The importance of communicating clear goals to scaffold student success: a recent classroom example

The importance of student metacognition, self-assessment, and providing rich feedback to students during the process of working and learning (as opposed to at the end of the project when students have no chance to internalize and implement the feedback) has been well documented in education research (Taras, 2001). Yet, implementing this in different learning projects and learning activities is not always readily feasible or clear. Here, I reflect and share on one example from my recent teaching experience at the Grade 8 Science level. Consistent with the work of Taras (2001), the aim was to increase transparency for students so they could clearly see the goals and how to reach there based on their level of competence and work input while also enriching the quality of teacher feedback I was able to give students during the process in addition to facilitating and encouraging student self-assessment of their own performance.

The introductory chemistry elements project (periodic table, metals, non-metals, metalloids) is a popular and common culminating activity done in year 9 science SNC1D/1P in Ontario and in year 8 in Sweden.

I first did this project at Medway High School in Arva Ontario during my practicum placement there in the Fall Term 2014. Student created a beautiful periodic table on the classroom wall (first 20 elements).

My second chance at supervising this project came in Spring Term 2016. Students were given the guidelines and instructions and they worked in groups to create powerpoint presentation (google slides).

My third and most recent chance at supervising this project came in Spring Term 2018. This time, I decided to do something new that would guarantee student success through a three pronged strategy:

(i) step-by-step scaffolding for requirements clearly communicated

(ii) metacognition - opportunity for students to monitor their own progress and how well they were doing at each step

(iii) organized way for student-teacher interaction and feedback during the process (not merely at the end)

The collective sum of the above 3 factors led to a quality of work and student output that was markedly different from before and led to higher grades, most noticeably for students at the bottom of the grading system -- struggling students. But it also helped high achievers and middle performing students to be more calm, confident, and knowledgeable of the requirements needed for their success. Student final grades for the project were based on the boxes shown below which the students filled in during the project (self assessment) and which I filled in after grading their final products (teacher assessment). In this transparent way, students could readily see where they could improve upon and any disagreements between student expectations for their final grade and teacher judgment could be resolved on a fact-based and objective manner with pinpoint accuracy.

Below I share:

(i) the scaffolding, meta-cognitive, during process achievement (success chart) I created and used.

Success/Achievement chart for ongoing self-assessment (metacognition) and teacher feedback during the process of working and learning. Created and used by Sulayman Mokhtarzada, Spring Term 2018.

... and the details of the expectations students can refer to shared with them online and in hard copy. Students were reminded of the importance of giving credit to owners and creators of digital media they use in their projects.

Reference

Taras, M. (2001). The Use of Tutor Feedback and Student Self-assessment in Summative Assessment Tasks: Towards transparency for students and for tutors. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 26(6), 605 - 614.