Learning to Look

Steve Pickford Faculty of Education UOW

Project Focuses

Teaching Strategies
Rich Tasks, Mode shifting, Message Abundance, Assessment for Learning, Scaffolding

Sequenced Teaching Activities Design Implementation and Monitoring Evaluation

Engagement , Academic Writing, Self Assessment, Content Literacy, Conceptual Development

Learning Outcomes

Project Focus
Sequenced teaching activity (Inter)actions Collected Data
1 2 3

Data reduction & Interpretation

Distillation and Presentation of Findings

Do less, more thoroughly

To make your analysis effective, it is imperative to have a limited research problem with which to work. While it may be useful to explore different kinds of problems, this should only be done to establish the research topic with which you can most effectively work. Does this mean that your data and their analysis will be partial? Of course it does! But this is not a problem unless you make the impossible claim to give the whole picture.
(Silverman 2006:81)

Meaning accrues from the selection and sequencing of actions into narratives

Data are further reduced and recontextualized to form the narrative of the research report or presentation

Data reduction assists in the analysis and selection of what counts as examples of good writing, or feedback, or scaffolding or assessment, etc.

Look for activity sequences to construct Cases

Sequenced teaching activity
Rich Task Rich Task Rich Task

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Demonstrated Participation

Supported Participation

Transformed Participation

Ongoing Monitoring

Project Narrative
Beginning Week 1 Activities to collect baseline data accessing students prior knowledge and knowledge of English Middle Weeks 2&3 - Pre-test, teach, post-test on introduction to topic; images, maps, key vocabulary and technical terms Week 4 - Review lesson design on mapping, videotaping of group interaction for interpreting maps and statistics, class observations Week 5 - Locating information, web-based research; reading and writing strategies (skimming, scanning, noting); group discussions; composing point of view Week 6 - Introduction and use of Retrieval Chart for compiling information; research strategies; chart categories, content selection and organisation; questions and expanded responses; think aloud Week 7 - Presenting information; modelling and deconstructing research report; joint construction of research report Week 8 - Observation of group-work task (peer-conferencing) structuring research report; peer group oral reports, quiz on recognition of key vocabulary Weeks 9 - Writing skills (paragraphing, sentence structure, punctuation); report drafting, feedback during class; work samples Week 10 - Oral presentation of findings using technical terms supported visually; video of peer assessment of presentations; final report writing for portfolio; self assessment of research skills End Achievement of outcomes Assessment of teaching and learning strategies

Teaching Practices

L2

L3

L4

L5

Sequenced Data

TASK
On the sheet, as a group Select a sequenced activity related to your project focus. Break the activity into (inter)actions so that they tell a story beginning, middle, end. Describe the sequenced data

Data reduction is guided by theoretical and practical considerations

Theoretical considerations = which data best relates to the theoretical frameworks underpinning the project focus allowing for interpretation?

Practical considerations = which data is most relevant, significant, representative and manageable?

Mode Continuum
Text 1: this ... no, it doesn't go . . . it doesn't move ... try that. . . yes, it does ... a bit. . . that wont wont work, it's not metal. . . these are the best. . . going really fast Text 2: we tried a pin . . . a pencil sharpener . . . some iron filings and a piece of plastic . . . the magnet didn't attract the pin Text 3: Our experiment was to find out what a magnet attracted. We discovered that a magnet attracts metal. It attracted the iron filings, but not the pin Text 4: A magnet . . . is able to pick up, or attract, a piece of steel or iron because its magnetic field flows into the magnet, turning it into a temporary magnet. Magnetic attraction occurs only between ferrous materials.
(Gibbons 2002 p 40)

Theoretical framework
Situated learner exploratory talk using existing language Teacher-guided reporting with new language (pushed output)

Data to Interpretation

Teacher-guided recount writing

Teacher-guided explanation using generalisation and nominalisation

Discourse Scaffolding, Pushed Output Selected Example

S: Student T: Teacher

Reduced Transcript as evidence

S: T: S: T: S:

T: S: T:

And in hand, in hand, have a bigger glass to see. Its err. You mean, something in his hand? Like spectacle. For older person. Mmm, sorry I dont follow, its what? In hand havehe havehas a glass for looking through for make the print bigger to see, to see the print, for magnify. He has some glasses? Magnify glasseshe has magnifying glass. Oh aha I see, a magnifying glass, right thats a good one, ok.

Pushed Output: selected stimulated recall account

In this example I see I have to manage my err err expression because he does not understand me and I cannot think of exact word right then. I am thinking thinking it is nearly in my mind, thinking bigger and magnificate and eventually magnify. I know I see this word before but so I am sort of talking around around this word but he is forcing me to think harder, think harder for the correct word to give him so he can understand and so I was trying, I carry on talking until finally I get it, and when I say it, then he understand it, me. (Mackey 2002) Selected Data as evidence

Enriching Data through Stimulated Recall

In interactive research Stimulated Recall is a process of generating and refining data by asking participants to verbalise what they see or hear, from prior events; an output process, ie a mode of learning for participants; a reflexive means of building into research the identities of participants An aim of reviewing audio/video recordings, transcripts, notes, photos, etc is to stimulate thoughts that teachers and/or students had while participating in a task or an event. Examples of questions What were you thinking at this point? Why did you ask those questions? What led you to that conclusion? Why did you stop there? What other things were you thinking of? What do you think now?

From data to interpretation: what counts as evidence

Tighter project designs suggest a more deductive approach to interpreting data whereby a theory or practice is tested, to determine its legitimacy, or to prove it. For example, Does scaffolding produce better learner outcomes? Open designs are more exploratory and inductive aimed at building theory, adding to it, pushing it, generating it through better understanding of the contextual experience. For example, How has providing point-of-need feedback impacted on teaching and learning behaviour in my class? Ultimately the way the data is broken down, re-contextualised and represented is related to the interests of the researchers.

... what we find in research is a product of the process (Dunne, Prior &
Yates 2010)

What to attend to ...

Project focus and associated strategies underpinning scaffolding, assessment for learning, intellectual engagement; Classroom interactions (moments of co-building) where language is used as a tool for learning; Teacher questions, recasts and expansion work, etc; Lesson structures (familiar or new) and expectations of appropriate participation, ways of working, talking and classroom organisation; How forms of AFL are incorporated into lesson structures; How new material is presented and worked through in terms of kinds of message abundancy and explicitness; Learner engagement in terms of meaning appropriateness, intelligibility, repetition, expansion, points of explicit and intent participation; Learner interactions with peers, teacher, texts, self; Learner spoken and written language outcomes.

What to consult... Colleagues (another set of eyes) Academic material informing primary project focuses and strategies eg Cazden, C. (2001) Classroom Discourse: The Language of Teaching and Learning, Heinemann, Portsmouth NH. Gibbons, P. (2006) Bridging Discourses in the ESL Classroom, Continuum, London. Etc.

Learning to look (at data)

Greene (1994) refers to participant observation as 'learning to look. By this she means researchers developing the ability to look within and beyond routine practices. To make the familiar, unfamiliar, to make the commonplace strange, in order to see things differently. Cherryholmes (1988) argues that 'learning to look' is developed through suspending our thoughts over what is seen: "don't think, but look. Wittgenstein (PI 340) One cannot guess how a word functions. One has to look at its use and learn from that. But the difficulty is to remove the prejudice which stands in the way of doing this.

Learning to look

Silverman (1993) suggests the use of questions to provide a broad observational framework: What is going on here? What do people in this setting have to know (individually and collectively) in order to do what they are doing? How are skills and attitudes transmitted?

Learning to look
1.

A first approach to observation is to describe what is seen rather than writing what is thought. For example instead of recording: The teacher does a good job at giving directions a more descriptive account might be: The teacher gives directions to the students and asks if they understand. Most of the class nod or say yes.

2.

Then try to explain what you see

Learning to look: Noticing

Attending to something not realised or noted previously: spotting noting becoming aware discovering connecting increasing breadth and depth of perspective

1. Noticing involves identifying what is important in a teaching situation.

Frederiksen (1992) referred to this skill of noticing as making a call-out. He developed this terminology when watching videotapes with teachers; the teachers would callout when they saw something of note in the video The act of making a call-out signifies an ability to hone in on what is important ... For example, in the midst of a lesson, a teacher might notice that students are working closely, explaining ideas to each other, and helping one another understand a difficult concept. Teachers can then use this information to decide how to proceed with the instructional plan.
(Van Es & Sherin 2002:573)

2. Noticing involves using what one knows about the context to reason about a situation.
(N)oticing involves using what one knows about the context to reason about situations. In other words, noticing classroom interactions is tied to the specific context in which one teaches, and it is within this arena that this ability should develop.

This is in line with research that has found that as individuals gain more experience in a particular domain, they become more adept at making sense of situations they encounter within this domain Thus, teachers must use their knowledge of the subject matter, knowledge of how students think of the subject matter, as well as knowledge of their local context to reason about events as they unfold. For example, teachers of science will more accurately reason about a classroom interaction from a science classroom than they will a literature or mathematics classroom.
(Van Es & Sherin 2002:575)

3. Noticing involves making connections between specific events and broader principles of teaching and learning.
When analyzing a video of a class discussion, for example, novice teachers generally provide only a literal description of the events they see. In contrast, expert teachers describe the segment in terms of issues related to teaching and learning they connect the specific event that they see to a concept or principle they understand about teaching and learning (i.e., how students learn or equity). Shulman (1996) referred to the importance of extrapolating from the specific to the general when he encouraged teachers and teacher educators to ask themselves, upon analysis of a teaching episode, What is this a case of ? Responding to this question helps teachers look at a situation and recognize it as an instance of something, a principle of teaching and learning, rather than seeing each instance as an isolated event.
(Van Es & Sherin 2002:574)

Learning to look: Three Step Guide

1. Identify important matters Link to individual moments and interactions 2. Reason about the situation Link to the strategies and practices used 3. Go from the specific to the general What is this a case of? Link to your project focus.

Observation Activity (a)

View the following short segment of teaching from a lesson on letter writing with a high school ESL class. 1. Note an important moment or interaction? 2. Reason about the teaching and learning strategy used? 3. What are some broader principles to connect to this interaction? 4. As you observe, reason an answer to the question: Why do you think the first student gives the answer money?

Observation Activity (b)

View the following short segment of teaching again. Read the transcript of the video clip and answer the same question by underlining parts of the transcript that might provide some evidence. What difference does having the transcript make?

Did you notice: the peer prompt (spontaneous helping) the learning process where the answers were not fully intact the phonemic and semantic confusion the detour taken to establish the correct meaning what were some other choices (what do you mean? why do you say that?) the tenor shift in the ensuing explanation towards a more conversational mode the cut-a-ways to the text and various students at particular points any links to assessment for learning (feedback); scaffolding discourse; intellectual engagement other

Reducing anxiety the pedagogy of the right relationship

In scaffolding talk spoken by parents Cazden (2001) notes the underlying intentions of parents to both instruct clearly and express affection. A distinction is made between correction and approval. The formal difference may be only in intonation and an optional initial yes or no. But the difference may matter a lot to the child. Suppose that while looking at a picture, a child says, Fall down. Say to yourself the following alternative responses stressing the underlined words: Expansion: (Yes) he fell down Correction: (No) he fell down The intonation of the expansion expresses satisfaction .. The intonation of the correction by contrast expresses dissatisfaction. (pp77-78)

Learning New and Academic Language As I began work on this assignment, I thought of name of the course and thought I had to use the word discourse. The word felt like an intruder in my mind, displacing my word talk. I could not organise my thoughts around it. It was like a pebble thrown into a still pond disturbing the smooth water. It makes all the other words in my mind out of sync. When I realised that I was using too much time agonizing over how to write the paper, I sat down and tried to analyse my problem. in my opinion it is the ownership of words that gives one confidence. I must want the word, enjoy the word and use the word to own it. (Cazden 2001:173)

Learning New and Academic Language

Language is not a neutral medium that passes freely and easily into the private property of the speakers intentions; it is populated overpopulated with the intentions of others. Expropriating it, forcing it to submit to ones own intentions and accents, is a difficult and complicated process .
(Bakhtin in Cazden 2001:173)

Monitoring and Evaluating Project Impacts

Transformation of teacher thinking and practices through participation in the project ie coming to see how teachers can more effectively help students to learn; Transformation of situations through teacher and learner actions ie arriving at improved learner outcomes, learning environment, etc; Transformation of tools, practices and strategies as they are adapted to situations and activities ie refinement of these approaches and ways of working.

TASK 2 In your group identify one aspect of your study that stands out as most significant so far; and reason why this is so with reference to evidence; Identify one thing you have noticed about the implementation of a particular scaffolding or assessment strategy; and reason why this is so with reference to evidence; Identify one thing you have noticed in terms of ESL learner outcomes (eg transformed participation etc); and reason why this is so with reference to evidence; Consider whether further data or inquiry is needed to inform your project focus.

References Cazden (2001) Classroom Discourse: The Language of Teaching and Learning, Heinemann, Portsmouth NH. Cherryholmes , C. H. (1988) Power and criticism: Poststructural investigations in education, Teachers College Press, New York. Dunne, M. Prior, J. & Yates, P. (2010) Becoming a Researcher: A research companion for the social sciences, Open University Press, London. Gibbons, P (2002) Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, Heinemann, Portsmouth NH. Mackey, A. (2002) Beyond production: Learners perceptions about interactional processes, International Journal of Educational Research 37:37994. Silverman, D. (2006) Interpreting Qualitative Data, SAGE Publications, London. Van Es, E.A. and Sherin, M.G. (2002) Learning to Notice: Scaffolding New Teachers Interpretations of Classroom Interactions in Journal of Technology and Teacher Education 10(4), 571-596 Wittgenstein, L. (1956) Philosophical Investigations