Risk Assessment: Reflecting on John Hattie

In the rush of the school term, it is often difficult for teachers to find time to reflect, but John Hattie provides a useful checklist for teachers seeking to monitor and develop their own performance. According to Hattie, outstanding or expert teachers:

1. Relate lesson content to other school subjects, underlying principles and students' interests
2. Are passionate about teaching and learning
3. Respect students as learners and as people
4. Encourage risk
5. Set challenging goals
6. Seek feedback and analyze the effectiveness of their own teaching
7. Monitor and provide feedback on student progress
8. Are more likely to develop closeness to students
9. Have a deep understanding of how learning occurs (Masters).

He also says that expert teachers can

1. Respond to the needs of students
2. Take a flexible problem-solving approach
3. Anticipate, plan and improvise as required
4. Make decisions based on student questions and responses
5. Monitor student problems, understanding and progress (Hattie).

Personal reflection: I encourage and enjoy risk-taking, set challenging tasks, willingly admit to mistakes or ignorance. I readily improvise in response to student need: these are some of the most satisfying lessons. I am not a highly-structured teacher, but as some students find this difficult, I also provide some structured activities. However, I need to work much harder on monitoring individual student progress - I do this well in response to written work, but find it hard in the hurly burly of class-room activities. Many of my colleagues are much better at this. However, I do achieve closeness with a significant number of students, and I am so passionate about what I do that the students laugh at me.

Bibliography for ICT Assessment 1

Chaiklin, Seth. (no date: accessed 31.3.07) ‘The zone of proximal development in Vygotsky’s analysis of learning and instruction’
http://www.education.miami.edu/blantonw/mainsite/Componentsfromclmer/Component5/ChaiklinTheZoneOfProximalDevelopmentInVygotsky.html
Driscoll, Marcy Perkins (1994). Psychology of learning for instruction. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Hattie, John . (2003). ‘Teachers Make a Difference: What is the Research Evidence?’.ACER Annual Conference.
Masters, Geoff. (2004) ‘What makes a good teacher?’ http://www.acer.edu.au/publications/newsletters/enews/04_enews18/Good_Teacher_May04.html
Murray, Ken. (1995) Narrative Partitioning: The ins and outs of identity construction.’ http://home.mira.net/~kmurray/psych/in&out.html

Piaget, Jean. 1962. ‘Comments on Vygotsky’s critical remarks concerning The Language and Thought of the Child, and Judgment and Reasoning in the Child’ http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/comment/piaget.htm

Riddle, Elizabeth M. (1999) ‘Lev Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory’ http://chd.gse.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/theorists/constructivism/vygotsky.htm

Silverthorn, Pam. (1999). ‘Jean Piaget’s Theory of Development.’ http://chd.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/theorists/constructivism/Piaget.htm

Smith, M.K. (2002) 'Jerome S. Bruner and the process of education', The Encyclopedia of InformalEeducation
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm.

York College (No date, accessed 31.307) ‘Evaluating Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development.’ http://intranet.yorkcollege.ac.uk/yc/new/HUMSOC/psycho/unit4/piaget.pdf

William Glasser: The Wisdom of Solomon or Hubris?

Titian, Vanity with her Mirror

William Glasser devised Choice Theory which suggests that almost all behavior is chosen, and that we are driven by our genes to satisfy five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun...the most important need is love and belonging' http://www.wglasser.com/whatisct.htm.

Glasser is highly critical of testing, particularly closed-book testing, which he thinks is contrary to the practice of the real world, where workers are expected to find out facts they do not know rather than being expected to know everything. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3960/is_200207/ai_n9097918

Glasser instituted 'Quality Schools', begging the question whether all other schools are non-quality. In Quality Schools, as far as I can determine, relationships are based upon trust... anything below a B grade has been abolished, all students achieve some A grade work each year, 'schooling... has been replaced by useful education', students and staff use Choice Theory in their lives and in their work, parents familiarize themselves with Glasser's ideas, students perform better academically, and all concerned 'view the school as a joyful place' http://www.wglasser.com/quality.htm.

Researching Glasser on the Web, I feel he may be rather self-promoting and intolerant of other views: there are many sites for the William Glasser Institute - a feature I did not encounter when researching the other theorists. One online comment was 'I mean aren't the teachers responsible for control in the schoool. If they get friendly with students some will simply take advantage of that, I think.' http://www.wgii.ie/discus/messages/6/28.html?1148556161

Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much, and that there is considerable hubris here.

Bruner and the Inner Fire

I always loved the story of how Alfred the Great's mother promised her illuminated manuscript to the son who learned to read it. Alfred's older brothers had their minds on other things, but Alfred applied himself to learning to read and won the book. (http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=tappan&book=alfred&story=manor

I remembered this story when I read about Jerome Bruner's book The Process of Education (1960) and his concept of Readiness for Learning: 'any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development'.(cited, Smith, http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm). One of my happiest memories is showing two year-nine English students that French spelling had not always been standard (as their French teacher thought), by reading them Le Chanson de Roland and the even more idiosyncratic spelling of Piers Plowman: although the language of both texts was beyond them, they eagerly followed my translation - a moment when I felt I had blown on the flames of their intellectual fire.

In Acts of Meaning (1990), Bruner also insists on the importance of 'mental states like believing, desiring, intending' in the development of understanding.http://evolution.massey.ac.nz/assign2/BP/Bruner.html

and emphasizes narrative rather than paradigmatic reasoning, as described by Murray: 'the paradigmatic... [describes] a world of fact, whereas the narrative... constructs a point of view which is capable of hope and fear.'http://home.mira.net/~kmurray/psych/in&out.html

Bruner's humane approach sees the importance of engaging the emotions - crucial when teaching challenging texts like King Lear. Students may be as unwilling to read it as Moses was to hear God's word from the burning bush, but if they take off their shoes and listen, they may find themselves inspired and empowered.