CS 563 8 Skills in Conferencing and Data

C&S 563 --#8 Skills in Conferencing and Data Collection

Part 1 in the Cycle: Establishing Readiness • Building an understanding of the process • Developing a trusting relationship • Understanding the teacher’s espoused platform

What is an espoused platform? • The teacher’s beliefs and goals about teaching, learning, and students applied directly to his/her specific teaching situation. This verbalized platform may or may not match the teacher’s platform “in use. ”

When does a teacher articulate an espoused platform? • Should be discussed in a conference setting. • Should include the following dialogue: – Important goals for student learning – Criteria for good (effective teaching) – Beliefs about subject matter – Influence of the specific context

Purpose and Rationale for Espoused Platform Dialogue • Helps the supervisor or coach establish a clear understanding of the teacher’s beliefs • Allows the supervisor or coach to view the classroom events from the teacher’s perspective • Allows comparison of espoused platform to actual behavior • Helps teacher to articulate and examine more closely his/her beliefs and goals

Sample Questions for an Espoused Platform Conference • If you were forced to choose, what would you say are the 3 most important things which you want students to learn in your classroom? • Five years after students have left your classroom, what do you want them to say about you? about your teaching? about your subject? • Why should students study and learn the content you teach? • What sorts of things do you look for to tell you that you’ve taught a really good lesson? a poor lesson? • Describe in general terms the students you teach. • If you had the power to change one thing about your students in general, what would you change? • What should I know about your specific situation that will help me as an observer to get a clearer understanding of what is going on in your classroom?

Part 2 in the Cycle: Pre-Conference • Understanding the teacher’s intention for this specific occasion • Agreeing on a focus for collecting data and how to use it

Pre-Conference • Meeting between the teacher and the supervisor/coach before an observation or other form of data collection in order to make sure that both partners understand what the lesson will be like and what data are going to be collected.

A. To get a clear understanding of the overall lesson (fluency) – – – What are the goals? What activities will take place? What will the students be doing? What will the teacher be doing? How does the lesson fit into past and future lessons? – How does the lesson relate to the teacher’s espoused platform? – Rehearse parts of the lesson in detail if necessary.

B. To help the teacher discern the data to collect (contract) – What question is the teacher trying to answer? – Why is this question important? – What observable behaviors are we interested in? (make sure you understand what these behaviors look like/sound like) – What will the data tell us? – What should we expect the data to look like? – Where will we go once we have these data?

C. To become clear on the logistics of data collection (rehearsal) – When will we do this? – Where? – Who does what? – Where do I sit? – What equipment do we need if any?

Sample Pre-Conference Questions • What is the purpose of today’s lesson? • What will the students know or be able to do at the end of the lesson? • What strategies will you use to accomplish your objective? • What teacher behaviors will you demonstrate? • What led up to this lesson? What prior knowledge will you be asking students to assess? • What is your data collection preference? • Do you have any concerns about this lesson?

Part 3 in the Cycle: Data Collection – This part of the cycle includes observing and/or collecting data that have been agreed upon between supervisor or coach and teacher.

Pat 4 in the Cycle: Analysis and Strategy – Interpret the information found in the data – Display the data in an understandable form – Focus on impact on learners – Decide on goals and strategies for the postconference

Part 5 in the Cycle: Post-Conference – Discuss interpretations of data – Discuss impact of instruction on learners – Decide on future goals

Some General principles for Post -Conferences • A. Fewness – Focus on 1 or 2 areas. – People can’t change everything at once. – People can’t understand everything at once. – What is the most important thing tha tneeds to be the focus?

• B. Goals: – Product: Refers to the teacher’s teaching behavior and thinking about teaching. What teaching behaviors do we want to change? to reinforce? What thinking do we want to change? to reinforce? – Process: Refers to the role which the teacher can take in analyzing his or her own behavior

• C. Data Driven – Allows the teacher to take a more objective look at what occurred. – Provides an opportunity for the teacher to make decisions and judgments.

• D. Related to the espoused platform – Helps the teacher see connections between his or her articulated beliefs and goals and actual practice. – Caveat: Sometimes the connection cannot be made. Decide in planning session if a connection can be made or not.

• E. Aimed at teacher thinking – Helps teacher think in more productive and powerful ways. – Changing teacher behavior without changing his or her thinking is not likely to result in longterm change.

Some Questions to Ask in Planning a Post-Conference • How can I present the data so it will make sense and be easy to interpret? • What one or two areas do I want to focus on? • What are my product goals? • What are my process goals--how much help or modeling will the teacher need to make appropriate decisions during the conference? • Does what I’ve seen in this lesson relate to the teacher’s espoused platform? If so, how? • What questions can I ask to get at the teacher’s thinking about teaching?

Sample Post-Conference • • What do you recall the students doing? What do you recall about your own behavior? How did the student behavior compare to what you expected? How did your own behavior compare to what you had planned? Did you accomplish the purpose of the lesson? (Probe…Present Data) What will you do differently/ same in the future lessons? Would you like me to give you some feedback about the process? What did I do that was useful? What did I do that go in the way of your learning or thinking?

Part 6 in the Cycle: Cycle Evaluation • Assessment of the utility of the cycle • Assessment of the roles each partner played • Deciding on future directions

Global or Wide Lens Techiques: Script Taping (Hunter) « A word for word record of the verbal interaction which occurs during a lesson. « Supplemented when possible by notes concerning the nonverbal behaviors and contextual factors. « Often accompanied by a time line.

Quick Tips for Script Taking • • Develop a good system of abbreviations. Use a time line down the side of the paper. Number your pages. Draw a horizontal line in between activities to separate them and record the time when activities changed. Bring more than one pen (multi-colored pen). Draw a line across the page to show if you took a break. Record as much as possible to get the essence if you can’t get exact words. Practice!

Global or Wide Angle Lens: Anecdotal Note Taking « Taking notes concerning various activities, interactions, contextual events. « May include direct quotes, paraphrases, descriptions of teacher or student behavior. « Similar to field notes in a qualitative study. « Often accompanied by a time line.

Selective Verbatim – A word-for-word record of some selected aspect of verbal interaction. – Examples include teacher questions, student questions, directions, reprimands, etc. – Purpose is to record the content of the verbal communication.

Interaction Analysis: People Interactions • Teacher-student or student-student. • Record of the verbal (most often) or nonverbal interactions between people. – praise, directions, criticism, etc. • Emphasis on the quantity as opposed to substance of interactions.

Interaction Analysis: Whole Class Verbal Flow • Similar to selective verbatim in that both techniques deal with classroom verbal behavior. • Record of the sequence of verbal interactions between teacher and entire class using agreed upon categories to code the interactions. • Example: TS (teacher statement) TQ (teacher question)

Interaction Analysis: Frequency Counts • Counting the number of times a selected behavior occurs. • For example, smiles, praises, higher-order thinking questions, etc.

At-Task • AKA student engagement and time on task. • Observer systematically notes the behavior of each student at regular intervals. • Behavior categories are agreed upon by supervisor and teacher in planning conference. • Categories might be “doing assigned work” of “talking to neighbor. ” • High inference record of student behaviors at various times during a lesson.

Traffic Flow • Using seating charts and arrows to indicate student or teacher movement during an activity or lesson.

Other Data-Collection Techniques • Electronic Media – Audio tapes of verbal interactions – Video tapes • Alternative Data Sources – Student work or products – Student interviews – Student surveys – Teacher artifacts – Teacher journals

Types of Feedback Observations • Descriptions of observable behaviors – Mary raised her hand twice.

Types of Feedback: Inferences • Interpreting what people are thinking or feeling on the basis of their observable behavior. – From the frown on Ted’s face, I’d say he was disappointed with your response to his question.

Types of Feedback: Judgments • Opinions, decisions, conclusions about the inherent value of our effectiveness of behavior. – All good lessons must include checking for understanding. This element was missing from your lesson.

Active Listening Skills • Non-Verbal • • • • Eye Contact Empathetic facial expressions Nodding Proximity Leaning Towards Body open and square Mirroring Note taking No extraneous activities Same plane • • One person speaking at a time Rephrasing Asking probing questions Empathetic voice tone and inflection Encouraging and empathetic sounds (uh huh) Silence Paraphrasing “What if”