Tag: learning

The School Filter Bubble

AssessmentPublished onUpdated on12 Comments on The School Filter Bubble
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It is good to question what we see, as all too often we adhere to the life script that everyone else is happily playing out – for me Eli Pariser’s book The Filter Bubble helped me to once again question what we take as the truth, in his case the internet that is presented to us.

But what if there is a school filter bubble?

I am going to look at this as a parent and as a teacher.

My son is my favourite subject and there isn’t really any known limit to the amount I want to know about his day and what he is up to. He has been in full time school for just over a year and I still would love to follow him around for a day. But the message from school and what we find out as parents is only such a tiny fraction of what is happening at school.

We digest the presented message of school, of our children’s learning and the finer intricacies of what is taking place. The PR machine of school is crafting a message about the business of learning. And what a tough task that is because (a) learning is one of the most complex processes in the universe because of the number of factors that effect it and (b) the message is aimed at a (more than) captive audience – as parents we always want to know more.

It may come across that I am bashing school-home communications a bit – well the key thing for me – being a professional in the education sector – is that I know only a sliver of what is happening in my son’s learning life at school. Really only a fraction, the fraction that is communicated, shared at parents evening or in the odd newsletter or word at the classroom door. I don’t think that is enough.

Why should I just accept the school filter bubble?

How is it possible with all of the technology tools that build knowledge sharing, participation, crowd-sourcing, communities and overcome physical and social barriers to make connections, tools that side-step language and time differences and allow us instantaneous communication – that we still don’t have the true capacity to experience what is happening at school instantly, more easily, more quickly and more intuitively.

Well we should and one day we can make it happen.

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Pic Cost savings in The Netherlands: Now you see it, now you don’t by opensourceway

Everyone Round the Camp Fire – Learning Comes First in New School Design

Education ArchitecturePublished onUpdated on5 Comments on Everyone Round the Camp Fire – Learning Comes First in New School Design

6366760143 6fcbe45c05 zOver the last couple of years I have begun to take a deeper interest in the spaces that we call school and those we don’t but which are still considered spaces for learning.

Much of this focus has to do with our ongoing work at NoTosh with architectural firms and in support of schools seeking support and advice in making the most of new and old physical designs.

So I was drawn to this piece about a new school just outside Stockholm – partly due to the blog title – “Learning environments based on learning.” Here is a short extract in which Ante Runnquist explains some of the spaces or learning environments they have designed for the Vittra Telefonplan.

  • Campfire situations are characterised by communication flowing from one to many, requiring a space that can accommodate a certain number of people in a group situation, where everybody can focus on the person talking or presenting.
  • The watering hole is a place where people come and go, and a learning environment where you can gather in groups of different sizes. A watering hole is a place of exchanging communication, flowing back and forth. The watering hole areas are typically placed where you naturally would go, and where you maybe bump into somebody or something.
  • Show-off situations are situations where one person communicates towards the rest of the world, showing what he or she can do or has done, thus requiring a physical space for display and exhibition.
  • In the cave, communication flows within oneself, requiring a physical frame that furthers seclusion and contemplation.
  • Lastly, the laboratories are places where the students can acquire hands-on experiences, working physically and practically with projects in a societal and experimental context. The laboratories inspire students and teachers alike, enlarging the learning experience and inspiring teachers to use different tactile approaches.

In practical terms the learning that is going to take place dictates what space would be best. And Ante Runnquist, a Vittra researcher and the author of the post, supports what we believe at NoTosh about how the pedagogy surely is the forerunner for any school design.

Even though pedagogy has changed greatly over the last 100 years or so, the physical blueprint for schools, dating back to medieval monasteries remain: it is one based on time-space-topic. Behind this lies a basic assumption that the students need to be regulated , if a school doesn’t verify that the students are in the right place at the right time and doing the right things, they simply wouldn’t do it.

During our trip to Sydney in November of 2011 Ewan and I found an old book of school designs from decades ago and were amazed to see how traditional the furniture was in the diagrams. Despite the interesting spaces being crafted and planned, you could still see the regimented learning that would take place from the rows of desks. Some things never change.

In our experience new school design does not automatically mean a school is thinking about learning in new ways – much of our design thinking work helps school do just that and if we are fortunate this precedes any physical planning. In fact it should inform the design.

It is exciting to see that the plans at Vittra Telefonplan have this as a simliar focus.

First, I think we have to rethink pedagogy: what are the dynamics of an education with focus on on 21st century skills? Second, as a consequence: we need to rethink the learning environment. When we do this, things start to happen.

Picture: Detritus of “meaningless language” to describe learning cast aside by students at MLC (Sydney, Australia) by Ewan McIntosh

How Do We Change A Cultural Fascination With Grades?

AssessmentPublished onUpdated on31 Comments on How Do We Change A Cultural Fascination With Grades?

Assessment graph1

Over on Google+ I have conducted a short survey to further explore the challenges that educators face when attempting to implement assessment for learning strategies in schools. By which I mean a focus on the process of learning, improving student’s metacognition, sustained opportunities for reflection and a general effort to assess “for” learning not “of” learning.

With over 100 responses this short straw poll indicates that it is not the lack of time or issues around timetabling that make this process a challenge, but a cultural focus on levels and grades. 58% of those who responded felt that it was this single factor that was influenced assessment implementation within schools.

I was surprised that this proved so conclusive (even within such a small sample) – I was expecting the other more practical factors to play a part for educators such as timetabling, a lack of training or indeed a curriculum that does not flex to accommodate changes brought about by assessment for learning.

In fact the second highest response again is a reference to summative assessment – taken together nearly 75% of responses point the finger at the ongoing fascination with summative assessment, grades and levels.

But how do we alter such an entrenched view? When we think of our own schools, is there a lack of appetite for anything other than grades and levels?

I think that one thing that would begin to change this perception of what is important in the classroom would be a concerted effort to better understand assessment in total. This is especially important for parents and pupils so that they do not skew the value they place on end of year assessments or reports. Also the message that the school puts out about what is important and how this plays out day to day.

This is not so clear cut the older children get and the further they get into education – you could argue that as a student gets older the focus on their grades and levels becomes more intense. It becomes less about how they have learned something or what the journey was like, and more about the net result – the grade.

What do you think? There is no overnight fix, but what steps could teachers and schools take to shift the focus away from simply a grade or level? If this is such a clearly perceived barrier, how do we change it?

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Survey: What is the biggest challenge to implementing assessment for learning?

I Don’t Have Time For Formative Assessment

Assessment, CurriculumPublished onUpdated on10 Comments on I Don’t Have Time For Formative Assessment

assessment challenges

Although a fairly narrow view on the barriers to implementing assessment for learning, the cross section of views shared on the Google Document have been excellent as a starting point for discussion.

The above Wordle is a helpful representation of those contributions. I have removed the following words from the visual: assessment, formative, teachers, learning and students in an effort to focus on the other language more readily used to describe the issues.

“Time” appears as a perceived barrier to quality formative assessment or assessment for learning – but is it really such an issue? Is curriculum time often shunted and pinched too readily? Do we not protect our curriculum time, and so time for reflection, fiercely enough from the other pressures in school?

What grade did I get though?

AssessmentPublished onUpdated on35 Comments on What grade did I get though?

Over on an open document educators have been recording their thoughts about the challenges of formative assessment in schools. It is a crucial part of learning and there have been some interesting reactions, so I thought I would draw out some comments and explore them more deeply. Here is the first:

Pupils themselves often find the transition to formative assessment extremely difficult: the urge to ask “What grade did I get though?” is so strong and deeply set in their minds!

This comment really struck me because of what it implies. When schools implement systems and policies for assessment we are intervening in the process of learning in some fashion. The comment above implies that we are also forming long lasting habits, which is perfectly understandable – if consistently applied we are shaping what learning is for many students.

What a shame it would be if students really do only think of what it will lead to, an outcome, a grade – and to lose sight of the process of learning, which formative assessment can contribute to.

If a student group finds anything about formative assessment difficult we have done them a dis-service. If they rely too heavily on the “grade”, the importance of their learning habits and sheer joy of learning have surely been left far behind.