L&T Blog T1 Week 7: Assessment in Practice

Dear WA,

I hope everyone is well! One of the key strands of the WA Way is Assess and Adapt. Assessment is an ongoing focus for us, following on from the work Rob has done in creating a WA assessment philosophy, and we look forward to building on this. As such, I was interested to see an Edutopia article focussed on this area.

Objectives: To understand and synthesise the best in current research on assessment practices.

Summary: 

• The article reminds us that grading practices are very embedded in the educational system, but that they are not sufficient on their own in improving student performance or motivation more widely.

• It states that the following assessment practices can be helpful in supporting better ongoing learning and motivation:

• 1) Giving written or verbal feedback before giving a grade. 

• 2) That frequent, low stakes assessment (including quizzing) is highly effective in improving learning outcomes.

• 3) That meaningful, well designed peer assessment is highly effective

• 4) That the use of rubrics in assessment can support in the elimination of unconscious bias - which is in and of itself important to improve outcomes for disadvantaged students or students of colour.  

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How am I currently using these best practices for assessment? How impactful have they been? How do I know?

• Which elements of my assessment practices do I want to work on? What support do I need for this?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks, Jaya

L&T Blog: Week 6 - Inquiry Based Learning Vs Direct Instruction

Dear WA,

I hope everyone is well! This week I was really interested to see some research from May 2023 into inquiry-based learning and direct instruction. These two styles are important for us to consider at WA in particular. Firstly, because the IB states clearly that they have a preference for inquiry-based learning, and secondly, because there is an ongoing debate about ‘which style is better?’ and this regularly plays out in education circles online, particularly on social media.

Objectives: To understand the existing research landscape about the effectiveness of inquiry-based learning.

Summary: 

• The study is clear that inquiry-based learning is likely to be effective for supporting students to develop their conceptual understanding. 

• The authors show that it is also very impactful in developing what they describe as ‘deep learning processes’ which include metacognitive strategies. 

• The authors also show that contextual factors are really important to determine the likely success of any given instructional approach.

• The authors are clear that having sufficient prior knowledge is essential for the success of inquiry-based learning. 

• They conclude that a curated and deliberate combination of direct instruction and inquiry is likely to have the best and most effective outcomes

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How do I currently balance inquiry-based methods and direct instruction? What have I found to be effective about this?

• How could I consider the use of inquiry-based for heightening conceptual understanding in particular?

• What questions do I have about this? What support do I need to develop my use of inquiry-based learning?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

L&T Blog W5: Are the risks higher for disadvantaged students with scam emails?

Dear WA,

I hope everyone is well! With Curriculum Drop Down Day coming up, and with our ongoing work on the Personal Development curriculum, this week for Bitesize Research, I was interested to see a recent reported study done by the UCL Institute of Education student responses to scam emails, and in particular, disadvantaged students. 

Objectives: To understand the level of risk for opening scam emails, particularly for disadvantaged students

Summary: 

• The study looked at 150,000 teenagers aged 15

• It reports that one in five deprived teens could fall victim to opening scam emails or phishing. This makes them much more likely to do this than their more advantaged peers. These students are also more likely to have poorer learning skills.

• The study also found that currently, students who are educated about the dangers of online fraud, are just as likely to fall victim to this as those who are not.

• As such, the author of the study is urging schools, particularly those serving more deprived communities, to ensure they have the highest quality of education on this topic. 

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How have I already worked with students on this topic? How effective was my teaching and learning practice on this?

• What might help me to improve my practice in teaching this area?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks, Jaya