PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS PROJECT CLASSROOM-BASED INVESTIGATION REPORT
A Professional Resource
Module 14 of the PSP2 explored the nature and value of ‘assessment as inquiry’ in languages teaching and learning. As part of this exploration, the Teachers who facilitated the program, conducted an ‘investigation’, involving classroom based research into their teaching and their students’ learning. They analysed ways that assessment data can be used to draw conclusions about the assessment process itself and the ways in which assessment data might be used for enhancing professional learning. They explored the ways that data generated through the assessment process can be used to address gaps in knowledge about student achievement and growth of student learning over time.
The group of Teachers were required to produce a report on investigations that they had undertaken into their own, or their colleagues, practice. These reports are provided to the profession, as models or exemplars of assessment as inquiry. They make for very interesting study and demonstrate the high level of professionalism and commitment of those Teachers who undertook to inquire into their own processes of assessing and judging, and to share their investigation with their colleagues.
Issues of confidentiality
The Teachers were diligent in gaining appropriate approvals from students and parents and in assuring confidentiality. There are significant ethical issues that arise in investigating and making judgements about students, and the involvement of students in such exercises, and the extent to which students have access to the thinking and judgements of their Teachers. In order to ensure confidentiality and also to include the fullest commentary by these professional educators within their reports, names of schools and the Teachers who wrote the reports have been edited from individual investigation reports.
The following is a list of those Teachers who conducted and reported on their investigations. This list is provided to acknowledge their professionalism and to enable other professionals to engage further through contact with them.
Teacher / Expertise / Contact DetailsKylie Farmer / K-7, Japanese, bilingual programs /
Jane Macdonald / 7-12 French / Castlemaine Secondary College
Amanda Pentti / Japanese, advisor to schools / Lutheran Education Queensland
Melissa Gould-Drakely / 7-12 Indonesian, intercultural teaching / Macarthur Anglican School
Meri Dragicevic / Primary Italian / Yarralumla Primary School
Gillian Cordy / Senior High French /
Jill Bignell / K-10 Japanese advisory role /
Lidia Faranda
Sarjit Ladd / Primary Indonesian / Plenty Parklands PS
Language: Indonesian
Year Level: Year 7
Context
This K-12 independent co-educational school is on the outskirts of Sydney. Indonesian is compulsory from Kindergarten to Year 8. Beginning classes are offered at a Year 7 level. The class I studied for this project is a beginning class. The students have a range of different ethnic / cultural backgrounds and some speak two or more languages. The data for this investigation was gathered after the students had completed 200 minutes of language study.
Focus of Inquiry
I chose to analyse evidence of learning in my classroom interactions, particularly Teacher-student interactions in whole class situations. I chose this focus of inquiry as it is an area in my teaching that I have not explicitly evaluated. I wanted to consider and think systematically about the evidence in these classroom interactions, both from a perspective of student learning (ascertaining how interaction can contribute to a student’s knowledge and understanding of Indonesian) but also Teacher practice (evaluating the feedback that I provide and how I use interactions to inform further teaching). I also wanted to know how interactions could be used as an assessment for learning tool.
Design
In preparation, I considered the type of data to collect and which class from which to collect it. I chose Year 7 as it has been a number of years since I have taught this year level and I wanted to see how I could best teach them. I collected the data at the beginning of the unit to analyse how students begin to learn languages. The main focus of the interactions was on questioning in both Indonesian and English and building on students’ responses, particularly in relation to their intra-cultural and intercultural understanding. The interactions would be digitally recorded from three consecutive lessons.
Implementation
I recorded three lessons, focusing on the whole class interaction. In the first lesson, the class seemed aware of the video camera but they did not appear to notice it in other lessons. The interactions involved me questioning the students in Indonesian and English about their understanding of language and culture. I transcribed these interactions and then analysed and evaluated the data with another colleague.
Data Gathered
Data was gathered and transcribed from the question/answer sessions of three consecutive lessons. These were digitally recorded, transcribed and analysed with another colleague, Faculty Head of Foreign Languages. These transcripts were analysed with a focus on the type of interaction that was taking place as well as the type of learnings that occurred. For example, we could see which students were engaged, what types of thinkings skills were being employed and what types of intercultural knowledge was being demonstrated. This information was especially valuable as it is data that is hard to capture from other ways of assessing students. In particular, we found that classroom interaction is a valuable way to gather evidence on intercultural learning. I used this analysis to inform the planning of future lessons as I could ascertain what the students had learned, were beginning to learn and needed to learn.
I also discussed and evaluated the data at a Languages staff meeting and we have considered the value of using class interactions as an assessment tool to monitor student achievement.
Also, one of the Indonesian Teachers has videoed his Year 5/6 class and has transcribed a section of the lesson to evaluate his interactions following this model.
I have also been tracking a range of individual students to monitor their progress.
Findings
It was very enlightening analysing the data. The interactions provided me with significantly more information than I had anticipated. Not only was I able to see that the students were engaged in the questioning/answering process by wanting to answer but also that they asked questions that showed their thinking and processing skills. In particular, some students who had been identified by other Teachers as being reluctant learners or disruptive were clearly engaged in the lessons and others who had been identified as having special needs showed comprehension of the material being taught. The lessons also showed me that the stimulus used (posters of the four teenagers) provided an opportunity for language discovery. The interactions were primarily (student centred) Teacher-mediated discussion. The following are examples of some of the interactions. The complete transcript is available in the appendix.
Petra Saya suka bola net, bola net dan main komputer. Petra was able to provide more than one element in her answer and use a conjunction. She moved beyond the response modelled by the Teacher.
Mike suka main atletik. I was surprised that Mike came up with this vocabulary item as he seemed to be having trouble responding. This shows the value of giving students time to respond before providing the answer. This was also a phrase that no other student had used and was not one that could be directly translated from the English (literally meaning play athletics).
Teacher Jay?
John Yeah, main piano. I was asking students (in Indonesian) if there were any students who had not had a turn. John responded in English (yeah) and Indonesian (main piano) to indicate what Jay said that he could do. His response showed not only his ability to listen to and use Indonesian but also showed his engagement.
Felix Saya suka umm minum kopi. I was surprised that Felix used this phrase (drink coffee) as it had not been a vocabulary item that I had explicitly taught but was on a list of English cognates that students had seen.
Marg Saya bol … um … saya suka bola net. This showed Marg’s abilty to self-correct.
John (whispers loudly) diamlah. It was interesting that this student learnt this expression (diamlah = please be quiet) as I had not explicitly taught it but had used it in previous lessons to ask the class to be quiet.
Felix What’s saya orang Islam? Felix showed that he was reading ahead. By asking this question he showed engagement. He wanted to know the meaning.
Felix They spell it with a K, though. It was interesting that Felix picked up on cognates with different spelling. This shows an awareness of language as a system. This is the type of interaction that provides evidence that is evident in other settings.
Teacher What did we say about teman-teman Advani?
Advani If we write the word again, it means it’s a plural. This shows he has understood how to form plurals. This interaction shows how learning language as a system is made explicit in the classroom.
Felix if she says that her favourite kind of pants are jeans, wouldn’t she say jin-jin? This shows that Felix has internalised the rule and seeking clarification. I didn’t think about explaining why jeans was translated as jin and not jin-jin. I will do so when I teach this again.
How is he Indonesian and Chinese? This shows that Petra is thinking about identity and it also shows his engagement.
I found it particularly enlightening that the boys showed significant learning in these interactions.
This learning is not always easily captured in other contexts. It is also interesting to note that
some of these boys have been identified in other classes as being disengaged and disruptive.
M, in particular showed he was engaged asking a range of questions. He demonstrated
an ability to hypothesise and show higher order thinking skills. This student has not performed
well in summative assessment tasks. If I had not paid attention to these interactions I would not
have a comprehensive account of his learning.
This data provides broader information about student achievement than other forms of assessment used. It captures students thinking, processing and reflecting skills and highlights the value of these. One student, in particular, showed considerable insight and the ability to predict and analyse during these interactions but he performed below expectation on the formal assessment tasks (a role-play and a test). Without the data from the whole class interactions, I would have assumed that he was a poor language learner. With the data, I could explore further why he did not perform well on the formal tasks in order to help him improve. Thus data from whole class interactions can help shape and change Teacher perceptions about student ability as well as being a valuable assessment tool.
Interpreting the information
I analysed the data to evaluate the types of questions that I asked and who volunteered to answer them. I found that I used questions to both guide student responses as well as check student understanding. I was pleased that most of the questions were open rather than closed questions. For example I asked:
· ‘Kamu suka apa?’ (What do you like?),
· ‘Dia dari Australia’. What do you think that means?’,
· ‘How do you know she’s a Christian?’,
· ‘Why do they spell it with a k?’,
· ‘Why do you think they would be more different?’,
· ‘What did we sat about teman-teman?, ‘
· What are some of the categories that might affect identity?’.
These questions also encouraged active construction. Asking students questions to help them predict and consider their assumptions provided them with opportunities to develop their intra-cultural understanding and set up building blocks for the intercultural competence. The interactions showed me how the majority of students had a sound grasp of the Indonesian being presented. They could recognise key vocabulary and comprehend the texts on the four teenagers and also could understand my questions in Indonesian. Other aspects came up that I wasn’t expecting such as pronunciation (the /c/ and /k/ phonemes) and grammar (plurals).
I found that more boys than girls volunteered to answer questions in whole class situations. As a result I will ensure I ask more girls to respond in future lessons. I also used the data from the interactions to assess student learning and plan future lessons. For example, from the interactions I was able to assess unplanned aspects of the students’ learning such as their understanding of plurals and their knowledge of the pronunciation of the phoneme ‘c’ and cognates. I also didn’t expect their level of interest in the concept of identity and their desire to share their ethnic background. The data gathered from these lessons is so rich that I have been able to examine my teaching on several different levels. For example, I have been able to evaluate my teaching style, the amount of input that I provide students, the amount of time allocated to student exploration, the breadth and depth of learning demonstrated in student responses and questions, variations in contributions made by girls and boys and how I engage students. This process has taught me that recording and analysing lessons (especially with the assistance of a colleague) while time-consuming, is an excellent professional development tool.
Materials and Exemplars
Transcripts of the recordings are in the appendix.
Evaluation
As a Teacher, I recognise that it is important to help students become aware of their own intra-culturality and then help them compare this with Indonesian people and their language and culture. These lessons focussed on developing students’ intracultural awareness and deepening students’ intercultural competence.
In the lessons, I could tell from the interactions that the discussion helped students become aware of their own preconceptions and possibly values. The interaction helped them to recognise how culture is embedded in the language.
My fellow Indonesian Teacher and Faculty Head of Foreign Languages would like to further explore the value of classroom interactions and the possibility of using these more as a tool for assessment for learning. She has planned for the Languages staff to observe each others’ lessons, with a particular focus on classroom interaction. We plan to discuss our observations. It is anticipated that this collaborative, reflective practice will help us become more observant of the type of learning that takes place through classroom interaction. The challenge will be harnessing sufficient data on all students.
Reflection
My aim for these lessons was to help students become aware of their own intra-culturality by comparing their identity to Indonesian teenagers and other class members. I also wanted students to enhance their metalinguistic awareness through the stimulus being presented.
From these interactions I could see that the students were actively involved in their own learning about language and culture and about the process of learning. Other data that I collect does not always provide me with this evidence. Students were actively involved in their own meaning making.
These interactions also showed me that the students were beginning to show signs of using skills of thinking, predicting and analysing. From my discussions with my colleague, I reflected on the importance of re-casting when interacting with students. While I did this, I had not recognised it. This also shows the value of discussing such findings with another colleague.
Importantly, the data has shown me that there are many ways to capture student learning. The analysis of the data highlighted student strengths and weaknesses that other forms of assessment do not necessarily identify. This was particularly the case for some of the boys.
The students had studied Indonesian for only 200 minutes prior to the recordings and 350 minutes by the end. I was actually surprised that learners with such little background could exhibit so much learning.
Appendix