This summer, a team from UTSA’s Urban Education Institute collected information from teachers, students, and parents to try to learn what worked, and I conducted in-depth teacher interviews to capture what lessons might be carried forward into the future. Collectively, these data suggest we may be in the midst of an important educational transformation. Our preliminary work tells us that the very obstacles presented to teachers and students in this new environment may also be critical opportunities for reflection, growth, and change. By capitalizing on these lessons, we have a rare opportunity to revisit and possibly redefine what it means to educate in the 21st century.
Obstacle - Opportunities
At the start of the shutdown, teachers felt tentative about using technology as the primary mechanism for delivering their instruction. However, as time passed and teachers became more acclimated to the new situation, teachers also reported that they experienced benefits that they planned to continue to use when they return to in-person instruction. For example, one teacher told us, “I think a lot of the things that we did online, we can transfer into the classroom. Like even the video, like the blended learning, I would like to do that more but better.”
Teachers seemed to be considering alternative uses of technology to advance teaching and learning. A particularly striking aspect of teachers’ use of technology was the enhanced capacity to differentiate learning opportunities. Classroom settings create situations where teachers see students as a group and manage academic tasks and classroom behavior accordingly. The shutdown that sent students home to their own spaces forced teachers to focus on individual learner needs perhaps more than before. While young people need the socialization face to face learning brings, this “break” opened teachers’ eyes to a broader range of possibilities for delivering content and meeting student needs. As one teacher noted:
"Um, you know, it really forced me to, like, pay attention to individual needs, and really forced me to look and see where that child is at and specifically what I needed to, you know how I needed to adjust what I was saying and give them… it was kind of nice because I could say, 'Hey, this video should help you out.' Or, 'Why don't you look at this PowerPoint again,' or 'Let's look at those notes again and talk about this,' kind of thing. Because, you know, some of my classes, those 45 minutes, it was me and like four other kids. So it was it was, you know, it was there was a lot more individualized instruction, and because they had access to us, basically 24/7, you know, it, it was nice to see them, like empower themselves and say, 'Hey, I need a one on one here.'"
One teacher considered a specific strategy they would take forward:
"One of the things that I would like to do is be able to record, if we have to be in class, is have the ability to record ourselves in the classroom. And so that's one set of videos that the students can access or even livestream and then the other would be like, pre-recorded. So they have two different types, like what works best for them."
Grades and grading became a serious issue for teachers and students. The shutdown prompted some districts to adjust grading policies down to accommodate the varied ways students’ lives were affected. Students, forced to stay home, were confronted by family stressors, technology challenges, and other issues that arguably undermined their ability to take part in daily learning responsibilities. Reduced emphasis on grades was a rational and humane response to an untenable situation. However, teachers reported their impression that for some CAST students the grading policy change played a role in diminishing motivation. As soon as grades were not important, many students decided, “why bother?” As one teacher told us:
"Why the [motivation] decline happened at the end was when the grading policy came out. Because the grading policy said, 'Hey, you’re going to still get credit, depending what you got on the third nine weeks. If you’re okay with that...' They didn't have to do anything else! So your successful kids that maybe were in the low 90s..they kept pushing forward because they wanted to get the higher score. But then you had your mediocre kids that just like 'Meh' they’re like, 'I’m content with like, you know, an 85/75, whatever it could be passing.' They're just like, 'Oh, now I don't have to do any work because I already passed.' And then it was like a hard push for your low performers from the 3rd 9 weeks to try to get them to pass the 4th 9 weeks."
This situation offers us a critical opportunity to think about the role of assigning grades for influencing student motivation. We know that grades are a part of the fabric of educational systems, and yet we also know that when grades become the most important reason for learning, student motivation dips. This is an important reminder that educators must counter the disproportionate weight of grades as a reason for learning by tailoring learning to students’ interests, joy, and values. Accentuating mastery would be a critical strategy to continue that would enhance motivation and student buy-in during this time and moving forward.
The shift to an all virtual environment revealed quite clearly that some students simply thrived when given the chance to (further) assert their personal autonomy and agency over their own learning. Over and over, teachers and students commented that the chance to manage their own time, take breaks when they wanted, select tasks they liked all had quite positive effects. Teachers too noticed that many of their students “blossomed” or “thrived” when students were given more space to decide how they wanted to learn. For example, one teacher told us:
"A few of them [students], I think really embrace the idea of having control of their assignments, and they kind of flourished a little bit like, 'Oh, I got this done, I got this done.' And I don’t know if it was just the different environment or knowing that everything was already posted beforehand. So they could go in and do all their assignments ahead of time. Maybe there was like three or four kids that did that. There rest kind of stayed the same. The kids that didn't participate in class didn’t participate online. You know, like we still had the same problems with the same kids. But for the most part, the middle, kind of, they stayed the same."
Another teacher told us:
This was true for teachers as well. We learned that teachers’ experiences coping with the stress and uncertainty of the situation were more positive, healthy, and adaptive when they personally experienced a level of autonomy. Teachers who talked about administrators who supported them, who asked them for input, and who seemed to authentically care were more likely to report more positive transition experiences.
We heard the same from students. Both high schoolers and parents of younger learners commented on aspects of autonomous learning that were positive, supportive and activating.[i] For example we heard things from parents like, “my daughter liked the flexible schedule,” or “The flexibility and being home with parents. She got to work at her own pace and take breaks so that it wasn't overwhelming for her.” When asked what they liked about distance learning, an important theme in students’/parents’ answers was the power of independence, flexibility, and autonomy. Many students reported that they enjoyed learning at home and the opportunity to have more autonomy over their learning. Students felt pride in their ability to self-manage, make choices, and pursue personal interests. Many students commented that having choice, flexibility, and freedom from strict rules and rigid curriculum pacing supported their motivation and interest. For example, students reported things like, I like “being able to work at own pace and build own schedule,” or as one student reported, “it was more private, I enjoy having my own privacy and freedom.” Of course, for some learners the opposite was true and the lack of face to face accountability, familiar structure, and pacing of classroom learning led to a decrease in motivation. One teacher’s thoughts further reveal this phenomenon:
This state of affairs reveals how important it is that we are mindful of students’ different needs for autonomy. As a network publicly committed to student voice and agency, CAST Schools have an opportunity to intentionally foster students’ autonomy needs by providing structured but flexible options when it comes to pacing (how fast they do the work), learning formats and environments (where and how they do the work), and learning outcomes (how the work is turned in, finalized).
[i] Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The ‘what’ and ‘why’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268.
Ryan, R. M., Huta, V., Deci, E. L. (2008). Living well: A self-determination theory perspective on eudaimonia. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9, 139-170.
Of course, many of today’s high school students are ill-equipped (or ill-prepared) to self-manage and self-direct. Some of this is due to lack of know-how such as a lack of understanding of how to manage one’s time, or how to deal with competing pressures and expectations (home and school life). But some of it is also due to student general disinterest in learning. Again, the societal overreliance on grades (and standardized testing) as the primary mechanism for informing learners of their progress creates a learner “dependency” situation where learners overly rely on the teacher to tell them when to start or finish tasks rather than on their own capacity to self-manage or self-evaluate. Students widely reported challenges with how to structure their time, how to stay focused, how to avoid distraction when learning at home. Many students and parents of younger students also talked about the challenges of getting up, being on time to learning, and engaging in lessons that are dull, boring, and repetitive. Under these conditions, students struggled to find inner resources to initiate and sustain their attention, focus, and motivation. This presents a critical opportunity for change for education—to prepare and emphasize these skills as critical to the learning process.
Our teachers commented on this as well:
One useful way to think about self-management or self-regulation is to consider it in phases.[i] Self-regulated learners engage in forethought or planning, performance analysis, and self-regulation. Teachers across the CAST Network seek to build into lessons opportunities for students to engage in (a) goal setting or planning activities before they begin, (b) self-reflection and analysis as the task is happening, and (c) reflection on how things went after the activity is complete including estimating how well they performed. The collective agreement that standardized testing was not needed during the pandemic became a moment to evaluate its role in education, and to shift emphasis from external reasons for learning to more self-empowerment messages rooted in a concern for learners’ interests and goals.
[i] Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attaining self-regulation: a social cognitive perspective. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 13-41). NY: Academic Press.
Boekaerts, M., Pintrich, P. R., & Zeidner, M. (Eds.) (2000), Handbook of self-regulation. NY: Academic Press.
A fifth obstacle we learned about had to do with students’ mindsets towards themselves and their learning. Whenever teachers or students shared reports of struggling with their learning, many times it was couched in a fixed mindset[i] orientation. Students would say things like, “I can’t focus at home,” “I have to see my teacher to learn,” “I can’t learn this way.” These are all examples of beliefs where students think the situation is unchangeable. Teachers commented on this too. One teacher told us:
"Students will be totally honest and say, 'I can’t do this. I just want to be in the classroom. I need that structure in the classroom for me to be successful.' And some of those kids that weren’t great in the classroom did not thrive in the online setting."
Anytime students hold a fixed mindset, especially as it relates to their beliefs about what they can and can’t do, it is a potential flag for trouble. Many times, students are less likely to try, stay engaged, persist when things get hard if they go into the situation already believing they can’t do it. Related to this is the misperception that learners and teachers have that students are a certain type of learner, or that they can only learn according to a particular learning “style.” It is critically important that we take this opportunity to remember that learning styles are a myth. There are no data to support the very common misconception that there is such thing as a visual learner or a kinesthetic learner. Representation should be matched to the content. We’re all visual when learning certain content that requires us to ‘see’ it (e.g., maps). We’re all auditory when learning content that requires us to ‘hear’ it (e.g., music). Some of us have stronger processing capabilities in one of these areas, but we do not have styles that are stable and trait like and stronger for all types of content we learn.[ii]
The opportunity here is that this sends a critical reminder to us all that students carry around beliefs that can block their effort and success. And, while CAST Schools explicitly address this and teach units on growth mindset, unknitting perceptions that are rooted in years of belief do not happen overnight. When capabilities are believed to be set in stone, we’re less likely to change or believe we can change. I have this all the time in my classes with graduate students who say, “I can’t do statistics,” or “I can’t write.” Fixed or rigid notions of our capabilities block us from seeing our potential or the value of effort and progress. Teachers can continue to help students reframe their thinking by calling on the power of “yet.”—e.g., “you haven’t learned to figure out how to manage your time, or block out distractions yet…how can I help you?”
[i] Yeager, D. S. & Dweck, D. S. (2012). Mindsets that promote resilience: When students believe that personal characteristics can be developed. Educational Psychologist, 47, 302-314.
[ii] See a recent blog on learning styles: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psyched/202006/stop-fixing-your-brain-believing-in-learning-styles
Or, check out a recent webinar on the “Myths about Teaching and learning:”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQTHp2vdSSk&feature=youtu.be
A Final Comment
Many of these obstacle-opportunity items appeared during a rare set of circumstances—the combination of sending all students home to learn along with the cancellation of the spring standardized testing regiment. The absence of the annual STAAR ritual was not trivial. Texas students and teachers are regularly awash in pressures to pass standardized tests (STAAR). Because schools are evaluated on these test scores, teachers and principals often feel pressure to focus efforts to ensure students pass them.[i] These pressures are not the same for everyone; however, as pressures rise, so too do the temptations to engage in practices that might go against what we learned from this experience. Ensuring students pass tests means teachers are inclined to emphasize their importance, engage in activities that might only narrowly focus on test outcomes, and feel inclined to push students according to a very rigid timeline. All these efforts go against what we learned here about what works to enhance students’ educational experiences.
CAST Schools approach to STAAR testing is to minimize its importance in students’ lives while emphasizing good instructional practices that foster students’ engagement and interest in the curriculum. Still, the cancellation of STAAR meant that teachers and students could focus on learning differently. Interviews with CAST School teachers, a network that emphasizes authentic learning, college credits and marketable certificates (as opposed to the STAAR), showed the outsized emphasis this state exam has even on those who should be buffered from its influence.
Teachers should stay strong and continue to do the good work they’re trained to do and to ensure they support students’ agency in their own learning (provide room for flexible pacing, breaks, activity options) and self-direction (encourage independent learners through activities that emphasize personal ownership over learning goal setting, performance, and evaluation). Abandoning the use of these standardized tests would be ideal;[ii] however, as they persist, so too should teachers’ resolve to ensure the pressures of those tests don’t work to undermine what they know about good teaching.
[i] Blaise, J. G. (2015). The effects of high-stakes accountability measures on students with limited English proficiency. Urban Education, 53(9), 1154-1181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085915613549
Booher-Jennings, J. (2005). Below the bubble: ‘Educational triage’ and the Texas accountability system. American Educational Research Journal, 42(2), 231-268. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312042002231
Jennings, J. L. & Bearak, J. M. (2014). “Teaching to the test” in the NCLB era: How test predictability affects our understanding of student performance. Educational Researcher, 43(8), 381-389. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X14554449
Nichols, S. L., & Berliner. D. C. (2007). Collateral damage: How high-stakes testing corrupts America’s schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Nichols, S. L. & Castro-Villarreal, F. (Eds.) (2016). Accountability practices and special education services: Impact and implications. Teachers College Record (Yearbook), 118(14). Retrieved August 22, 2016 from http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 21537.
Perlstein, L. (2007). Tested: One American school struggles to make the grade. NY: Henry Holt & Co.
Valli, L., & Chambliss, M. (2007). Creating classroom cultures: One teacher, two lessons, and a high-stakes test. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 38(1), 57-75. https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.2007.38.1.57
[ii] For example, see: http://ed2worlds.blogspot.com/2020/08/why-bother-testing-in-2021.html