Narrative in Teaching and Learning- Teacher as a Researcher

Before reading the article, I never thought of a teacher as a researcher; however, a teacher is a researcher. Narrative in teaching can be a teacher who is able to explore his/her teaching, his/her classroom, so that they can improve their teaching, comes out with more new ideas, and then apply all of them into the classroom teaching; or, teaching students the real experiences from ourselves or others; therefore, makes the class more informatively, interesting and unforgettable.

One of my education professors used to record the lectures; therefore, after the class, the professor can review the whole class. Because sometimes when you teach, in your dimension, you as a teacher and students are all objects you can observe; therefore, you are easily ignore a lot of familiar elements that effect your teaching quality. However, if you see the lecture record after the class, teacher becomes an audience; view the interaction between teachers (which is him/herself) and students in the classroom. Using different point of view to observe students’ performance, reflect ourselves teaching really makes our teaching different.

Teacher Researcher

When I think of narritive researcher I think of trial and error through reflective practice. After reading the article on Education Insights, I think teachers become researchers when they are reflecting on their classroom and trying new ways of teaching and applying ideas. I was first introduced to reflection in this class and I thought it was something that teachers did after each lesson that they taught and asked themselves, how well did the children learn the concepts? Is there a different way that I could have taught this idea? After reading this weeks article I realized that it goes beyond an individual lesson, it is also important to look at the big picture, even as big as the whole cirriculum and how we think of it. Teachers who dive beyond the ordinary with be able to reach their students.

When I think of doing research I think of sitting in front of a computer screen for hours reading academic articles till your eyes go cross. My idea of research is that of a student or academic, but teachers doing research can involove looking for more sources, yet what it really involves is the re-searching of the same ideas and finding new ways to teach concepts to students.

Teachers as Researchers

I also along with many others in the class have not thought of teachers as researchers. But after reading Gabriella Minnes Brandes and Lynn Fels’ article, I recognize that teachers as researchers have been the ones that tend to put in the extra time and effort to get to know their students better and are the ones that are often reflecting from their practices; for example, taking into consideration Mamchur’s personality types, learning styles, Gardner’s multiple intelligences, etc. to understand and help design/alter curriculum and make changes/adaptations to maximize student’s potential to learn and succeed in the classroom. In turn, these teachers have better relationships with the students and the environment created within the classroom becomes a place where students’ learning is benefitted.

Being a teacher requires a lot of dedication and time and it is clear to be now that teachers who reflect on their own practices are considered to be researchers. Reflecting on one’s practices can be very beneficial, seeing how to better what works and improving on what doesn’t work for the next time can make the lesson more beneficial and effective as it can prevent time from being wasted in class.

Narrative in teaching and Learning and Teacher / researcher

Narration is part of our daily life. “It is everywhere, and is fundamental to human understanding, communication and social interaction.” Narrative means “ a spoken or written account of connected events” (Oxford Dictionary). In recent years, narrative research has gained more importance in social sciences. For example, it is an important branch in history and is widely used as a source of historical events. Usage of narrative in teaching and research can bring new methods and ways of seeing oneself and society.

For teachers in order to find newer approaches in teaching and curriculum research is essential. “Curriculum became imagined not as a fixed entity but as currere, the Latin word meaning to run with, to run on a course, thereby forefronting action and becoming an integral component of action.” I believe for educators in order to enrich their perception of teaching, research should be an integral part of their activity. In conducting research narrative can play a fine role, since it is unique for everyone, it is partially imaginative, it is creative, and it can encourage students directly or indirectly to view the things from different angles. Also, for a teacher / researcher will crate a valuable opportunity to examine the effects of narrative in students.

Re-imagining Curriculum is a very interesting article which examines various approaches in research. I specially liked the part that talks about the practice of giving students the opportunity to choose their own curricular activities and most interestingly the result wasn’t a chaos in the classroom.

“Narrative in Teaching and Learning”

As narrative deals with human lives or human like experiences, it can be conceived as an authentic educational tool that makes contents “believable”, “rememberable”, and “entertaining”. By using narrative in learning, educators make information less forgettable and favor the exploration of the deeper meaning of the content. Narrative involves students in the action, and engages, this way, their intention. Certainly, the learner involvement deeply depends on the power of narrative. It can give students new knowledge, and broader perspectives because they aim the territory of human experiences, and open way to personal growth and change. But, it’s necessary to add that inserting narrative into teaching and learning is an art. Educators should know how to give learners the right and sufficient space to interact with the content: as Leitch(1986) said, “to tell too much, to provide the answers to all questions spoken and anticipated, is to render the active engagement of the learner unnecessary. To tell too little is to leave the learner with insufficient guidance or support in constructing her or his own meaning and relationship with the content”.

Narrative in Teaching and Learning

I never thought of teachers as researchers, but now I understand that teachers are like researchers. Teachers use various resources, other teachers' experiences and especially their own experiences to help them with their research. Many times teachers try new strategies and explore new ways, but sometimes it doesn't turn out the way they want it to. But that's ok because they just need to continue trying and looking for new strategies. Teachers are always researching to help better their teachings/lessons. They have to keep finding new activities for their lessons and ways to improve their lessons. Also, when researching, teachers need to always keep their students in mind. Teachers have to find ways/methods to help better their students learning. Different students have different needs and teachers must attend to their needs by looking for new options for them. But for teachers to attend to students needs, they need to know what their needs are and students will be able to open up if teachers create environments where students feel comfortable and safe and create relationships that are caring and supportive. Teachers can research how to create safe and comfortable environments and help students thrive in these environments.

So I feel that teachers are always researching whether it be to better themselves, their teachings or to help find strategies to help their students better their learning and attend to their needs. There is no harm in improving lessons or finding new strategies or even trying out new methods. If experiences fail, then they just learn from that experience and move onto another strategy.

Narrative in Teaching and Learning- Teacher as a Researcher

Before reading the article, I never thought of a teacher as a researcher; however, looking closely at the role of a teacher reveals one as a researcher. When teachers are observing their students and finding ways to help each individual, teachers are researching into their students in how much they are capable of and what skills they need to work on. Teachers are looking for ways to make learning easy for students, and make adjustments in lessons if required; thus, this would also be considered researching as teachers are using books and thinking about ways to develop their lessons. As Gabriella Minnes and Lynn Fels says, “For us, researching as meaning making became a project of interruption, of intervention, of pause and reflection, of re-searching new ways of engagement” (2006); I believe same goes for teachers, who are always searching for ways to make their lessons engaging and meaningful for students. I agree with Krystal that “researching should be a constant act that a teacher does” (Krystal Ng, July 27, 2011); as teachers constantly research and reflect on the various activities, students would feel more motivated to learn, without feeling vulnerable about school. I feel that as a potential teacher, I would be always researching to find ways to become a better teacher, and figure out how to help my students learn better. Also, interacting with other staff and parents, and reading books are also a way of researching, where we search for alternatives to how lessons, activities, etc. are being delivered; thus, improving in the profession of teaching.

Narrative research

I believe research is very important to do in academia, both in the position of a student and as a teacher. As a teacher, it is a way to see if what you're doing is working in the sense that it has a positive impact on your students, and if it isn't, then hopefully it will also inspire you to change your practice to enhance positive student experience. It's important to remember that teachers should also always be learning - both from their experiences and through research combined. 
I know that asking questions and researching them shouldn't stop after post-secondary. However, I can't help but feel that teaching could be overwhelming at times and when you have stacks of papers to mark, self-reflecting and researching may not be on your list of priorities. But I do agree that it is important to reflect on your teaching at some point so that the students are given the best possible opportunity to succeed and that largely depends on their experiences in the classroom. If you find you're not getting the results you want in your classroom, you shouldn't stop until you find something that works. 
There are obviously obstacles in implementing new research strategies in the classroom and I think getting approval to try new things is a huge barrier for teachers. There are permission slips, and you need approval from administrative staff, etc., that can really dampen your efforts to get every student and perhaps other teachers on board. It can be frustrating when you want to initiate positive change. Researching together, like the teacher-researchers in the article had, might help the initiatives gain momentum, as well as help other teachers reflect on their own practices.
Lastly, stemming from Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Freire,  I think it's essential to demonstrate to your students that you are not the sole giver of knowledge, but that you too, learn from others and the knowledge they have to give. Like Karen Nesmith realized in the article, you should be willing to do those things you ask your students to do and I wholly agree with that. 

Teacher as a researcher

I have never thought of teacher as a researcher, but now that I think about it, it does make sense. As Krystal suggested that teachers acting as researchers with other teachers in order to find out the best way to manage the classroom, I think on top of that, teachers sometimes also act as researchers when the students have problems at home.

A teacher is always learning new things from the students, although mostly not academic knowledge. When teaching, the first thing for a teacher to accomplish is not to make sure that every student is doing great in class (in terms of academic) however, it is to make sure every student feels comfortable in the classroom that comes first in becoming a good teacher. Therefore, teacher always research about ways to create a safe classroom environment from her own experience with the students, from outside (probably from the library), and also from other experienced teachers. That makes a teacher a researcher, a researcher who is always trying to improve her classroom management skills in order to help students learn better and more.

A teacher who doesn’t see herself/himself as a researcher most likely is see his/her teaching as a job. She/he probably does not care that much about improving his/her classroom and the students performances and therefore does not spend time researching information that will help her/him gain more knowledge on classroom management. It is quite important for a teacher to realize that she/he is also a researcher since therefore this teacher will always try to find new ways in dealing with students’ problems.

I do believe in that every person is perfect in their very own way. However, when it comes to teaching, I think every teacher has space to improve and can never see her/himself as a perfect teacher because students change according to various reasons. Students in the old days are definitely different from students in nowadays, just like fashion, hairstyles,makeup and all the things that you can possibly think of. Hence, a teacher should always research new knowledge in order to suit the students’ needs.

Teacher as Researcher - Instructional Intelligence

Teacher as Researcher – Instructional Intelligence
I find this week’s topic of narrative research interesting as it illustrates the pedagogically sound principle of reflective practice. Throughout this course we have been required to reflect following our assignments and to be honest I found this a frustrating component. Perhaps due to course load time constraints or my learning needs as an ESFJ, I prefer clear cut and quantifiable guidelines and felt uncomfortable with the need to analyze assignments. I think this comes from my preference to get feedback from others as well as my own highly self-critical nature.

I have begun to see that reflective practice does hold considerable merit. In my LA course this semester we have learned that the act of writing helps students organize and further their thoughts. Further the narrative format is a way of writing that accesses both our senses and feelings in a personally accountable way. We are giving voice to our feelings and ideas and in essence allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. The experience of writing a narrative story in my LA course was an excruciating process yet the outcome was profoundly exhilarating! I was able to discover my voice and allow myself the gift of creating a personal touchstone. I do think it is important to consider the audience of the reflection just as students behaviour is affected by the observer hence our reflections are impacted by the fact that they are not wholly for us as they become documents of academic assessment.

The article on re-imagining curriculum was profound as it spoke to the idea of a cooperative arrangement of curriculum between teachers and students. The impact of studying curriculum by the M. Ed. teachers allowed the students the opportunity to move from receivers of curriculum to participants with curriculum. This was the “empowerment and possibility of invitation” that the author Bandes and Fels speak of.

This notion reminds me of the article I found to supplement my reading facilitation. It was entitled “Instructional Intelligence” and was written by John Mazurek. The article explains that instructional intelligence is the ability to combine and integrate instructional processes in ways that are powerful for student learning. The author reiterates the need for teachers to be consciously aware of their instructional decisions to be able to understand why their lessons work or don’t work. The author purports that only through the practice of focused reflection and a commitment to articulate the process of teaching can instructional intelligence be realized.
Narrative research has value I believe, but perhaps is difficult to quantify. The value is perhaps more in the avenues for exploration and in the questions it gives birth to. Perhaps this personal need I have to find the most productive way to reach outcome is my real foe. What I am beginning to realize is that the answers I seek may not be out there in literature and textbooks. The answers to becoming the educator I envision will originate from within only when I embrace the questions that the answers convey.

Narrative in teaching and learning: Narrative research

Narrative inquiry provides researchers with a framework through which they can investigate the ways people experience the world as seen through their stories. Narrative research is increasingly used in studies of educational practice and experience, primarily because teachers, like all other human beings, are storytellers who individually and socially lead storied lives (Stories of Experience and Narrative Inquiry, Connelly & Clandinin, 1990).

One discussion on narrative research that I had with a university instructor of mine was particularly memorable for me. She was working towards her doctorate in Kinesiology. Kinesiology has a school of thought that is predominantly highly scientific in methodology and research, however, her speciality was looking at pedagogy in physical education. She exclaimed this posed many sources of frustration for her as her academic peers would always want her to show some sort of measurable analysis in her research papers. They didn’t see narrative research as being measurable. Her rebuttal was that the best way to defend pedagogical advances in education is relative to experiences. Experiences cannot easily be attached to numbers. There are times when words speak better than numbers, and it is for this reason that much of her research is based on personal and individual experiences. She did also see the value in backing up these personal experiences with more quantitative analysis, as she said it tends to alleviate some of the researcher bias than may be involved using narrative alone.

Narratives research enables the study of teachers and their teaching in development within the teachers’ social, cultural, and institutional settings. (Reflections on the Narrative Research Approach, Moen, T., 2006). However, I also believe narratives do not semantically make sense unless they are compared with other narratives. As Vygotsky said, every function in cultural development appears first on a social level (interpsychological) and later on an individual level (intrapsychological) (Vygotsky, 1978, p.57). As a teacher, personal narrative is important because one can only think about teaching and think about learning by contemplating how one acts and reacts in a range of situations, both professionally and personally. However, one can only make meaning of these experiences by learning from others’ experiences as well.

I strongly believe the use of narrative research/inquiry is critical in being able to adopt a cultural opening up of acceptance to all others. I also believe that continual research into best teaching practices is important. But if every teacher has a narrative and every narrative is different, then whose narratives do we believe/adopt/accept as our own? Ultimately, I believe we need to find our own personal narrative based on the narratives of others.

Through others, we become ourselves. ~ Lev Vygotsky

Narrative in teaching and learning - Teacher as researcher

Being a teacher never struck me as being a researcher also. Now that I think about it however, it does make sense that a teacher can also be a researcher. I'll try to place this in different contexts to clarify why I agree with the statement of "teacher as researcher".

Inside the school, teachers play many roles. Teachers have to co-operate with other teachers and administrators to ensure that the school runs smoothly. Teachers also have to work with other teachers to ensure a good working environment. Teachers sometimes have to act as mediators between students and administrators as well. Teachers also have to act as researchers with other teachers to find out what are the best classroom management strategies through guess-and-test. By way of research, teachers can find out the best possible classroom management skills for different types of students through discussion with other teachers.

Inside the classroom, teachers are constantly researching as well. Teachers have to find the best options for each student because each student has different needs. As a researcher in the classroom, teachers have to use different strategies to make sure each student is cared for and that each student is learning at the best of their abilities. Teachers have to research which methods best suits which students for a good growing and learning environment. I'm sure even expert teachers are still constantly researching for better ways of managing their classroom because bettering one's classroom management requires continuous research because each year the students and the environment changes.

Outside school, teachers have to be researchers in order to better themselves as a teacher. I would like to think of this as the phrase, "One can never be good enough". As a student at SFU and a daughter in my family of four, there has rarely been times where I have said to myself that I have done well or good enough. Most of the time, there are always improvements to be made. This goes for teaching as well. Even though I'm not quite a teacher yet, I believe that all teachers should always look for ways to improve their teaching so that students can get the most out of school. Outside of school, teachers have to constantly re-adjust their attitudes and their teaching to make sure it is the best that the students are receiving. To do so, teachers need to research. Teachers can do so by researching better ways or methods to teach (or examples of successful teaching), ask expert teachers for suggestions and improvements, and even go to students and ask them what it is that they like or not like about the teacher's teaching in the classroom.

I believe that researching should be a constant act that a teacher does because let's not forget, teaching is a profession that requires a lot of time and dedication. Teachers teach for different reasons but most importantly, the students are what will constitute our future society. By researching, teachers show that they are taking their profession seriously and knows that students can benefited by their research.

Narrative Research

Personally, I believe that teachers should examine their practice in order to identify areas needing improvement or to implement new practices. However, I think that the inclusion of research in the classroom can be made difficult by the ethics of research. Like Brandes and Fels (2006), I also question if children are solely engaged and coerced into participating in research projects because of the fact that their classroom teacher is the researcher. Furthermore, Schon (as cited in Brandes and Fels) raises some good questions: “How is it that action research is suspect as a research methodology, held accountable by warnings of coercion, and power differentials? Yet action research simultaneously so coherently mirrors the reflective (and ethical) practice of reflective practitioners”.

In regards to narrative research, all teachers will have stories that contain wisdom and stories that they will tell in order to help them understand themselves. Under this approach, teachers must acknowledge that their stories are co-constructed by themselves and their students. Some of the stories teachers have may become the dominant stories (stories that stand out the most or those that seem to be the most true to them) in their lives. (Murdock, 2009) As Niomie pointed out, narrative theory emphasizes the fact that the individual is not the problem, but that the individual is being affected by the specific problem (Murdock).

With knowledge of the challenges presented by the ethics of research, I think that teachers still must take any opportunities they can to engage in research and self-reflection regarding their teaching practices. Teachers can tell their stories, reflect on them, and learn from them. Teachers’ stories can act as a guide, pointing them in the best direction for themselves and their students.

Murdock, N. L. (2009). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: A case approach (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Narrative in teaching and learning: Narrative research

My experience with Narrative practice has been in the area of counseling or psychotherapy. In Narrative psychotherapy one generally works with clients to support the externalization of specific problems. Specifically, one works with clients to support the notion that “the problem is the problem - the person is NOT the problem”. Through a process of meaning making, we work to support clients to externalize problems and reconstruct their narratives such that they have a better understanding of “the problem’s” effect on their lives. Through narrative therapy, clients work to “re-author” or “re-story” their life’s narratives.

Taking this knowledge and applying it to teaching, learning, and narrative research, the idea of “re-storying” continues to be meaningful for me. Narrative is the process of meaning making in teaching, learning and research. The process of narration is suggestive of a narrator and an audience. In essence, we are not so much just telling a story of what happened, we are making meaning of what happened in teaching, learning, and research. In terms of assessment in teaching, I cannot help but compare and contrast narrative methods with more objective, quantitative means of assessment. In narrative assessment, we work with students to make meaning of what has been learned. Portfolios are often used as a means of narrative assessment. Using portfolios in teaching and learning serves to foster reflective practice for students. Portfolios are both a process of reflective inquiry as well as a means of documenting what is known, what is learned, and what can be used in the future. Bruner (1986) has argued that Narrative is a way of learning.

As I am writing this, I am wondering ….how I can work to combine my Narrative work in counseling and psychotherapy with that of teaching? I am also wondering … how can we promote authentic narrative practice in teaching and learning within the high demands of the education profession. In my experience, Narrative practice takes both time and space for ideas and reflections to surface (it is creative) - how can we expect this to happen authentically within high stress and high-demand situations? How can we prevent students (and teachers) from simply “going through the motions” as they will do when there are so many other expectations and/or stressors. How can we balance qualitative with quantitative ways of teaching and learning to support optimum development in out teachers and our students?

Effective feedback

The grades cause often anxiety for students. But as difficult as grades can be for students, the grading process is also hard for teachers, particularly new ones. But if are able to keep some basic principles in mind, we can enhance student learning. So, evaluating student work is more than simply assigning grades, comments that explain our assessment and a willingness to have conversations about ideas are important. The goal of evaluating student work is to encourage students to continue learning, not to provide mean and hard feedbacks that decrease their intrinsic motivation.

Commenting on student work is an important part of the educational process; simply assigning a grade is not enough, because our comments tell the student why we graded as we did and how he or she can improve in the future. Comments can justify and explain the grade. And as I said, comments let us give student feedbacks for continued improvement. Students can see what they need to do better or differently in the future to reach the goals of the courses. Comments can also motivate en encourage students. When it is properly written, they can inspire the students to continue working and improving as learners.

But, I think comments should be balanced. “Constructive comments generally reflect a balance between three kinds of comments: what was done well, what was weak and how the student can improve” (Evaluating and grading the student work, University of southern California).

 But we should be careful to not over-marking student work and not to over-criticize. Too many negative comments can overwhelm students.

Evaluation and Feedback by Sara

We send youth to school in order to gain knowledge and move onto successful careers, however this is something often hindered by ineffective evaluation. No matter how hard a student tries in school, without adequate evaluation and feedback, it becomes extraordinarily difficult to succeed. Despite our requirement as educators to introduce a certain amount of material to our students, it is all for not if they are not given ample opportunity to realize where they stand within the curriculum.

As a result of my group project being on evaluation, and in particular feedback, my thoughts immediately go towards this subject matter. Feedback, myself and my group mates introduced to the class last week, as many facets and different ways of working in the classroom—both positively and negatively. In class we have thoroughly discussed all the ways in which we can manage our classrooms, and feedback is most definitely one of them. Nevertheless, making use of feedback, especially in excess amounts or not the right type, can actually hinder a student’s progress. When feedback turns to praise of the student, rather than the work they are doing, issues arise.

So, what do we do instead, revert to feedback that focuses singularly on students progress: grades. But herein lays another problem. When students receive letter grades, or percentage grades, are they really understanding exactly what this means about the status of their progress? Is a letter grade even signifying a student’s progress at all? When given a letter grade, students get immediate feedback on their status within a class, but what they aren’t getting is an understanding of what factors contributed to that grade.

How then are we meant to evaluate our students efficiently and still allow them to understand and grow from it? This is no easy task. I feel however that we must find a happy medium between letter grades and oral feedback. While some of my classmates have been writing in their blogs that grading is a negative evaluation tactic, I feel that my personality type would not function well in a classroom without it. Without a concrete representation of how well I’m doing in a class, I find it really hard to get motivated and interested in the work I’m expected to complete. Even with oral and written feedback that explains the pros and cons of my work and allows me a groundwork to move forward, I really am attached to that grade—as bad as that may seem. This is why I believe that a combination of grade and feedback is a step in the right direction towards effective and profitable evaluation.

Effective Evaluation and Feedback

Grading as an assessment of students' work may not be as not meaningful as we thought it was. It gives validation to the work and also lets student how well they do in the course, so students can keep tract on their progress. It also gives motivation to the students to learn. However, whether or not the students are motivated by the grades, it really depends on how the student take them. A student can be motivated by both "good" and "bad" grades, but some students can be discouraged by bad grades and/or feel slacking off when they have good grades. This means that students' personalities does matter in terms of grading. What and how grades/marks mean to students depends on their personality. I think the meaning underlying means more than a letter grade / mark itself.

Grading reflects how well students' work is in some academic areas such as physics and math but not the other areas such as arts, sports, and social science. The contents of materials in some science courses are quantifiable, for example Algebra equations and questions based on Newton Laws. The answers of these kinds of questions are right-or-wrong. Grade in these academic areas can reflect what students have learned. However, concepts of some materials in other academic areas are abstract and subjective. Art and music classes are good examples. Essay assignments on analysis of a philosophic principle is another example. It is not a easy task for teachers to delivery a fair assessment by only grades. The quality of the students' work is not reflected by just a letter grade/mark. In these areas, feedback and comments of the students' work are more likely to give students a fair assessment by explicitly stating strengths, weakness, and suggestions.

Not only the contents of some academic areas are subjective, but also teachers' perceptions are subjective too. Their perceptions directly affect how they think about the students' assignments. This means that grades given to the students are subjectively influenced by teachers' perceptions, possibly also, by their mood, exhaustion, stress, and other both internal and external factors that influence teachers' subjective views. Therefore, grading are less likely to give a fair assessment of students' work. One may argue, when teachers' judgement is interfered, nor feedback does give a fair assessment to students' assignments. Writing feedback requires teachers a deeper thoughts and analysis of students' work. The cognitive thinking process, I believe, would give a more fair and meaningful evaluation of students' assignments. Hence, feedback does provide a better sense of evaluation than a grade.

Some possible benefits of effective feedback are, first, it gives students better sense of how they do in a class, hence, they can do reflection and adjustment, second, it may improve the communication between teacher and students, and thus, create a good teacher-student relationship, and in the end, students would have an improvement in learning outcomes in terms better achievement in exams and better social emotional developments.

Assessment and Feedback

This semester i took EDUC 325 which is Classroom Assessment, and I must say true useful assessment is very hard to come by. To make it worth the teacher and student's time, the assessment and feedback has to be very structure for a purpose.  From what I learned in that class, many teachers just do not have the time to create a good assessment that will be helpful for students. It seems that many teachers due to the time constrains just assess for the sake of assessing.  There are many times where the assessment is pure memorization and not understanding the material.

It also often that teachers will look at the curriculum and create their outlines for that year and have assessment around those outlines rather than the actual curriculum.  As mentioned in Mamchur's traps of evaluation, I believe this is the first one where teachers are finding the easy way out.  I realize this is a major problem with teaching as i learn more and more about education.  This job is so overwhelming that teachers are bound to take the easy way out of things.  Be it assessment or management of the classroom.  I often ask myself "is this their fault"?  In elementary you have a class of 30 for the whole  year with different socioeconomic backgrounds and they will have different cultural and moral values.  In high school you have around 6-7 classes of 30, how can you effectively teach them.  

I believe the system will eat up any young and new enthusiastic new teacher that wants to change the world because they find it difficult to go against the system for the greater good and just conform. Well I am going off in a tangent here.

Let's focus.
Effective feedback is key for a student's growth.  As mentioned in Mamchur marking stuff endlessly and correcting. feedback that is precise should be focused on as it will help the student.  In my experience as a student, i did not learn much from my mistakes when teachers just circle my grammar problems and write short statements asking me why i didn't include this in my writing.  These comments did not help me as it just points to the fact that I was wrong.  However, I know what is effective feedback is.  I had professors who wrote a one page single space critique of my 10 page papers.  They would write what was weak about my paper and actually give me feedback as to how I could have improved my paper by including other material.  This is true feedback, as it will help me in the future or make me notice my own weaknesses.

It's hard being a teacher, but it's worth it.!

Assessment, Evaluation and Differentiation

Of all the pedagogical ideas I have been exposed to during the course of my education, the idea of assessment and evaluation is the one I struggle with the most. In my 402 midterm evaluation I listed assessment strategies and evaluation as an area of growth that I need to work on. I mentioned that I wanted to explore how evaluatin can be used to access the different learning styles and hence needs to the student. I feel that I still need to read and integrate the differentiated tenants into my teaching philosophy. To that end I have Tomlinson's book The Differentiated Classroom ready for my free time in August.

In reading the blissfully short article on traps of evaluation, I was surprised to feel myself nodding as I could readily think of examples and teachers in my past who I feel fell into these traps. The most damaging I think is ineffective feedback as it does little to increase needed skills, does not build self evaluation skills of students, and I think curtails student engagement with the subject. I feel that one of the most important skills I have been taught in my school career is the need for rubrics as assessment tools. Ideally, they should be developed with the students so that the standards are internalized, are clear and meaningful. Learning in class should be about building student responsibility and an engagement with life not merely giving teachers back the information they want to hear in quizzes, tests, and essays.

The discussion on this topic has been very informative and helpful as investigating the practical issues of class dynamics was the reason I took this course as my elective. I appreciate the classroom descriptions that have been provided in the blogs as they offer a case study basis as a counterpoint to a decidedly theoretical perspective. Helen provided a essential list of observed learning differences that can incorporated by a teacher in a differentiated classroom framework. Clover brings up an interesting point about early academics and competion for young children. One wonders how full day kindergarten has impacted the desire of parents for their children to excell academically. I think that we expect children to be mini adults and over schedule them in the name of creating successful learners. Especially in the primary grades the learning timelines and emotional maturity of children differ so greatly I think that promoting academic success is often damaging. I feel instead we need to focus on engaging learners and on personal growth. This I think is why the ancedotal comments on report cards are more important for parents to read than the checklist of skills.

I have been fortunate to have taken the Designs for learning LA course this summer with Katrina(Fabulous Instructor - Kellie Buis). The text that she mentions is the 6+1 Traits of Writing by Ruth Culham and it is a book worth its weight in gold!! Culham sets out an easy to follow rubric of evaluation strategies and corresponding mini lessons that teach all 6+1 traits of writing: ideas, sentence fluency, organization, word choice, voice, conventions, plus presentation. The core of the theory is that writing is a process that needs constructive, meaningful feedback presented as a scaffold to encourage successful growth. Personally I have found the assignment of writing a narrative story transformational. Originally I was a reluctant writer but through the process of writing and revision have arrived at a narrative story that is a personal touchstone. I have a great resource now for facilitating the writing of students, and the book also points to the need for assessing with rubrics in a systematic and impartial manner. The teaching of this rubric to students is of paramount importance - Student self - evaluation and teacher evaluation need to work together to ultimately foster student self directed learning.

Assessment and evaluation are something I still struggle with. Assessment is the observations of student demonstrated learning and needs to be on-going in the classroom - reading and writing conferences, asiignments and quizzes, projects, and presentations. Evaluation is primarily for reporting purposes and is the student's proficiency at meeting the IRP grade level goals. The tricky part will be transitioning from assessment information to evaluation mode!

Effective feedback?

When I think of feedback, constructive criticism comes to mind. Last class I had to complete a peer review for one of the group presentations. I must admit I had great difficulty completing the task. Not because I had nothing positive to say about the presentation, but because I wasn’t able to provide specific details on what I had observed. For this reason, I may have a slight fear of report cards...

I have always had trouble providing specific feedback because I am often unsure of how to say what I want to say and worry whether I am being too nice or too mean. To better understand where I am coming from it may help to know I am mostly a “Feeling” personality type; therefore I am sensitive and often take criticism personally. I know I have to work on providing detailed feedback so I can help students understand where they are in their learning and know where they need to go next. I want students to understand that constructive criticism will help them understand that learning cannot occur without practice. Constructive criticism is not a negative thing – This is something I must tell myself on a regular basis.

During class discussion after the Wild Card presentation on the topic of praise, Ashley mentioned reasons not to say “Good Job!” This sparked curiosity in me to look it up on Google. I discovered saying “good job” is ineffective praise because it is not specific. By providing specific feedback/praise, the more the student is able to recognize exactly what he/she is doing well. Something I thought was helpful was remembering to say things such as: “I really like the way you ... or Thank you for ....” These are easy ways to begin specific feedback for student achievement.

Evaluation and Feedback

I believe the main objective of evaluation and feedback is to encourage students to continue the good job and learn more. As Mamchur writes, “ the teacher has to think of evaluation as a teaching process and the student will see the value in the evaluation.” In fact, this is the main goal of learning and teaching.

Personally, I am against negative feedbacks, since it does not achieve a lot, except generates a sense of inability and desperation. This does not mean that the teacher should cover weaknesses of the student but she needs to find a way to be more specific and show the student a path to improve her weaknesses rather than just put them in some words or generalize them. “Mamchur advocates teaching ‘to show, not tell’.” For example, if the student has a problem with writing, instead of saying that ‘your writing is not in a good level or it needs to be improved’, the teacher can points out to a more specific problem in student’s writing such as, grammar, content, or spelling. Then the teacher needs to come up with a solution like, ‘OK your grammar is not strong but if you use this website or this book it will help you to improve your grammar’. This is a more effective feedback that as Mamchur writes, ” will be directly helpful to the individual”. In fact, “[t]ogether, they go over the strategy and practice together going step by step, different students having a chance to try the strategy and extend the ideas. Both the teacher and student understand and can evaluate clearly what progress has been ‘shown’ not ‘told’.”(Six Traps of Evaluation to Avoid)

Evaluation and feedback at every level such and elementary, high school, and university need to give more positive motive to students and encourage them to try hard and do not discourage them. While at every level methods of evaluation require to be different, its principles should stay similar. Also, evaluation and feedback have to take into consideration the different personality types. Mamchur indicates that in an ideal learning conditions a student needs to feel personally “acknowledged, recognized, valued”. In this process every learning type such as intuitive students, thinking students, and feeling students feel a sense of acknowledgement and recognition.

Effective Feedback

Providing students with effective feedback that clearly tells them how they are doing is essential in learning. I was reading an article that talked about a student who told her teacher she learned nothing from the feedback she got, and it made me think about assignments that I had gotten marked in the past. I remember getting back essays that getting a mark, but not explanation of why I received the particular mark; thus, I did not know how to improve on another assignment or essays. On the other hand, an English teacher provided the best feedback, which was useful; I would write a draft of my essay and meet with him to talk about what I need to fix, then I would write up a second draft and he would give more one on one feedback, before writing a final draft of the essay. I thought this was really useful as the teacher would give me a mark for each draft, and tell me how I can improve my writing skills, in terms of grammar. Mamchur noted in her “Six Traps of Evaluation,” that teachers need to spend more time on providing comments and accurate feedback that can be helpful; thus, the English teacher meeting and going through the paper with me would be more useful than just marking our papers, and noting the grammatical errors. Consequently, when students are given feedback that consists of comments suggesting strengths and weaknesses, the students are less confused than when reading words like “good job” or given just a mark. When I was volunteering, I noticed that some teachers were using the rubric system to write down what the student did well in, and what to work on in their next writing; for instance, a student might have done well in grammar and spelling, but needs to work on putting things together in well-structured paragraphs that consist of sentences. When we only give grades or numbers, then students are confused about what they did well on, or what the point of the work was. Students with different learning styles require particular information about their mark as well—like the judging or introvert students—because a grade or mark means nothing to them. Teachers then have to very careful about different learning styles and types in their classroom, when giving feedback.

Effective Feedback/Evaluation

Besides marking and evaluating using a method I was trained to use at work, I have very little experience evaluating a student's performance. Recently, for another course, we had to evaluate our peers assignments and many students voiced that they found it very challenging because they were worried about being too harsh or picky, or because they didn't want to hurt the person's feelings.
It's difficult to know what kind of feedback will be helpful to the student in my opinion. In Mamchur's 'Six Traps of Evaluation to Avoid,' she mentions more time should be spent making effective comments instead of focusing on scoring. It would have been helpful if she gave some examples of what kinds of things would be helpful for the student to have as feedback because like the example I gave, it's challenging to figure that out.
What comes to mind when Mamchur talks about ignoring individual differences, is an example I have of a teacher in high school. He and another English teacher refused to give interim reports that had grade percentages on them. The only grade a student would receive was a rough score on their essays and the final grade at the end. It might be difficult to accept this as a form of evaluation if you are one of those students who need to know their precise marks, but what was great about this method was that the final grade would not depend on the total of the assignments, but on how much the student improved. If a student did poorly on their first and second essay, but did really well on their last essay, they would automatically receive a higher grade or a grade the teacher "thought they deserved" based on their improvement. Most students ended up with higher grades in the end, so they were happy with the method of evaluation/grading.

Evaluation

When I think of evaluations, I think of the basic evaluations such as exams or papers. I feel that teachers use these evaluations because it is the easiest way to evaluate students, but these techniques don't address different learning styles which I find to be a problem.There are different learners and when they are being evaluated, their learning types are not acknowledged. For example, there are many students who are not good with exams, but are great with presentations. But if students aren't given a chance to show that they understand the material through a different evaluation, they are stuck with a technique that doesn't show their potential. So teachers should have a variety of evaluations and try to incorporate the different learning types in order for all students to be successful and thrive in school.

Also, most of the time a grade is given, but that doesn't tell a student anything except for if they are doing well or not. This leads me to my next point on effective feedback. As Mamchur suggested teachers have to make effective comments and feedback that will be helpful for the students. I feel comments are extremely helpful for students because it will thelp them understand what they need to improve on for the future, but teachers must actually put the time and effort in to making effective comments. Comments like good job don't help students learn anything about the assignment.

All in all, teachers need to have a variety of evaluations and should not just stick with the easy techniques. This will help students from different learning types show their abilities and help them succeed in school because they are not only being evaluated through the basic techniques, but through presentations, art work etc. Also, teachers have to give students effective feedback to help students learn and improve for the future.

Evalution

Areas that can be evaluated by the teacher are are written tests, writings and classroom participation observation. All students are different and their learning types will reflect their success in the area evaluated. Even the same concept can be evaluated through tests, writing and a class discussion and a student could show understanding through one type evaluation, but not through another. For example, I am a history student and I succeed at essay evaluations of my understandings, but when I have to write a multiple choice test on the same history subject I will not be as successful.
I think that letter grade evaluations are problematic because subjects that are subjective will vary from teacher to teacher and feedback from just a letter grade is difficult to provide enough motivation for a student to do better. When grading is different from teacher to teacher students can focus on what will get them a good grade by that teachers standards rather than doing their best and reflecting on themselves and how hard and improve on their performance. As Mamchur discusses in her six traps of evaluation, specific feedback is important for teachers to put more of a focus on feedback rather than marking. For myself as a student when I receive a letter grade back on an essay it is a validation of my work, but it does not show me how I can improve on my essay writing skills so that in the future I can achieve a better letter grade.
As Mamchur discusses the type of specific feedback is very important because each student will react differently. Making sure to be specific to each students needs will help them foster and grow as students.

Evaluation and Different Learning Styles

Assessment is by far the most worrisome issue for me.  I think as a beginner teacher, I am at risk of  falling into Mamchur's traps. 

I found the following online:  It is promoted by the BC Education to support gifted students.  It was developed by Kanevsky, Maker, Nielsen, Rogers (1994)  and is called "Brilliant Behaviours."  While I was reading it, I thought that it could be adapted to diverse learning needs and used as an holistic assessment tool. 

Teachers and parents may use this form when observing one child at a time. It is a good initial screening tool to locate students who are likely to need differentiated learning experiences in their areas of strength. It is very important that the student's strength or strengths be indicated on the form as well as the activity or activities during the observation(s). Some bright and gifted students have more than one strength. For these students, begin with the greatest strength for your first observations. Record more

observations in additional areas of strength in different colors of ink on the same sheet.

Student/Date

Strength (s)

Activity/Activities

Directions: Offer the student a challenging, enjoyable activity (group or individual) that requires planning and complex thinking. Watch the student working and check off those behaviors you see demonstrated more frequently, intensely and for a longer time than you'd expect of other students of the same age, gender, temperament and cultural background.

check (√) Behaviors

Humor: Exceptionally keen sense of the comical, the bizarre, or absurd.

Imagination and Creativity: Extraordinary capacity for ingenious, flexible use of

ideas, processes, materials or anything else.

Inquiry: Probing exploration, deep questions; experiments with events, ideas, feelings,

sounds, symbols, movement, etc.

Memory and Processing: Tremendous "brain power" for dealing with large amounts

of information and skills.

Sensitivity: Unusually aware of or responsive to experiences and feelings; their own

and/or those of others.

Expressiveness: Extraordinary ability to communicate meaning or emotion through

words, actions, symbols, sounds, or media.

Reasoning: Outstanding ability to think things through and consider implications or

alternatives; rich, flexible, highly conscious, logical thought.

Problem-solving: Outstanding ability to find systematic solutions to problems; is

able to invent and monitor many paths to a goal; seeks challenges.

Intuition: Suddenly discovers connections or deeper meanings without conscious

awareness of reasoning or thought.

Learning: Extremely able to grasp and use sophisticated new understandings quickly

and easily.

Interests: Advanced, ardent; perhaps unusual topics; passionate, sometimes

fleeting.

Moral and ethical concerns: Intense need for fairness and justice; deep desire to

take action to resolve injustices; concern for consequences of their actions.

Motivation: Persistent, intense need to know, do, feel, create, or understand.

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