IMPLEMENTING STUDENT CHOICE IN THE CLASSROOM
Patty
Baize
DCI 510/593
APPLIED PROJECT
May 7, 2003
Introduction
Background of the Study
Several weeks before I began my research study, I attended a conference
in which the speaker seemed to offer possible suggestions to satisfy some
questions I had been pondering for months. First and foremost in my mind
was the question of how my junior high students would respond to being
given choices in the classroom. A very dominant characteristic I had noticed
in my students was a veritable vacuum of motivation toward nearly anything
academic. What had happened to the zealous little learners who had raced
inside the elementary schools to be happily saturated with new information?
Mr. Mondy, the speaker, had developed a lesson that incorporated student
choice and had noticed increased motivation with his high school students.
Up to this point, I had not come across anyone who had pondered the possibility
of greater student autonomy, and he had even actively done something to
address it.
For the eight years I have been teaching, the lack of student motivation
had been puzzling to me. Three years ago I read a book by Alfie Kohn called
Punished by Rewards. This was the first time I was exposed to the idea
that the absence of motivation could be directly linked to the absence
of choice. For example, Kohn (1993) wrote,
Every teacher who is told what material to cover, when to cover it,
and how to evaluate children’s performance is a teacher who knows
that enthusiasm for one’s work quickly evaporates in the face of
control. Not every teacher, however, realizes that exactly the same is
true of students: deprive children of self determination and you deprive
them of motivation. If learning is a matter of following orders, students
simply will not take to it in the way they would if they had some say
about what they were doing (p. 221).It was slow to germinate, but that
seed was what prompted the beginning of change implemented in my classroom,
and described in some detail below. As you will see, the growth is still
slow, but at least the progress has begun.
Purpose
I taught six classes of seventh grade life science in a large, public
school district in the Southwestern United States. The district prescribes
the course objectives that must be taught for each semester along with
the topics that correspond to them. Because my choice of topics was somewhat
limited, so the choices I was able to offer to my students had to fall
within certain boundaries. With that in mind, I began to think through
what the focus for my research study would be and how I would begin.
I wanted to see if I could improve the motivation of my students, and
the means I had hoped to do so was through offering more choices through
which they could meet the learning objectives we were given. Then, I wanted
more. I wanted my students to want to learn, to be enthusiastic, to create
projects they were excited about, but I wanted them to do it for the educational
experience. I did not want them to work for me, or for parents, or even
worse, for a grade. I wanted them to find intrinsic rewards for their
efforts.
Research Questions
I began a short study to answer my research question of: What happens
when junior high science students are given choices within the curriculum?
As I began to search for direction, I soon realized that the current trend
toward ‘Back to Basics’ in our public schools did not support
alternative teaching and learning methods. As a result, it was difficult
to find current resources in my district to guide my study. Since time
was of the essence, I simply began to blaze my own path.
For six weeks I gathered data in my classroom to try to answer the growing
number of questions I had. Were my junior high students mature enough
to handle the removal of much of the standard classroom structure? Would
they make responsible decisions for their own education? Would they complete
learning goals within the time frame and achievement levels imposed upon
us by my school and district? I decided it was worth it to take the risk
and find out.
The Study
Rough Beginnings
So, with only slightly more finesse than a bull in a china shop, I planned
a unit of study for my students that would allow them to make some choices.
Our current area of study was Human Anatomy and Physiology in which we
had been breaking down various systems of the human body, studying them
in-depth, and moving on to the next. Typically I start my students off
with some sort of lab or activity through which they can discover for
themselves some new information, and hopefully stumble across a need for
some new vocabulary to help them describe what they have learned. After
that we generally have some class discussions surrounding some worksheets
to support the current learning objective, and then some type of assessment.
While my classroom is very user-friendly for my students, I could not
help but notice how much I direct what happens every day. Even though
there were some choices for my students prior to this, our comfort zone
(for myself and for my students) had been set. The changes I wanted to
make would not come as easily as I had envisioned.
Participants
I had one class that particularly intrigued me. My seventh hour class
had been a challenge all school year. They were a fun, social, intelligent
group that seemed to achieve below their apparent ability levels. I struggled
to keep them on-task, but enjoyed their intelligent, bubbly conversation
and discussions, when I could keep them on topic. I decided to narrow
my data collection and observations to this group of twenty-seven bright,
chatty, animated, but unmotivated and slightly underachieving adolescents.
While the entire dynamic of this class was of particular interest to me,
I narrowed specific data collection to four students. Erin and Keith were
two very good students who were especially secure and insightful. They
did not hesitate to offer their honest, open opinions about the success
of my efforts to guide their learning experiences. Kelly and Wade were
two students who seemed to have much more ability than what was reflected
in their work. I was especially interested to see if greater autonomy
would improve the quality of their work. I felt that all of my students
were capable of responsible decisions, but wondered if I had allowed more
than what some of them were ready to handle. Like it or not, I knew that
I would soon find out the answer to this recent wondering.
Data Collection Methods
With great trepidation I was determined to relinquish control over my
students’ educational experiences, and continued to blaze a path
to answer my original question. I set out to collect a superhuman amount
of data and soon realized the incredible amount of time involved in the
collection, organization, and processing of it all. I settled on the following
methods:
* My research journal
* Field notes of classroom observations
* Student artifact: completed models, projects, creative writing, etc.
* Student surveys
* Student self-assessments on completed assignments
* Student daily responses regarding class accomplishments
* Student written reflections
* Student interviews
Data Analysis
"Messier before neater, like cleaning and organizing my pantry"
[Research Journal, 4/2/2003] was how I felt about analyzing my data. I
sorted and re-sorted my data as I cycled through proposals in my mind
for codes that seemed to fit. This process was tedious, and frustrating
as hindsight provided clarity into how I could have done things better.
I decided at this point to have the students do some free writing. I
asked them to write a reflection in which they expressed how they felt
about the Nervous System Mini-unit. I asked them to tell me what they
liked or did not like about being given more freedom. My motive behind
this additional data was to ensure that what I had already collected had
not lead the students in anyway. Several of my data (self-assessments,
daily responses, and surveys) had specific answers for them to select.
While they were always given the option of writing in another answer,
I realized that they may not choose to go to this extra effort. So it
was at this point that I added a Student Written Reflection to my growing
piles of data.
I eventually settled upon four codes regarding student choice: Positive
Student Outcomes/Indicators, Negative Student Outcomes/Indicators, Positive
Teacher Views, and Negative Teacher Views. I sorted my data again and
color-coded with these in mind. I re-read to see if I could identify general
themes in each category. Positive Student Outcomes/Indicators included
repeated instances of: increased time on task, increased interest, increased
discussion and wonderings, recognition and utilization of preferred learning
styles, student’s vocalization of preferences for greater autonomy.
Themes that indicated Negative Student Outcomes to me were: work avoidance,
choosing only short or apparently simply learning activities, random selection
of activities, vocalizing which indicated a resistance to change.
Positive and Negative Teacher Views came mainly from my research journal
and included themes of: student independence and self-direction, higher
quality of work, increased discussion of our topics, work continuation
beyond our time constraints. My negative views emerged from the blind
way I entered into this new territory. I saw repeated notations of my
frustration with time constraints, too much time involved in setting up
the first mini-unit, students not following directions which resulted
in more work for me, lack of materials most significantly computers, attachment
of points to their work, and classroom volume levels. Some of these problems
were eliminated after the Nervous System study which resulted in a much
more positive learning experience during the Ecology unit.
Conducting the Study
Preparing to Relinquish Control
Prior to turning the students loose, I spent a couple of days getting
them ready. I decided to address my concern that they would make responsible
choices by giving them Gardner’s Survey of Multiple Intelligences.
My hope was that if they had an understanding of how they learned best,
they could implement that information into the choices that they would
soon be making in their studies of the nervous system. Day one went well.
They were tremendously interested in discovering their learning strengths
and weaknesses. An informal poll revealed that they overwhelming felt
their results truly spoke to how they perceived themselves as learners.
We had some wonderful, meaningful class discussions surrounding their
new insights about learning styles. I explained how they might choose
to use this information to make effective choices for their work in science.
Gardner’s survey results from my seventh hour class should not
have been such a surprise to me. The fact that their results totally blind-sided
me speaks to how easy it is for teachers to just teach, and not slow down
to really think about what is going on in the classroom. I thought I was
more in tune than what my study was revealing. Here is an excerpt from
a Narrative Memo I wrote:
When I looked at class-wide results from the surveys, I was struck by
how relatively even the distribution was in all classes except seventh
hour. My seventh hour class was overwhelmingly Kinesthetic and Interpersonal.
They were also extremely low in both areas of Logical/Mathematical and
Visual/Spatial. These results did not completely surprise me, but the
sharp spike is startling. The extremely low scores in Logical & Visual
areas surprised me a lot. I am concerned that I didn’t consider Gardner’s
work prior to now. I am so familiar with his work;
I should have seen this coming [Memo 3/26/03].These survey results gave
me some insight into the struggles we had shared as a class, and to possible
explanations for some of their disinterest and incongruent levels of achievement.
Kinesthetic and Interpersonal styles both require interaction (act it
out, talk about it, feel it) to assimilate what they are trying to learn.
Logical and Visual learners more easily accept a sit down, listen, read,
and learn setting. While I was familiar with, and tried to implement Gardner’s
work into my teaching style, I realized that that was probably not the
appropriate application of this information. An individual’s survey
results, in my metamorphosing opinion, were best served by allowing the
individual to use the results in a way that held meaning to them. Up to
this point, I had not empowered the students with this knowledge. Now
it was theirs to use, and I hoped it would help them to make effective
choices for themselves.
Here We Go
My first attempt at implementing student choice came with a unit on
the human nervous system. I used a modified version of something I had
picked up at the science conference I had attended in February. Here is
how it looked in my classroom. I broke the unit down into four sections:
1) the brain and central nervous system, 2) eyes and vision, 3) scent
and hearing, and 4) touch and taste. I set up four areas of the room,
one for each of these main areas of the nervous system. I spent days compiling
various worksheets, labs, and activities surrounding each of these areas.
There were internet sites to visit, diagrams to label and color, labs
to gather information, cut and paste activities, creative writing topics,
and standard workbook type worksheets to complete. The amount of time
I had to put into this was grueling. It did not help matters that I am
absolutely obsessive about having everything hyper-organized. In addition
to that, I had a timeline to maintain in order to cover all of the district
objectives by the end of the semester. After what felt like the weekend
of a forty-hour week, I introduced the plan to my students, and they were
off and running.
Day one was Gardner’s Survey, day two was the beginning of chaos.
As usual, I felt that I had more than prepared for this day. All of my
ducks were in a row, everything would run smoothly--I thought. I had master
copies of all choices set in the appropriate area of the room. Each master
had a sticky note on it. Students were to take their calendar, look at
all of the options from each area and choose what they would do from each
station. They were to make a tally mark on the master, so I would know
how many copies to make of each assignment or activity. Then, they were
to write the title of the assignment/activity on their calendar so they
would know what to pick up and accomplish each day of the study. Here’s
what I wrote regarding this great new plan: "Copy-making is grueling!
Machines are down! Student calendars aren’t absolute and should be
to decrease my copying stress" [Research Journal 4/2/03]. But, here’s
another entry from the next day: "Their independence is amazing me"
[Research Journal 4/3/03]. They were doing it. They were coming in, getting
out their materials, and completing their work. The first day of choice
was chaotic, but, this was only their second day of independent work and
my seventh hour class was happily on-task and involved in self-teaching
and teaching each other.
Studying Their Choices
During this initial implementation of student choice, everything that
was turned in by students had to have a self-assessment sheet attached
to it (see Appendix A). Students completed and addressed four brief inquiries.
Students were asked to be completely honest in completing this as the
information was to help me do a better job, not to assess their grade.
I hoped to gather some insight to directly address my research question,
What happens when seventh grade science students are given choices?
The questions on the self-assessment were intended to gather a varied
collection of data. I hoped to gain insight into their rationale for choosing
a particular activity (Were they being discriminating in their selection
for any reason?), their personal investment in the work (Were they working
harder?), the educational value they found in the assignment (Were they
stretching themselves?),and the level of difficulty they perceived from
the work (Were they able to follow through with their own choices?).
A daily reflection form and a student writing response provided a mixed
bag of data to me, some of which was evidence of a successful experience
for the students, and some of which reflected frustrations that I had
inadvertently caused (to be discussed in Negative Student Outcomes section).
These frustrations emerged after the Nervous System mini-unit. I hoped
to improve the process as we moved on to our next topic.
A Second Try
With the Nervous System completed, it was time to cover Ecology. This
time I did not feel ready to set up a similar mini-unit, but wanted to
continue to allow students to make choices about their learning experiences.
Two major projects provided some choices for students. Their first project
was a bottle biology assignment in which they chose to create a Terraqua
Column (a vertical assembly of a fresh water & land environment ecosystem)
or a Garbage in the Garden bottle in which they created a compost heap.
The second project was their final assessment for Ecology. The students
spent three days in class creating a mural through which they would describe
the environment, a specific ecosystem, community, population, and other
key components of Ecology. I had an enormous variety of unique ecological
regions represented in an enormous variety of mediums. Students spent
three class periods dutifully working on these, then went home to work
on their bottle biology projects as well.
Feedback from the Study
Positive Student Outcomes
The positive comments I received from students support what I gathered
from their self-assessments, which is simply that my students felt more
in control of their own learning during this mini-unit. Wade echoed many
of my students’ sentiments by writing, "It [picking our own
assignments] was better because we weren’t stuck with somthing [sic]
we didn’t want to do" [Student Written Reflection 4/16/03].
Students genuinely enjoyed what they were doing as evidenced in their
written reflections at the end of the unit. Kelly chimed in on the most
common student comment with, "I learned more because it was fun"
[Student Written Reflection 4/16/03]. Another positive outcome was recognized
by Erin in her statement, "You also gave us a higher level of responsibility"
[Student Written Reflection 4/16/03]. Not all recognized this, but many
had demonstrated it nonetheless.
Negative Student Outcomes
The negative comments, almost without fail, regarded a specific critical
error I made in planning the unit of study. Specifically, I attached a
point value to every activity the students did. I graded everything the
students did. This aspect of their independent work had many problems
connected with it. Certainly the most significant problem was that this
shifted the student focus from completing their work for the sole purpose
of learning to completing their work for a particular number of points.
I regularly reminded the students to not be concerned with points, but
how could they ignore the fact that the points were there? I am so annoyed
that this was not obvious to me at the time! A few weeks later I was reminded
of my error when I read the following: "A preoccupation with achievement
is not only different from, but often detrimental to, a focus on learning"
(Kohn, 1999, pg. 21). The italics are his as if to advertise my inadvertent
shift back toward what I was used to doing rather than making sure I was
remaining steadfast with what was truly important.
Teacher Frustrations
As a requirement of my school and district, I had to record grades,
but it did not have to be accomplished in such a negative manner. Next
time I will have students decide how they will show me what they learned
from each area following their study. That will allow students yet another
opportunity to make choices. By choosing how they wish to be assessed,
students will be more able to demonstrate what they have learned rather
than trying to figure out what I want them to learn. This type of response
(students stating, or learning in this case, what they think the teacher
wants them to) has been described as a "barrier to choice" (Kohn,
1993 p.252). Kohn further reminds educators that "an echo is not
a choice" (p. 253). Whether it is spoken or unspoken I want to ensure
that my students truly have choices, and are not just being manipulated
to do what I would have done anyway.
More Teacher Mistakes Learning
Another glaring error I made became obvious to me when I tried to test
over the Nervous System. Because I felt crunched for time, I wrote a quick
multiple choice test to be completed using a scantron card. This is not
how I typically tested my students. Prior to the Nervous System unit,
when I had used standard assessments, they were exams that I wrote myself
in conversational tones, and included open-ended questions and opportunities
for them to tell me things they had learned that I didn’t ask directly
about on the test.
We had spent a day reviewing that I felt went pretty well. My field
notes for the day included making tally marks on their seating chart to
indicate participation along with correct answers [Field Notes 4/10/03].
I also noted in my research journal on the same day how pleased (and to
be honest, surprised) I was at their overwhelming participation and apparent
knowledge gained of the human nervous system. The next day I gave them
their test. At the end of the day I excitedly rushed over to the machine
to have the glowing success of my wonderful students proven with their
exceptional test results. I began running the cards through the machine,
and it sounded like an army battalion on a shooting range with machine
guns. I was devastated; however, it didn’t take me long to snap out
of it and realize the ridiculous mistake I had made. These students had
learned the Nervous System in a very unconventional way, and I had tested
them in a completely opposite manner. Even if they hadn’t had so
much self-directed learning, I had only used a scantron one time before.
I had panicked under the time constraints I felt and resorted to a quick,
weak method of assessment that did not give me any true reflection of
student learning. I returned their scantrons without recording a grade.
Two days later I gave them another test that was in keeping with what
they were used to. Only one student’s grade was lower on the second
test, and it was only one point different.
Conclusions
A Classroom Transformed
The interest and motivation in my classroom is amazing. Students that
I did not have in class came in to walk around and look at murals and
bottles. They often commented, "Wow! I want to do this!" "Are
we going to get to do this, too?" [Research Journal 4/29/03]. My
own students came in and did not go to their seats--a common teacher complaint--but
I was happy that they didn’t. They were more interested in taking
a stroll around the room to see what was new. They wanted to measure and
record observations from their own bottles. They wanted to talk to their
classmates about the murals around the room. They brought their friends
in to show them what we were doing, or what they had personally accomplished.
Published and Professional Support
Throughout my struggles attempting to implement more student choices
within the science curriculum, I continued to read and study to broaden
my knowledge of the area of student choice. My teaching style seemed to
be in a continuous state of transition as I tried to reflect, improve,
and adjust, but without additional insight my attempts to improve were
sluggish at best. Though it was extremely difficult to balance my role
as teacher, parent, wife, and researcher, I managed to get some professional
reading done and found some support for what I had begun to discover in
my own research.
After having learned it the hard way, I felt somewhat exonerated from
my first rough attempts at student choice when I read the following excerpt
from Punished by Rewards:
Adults need to check a child’s capacity to make decisions, to make
sure he has the requisite skills. But they also must be prepared for problematic
responses from children who are not used to exercising choice. These responses
are most common when a teacher provides the opportunity to make decisions
to students who are accustomed to being controlled (Kohn, 1993, p. 253).I
had thrust my students head-first into the deep-end of choice, without
walking them through the shallows first.
My second attempt came with the Ecology unit. I was pleased to realize
what Oswald (1995) experienced: "It took less time for students to
get organized into groups and less working time for the completion of
projects" (p. 118). Both of these authors helped me to recognize
significant areas for improvement as I continued to transform my classroom
into a more effective learning environment for students through choice.
As far as professional support went, I seemed to have an enthusiastic
cheering section from the sidelines of my study. My co-workers were always
ready and willing to listen to my struggles along the way, but were in
no way ready to jump in and join me. I understood their hesitation. I
have the same reluctance raise its ugly head every now and then, but I
am too far into this to stop now. Maybe next year as I work more effectively
at implementing choice, they will be ready to get their feet wet. In the
meantime, I could not ask for a more supportive group of friends.
Now What?
The teaching theory was in my head; I truly felt that students were
happier, and more successful learners when they were given autonomy in
the classroom. With the appropriate groundwork laid, students could make
responsible choices and rise to appropriate levels for their own learning
experiences, even in junior high. I also learned that there is a lot to
learn about the assignment of grades to student work. These are practices
that are typically outside the comfort zone of students and teachers.
I can implement changes and ease this transition for my future students,
but I will have to follow through and definitively practice what I believe.
It will take time, and I will have to learn to be satisfied with baby
steps in order to create successful student involvement.
I sincerely believe that we (humanity in general, but specifically teachers
in this case) are responsible to do what we know is right. Having watched
the changes occur in my classroom over the last several weeks, I know
that I would never be satisfied to revert back to a more textbook, teacher-centered
structure. I have to practice what I have found to be a more effective
method for me and for my students.
Teacher as Researcher Lessons
Throughout my research experience, I realized how valuable documentation
can be in order to learn from my experiences and to produce deliberate,
progressive changes. With the questions in my head left unanswered, I
envisioned reams of notes in my future. I must force myself to continue
the habit of documentation. It was probably the most difficult for me
to maintain, but reflecting upon it, organizing it, looking for patterns
within it, etc. made it the most beneficial learning tool I had during
my research. I feel it is essential in order to continue to learn from
my students, and from my own successes and failures. I do not want to
reflect on my teaching career twenty years from now and see a cycle of
changes; I want to see a linear progression.
I know that through future teacher researcher projects I will continue
to solve problems in my classroom. Continuance as a teacher researcher
will protect my wonderings from growing into feelings of futility since
I have the tools to provide insight into my lingering questions. There
will certainly be frustrations, but having a course of action that can
be taken often alleviates the progression of negative feelings. If my
frustrations did not exist, I would never become irritated enough to take
action. I have so many little irritations that I want to address in the
future. What can be done to eliminate the negative effect of grades? In
light of the fact that I am required to assign grades, what would happen
if students assigned their own grades to their work? How can I help students
stretch themselves intellectually? What happens when students explain
their progress (their choices) to parents at conference time, rather than
my voice? How far into the background can I go, in order to simply partner
with my students as they discover science? In the meantime, I had the
beginnings of an answer to my original inquiry. What happens when seventh
grade science students are given choices? Sometimes they get excited about
what they are learning. I was thrilled!
REFERENCES
Kohn, A. (1993). Punished by rewards. Boston, MA: Houghton
Mifflin Co.
Kohn, A. (1999). The schools our children deserve. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co.
Mondy, T. (2002). Making Your BIOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCE instruction
the best it can be. Bellevue, WA: Bureau of Education & Research
Oswald, N. (1995). Choice & collaboration: A student-centered
science curriculum. Teacher Research, 3, 118 – 126.
APPENDIX A
Student Self-Assessment Form
Name____________________Hr._____Date_____Assignment______________________
1. I chose this assignment because:
a) it looked easy b) it matched my learning style c) my friend wanted
to do it d) I wanted to learn about this topic
2. The amount of time it took me to do this assignment was about:
a) <30 min. b) 30—45 min. c) 45 min—1 hour d) >1 hour
3. As a learning experience, with a one being low & a five being high,
how much do you feel you learned?
1 (didn’t learn anything new) 2 (learned a little) 3 (learned some
new stuff) 4 (learned a lot) 5 (I’m a new expert)
4. On a scale of one to ten, (one is low, ten is lots) how much effort
did you put into this assignment?1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
|
