improving outcomes and closing achievement gaps: the role of assessment dylan wiliam ucet symposium...
TRANSCRIPT
Improving outcomes and closing achievement gaps: the role of assessment
Dylan Wiliam
UCET Symposium March 2009, Belfast
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
Small secondary schools “All-through” schools
Alignment Curriculum reform Textbook replacement
Governance Specialist schools Academies
Technology 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
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Within schoolsBetween schools explained by social background of schoolsBetween schools explained by social background of studentsBetween schools not explained by social background
Within schools
Between schools
OECD PISA data from McGaw, 2008
Teacher quality matters…
Barber & Mourshed, 2007
Where’s the solution?Structure Small high schools K-8 schools
Alignment Curriculum reform Textbook replacement
Governance Charter Schools Vouchers
Technology 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 classroom…In the UK, variability at the classroom level is up to 4 times that at school level
It’s not class sizeIt’s not the between-class grouping strategyIt’s not the within-class grouping strategyIt’s the teacherHaving a good rather than weak teacher (±1sd) increases performance by
more than one GCSE gradeBeing taught by the best teacher in a group of 50 means that a student will
learn at four times the rate of a student taught by the worst teacher in that group
…but more for some than others
Achievement gaps
Disadvantaged background (mother’s education)
Poor behavior
Teacher’s provision of instructional support
High No (good)Average No (good)Low Yes (bad)
High Yes (bad)Average Yes (bad)Low Yes (bad)
Teacher’s provision of emotional support
High Yes (bad)Average Yes (bad)Low Yes (bad)
High No (good)Average Yes (bad)Low Yes (bad)
Impact of teacher quality on student outcomes (Hamre & Pianta, 2005))
Teacher qualityA labor force issue with 2 (non-exclusive) solutionsReplace existing teachers with better ones?
Important, but very slow, and of limited impact Teach First Gradually raising the bar for entry to teaching
Improve the effectiveness of existing teachers The “love the one you’re with” strategy It can be done
Provided we focus rigorously on the things that matter Even when they’re hard to do
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
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Raising the bar for entry to teaching…
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
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Mean: 50 Mean: 55
Lowest 30% removed
Impact on achievementRaising the bar for entry into the profession so that we no longer recruit the lowest performing 30% of teachers would over twenty to thirty years, increase average teacher quality by 0.5 standard deviations.
This would increase student achievement by 0.1 standard deviations, or an increase of the speed of student learning of 25-30%.
20-25%Total “explained” difference
<5%Further professional qualifications (MA, NBPTS)
10-15%Pedagogical content knowledge
<5%Advanced content matter knowledge
The ‘dark matter’ of teacher qualityTeachers make a differenceBut what makes the difference in teachers?
Cost/effect comparisonsIntervention Extra months of
learning per yearCost/yr
Class-size reduction (by 30%) 4 £20k
Increase teacher content knowledge from weak to strong
2 ?
Formative assessment/Assessment for learning
8 £2k
Effective pedagogyKey concept:Teachers do not create learningLearners create learning
Teaching is the engineering of effective learning environments
Key features of learning power environments:Create student engagement (pedagogies of engagement)Well-regulated (pedagogies of contingency)Create habits of mind (pedagogies of formation)
Why pedagogies of engagement?Intelligence is partly inheritedSo what?
Intelligence is partly environmentalEnvironment creates intelligence Intelligence creates environment
Learning environmentsHigh cognitive demand InclusiveObligatory
Why pedagogies of contingency?Long-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)
…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 formative assessment 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 formative assessment
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)
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
Taking it to scale
Two opposing factors in any school reformNeed for flexibility to adapt to local conditions, resources, etc
Implies there is appropriate flexibility built into the reform
Need to maintain fidelity to core principles, or theory of action of the reform, if it is to achieve desired outcomes Implies you have a well-thought-out theory of action
“Tight but loose”Some reforms are too loose (e.g., the ‘Effective schools’ movement)
Others are too tight (e.g., Montessori Schools)
The “tight but loose” formulation
… 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.
Signature pedagogies
In Law
In Medicine
Teacher learning communitiescontradict teacher isolation
reprofessionalize teaching by valuing teacher expertise
deprivatize teaching so that teachers’ strengths and struggles become known
offer a steady source of support for struggling teachers
grow expertise by providing a regular space, time, and structure for that kind of systematic reflecting on practice
facilitate sharing of untapped expertise residing in individual teachers
build the collective knowledge base in a school
A “signature pedagogy” for teacher learning?Monthly TLC meeting that follows the same structure and sequence
Activity 1: Introduction & Housekeeping (5-10 minutes)
Activity 2: How’s It Going (35-50 minutes)
Activity 3: New Learning about formative assessment (20-45 minutes)
Activity 4: Personal Action Planning (10 minutes)
Activity 5: Summary of Learning (5 minutes)
Peer observations between TLC meetings
Run to the agenda of the observed, not the observer
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
Assessment for learning + Teacher learning communitiesA point of (uniquely?) high leverageA “Trojan Horse” into wider issues of pedagogy, psychology, and curriculum