Creating High Expectation Classrooms- Christine Rubie-Davies

Creating High Expectation Classrooms           Seminar by Christine Rubie-Davies

This seminar covered a model of teacher expectations where teachers have high expectations, plan for goal setting and mixed ability grouping, establish a positive culture of care (climate) and promote student autonomy. Some of the key findings from her research are included in this post.

Grouping can affect student motivation and learning.
Grouping can affect student motivation. A study for no streaming of Maths students.

Stereotyping can turn into bias where teachers' beliefs about  students become very fixed.
Maori students would like their teachers to be more supportive, caring, have high expectations, and help them to strive for success.

Explicit versus implicit expectations

Explicit bias asks, "Where will the students be by the end of the year?"

An implicit bias test:  Scores based on teacher hesitance in answering questions. Google search cognitive bias. The big question in the bias test was "Do Auckland teachers have implicit bias of Maori, Chinese, Pakeha?"

It was found that teachers had higher expectations of Maori and Chinese because their achievement was higher. Pakeha teachers had a strong implicit bias of Pakeha over Maori students.
There was a  20% Maths variance based on teachers and 30% Reading variance based on teachers.
Other findings from the test were that 63% of Maori were underestimated compared to 37% who were overestimated. There was almost the opposite trend for Pakeha students. Teachers were 2.2.times more likely to underestimate girls (in Math). Maori students were more oriented than Pakeha. There appeared to be a competitive stance by Maori so they had less peer support.

Rubie-Davies, C. M., Hattie, J. A. C., & Hamilton, R. J. (2006). Expecting
the best for New Zealand students: Teacher expectations and academic
outcomes. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 429–444.

What has this information made me think about?  I need to...

• Avoid  bias when setting expectations for my students.
• Set high expectations for all of my students irrespective of race. 
• Set higher expectations for girls than perhaps previously.
• Know my students well through close and accurate monitoring.
• Work on establishing sound relationships with my students.
• The inclusion of te ao Maori is essential in my class where there is a high percentage of Maori students.

Aspects that I need to see in my classroom are...

• Culturally responsive pedagogy and high expectation classrooms
• Mixed ability groups
• Positive class climate
• Goal setting

Cultural responsiveness in the class; acknowledging the Maori world view

• Pumanawatanga; the heart or pulse of the classroom, critical for student motivation.
• Rangatiratanga-self managing learning
• Nga whakapiringatanga- positive, well managed classroom
• Ako- effective teaching and learning, teacher learning from the students, autonomy.

My class climate needs to include...

• Whanaungatanga (relationship building), 
• Kotahitanga (class unity and community), 
• Manaakitanga (understanding culture and support)

Class goal setting requires...

• Rangatiratanga; teacher monitoring feedback, autonomy, engagement,
• Wananga-joint goal setting
• Mana motuhake- teachers caring about student performance, clear on feedback, goal focusses, improvement focussed rather than performance, resilience and self belief.

Bringing it all together

Ministry initiatives  may have reduced explicit bias however there is still a Maori/Pakeha gap in achievement and expectation.

What's in the future?

•  (TEP)  The Teacher Expectation Project
• Goal setting, class climate, mixed ability

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Reward

We reflected on the types of rewards we use in our class and school and ranked them in effectiveness.
Tangible rewards significantly undermine intrinsic motivation….and we need to exercise great care.

• Contingent reward: (conditional rewards e.g., well done, a point for you) 
• Non-contingent: unexpected results (unconditional , thanks for waiting patiently, points for you)

Benefits of intrinsic motivation; Persistence, creativity, conceptual understanding, optimal functioning and well being.

Use student interest to engage them in activities and raise motivation.

Students need to understand what they are learning and why they are learning it, with teachers who share their progress with them.

Teachers need to give students feedback related to their goals and learning intentions as well as the success criteria (how close they have come to achieving it). teachers need to help students to set and reset goals often.

Autonomy, choice and agency requires more responsibility and monitoring.

Principles and processes of goal setting

• Clear, specific and achievable
• Relevant
• Teacher has an important role

Conditions for goals to be met...

Mastery and performance goals

• Performance goals are about the student being the best.
• Mastery goals (of skills)  requires the teacher to focus their feedback on mastery.
• Children like challenging goals. Importance of feedback.
• Children need to also be help-seekers
• Young children need close proximal goals, perhaps a week’s goal.
• Goal setting bridges the gap between intentions and success criteria.

Implementing goal setting     Key strategies to use

• Personal bests; self-improvement based, specific, challenging, self referenced
• e-asTTle individual learning pathways. Have print outs for children to set goals against and share with their whanau
• Progress chart on e-asTTle, use for reporting
• SMART goals
• Novice goals, change simple goals into SMART goals. 
• Teach  students how to set goals.

What does this mean for my planning?

How will I introduce goal setting into my classroom?

• Discussion with students about their goal setting sheets. 
• Give feedback about how close students have come to reaching their goals and where they need to go next

Class climate 

Catherine Wentzel- Why does a student's achievement dip? Usually a dip in achievement can be linked to the level of teacher care. Engagement and climate are linked as well as mastery goals and climate.

Class relationships are important. Students reflect teacher behaviour. We are role models. Unconditional warmth is needed.

Consider the child’s world where they may have had high levels of inner turmoil,  and low self-esteem. They may have learned that anger keeps them safe and that adults cannot be trusted.

Strategies for improving the class climate are...

• Think about the language we use
• Separate the who from the do! Make I statements
• Focus on the desired behaviour
• Remember we/teachers are human too.
• Include sport
• Be in class before school to build relationships
• Provide room for negotiation  and back away from pushing the point 
• Check our non-verbal communication
• Change groupings frequently
• Include parents' strengths in the classroom

Traits of an effective teacher

• High teacher efficacy
• Teacher warmth
• Culturally responsive teachers

Measuring the social structure in the classroom

Sociograms: Survey each child about the two children they would like in their group and one they would not like in their group.

 Sociogram website for linking the relationships in class and shedding light on how to structure the classroom.

Ideas for building a positive social structure

• Video yourself teaching-watch non verbals
• Listening to your students and having fun
• Share achievements. Let them share about what they are good at
• Sing together. Act together
• Count kindnesses
• Make a brag wall- each contributes.
• Make a strengths wall: one wheel per child, filled in over time.
• Treasure box where students put in objects or illustration of moments of pride, amusement , serenity etc
• Special person gallery- name 3 adults who will always look after you.

The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us Based on Dan Pink's work