I had a heartbreaking conversation with a few students last week when I was substitute teaching. In essence, they said that school was something they didn’t think had value for them. When the topic came to AI, they felt justified in using AI to cheat because the work they were doing was “useless”. As a lover of learning and long-time educator, I tried to convince them that they had completely missed the point of what we were trying to do as educators, but it also led me to think about how we may need to be more transparent with kids about how much more they are gaining from school than they realize. My other wondering immediately went to whether or not more explicitly seeking out their input on a regular basis in the class might have helped these students to see the value of learning in school.
I couldn’t sleep that night.
We often speak of student voice in education and how much we value it, but how are we seeking feedback from students to inform our practice? Does this make a difference to how students see school as valuable?
School Climate Surveys
The most common timeframe for school end dates in the US is late May or early June. Some of you are already on summer vacation! Here in Ontario (and in some states as well), we are in school until the end of June. In Ontario, the Ministry of Education requires that we collect school climate surveys which are designed to collect perception data from students in grades 4 to 12 specifically around the school environment. Although this is required by the government every two years, most school boards (districts) collect data from students yearly which serves to inform school goals the following September. When we are looking at student responses and the data these provide, our students have already graduated and the information informs school goals for the following year.
In my newly released book Hopes for School: A student’s experience and ideas for educational transformation, co-authored with student Karen Phan, I reflect on school climate surveys and their efficacy: “the input may change something in the future, but it does not have an immediate impact on teaching and learning” (Chapter 6).
In the article, “From Student Experience to Student Voice”, authors Jerusha Conner, Dana Mitra and Samantha Holquist state:
They cite the trouble with these surveys can be summarized by three things: timing (surveys are conducted too late in the school year), transparency (because of a fear that the findings may highlight deficiencies in the school the results are not openly shared) and taking action (do the results inform minor modifications, new initiatives, or broader reform agendas).
The take action piece is particularly important considering that a “growing body of research suggests that a school context with ample opportunities and support for “student voice” can lead to better developmental and academic outcomes” (Anderson et al., 2022; Kahne et al., 2022; Mitra, 2018).
After every unit
A possible way to address the timing issue is to have students reflect on a unit of study once completed. This can take a quick Loved it, Liked it, Tweak it, or Ditch it format or it can be a more comprehensive survey.
Students reflect broadly on what aspects of the unit they didn’t like, what aspects they liked but would change and what they really didn’t like. Here is an example I did for an end of climate change unit I co-planned and co-taught with a Science teacher. We itemized the aspects of the unit and used the Multiple Choice grid in Google Forms (which creates a chart with the responses)
Ideally, asking students what they enjoyed and why and what they disliked and why allows students to share more detail BUT this takes a bit of a thick skin. We want our students to be honest with us, but then we need to be able to do something with the information. Check out the responses below–especially the first response. Ouch!
It is important that if students are asked, that this is addressed. So we used this feedback to inform the next iteration of this unit when we taught it again. We thanked the students for their honesty and assured them that the next class would benefit from their comments. Some of the comments can and should manifest themselves in future units. That is, we could explicitly reference some of the comments in the next unit: “In our last unit, the feedback from a few of you was that we didn’t have enough time in the early phases, What is a reasonable time for us to work on this part?” If students believe that their feedback matters, they will be more likely to give it honestly and more comprehensively.
After a lesson
Even feedback after a unit can sometimes feel like it’s not timely. For students to feel like they have some autonomy over their learning, the best kind of feedback is metacognitive in nature. Metacognition is the process of thinking about thinking and learning. John Hattie, in his book Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning lists metacognitive strategies as 14th/150 in terms of influence on student achievement. When we include reflection questions at the end of a lesson (even just 1 a day), students consolidate their learning but also see that what they are learning has practical applications to their own life, other courses, or the world around them. These might include a few of the following examples:
“What are you most proud of?”;
“What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?”;
“Where might you use this information in another class or another context?”
“How well did you work with others today? What is your goal for next time?”
“If you could have changed one thing in class today, what would it be and why?”
Consolidation is the part of the lesson which many of the new teachers in my Faculty of Education classes admitted to not prioritizing enough. I admitted that I too struggle sometimes. One of the things I do now is set a timer to go off 10 minutes before the end of class so I know I can have an exit card with one or two metacognitive reflection questions.
When I think to the conversation with the students I mention at the beginning of this post, I wonder if the teacher was explicit about the connections and relevance to their lives, or if students had the opportunity to make these connections on their own, whether or not they would use a different lens through which they see the value of school?
A Book Study
One of the most powerful lessons I got from a professional learning series called, The Adaptive School, back in 2016 was “third point.” I used the strategy as a teacher, especially during parent-teacher interviews. I would ask kids to reflect on their learning and set goals, then I would print out a mark summary and would present it to parents. I was the first point, the parent was the second point, and if any arguing or anger might potentially ensue, I pointed at the papers–the third point. So what does this have to do with a book study? Well, I was thinking about how powerful it would be to have students and teachers read my new book, Hopes for School: a student’s perspective and ideas for educational transformation together and it would act as a third point for courageous conversations. In our book, Karen shares both her frustrations AND her hopes for school, I share a response to her as well as ideas. We also have additional student and educator spotlights. Would student leaders be more honest sharing feedback of their own school experiences if they were referring to ideas in a book? Are teachers at your school already addressing some of the issues Karen and I share? Like any kind of feedback we would garner from students; doing a book study together would feel risky but could also have the potential to transform your school’s culture!
If you are interested in doing this, I would love to facilitate it! Please email me for information about bulk orders.
Teaching seems to get harder by the year, with more demands placed on educators with less resources to support. Although getting input from students feels like it would contribute to feelings of further overwhelm, for me it always felt like the opposite happened: when students feel valued and like they have a genuine part in their learning they tend to behave better and respect you more.
