Thursday 1 March 2018

Results in the way of Engagement!

Results are important. Absolutely.

The school district I work for has spent a lot of time and money ensuring that we assess students fairly, provide students with a clear target, and assess only those outcomes found in the provincial program of studies.  Makes total sense.

At my school particularly, many science teachers love looking at results, tweaking common exams, experimenting with new marks programs and test creation software.  Its become a bit of an epidemic of all new learning and professional development geared around testing.

Sigh. How about student engagement and learning?

I, personally, would love to see more professional learning around creative methods of teaching and learning. So, what's holding teachers back?

Is it the level of confidence teachers have around creating engaging activities for the students?

Is it the feeling that they won't "finish teaching the material" if they move outside of their comfort zone and allow the students some responsibility to learn?

My Chemistry 20 students were reviewing for the Gases Unit Exam and instead of working through endless problems, I asked students to create a presentation on one of many review topics.  It had to be less than two minutes, creative, engaging and fun to watch (there was specific criteria).  Here is one of the amazing presentations, this one was reviewing "properties of gases".  Certainly, students will remember the types of motion gases have and the Combined Gas Law after this two minute video - way better than if it was a PowerPoint presentation.


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