Developing Learning Intentions

School: Ridgway

Year Level: 3-4

Teacher: Rod Scott

Focus areas: Authentic learning and Participating and Contributing

Research Questions:

Question 1. Implementation: How can students be supported to develop the ability to prepare their own Learning Intentions.

Question 2. Engagement: What is the shift in engagement as a result of the intervention.

Question 3. Knowledge: What is the growth in knowledge as a result of the intervention.

Success Criteria for Knowledge

Expert: Aware of strengths and weaknesses in the celebration and can plan to improve
Practitioner: Can analyse and use knowledge to create a celebration
Apprentice: Can describe a celebration to someone else
Novice: Can name NZ celebrations

Question 4. Competency: What is the shift in competency in creating LI’s using the trial method

Success Criteria for Competency

Expert: Can critique the strengths and weaknesses of the Learning Intentions and plan to improve.
Practitioner: Can use the process to create relevant and meaningful Learning Intentions
Apprentice: Can describe the process to someone else
Novice: Is aware of the process to set Learning Intentions

Learning Story:

Broad Aim

Our broad aim was to investigate ways to improve student ability to prepare Learning Intentions for a programme of work.

Context

As part of the school wide Inquiry work on Celebrations and specifically the deep understanding of “Cultures celebrate the same things in different ways” we looked at what we as a country celebrates and how we could compare it to similar celebrations in other cultures. Our investigation looked specifically at the effect of a particular method for helping children develop skills in preparing their own Learning Intentions.

Assessment

Children self assessed using the criteria above, both before and after the intervention. It was assumed that all children would be at 0 at the outset of the project because of their age and lack of exposure to the method being used. Therefore everyone was a beginning novice with regard to competency in the process of creating their own Learning Intentions.
A specific pre unit engagement survey on input into Learning Intentions was carried out and will be followed up at the end of the unit.

Method

To implement this research we :

1.Split the 4 classes (B2 B3, C1 and C2) into vertical cross groups based on age and maturity. These became their cooperative learning groups.

2.Established the children’s prior knowledge of celebrations in N.Z. using a variety of tools including: Know/Don’t know/Like to find out charts, Brainstorms, De Bono’s thinking Hats and Fishbones.

3.We then provided the class with a range of tune in activities around celebrations that provide a variety of experiences to engage the student’s interest. These included

• Youtube clips of a range of celebrations
  
• Children's families and their celebrations


• Comparing and contrasting similar celebrations in different countries


• Brainstorms on types of celebrations
  
  

4. We then determined what the children want to find out more about. We did this by using a variety of sources such as the internet, National Library and school books to help brainstorm all the things that interested them and what they wanted to find out. We then grouped the interest areas into broad categories.



5. After that the cooperative groups looked at using how, what, when, where, why, and who ideas to turn the areas of interest into questions.



6. The children then prioritised the questions in order of interest/importance. We then discussed how we could relate these questions back to our original deep understanding of “Cultures celebrate the same things in different ways”. The discussion at this point needed some clear guidance about how to frame a question so it would reflect what we were aiming to achieve. We looked at a number of ways but settled primarily on a compare and contrast structure.

7. We then tried to turn the questions around into “We are Learning to….” statements. This proved to be a difficult step for most of the children to follow. The idea that a Learning Intention was like a title that covered lots of different questions took a while to grasp. We eventually got there by modelling book titles and how they related to the book contents. The year 7 and 8 leaders were then able to grasp that the idea of a LI wasn't as specific as they first thought. They came to the realisation that a single LI was able to cover many different ideas and questions under a single umbrella. This is still a work in progress however as there was a lot of guidance, questioning and facilitating required on my part to get them to this point.

The Learning Intentions we eventually decided on were:

We are learning to:

• Find similarities and differences between celebrations in different cultures or religions
  
• Find out how different cultures use food and dance in celebrations
  
• Compare how different cultures celebrate harvests
  

Results:

Outcome 1. Engagement:

SCALE: 1 = never, 2 = not very often, 3 = about half the time, 4 = often, 5 = always

Mean level of engagement of students ...

Offered ideas - 3.2
Asked questions - 3.1
Listened to and thought about other's ideas and responded respectfully - 2.8
Used positive body language related to task - 2.2
Persevered in order to enact related task - 3.9
Showed evidence of being active learners outside school time - 1.2
Showed interest in directing their own learning - 3.6
Had behavioural issues that impacted on their learning - 1.9
Showed evidence of using what they have learnt - to be completed post topic

Overall mean level of engagement of students = 3.01

Outcome 2. Knowledge:

Number of students who were ...

8. Proficient experts - at start 0 at end [#]
7. Beginning experts - at start 4 at end [#]
6. Proficient practitioners - at start 0 at end [#]
5. Beginning practitioners - at start 5 at end [#]
4. Proficient apprentices - at start 4 at end [#]
3. Beginning apprentices - at start 8 at end [#]
2. Proficient novices - at start 4 at end [#]
1. Beginning novices - at start 2 at end [#]

Knowledge effect size = To be determined at post unit assessment

Standard error = To be determined at post unit assessment

Outcome 3. Competency:

Number of students who were ...

8. Proficient experts - at start 0 at end [#]
7. Beginning experts - at start 0 at end [#]
6. Proficient practitioners - at start 0 at end [#]
5. Beginning practitioners - at start 0 at end [#]
4. Proficient apprentices - at start 0 at end [#]
3. Beginning apprentices - at start 0 at end [#]
2. Proficient novices - at start 0 at end [#]
1. Beginning novices - at start 0 at end [#]

Competency effect size = To be determined at post unit assessment

Standard error = To be determined at post unit assessment

Reflections and Conclusions:

Implementation: How can students be supported to develop the ability to prepare their own Learning Intentions.

By giving the students a clear method to follow with regard to determining their own Learning Intentions the class was able to follow the process with relative ease through the initial phases of tuning in, exploring a range of different types of celebrations and thinking about what interested them. With the structure of How, What, When, Why and Who questions they were able to turn the areas of interest into some specific questions. Difficulties arose however in trying to relate their questions back to the deep understanding of " Cultures celebrate the same things in different ways". The idea of comparing and contrasting a variety of celebrations rather than just concentrating on what happens in a specific celebration took a bit of guidance and intervention on my part. Because the children were focussed on areas they were interested in it took a while to get them to the point of looking at the bigger picture.

Engagement: What is the shift in engagement as a result of the intervention.

There is no concrete data yet on the shift in engagement as this is not a one term project. Anecdotal evidence from the tone of the classroom and the observations I made would suggest however that the students were well motivated by the thought of being able to direct their own learning. In the introductory statements and initial lessons I deliberately asked the question of whether they would prefer to learn about things that interested them with regard to celebrations or what I decided they needed to know. Not surprisingly they were unanimous in wanting to direct their own learning. As we progressed I continued to remind them about what we were trying to achieve in this regard. It was obvious to me watching the interactions of most of the class that they were involved in the discussions, the cooperative group participation checkers reported few chidren who were off task and their was a good "buzz" and feel to the class activities.

Knowledge: What is the growth in knowledge as a result of the intervention.

There is no data for this yet as we are still in the finding out process of the unit. I will be posting this data and relevant conclusions when available.

Competency: What is the shift in competency in creating LI’s using the trial method

This was the most difficult area to gauge. As we have only done the process once there won't be any conclusive data until we use the same or revised method again and observe how the children cope with the method. It has become apparent however that the children struggled at the point of turning their many specific questions into broad learning intentions. With hindsight this is not surprising as the staff at the school took a years worth of professional development in setting relevant learning intentions and success criteria and we were trying to guide the children in the same direction over the course of 3 or 4 weeks!

The children needed a lot of support in turning their questions into LI's. As mentioned earlier they found it difficult to get the idea that a single LI could cover many different types of question. For future use it seems apparent that the students need to have a clear understanding of what a learning intention is by posting a definition on the whiteboard. They see them every day however in those instances the LI's are given to them so they don't necessarily have to think about them. A possible definition to help the children might be that an LI is a short or medium term goal for their learning. It can be specific if being used to teach a certain skill or in the case of an Inquiry topic a broader goal that covers the areas of interest.

Where to next?

Now that the children have developed the LI's we are now ready to begin the finding out phase. It is our intention to use the knowledge gained through this process to create our own Ridgway celebration that reflects the variety of cultures present in the school and utilises some of the ideas the children will have gained from their research.

Watch this space!