The
Chess Fountain, Gran Estación Mall, Bogotá, Colombia - Photo by Jonathan Acuña
Potentials
for Data-Driven Instruction:
What is in
Store for ELT?
By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
School of English
Faculty of Social Sciences
Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Sunday, May 6, 2018
Post 317
As a curious traveler who intends to
explore new places, I’ve been too several intriguing but fascinating non-conventional
sites in my life. And while strolling down the many shopping places, museums,
and other tourist attractions in Bogotá, my wife and I came across this amazing
sight, a chess fountain. And since I am the kind of person who always wants to understand
things beyond what is really perceived by the naked eye, here I was faced with
these gigantic chess pieces, like the mammoth issue linked to the “effective,
meaningful” usage of an LMS (learning management system) in a language
institution interested in using data coming from it to refine its language
programs.
Whenever
I think of chess, I always picture those Muslim noblemen from a different era
making their right plays towards a chess mate to win a game. And as you must be
certain, in order to win a chess game, several moves are made to achieve that
goal. However, when I relate data-driven instruction in ELT to winning a chess
game, I often wonder if we can ever get to win this game we are playing now to
have learners profit from their use of an LMS. How far have we come along this
road to take advantage of an LMS aligned with an institution’s curricula? Well,
let me share a bit of what I have experienced and mull over for quite some time
…
The LMSs in the Lookout
At
this point in our history, most publishing houses in the ELT business have come
to devise their LMS to provide schools, language institutes, universities, etc.
with a digital way to track student coverage of thematic units from the coursebook
they have chosen for their programs. I refrained myself from using the word
learning (to replace coverage of thematic units) since the act of learning is a
very personal moment of self-discovery that is not exactly measured through an
LMS devised by a publisher. For me, learning is an intimate moment when each
individual discovers s/he is now in possession of new knowledge that can be
used otherwise. And the “possession” of new information can be attained through
a platform such as the LMS.
What
worries is not the presence of an LMS in a language institution, but the way it
is being used by the school’s instructors. Based on my personal experience with
teachers having to assign content in the institution’s LMS and memoranda that I
have written to myself over the years after talking to my peers in various
university settings in my home country, the school’s platform is more likely to
be used as the substitute of the paper workbook we used to have before; it has
become an e-Workbook full of exercises that can be assigned or de-assigned by
the instructor. The statistical evidence that a system like an LMS can generate
is not being used profitably to enhance the learning process by educators or school
policy makers. All this situation resembles again as if we were in this chess
game against one of the Muslim noblemen facing a “check,” and we are close to
discover that any effort is not enough to win the game because we are not
really using the LMS to help plan for learning.
The
question now is, is this abandonment of statistical evidence taking place
because of lack of teacher training or dearth of understanding? Are we about to
lose our chess game because of lack of expertise in the game? Being someone dealing
with some sort of administration of an LMS, I see the lack and dearth in
teachers’ platform tasks. Based on my reflections regarding this abandonment of
statistical evidence, educators are not grasping the real use of an LMS for
learning purposes. We have not trained our educators/players with the right “plays”
(moves) to use a platform for the sake of student learning. Additionally,
instructor supervisors are not providing an accurate and meticulous follow-up
of teacher work on the platform. And all this panorama makes us wonder whether
we really overlooked the real potential of Data-Driven Instruction (DDI) in ELT
or not. Did we also overlook the fact that chess players are also taught or
self-instructed to be good in the game, even when it comes to be playing
against a computer software?
Pinpointing Problem Areas
The
one question to ask over here, in this chess game-like situation, is: “are we
teachers planning around troublesome areas when teaching and then using an LMS
as part of our blended learning approach for student language development? If
we all use the data that LMS platforms generate to enhance our teaching, we
“teachers can more accurately pinpoint the problem areas that most of the
students have and then spend class time on those” (Baber, 2013) .
However, we tend to plan around the textbooks rather than around the
troublesome areas that our institution’s platform is revealing but that are not
being taken care of “accurately.” By far the LMS can help us spot “problem
areas” by analyzing data connected to student performance while working on the
exercises (or tasks) on the platform. But, are we doing it? If we are not
exactly doing this, not spotting the language learners are struggling with,
planning cannot be geared towards aiding pupils to improve and master vital
contents in their language development.
Baber
(2013) suggests being more creative in the use of a data-driven language class.
For him, “being perhaps a bit more creative, there’s scope for different
classroom constructs altogether” (Baber, 2013) .
What about teaching a class based on data from the LMS that has been analyzed;
the analysis can tell us what needs to be taught and who needs to be guided and
instructed. Suppose we have a group of students dealing with past perfect, and
there might be a section of the class that with the platform work they are able
to master the topic quickly and accurately. What do we do with these pupils?
Baber (2013) suggests that “instead of shepherding them all into one room three
times a week,” we can “have three different classes, each focusing on a
different problem area that a subset of those students have.” And the benefits?
These can be much better for all students by having the ones with very
particular troublesome areas to overcome practice work with the instructor, and
those who do not need that much instruction can focus their attention on other language
contents that require more work for them.
A Shift in Class Constructs
Based
on what Baber (2013) comments about “shepherding” students, why do we have to
make learners attend class? As educators we have all experienced the situation
where a subset of learners in class already know the content we are to study.
Depending on the ages and maturity of students, this particular scenario can
trigger boredom and class disruption affecting classroom management. Isn’t it
better to ask pupils to come when they need to? “While the total classroom time
per student is less, it meets the needs of those particular students far
better, and performance can be increased” (Baber, 2013) .
Language instruction does not always happen in the classroom; many of the LMSs
do include this instruction with inductive and deductive tasks for learners to
come up with their own rules, or simplified versions of the content (especially
grammar) that needs to be mastered by the student. The class needs to become a
place to practice the language being studied for those pupils who have areas
that they must strengthen. “The online component is also delivering teaching, not just consolidation
exercises or assessment, so students benefit via both mediums” (Baber, 2013) .
As
the chess players of these teaching scenarios where an LMS can provide us with
information about our learners, are we profiting from these learning platforms
by using the right moves? “Blended learning has long been heralded as the Holy
Grail but I don’t think we’ve actually seen the benefits yet” says Baber
(2013). Learning management systems can provide us with data to drive our
teaching to help students where they really need; it can provide as with very
punctual information about where students are experiencing a problem area. We
are at a “check” point on our LMS chess game because we are not really
instructing our educators (and ourselves) to use every datum to potentiate
student learning and mastery of the target language.
Data-Driven Performance Improvement
Are
we really meeting learner needs in the classroom? If we think we are fully
fostering student learning in our classes, we can be surprised by what students
can say about that. That we are not trying to attain the correct deployment of
LMS use is not being stated here, but that we need to try to redirect our
teaching to meet learner needs is by far a fact of teaching and language
mastery goals.
Data-driven
teaching can be the way to cater for learner needs and language mastery goals. Can
student performance be really improved with this new approach for playing this
chess game-like new way of planning? Why not!?! If we teach what data coming
from the LMS states, we are bound to discover that learning materializes in
different ways. Since “Data Driven
Instruction and Inquiry (DDI) is a precise and systematic approach to improving
student learning” (New York State Education Department, n.d.) , the usage of the
inquiry cycle of data-driven instruction that “includes assessment, analysis,
and action and is a key framework for school-wide support of all student
success.” And as data-driven instruction is conceived, assessment is already
covered by our students when working on the LMS, but analysis is what may be
missing in the correct “play to attain a check mate;” that is, when we analyze
the data, the proactivity in action we are to embark ourselves in our teaching
and planning is linked to the problem areas students must improve to master the
piece of language they are studying with us.
Taken
from the Engage New York New York State Education Department’s web page at https://www.engageny.org/sites/default/files/ddi-arrow-chart-small.png
The Need for More Training
“Teachers
who are trained in using [the LMSs] and evaluating students’ performance data
can make a real difference to their students’ learning” (Baber, 2013) .
But the fact of life is that we are not there yet, and we must work towards
teaching our instructors how to use the DDI teaching model. And this has to be
done through closer supervision. We cannot pretend that our language trainers
will learn to do this overnight, especially when we think that the trainers are
the first ones that must be trained to coach their supervisees.
The
first step towards the use of data from the LMS to teach is to help educators
understand and analyze reports. All teachers must have their eyes open to see
how to make their next “chess-playing movement;” once instructors can identify
the red flags, they have to analyze time spent on tasks to spot troublesome
areas, the grades students are getting, the number of attempts registered in
the platform, the frequency of sign-ins to platform, and so on. But more than
identifying the red flags, they must read between the lines to see what is
actually happening with pupils and their language learning.
Concluding Remarks
For
those of us newbies with LMSs, data-drive instruction, the DDI teaching model,
and so on, we must all agree that:
1) It’s
important to get trained to profit from all data coming from a platform and
convey more significant learning to and for our pupils in the classroom;
2) It’s
sensible to expand our understanding of all these new elements that are
becoming “the next big thing” as Eric Baber, former IATFL President called all
this back in 2013. The more we get familiarized with the data functionalities
in the LMS, the better for our teaching and for our pupils’ learning; and
3) It’s
our responsibility to have us deepen ourselves into data-driven instruction to
find more meaningful ways to teach our students, so they can really profit from
any time they invest in their language learning.
Let’s
turn our teaching more DDI-ish to really provide language learners in our
classes with more accurate instruction and more memorable learning moments for
our students. By doing all this, and many other “chess plays” or tricks we can
learn along the way, we can become better players aiming at winning the game
and materializing student language learning.
References
Baber, E. (2013, May-June). Data-Driven Teaching: The Next Big Thing? (IATEFL, Ed.) Voices(232), p. 3.
New York State Education Department. (n.d.). Data Driven
Instruction. Retrieved from Data Driven Instruction and Inquiry:
https://www.engageny.org/data-driven-instruction
Sunday, May 06, 2018
Post a Comment