Content then process: teacher learning communities in the service of formative assessment

Dylan Wiliam

www.dylanwiliam.net

Overview of presentationWhy raising achievement is important

Why investing in teachers is the answer

Why formative assessment should be the focus

Why teacher learning communities should be the mechanism

How we can put this into practice

Raising achievement mattersFor individuals Increased lifetime salary Improved healthLonger life

For societyLower criminal justice costsLower health-care costs Increased economic growth

Where’s the solution?Structure Smaller high schools Larger high schools K-8 schoolsAlignment Curriculum reform Textbook replacementGovernance Charter schools VouchersTechnology Computers Interactive white-boards

School effectivenessThree generations of school effectiveness researchRaw results approaches

Different schools get different results Conclusion: Schools make a difference

Demographic-based approaches Demographic factors account for most of the variation Conclusion: Schools don’t make a difference

Value-added approaches School-level differences in value-added are relatively small Classroom-level differences in value-added are large Conclusion: An effective school is a school full of effective classrooms

It’s the classroomVariability at the classroom level is up to 4 times that at school level

It’s not class size

It’s not the between-class grouping strategy

It’s not the within-class grouping strategyIt’s the teacher (9:20 Audio)

Teacher qualityA labor force issue with 2 solutionsReplace existing teachers with better ones?

No evidence that more pay brings in better teachers No evidence that there are better teachers out there deterred by

burdensome certification requirements Improve the effectiveness of existing teachers

The “love the one you’re with” strategy It can be done We know how to do it, but at scale? Quickly? Sustainably?

Cost/effect comparisonsIntervention Extra months of

learning per yearCost/yr

Class-size reduction (by 30%) 3 $30k

Increase teacher content knowledge from weak to strong

1.5 ?

Formative assessment/Assessment for learning

6 to 9 $3k

The research evidenceSeveral major reviews of the researchNatriello (1987)Crooks (1988)Kluger & DeNisi (1996)Black & Wiliam (1998)Nyquist (2003)

All find consistent, substantial effects

Types of formative assessmentLong-cycle Span: across units, terms Length: four weeks to one year Impact: Student monitoring; curriculum alignmentMedium-cycle Span: within and between teaching units Length: one to four weeks Impact: Improved, student-involved, assessment; teacher cognition about learningShort-cycle Span: within and between lessons Length:

day-by-day: 24 to 48 hours minute-by-minute: 5 seconds to 2 hours

Impact: classroom practice; student engagement

Unpacking formative assessmentKey processesEstablishing where the learners are in their learningEstablishing where they are goingWorking out how to get there

ParticipantsTeachersPeersLearners

Aspects of formative assessment

Where the learner is going

Where the learner is How to get there

TeacherClarify and share

learning intentions

Engineering effective discussions, tasks and

activities that elicit evidence of learning

Providing feedback that moves learners

forward

PeerUnderstand and share learning

intentions

Activating students as learningresources for one another

LearnerUnderstand

learning intentionsActivating students as owners

of their own learning

Five “key strategies”…Clarifying, understanding, and sharing learning intentionscurriculum philosophy

Engineering effective classroom discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of learningclassroom discourse, interactive whole-class teaching

Providing feedback that moves learners forward feedback

Activating students as learning resources for one another collaborative learning, reciprocal teaching, peer-assessment

Activating students as owners of their own learningmetacognition, motivation, interest, attribution, self-assessment

(Wiliam & Thompson, 2007)

Sharing learning intentions

Explaining learning intentions at start of lesson/unitLearning intentionsSuccess criteria

Intentions/criteria in students’ language

Posters of key words to talk about learningeg describe, explain, evaluate

Planning/writing frames

Annotated examples of different standards to ‘flesh out’ assessment rubrics (e.g. lab reports)

Opportunities for students to design their own tests

Eliciting evidence of achievementKey idea: questioning should cause thinking provide data that informs teachingImproving teacher questioning generating questions with colleagues closed vs. open or low-order vs. high-order appropriate wait-timeGetting away from I-R-E basketball rather than serial table-tennis ‘No hands up’ (except to ask a question) ‘Hot Seat’ questioningAll-student response systems ABCD cards, Mini white-boards, Exit passes

Feedback that moves learning onKey idea: feedback should

cause thinking provide guidance on how to improve

Comment-only gradingFocused gradingExplicit reference to mark-schemes and scoring guidesSuggestions on how to improve

‘Strategy cards’ ideas for improvement Not giving complete solutions

Re-timing assessment (eg two-thirds-of-the-way-through-a-unit test)

Students as owners of their learning

Students assessing their own/peers’ work with rubricswith exemplars“two stars and a wish”

Training students to pose questions/identifying group weaknesses

Self-assessment of understandingTraffic lightsRed/green discs

End-of-lesson students’ review

Students as instructional resources

Students assessing their own/peers’ work with rubricswith exemplars“two stars and a wish”

Training students to pose questions/identifying group weaknesses

Self-assessment of understandingTraffic lightsRed/green discs

End-of-lesson students’ review

…and one big ideaUse evidence about learning to adapt teaching and learning to meet student needs

Keeping Learning on Track (KLT)A pilot guides a plane or boat toward its destination by taking constant readings and making careful adjustments in response to wind, currents, weather, etc.

A KLT teacher does the same:Plans a carefully chosen route ahead of time (in essence building the track)Takes readings along the way Changes course as conditions dictate

Putting it into practice

Implementing FA/AfL requires changing teacher habitsTeachers “know” most of this already

So the problem is not a lack of knowledge

It’s a lack of understanding what it means to do FA/AfL

That’s why telling teachers what to do doesn’t work

Experience alone is not enough—if it were, then the most experienced teachers would be the best teachers—we know that’s not true (Hanushek, 2005; Day, 2006)

People need to reflect on their experiences in systematic ways that build their accessible knowledge base, learn from mistakes, etc. (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999) How?

A model for teacher learningContent, then process

Content (what we want teachers to change)Evidence Ideas (strategies and techniques)

Process (how to go about change)ChoiceFlexibilitySmall stepsAccountabilitySupport How?

Strategies and techniquesDistinction between strategies and techniquesStrategies define the territory of AfL (no brainers)Teachers are responsible for choice of techniques

Allows for customization/ caters for local context Creates ownership Shares responsibility

Key requirements of techniquesembodiment of deep cognitive/affective principles relevance feasibilityacceptability

Teacher learning takes timeTo put new knowledge to work, to make it meaningful and accessible when you need it, requires practice.A teacher doesn’t come at this as a blank slate. Not only do teachers have their current habits and ways of teaching—

they’ve lived inside the old culture of classrooms all their lives: every teacher started out as a student!

New knowledge doesn’t just have to get learned and practiced, it has to go up against long-established, familiar, comfortable ways of doing things that may not be as effective, but fit within everyone’s expectations of how a classroom should work.

It takes time and practice to undo old habits and become graceful at new ones. Thus… Professional development must be sustained over time

That’s what teacher learning communities (TLCs) are for:

TLCs contradict teacher isolationTLCs reprofessionalize teaching by valuing teacher expertiseTLCs deprivatize teaching so that teachers’ strengths and struggles

become knownTLCs offer a steady source of support for struggling teachersThey grow expertise by providing a regular space, time, and structure

for that kind of systematic reflecting on practiceThey facilitate sharing of untapped expertise residing in individual

teachersThey build the collective knowledge base in a school

How to set up a TLCPlan that the TLC will run for two years

Identify 8 to 10 interested colleaguesShould have similar assignments (e.g. early years, math/sci)

Secure institutional support for:Monthly meetings (75 to 120 minutes each, inside or outside school time)Time between meetings (2 hrs per month in school time)

Collaborative planning Peer observation

Any necessary waivers from school policies

A ‘signature pedagogy’ for teacher learning?Every monthly TLC meeting should follows the same structure and sequence of activities

Activity 1: Introduction & Housekeeping (5-10 minutes)

Activity 2: How’s It Going (35-50 minutes)

Activity 3: New Learning about AfL (20-45 minutes)

Activity 4: Personal Action Planning (10 minutes)

Activity 5: Summary of Learning (5 minutes)

The TLC leader’s roleTo ensure the TLC meets regularlyTo ensure all needed materials are at meetingsTo ensure that each meeting is focused on AfL To create and maintain a productive and non-judgmental tone during meetings To ensure that every participant shares with regard to their implementation of AfL To encourage teachers to provide their colleagues with constructive and thoughtful feedbackTo encourage teachers to think about and discuss the implementation of new AfL learning and skillsTo ensure that every teacher has an action plan to guide their next stepsBut not to be the AfL “expert”

How?

Peer observationRun to the agenda of the observed, not the observer

Observed teacher specifies focus of observation

Observe teacher specifies what counts as evidencee.g., teacher wants to increase wait-timeprovides observer with a stop-watch to log wait-times

How?

“Tight but loose”

Tight about Teacher choice Strategies “How’s it going?” & action planning Size of TLC

Loose about Timing and location of meetings Techniques New learning about AfL Make-up of TLC

… combines an obsessive adherence to central design principles (the “tight” part) with accommodations to the needs, resources, constraints, and particularities that occur in any school or district (the “loose” part), but only where these do not conflict with the theory of action of the intervention.

How?

Some reforms are too loose (e.g., the ‘Effective schools’ movement)

Others are too tight (e.g., Montessori Schools)

The “tight but loose” formulation

ImplementationsSuccessful pilots in:Cleveland Municipal School District, OHAustin Independent School District, TXChico Unified School District, CAMathematics and Science Partnership of Greater Philadelphia, PA/NJSt. Mary’s County Public Schools, MDState-wide pilot in 10 schools in Vermont

Now let’s take it to scale!

SummaryRaising achievement is important

Raising achievement requires improving teacher quality

Improving teacher quality requires teacher professional development

To be effective, teacher professional development must addressWhat teachers do in the classroomHow teachers change what they do in the classroom

AfL/FA + TLCsA point of (uniquely?) high leverageA “Trojan Horse” into wider issues of pedagogy, psychology, and curriculum

Why, what & how?

Force field analysisWhat are the forces supporting and opposing the establishment of teacher learning communities focused on formative assessment in your school/district?

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