Students Thoughts

After gathering as a group of teachers to discuss our hunches, I still had no idea what I was going to do to help lift student writing outcomes in my class. After hearing what other teachers were discussing, one person mentioned that positive praise is essential to help lift student confidence. This got me thinking, as this would be perfect for my group of students. Offering positive praise could help increase efficacy in the task (writing) and hopefully improve outcomes (results).

Not long after this meeting, I created a survey so I could gather student voice. Due to my inquiry being based on increasing self-efficacy in students writing, I wanted to know whether positive praise would improve this. Below is the data of this question.

As you can see there is a 50% split between definitely and it could help somewhat. Therefore, 100% of students believed that positive praise would help increase their self efficacy in their writing. This is something that I will implement in my next unit with these students.

Narrowing Down my Findings

From the research I conducted, it was clear to see that there was a vast range of writing ability in my class. I needed to put something in place to help address the drastic gap between my learners. One aspect I identified that is important in writing success, is students self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is a persons belief they have in their ability to complete a task. I conducted a survey on my class and asked them how they rated their confidence in practical lessons compared to theory lessons. In this survey I used the term 'confidence' instead of 'self-efficacy' because I did not want to confuse my students. If you are a confident in performing a task, you generally have high self-efficacy.

It is clear to see that students have a lot more confidence in practical lessons compared to the theoretical aspects of the course. I believe this is the reason students select Physical Education as an option in the senior school because of the practical component. Students are generally confident in their practical ability and can perform tasks with freedom. However, this confidence displayed in the practical environment of the gymnasiums is not transferred to the classroom. Students rate their confidence levels a lot lower when it comes to performing written tasks in the classroom. I believe this is because of the low self-efficacy they have in their writing. Students believe they lack the ability to complete written tasks. This can stem from previous occasions where they have had negative experiences with writing tasks which adds further doubt in their ability. So in order to increase student's self-efficacy I need to find creative ways to help lift their self-belief in their ability to write confidently and with freedom.

Baseline Data

The target group for my inquiry is my Year 11 Physical Education class. The reason I chose this class is due to student perception that this subject is purely practical and involves no theoretical component. Therefore a lot of practical orientated students opt to take Physical Education due to the hands-on nature they experienced in junior school. Now, the presumption is that practical orientated students have lower literacy levels due to the nature of how they learn. So I wanted to gather some data in regards to literacy levels to see if this was true. The data I could draw on was each student's E-AsTtle writing results from 2017.

From reviewing the snapshot, there is a vast range of writing ability in my class. Writing levels range from 1A to 5P, which is 12 sub-levels. Catering for a vast range of abilities is going to present a challenge, especially if these students are to achieve work at Level 6 of the curriculum. I quickly concluded that there was a problem with writing among my students and something drastic was needed to be implemented if they were to achieve in this subject. 

Hunches

Meeting as a whanau group to discuss our inquiries allowed us to bounce ideas off each other and compare initial problems. What was beneficial about this process was the common hunches (problems) that colleagues had in their classes. We were able to share these ideas and also hypothesise reasons for these hunches. After leaving the meeting it gave me plenty to think about. I had clearly identified problems in my Year 11 Physical Education class that were common among other staff. But I really wanted to dive deeper and explore reasons for why these were identified as problems.

Hunches I found in my Year 11 Physical Education class:

1. Low Self-efficacy
2. Lack of engagement in set tasks
3. Low Literacy 
4. Perception of a Practical Orientated Subject

These were common problems that majority of teachers had in their classrooms. However, like I mentioned earlier I wanted to explore why these were problems for our students.

I hypothesise a couple of points that I see as the reason for the hunches in my class. Firstly, a lot of these students have continuously struggled with their writing throughout their schooling years. They have been below the national average for many years and have had teachers constantly trying to catch them up to the appropriate level. However, without the support structures in place to help cater for these students, they tend to slip through the cracks and get left behind. They have to deal with set-back after set-back and this dents their confidence in their writing. After numerous set-backs students lose faith in their ability to perform the task and give up. 

Secondly, there is a culture created in our community that the bare minimum is enough. Students tend to think that writing a couple of sentences is enough for them to achieve. Where this culture has been established is beyond me, but seems to be prominent among our students. If we compare it to Bloom's Taxonomy, students are comfortable using the bottom tier when it comes to writing. Remembering and Understanding are the foundations of his theory and this is the level many of my students do not leave. Getting them to analyse and critically think, which is essential in the senior school, is a difficult task.

Breaking these two habits will be the key to my success. How I do this, is going to require a lot of work and patience, but I prepared for this challenge to help lift achievement outcomes for my students.  

Initial Thoughts for 2018

After a couple of weeks in to the new year, I started to ponder about the lack of engagement with my Year 11 Physical Education class. I could see that these particular students had chosen Physical Education as an option because of the perceived idea that it was purely practical. However, after a couple of weeks students started to realise that this course also had a theoretical component to it. Due to the perceived idea that Physical Education was a practical subject, I quickly noticed the lack of engagement from majority of the class. At this stage I could not pinpoint where this behaviour had come from, but I could only assume that this is seen as normal for a lot of these students. With this bunch of students, my initial thoughts were that I was going to be in for a challenging year.

As a reflective teacher I had to try and think of ideas to help engage these students. While their behaviour was not difficult, it was the fact that they were disengaged and not motivated to attempt completing set tasks. At this stage of the year this particular group of students very much had the mindset of Year 10's. I had to adapt my original planning and structure more rigid lessons to help motivate this group. The focus was on shifting their mindset to 'learning' because this was ultimately going to help them with their achievement. Focusing on how to learn was important in the first few weeks of the year so I could engage these students. One thing that I did regularly was a group reflection activity, where students had to share to the group what they had learnt and what they still need to improve on. This activity helped set the scene for the year and hopefully will help student realise that they need to know how to learn in order to achieve.