in the classroom
In the loop
The importance of accurate and meaningful studentcentred reporting .
Tony Maguire interviewed by Wade Zaglas
Recently Education Review published an article on the importance of assessing students ’ learning and progress accurately , and in a way both parents and students can easily understand .
The story was based on an article by Professor Geoff Masters that drew attention to a major US study . It found there were significant differences between how parents thought their children were progressing and their children ’ s actual achievement level .
We interviewed A / NZ regional director of D2L Tony Maguire to get his thoughts on how the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the disconnect between teachers ’ and parents ’ understanding of student learning , and areas in which we can improve .
Maguire highlights the importance of the “ feedback loop ” building up to major
assessments , ensuring it ’ s always studentcentred and written in plain language that students and parents can easily understand . Student reflection after an assessment is also something Maguire strongly encourages .
He also outlines what he would like to see prioritised in future government education spending , particularly microcredentials that could begin as early as high school .
ER : Professor Geoff Masters recently cited a major US study showing a significant mismatch between students ’ achievement and how well their parents thought they were achieving . Is this common in your experience ? TM : It truly is . I think one of the things that came out of going to a home learning situation with COVID was that disconnect , or that distance between what was happening in the classroom and what was being , I guess , filtered by parents was quite significant . COVID ’ s given us an opportunity to take stock of that gap and find effective ways to shrink it down , I think .
Parents are fundamentally interested in the success and the progress of their children . Teachers are fundamentally focused around making sure that students understand and move through their learning activities and gain mastery and proficiency over tasks , so somewhere in the middle , we need to be able to take that goodwill , those learnings from COVID , and find better ways to present that information as progressive reporting , or progressive feedback to parents . There are lots of good examples I see around that particular problem and solutions for it .
You seem to be advocating a reporting approach that is much broader than simply reporting on , say , a specific piece of assessment . Yes , absolutely . I think when we talk about reporting , we ’ re essentially thinking about feedback loops to students to ensure that the goals of those set activities that they work through , the assessment tasks they complete , provide an evidence-based picture of the student ’ s progression or skills development .
The reporting piece really then is having a feedback loop in place so that the student can reflect on their achievement in that task . They might look at the rubric and understand if they had done X , Y , and Z , they could have had a different mark . The reflection that comes after that feedback loop , that personal reflection by the student , is really important . And when I see schools doing a good job , it ’ s where they try and mirror that feedback structure within the reflection as well , so it becomes another mini feedback loop , if you like .
The next phase for that is : how then do you report back to the students , but also report back to the head of school ? But most importantly , how do you report back to parents in a consistent , progressive and inclusive way ? Then , how do we reflect on the goal-setting that is important for
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