By James Penstone, Secondary Principal
To provide some form of answer, I referred to extensive data analysis carried out by an educational research team based in Melbourne University. The team, led by Professor John Hattie, has been grappling with this very same question for nearly 15 years.
I presented a small sample of their findings. For example, I shared that lack of sleep has a negative impact on student learning and achievement, as does anxiety and boredom. These are common-sense conclusions.
I also shared the claims that the employment of children’s parents has a negligible effect on student achievement but, conversely, parental involvement in a child’s education has quite a significant impact – in fact, it can “accelerate” a child’s learning. This connects well to the fact that 2550 appointments were booked by Secondary parents to meet with their children’s teachers over the course of Thursday and Friday this week.
At the assembly, I continued to present the research findings. There are certain student behaviours that have the “potential to considerably accelerate student achievement”:
1. Student Self-Efficacy
This is essentially when a student feels confident about the decisions they make. If you wanted to see what this looks like in practice, there is perhaps no better example than when, on Wednesday evening last week, Grade 10 students confidently articulated their decision-making through the course of their Personal Projects this year. We will undoubtedly hear similarly powerful self-efficacy in the forthcoming Grade 5 PYP Exhibition.
2. Self-judgement and Reflection
All three IB programmes (PYP, MYP and DP) actively encourage students to evaluate their learning, and to reflect on the process of their learning. If a student can articulate where they currently have reached with their learning journey, refer to evidence to support this, express where they wish to go with their learning, and identify the steps they will take to get there, then they are becoming ‘assessment capable’. Research confirms that such skills have a profound influence on their ability to learn successfully. This is why the Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences in both the Primary and Secondary school involve the child at the very centre of these important conversations. It also helps explain why our Secondary school reports now feature student reflections – which are mere snapshots of the ongoing and rich reflection undertaken by students of all ages at ICS.
3. Self-reported grades
This is a practice when students assess the quality of their own learning within a given subject area. In a recent Secondary Staff meeting, Jonathan Malcolm, acting Head of English, shared how he asks his Grade 11 students to write evaluative comments on their own work. He then shares his feedback as comments (no grades yet!), which the students compare against their own evaluations. Finally, he will only share the ‘grades’ once they have made their own estimation by consulting the assessment criteria. Having asked the students about the effectiveness of this strategy, the majority response has been that it is a highly useful way for them to engage with the learning intentions of the course they are studying. And the research matches their conclusions.
Parental involvement can have a significant influence on student learning…
This is true even when it comes to the questions we ask our children when they return home from school. So, rather than asking your child ‘what did you do today?’, the following suggestions might encourage deeper reflection:
- What did you learn today? How do you know?
- Did you make progress in your learning today? How do you know?
- What did you find challenging about your learning today? What did you learn from this?
- What feedback did you receive from your teacher(s) today? How will you use this feedback?
Wishing you and your family a wonderful weekend ahead!
Kind regards,
James Penstone
Secondary Principal