Thrive 15 - The design of feedback environment for positive class culture
Problem statement
Students are living with the fact that the learning environment is noisy, disruptive and chaotic. Driven by a few students who mishave, others see it as a norm when the expectation is low for this group of NA/NT students. Without expectation, students did not know where to go, where were they now and how to get there. Feedback will never be able to feed forward.
Feedback has very often been teacher-centred, a teacher telling students mostly what not to do in the context of students' behaviour. Whereas in the academic area, we have been talking about the learning goal, the gap and how to close the learning gap. There has been a shift in higher education toward feedback being student-centric. That is, feedback is a process of dialogue between the teacher and students to work towards a shared goal, rather than the teachers' goal. The context is also in academic study. Is there a conceptual or knowledge gap in the use of feedback in character education?
Context
Feedback about the learning tone is often taken at the survey level to understand students engaging in school. Again, such information is often used by schools to improve curriculum programmes. Our school as started to get students to reflect on survey data in terms of their relationship with their peers. The responsibility for students to take ownership to build their own learning environment is a shift toward being an active citizens. At the classroom level, students should review about their learning environment toward an inclusive and yet conducive environment. Tolerating behaviour in the name of "my friend is a special need" is not what we want to educate our students. It is about helping them to regulate their emotion together with teachers as a community. Feedback about the environment can be given by teachers from time to time to evaluate their tone of the classroom. Students can reflect on their contribution to a more inclusive environment and yet conducive learning environment when there is a desired learning environment in the context on a class with special education needs students, students with disruptive behaviour but not SEN. The following are advantageous conditions that could make the design of the feedback environment (toward an inclusive yet conducting learning environment to be effective.
(1) Students are able to describe the behaviors and tone of the climate objectively
(2) Students has the desire to improve the learning environment of the class
(3) School Leaders worked closely with AYH, Discipline head and IP heads to deal with the issues
Pre-intervention
(1) communication channel with subject teachers and Form teachers is set up to provide information about behaviour engagement in class (whether the class is attentive, focused, put in effort in their work)
(2) Feedback about undesirable behaviours was gathered from students on two occasions (by school leaders and students' well-being head) before the Mar break and the undesirable behaviour were converted to expectation or goal to work towards.
Feedback from students about learning conditions in Term 1 | Goals for Term 2 |
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The construct for the goal is under (1) behavioural engagement in feedback (no. 1-8) and the goal can be pitched towards cognitive engagement (making judgements for themselves) emotional engagement in feedback (the enjoyment, confidence and happiness to receive feedback towards being an honorable person)
(3) Working with parents together with students that the traditional use of "notebook system" is about seeking feedback from the teacher rather than taking in summative judgment to be punished later. Again the shift from teacher-centred to student-centric. The awareness of the purpose of feedback is important. The purpose of feedback is to improve. For students to be able to uptake this feedback, they need first to regulate their emotions when taking the feedback before they can make the cognitive judgement to rationalise and plan for the change.
Intervention
Under-development ... key concept - sustaining good behaviors, raising and pitching expectation, Shifting focus from behavioural engagement to cognitive engagement and emotional engagement, designing the feedback environment using ICT to promote positive learning culture with learning analytics.
Dear JY,
ReplyDeleteI would like to thank you for putting your heart and soul into working with the students. I think your insights are really helpful in informing the course of action that the entire team of teachers can take as they work with 2 Passion.
What you have done -- transferring our knowledge of feedback and expectations from academic learning to character development -- brought to my mind the related concept of labelling.
Teachers (myself included) often do have low expectations for NA/NT students. Perhaps without us knowing, a part of the problem might have come from our labelling. For example, when we discipline NA/NT students or correct them, our negative attitudes and beliefs are tacitly expressed, and they shape the students' self-concepts and behaviour.
If that has happened, then our low expectations have not only led to a lack of direction for progress, but might have in fact buttressed whatever negative self-concepts the students already have.
To prevent such a process from taking root, we must first believe the students can change. While remaining fully informed of their
dark sides (which everyone has, to quote The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene), we continue to have faith that there is good in them. We have in fact seen it, but something causes them to do wrong -- perhaps unfulfilled needs for success, esteem, and acceptance. Or perhaps, emptiness.
Preserving our positive expectations will give our students hope, and a viable alternative to pure submission -- that when they accept our invitation to change, they have not become baddies who are subdued, but rather individuals who are strong enough to dominate, but righteous enough to stop abusing that strength, and choose instead to acknowledge their wrong and in so doing, transform into inspiring figures who can reach out to others like them.
Thank you Joon Yong, for never giving up on our students. Your convictions have given you the drive to do much for our students. I know 2 Passion will blossom under your care, and it will be a positive case study for the future.