support the use of the resources (or parts thereof) in other work the students were involved in (such as projects or presentations)

Now there is nothing here that would possibly stun you as incredibly new or different.But what it is is authentic. It is real. Real in that it represents the actual thoughts and voices of the students.

And so my challenge is for us to consider how, when, to what extent, and in what ways are we engaging with students to understand their perspectives and lived experiences of learning, school and the classroom. Great initiatives, such as Te Kotahitanga, have emerged from such humble beginnings.

The Power of Feedback

Last fathers day my kids gave me a heart rate monitor. As per usual I thanked them for their thoughtfulness. The fascinating thing (since I started wearing it!) has been the impact it has had on my exercise regime. Once I was aware of my heart rate I was able to adjust the intensity of my exercise to keep it within my target zone (go here for a cool little target heart rate calculator). As a result my exercise has been more focussed and I have got fitter faster.

Feedback is critical to anyone (or any group) who seeks to improve or change.

Hattie and Timperley in their paper The Power of Feedback provide a model of feedback for student learning. Their model suggests that there are 3 questions central to effective feedback:

• Where am I going? (a goal focus)
• How am I going? (progress)
• Where to next? (feedforward or next steps)

These questions work at four levels:

• task level (how well are the tasks performed or understood)
• process level (the processes required to achieve the tasks)
• self-regulation level (my growth as an independent learner)
• self level (personal evaluations of my worth in relation to the above)

The level at which feedback is applied is critical to its effectiveness. In general the best feedback moves from task to process to self-regulation level, and praise at a self level is often of little effect and sometimes has a negative effect on improvement. Other factors for effective feedback include timing, clarity, amount, compatibility with students prior knowledge, and level of threat (best when low) to the students sense of self.

I am sure that this model does not only apply to students. It is a useful model for all of us regarding the feedback we give and receive. The big idea is that are energised when we are able to identify the discrepancy between our performance and our target and know how to close the gap (or at least a part of it). We get hooked on improvement. Feedback is that critical piece that enables us to 'grasp' the discrepancy and put pressure on it.

Doing the basics well is a critical part of sound leadership. Providing and receiving effective feedback to and from members of our team is one of those basics.

So....when did you last give or receive some effective feedback?