Katrina Laurie |

Real-time reporting: revisiting and rethinking

Posted on August 5, 2020 by Katrina Laurie

CORE Education’s Ten Trends for 2020 are viewed through five themes – structural, economic, cultural, process, and technology – and the impact they have on the decisions we make in our education settings. In this blog I am going to look at one of the trends explored, real-time reporting, and how we can apply this in practical ways to our mahi as educators.
Real-time reporting has been gaining more and more interest over time. In some educational settings the process change from a traditional twice-a-year report to reporting in real time has either started or is well underway.

This blog continues our thinking from a previous CORE blog on this trend, Time to get real with reporting.

Cultural Theme

Culture is impacted by beliefs, values, attitudes and most importantly relationships. These define the learning experiences we provide for everyone participating (educators, learners, family/whānau and community). Connecting with our cultural stories is a powerful enabler. It underpins our sense of belonging, and situates us in local, national and global contexts.

“Culturally locating your educational setting is pivotal in creating a culturally responsive curriculum that resonates with the aspirations of mana whenua, whānau and their tamariki. No matter the setting, one common theme reverberates – a sense of belonging, identity, language and culture are at the heart of Māori student success as well as success for all learners.” – Cultural narratives, Ten Trends 2019

What does this look like in a practical sense for real-time reporting?

Significant influences	Practical application
Shift in ownership learner choice, voice and agency no longer any limits to what might interest learners personalisation, recognising the ability of every individual to achieve success Interdependence and collective efficacy redefining roles and responsibilities, and understanding that we must operate with a knowledge building curriculum	Alischa Little, eLearning Leader and teacher from Westmere School (Whanganui) shares “In the beginning it was hard for teachers to give full autonomy to children. It was hard to let go of the reins as such. Once the children were scaffolded over a short time we found even our five-year-olds really took control. Right from our new entrant class, students are able to use the Seesaw tools independently. They love posting what they feel is important to them and they have learnt over time that it is all about the process and not about the end product.” Student voice from Westmere School about real-time reporting: “It’s fun to show my Mum and Dad what I am learning”. (Aged 5) “I get to share what I want to share and Mum can send me messages about how hard I worked”. (Aged 5) “My family can get involved with what I am learning about. They can also see when I’m finding my maths hard. They can see on Seesaw and help me at home. They don’t have to wait until the end of the term to see that I might be struggling”. (Aged 11) Phil Walker, Principal at Westmere School (Whanganui) shares “Teachers ‘getting out of the way’ remains a work in progress. It is hard to change from being in control as was the ‘norm’ and now we are asking teachers to move over and support students to take responsibility and accountability for their own learning. I believe students right through the school enjoy posting and sharing their work and progress being made. Teachers sometimes are wanting a ‘finished article’ shared rather than celebrating the ‘work in progress’ and the process being used.”
Diversity inclusion, equity, and cultural responsiveness interrupt the status quo, and result in us achieving greater levels of equity in our system. developing understandings about learner variability and how to plan for it from the outset	There are a few really great platforms now to choose what your school can use effectively for real-time reporting. It’s about choosing what aligns with your vision and which device and platform are accessible for all (students and parents/whānau in particular) A school I was recently working with uses the LINC-ED platform across their Yr 1-6 school. A shift to move towards students driving the learning pathway posts was developing. One thing that was noticeable was the platform wasn’t user friendly for younger students. Students had difficulty logging in independently and the process for uploading images and learning artefacts was clunky. There was a gap in inclusion for these students and this didn’t align with part of the school’s vision around empowering students. The junior syndicate leader started trialling another platform (Seesaw) and gathered enough evidence for the rest of the syndicate to adopt this approach. The teachers all came together, developed their own capabilities to feel more confident to build digital literacies with their students so all students could be empowered to post and share their own learning.
Digital technological adoption that we need to be focused on in terms of impact on culture demonstrate a level of digital fluency required to participate fully need to be ‘cyber-safe’ and the significance of their digital identity and the digital footprint	Integrating digital citizenship, formative feedback and literacy. This is to provide a shared writing experience and was particularly effective in a Year 1 class. The teacher shares a learning post with the class or smaller group. The purpose is to demonstrate how we respond in positively constructive ways online. This is an important skill for learners to understand and develop especially when we consider as they grow older this might support cyber-safety in social media contexts.

Significant influences

Practical application

Shift in ownership

learner choice, voice and agency
no longer any limits to what might interest learners
personalisation, recognising the ability of every individual to achieve success
Interdependence and collective efficacy
redefining roles and responsibilities, and understanding that we must operate with a knowledge building curriculum

Alischa Little, eLearning Leader and teacher from Westmere School (Whanganui) shares

“In the beginning it was hard for teachers to give full autonomy to children. It was hard to let go of the reins as such. Once the children were scaffolded over a short time we found even our five-year-olds really took control. Right from our new entrant class, students are able to use the Seesaw tools independently. They love posting what they feel is important to them and they have learnt over time that it is all about the process and not about the end product.”

Student voice from Westmere School about real-time reporting:

“It’s fun to show my Mum and Dad what I am learning”. (Aged 5)

“I get to share what I want to share and Mum can send me messages about how hard I worked”. (Aged 5)

“My family can get involved with what I am learning about. They can also see when I’m finding my maths hard. They can see on Seesaw and help me at home. They don’t have to wait until the end of the term to see that I might be struggling”. (Aged 11)

Phil Walker, Principal at Westmere School (Whanganui) shares

“Teachers ‘getting out of the way’ remains a work in progress. It is hard to change from being in control as was the ‘norm’ and now we are asking teachers to move over and support students to take responsibility and accountability for their own learning.

I believe students right through the school enjoy posting and sharing their work and progress being made.

Teachers sometimes are wanting a ‘finished article’ shared rather than celebrating the ‘work in progress’ and the process being used.”

Diversity

inclusion, equity, and cultural responsiveness
interrupt the status quo, and result in us achieving greater levels of equity in our system.
developing understandings about learner variability and how to plan for it from the outset

There are a few really great platforms now to choose what your school can use effectively for real-time reporting. It’s about choosing what aligns with your vision and which device and platform are accessible for all (students and parents/whānau in particular)

A school I was recently working with uses the LINC-ED platform across their Yr 1-6 school. A shift to move towards students driving the learning pathway posts was developing. One thing that was noticeable was the platform wasn’t user friendly for younger students. Students had difficulty logging in independently and the process for uploading images and learning artefacts was clunky. There was a gap in inclusion for these students and this didn’t align with part of the school’s vision around empowering students.

The junior syndicate leader started trialling another platform (Seesaw) and gathered enough evidence for the rest of the syndicate to adopt this approach. The teachers all came together, developed their own capabilities to feel more confident to build digital literacies with their students so all students could be empowered to post and share their own learning.

Digital

technological adoption that we need to be focused on in terms of impact on culture
demonstrate a level of digital fluency required to participate fully
need to be ‘cyber-safe’ and the significance of their digital identity and the digital footprint

Integrating digital citizenship, formative feedback and literacy. This is to provide a shared writing experience and was particularly effective in a Year 1 class.

The teacher shares a learning post with the class or smaller group. The purpose is to demonstrate how we respond in positively constructive ways online. This is an important skill for learners to understand and develop especially when we consider as they grow older this might support cyber-safety in social media contexts.

Left image: four students work together using a Micro:Bit. Right: three students use an tablet and paper to program a Sphero robot. — *St Anthony’s School (Seatoun) students collaborate over projects using Micro:Bit and Sphero.*

Process Theme

Process is about the way we do things. Having healthy systems and processes in place will ensure that real-time reporting avoids creating frustration, anxiety and tension, and enables the changes to roles and approaches that real-time reporting brings.

Good processes allow us to consider students’ journey through their learning pathways and how we record and report on progress and achievement. We’ll need to focus on planning for up-to-date information to parents/caregivers/whānau and other teachers on a child’s progress, without having to wait for the twice yearly reports and how all this information travels with them. We also need to be mindful to constantly evaluate and examine our ways of doing, being, and knowing, especially to reduce the administrative workload around reporting.

Changes to reporting need to match pedagogical shifts. For example, one of the principles of effective reporting and information sharing is around the move to using digital technologies that enable parents and whānau to see their child’s progress on-line in real time.

What does this look like in a practical sense for real-time reporting?

Significant influences	Practical application
A maturing of Kāhui Ako/ clusters increased emphasis on the benefits of collaboration operate interdependently and as powerful ecologies of learning	One of the goals for the North Porirua Kāhui Ako (NPKA) digital technologies PLD is to strengthen relationships and sharing of practice across the Kāhui Ako. As part of the PLD journey, teachers across NPKA have come together for various workshops focused on digital technologies. A popular topic that has come up is real-time reporting. Teachers have started to share what their school is doing and schools that are interested in this are hearing their stories. The Kāhui Ako has been responsive to this and has now decided to create a PLD pathway for NPKA focused on real-time reporting. Another consideration in this space is taking a look at what happens in Early Years educational settings. The use of platforms like Educa and StoryPark have been used for some time. When students transition into primary education is there a continuation of learning stories that parents/whānau are connected to?
Changes to approach in assessment use of micro-credentials allow learners to manage and control their own ‘record of learning formative and narrative assessment	Schools like Ormiston Junior College have shown the value of elements of gamification, while linking closely to best practice in learning to use micro-credentialing for personalised assessment. Another example of changing the approach to assessment comes from Westmere School in Whanganui. Alischa Little shares how the evidence of learning is collected and verified. “All student Seesaw journals are monitored by the classroom teacher, our e-learning leader, and the school principal. As a staff we have devised a set of guidelines to ensure student posts cover all of the curriculum areas. Teachers comment on posts and curriculum expectation comments are made twice yearly.” Real-time reporting allows formative and narrative assessment also known as learning stories. They allow teachers and students to fully capture the process within a learning journey. Alischa also shares, “You need to take some time to build some form of professional understanding and capability with Seesaw.” If you are using a platform it is important it aligns with the shift in pedagogical practice. Take the time to understand what the platform can do and it does what you need it to do. It is important to build assessment capabilities with students. They need to have ownership of their learning posts to articulate their thinking and what they are saying about their learning.

Significant influences

Practical application

A maturing of Kāhui Ako/ clusters

increased emphasis on the benefits of collaboration
operate interdependently and as powerful ecologies of learning

One of the goals for the North Porirua Kāhui Ako (NPKA) digital technologies PLD is to strengthen relationships and sharing of practice across the Kāhui Ako.
As part of the PLD journey, teachers across NPKA have come together for various workshops focused on digital technologies. A popular topic that has come up is real-time reporting.
Teachers have started to share what their school is doing and schools that are interested in this are hearing their stories. The Kāhui Ako has been responsive to this and has now decided to create a PLD pathway for NPKA focused on real-time reporting.
Another consideration in this space is taking a look at what happens in Early Years educational settings. The use of platforms like Educa and StoryPark have been used for some time. When students transition into primary education is there a continuation of learning stories that parents/whānau are connected to?

Changes to approach in assessment

use of micro-credentials
allow learners to manage and control their own ‘record of learning
formative and narrative assessment

Schools like Ormiston Junior College have shown the value of elements of gamification, while linking closely to best practice in learning to use micro-credentialing for personalised assessment.
Another example of changing the approach to assessment comes from Westmere School in Whanganui. Alischa Little shares how the evidence of learning is collected and verified.
“All student Seesaw journals are monitored by the classroom teacher, our e-learning leader, and the school principal. As a staff we have devised a set of guidelines to ensure student posts cover all of the curriculum areas. Teachers comment on posts and curriculum expectation comments are made twice yearly.”
Real-time reporting allows formative and narrative assessment also known as learning stories. They allow teachers and students to fully capture the process within a learning journey.
Alischa also shares, “You need to take some time to build some form of professional understanding and capability with Seesaw.”
If you are using a platform it is important it aligns with the shift in pedagogical practice. Take the time to understand what the platform can do and it does what you need it to do.
It is important to build assessment capabilities with students. They need to have ownership of their learning posts to articulate their thinking and what they are saying about their learning.

This learning post (from a Year 1 student) shows tags to track and monitor the learning against

Curriculum (writing)
The school’s growth mindset competencies
End of Term 1 comment

The teacher has made a comment that links well to the tags. The student has recorded a reflection responding to the feedback.

– Shared by Alischa Little (Westmere School).

Structural Theme

As I noted in the cultural theme, creating an environment where learners feel they belong and can learn is key to how we design learning experiences that meet students’ needs.

“We cannot continue with structures that privilege some, while alienating others and making it more difficult for them to succeed. The issue of systemic inequity cannot be addressed without taking a critical look at the very structures that are contributing to that inequity in the first place.” – Structural Theme, Ten Trends 2020

Within this theme we need to consider whether our real-time reporting structures put learners right in the centre of learning, recognise the importance of relationships, and value the variability, diversity, and identity of learners.

What does this look like in a practical sense for real-time reporting?

Significant influences	Practical application
A focus on learner and whānau engaging with learners, families and whānau in authentic ways designing structures that support everyone to experience success as learners	Westmere School in Whanganui has collected feedback from parents specifically around their user experience of Seesaw and how well informed they felt about the progress and achievement of their child. “Creates conversations around learning at home.” “We feel a part of our child’s learning.” “The feed forward from teachers gave us little things to work on at home whereas in a traditional setting this was given at interviews (not instant and consistent).” “Great for our child’s confidence to post themselves.” “Seesaw is a great place for my children to share their work and reflect on their own progress. It is a place where teachers, family members and peers can provide encouragement, constructive criticism, suggestions and feedback. It provides an authentic audience and encourages my children to use their growth mindset and produce on-going real-time work. Used as a reporting tool, it allows me as a parent to see where my children are at in real-time. I don’t just see the fancy end product, I see all the hard work that goes into it” Some schools I have worked with find connecting parents and whānau, and getting engagement can at times be a challenge. Students are the biggest advocates in this situation. If they have started the posting process, they need an audience. Get the students to invite the parents and whānau through something more personalised (handmade invitation for example that include the instructions to connect). If the students have learning posts and they have more ownership over the audience this will create excitement for them. For the transition of real-time reporting from a more traditional 6-monthly report to be successful, you need to have the support and buy in from your community. This is one of the reasons Westmere has found success with the transition to this approach. Transparency, purpose and community is vital. Phil Walker, Principal at Westmere School shares “Generally feedback has been positive. The issue or main ‘sticking point’ is that EVERYONE is used to reports, so changing this mindset and selling the positives of real-time reporting continues to be a work in progress. Celebrating the process and not so much the product is also not something that comes naturally to society, we are just not geared that way, so again this needs to be worked on and we need to continue to sell the WHY”.
Redefining curriculum and assessment competency-based education reexamine assessment structures redefine success	In this Year 1 learning post (shared by Alischa Little, Westmere School) you can see the school tracks growth mindset competencies (communication, focusing, perseverance and risk taking) The school has developed these over time and now has a more embedded culture for these as drivers of learning in the school. Each class develops their own criteria and language around what each growth mindset competency means.
Expanding the concept of school the impact on online/virtual learning greater community engagement, more networking among and between schools	The impact of COVID19 and lockdown for Aotearoa has had an impact on what teachers, students and parents know is possible with online and virtual learning. Some schools still produced their mid-term reports, while other schools that have adopted real-time reporting approaches had no need to do this.

Significant influences

Practical application

A focus on learner and whānau

engaging with learners, families and whānau in authentic ways
designing structures that support everyone to experience success as learners

Westmere School in Whanganui has collected feedback from parents specifically around their user experience of Seesaw and how well informed they felt about the progress and achievement of their child.

“Creates conversations around learning at home.”
“We feel a part of our child’s learning.”
“The feed forward from teachers gave us little things to work on at home whereas in a traditional setting this was given at interviews (not instant and consistent).”
“Great for our child’s confidence to post themselves.”
“Seesaw is a great place for my children to share their work and reflect on their own progress. It is a place where teachers, family members and peers can provide encouragement, constructive criticism, suggestions and feedback. It provides an authentic audience and encourages my children to use their growth mindset and produce on-going real-time work. Used as a reporting tool, it allows me as a parent to see where my children are at in real-time. I don’t just see the fancy end product, I see all the hard work that goes into it”

Some schools I have worked with find connecting parents and whānau, and getting engagement can at times be a challenge. Students are the biggest advocates in this situation. If they have started the posting process, they need an audience. Get the students to invite the parents and whānau through something more personalised (handmade invitation for example that include the instructions to connect). If the students have learning posts and they have more ownership over the audience this will create excitement for them.
For the transition of real-time reporting from a more traditional 6-monthly report to be successful, you need to have the support and buy in from your community. This is one of the reasons Westmere has found success with the transition to this approach. Transparency, purpose and community is vital.
Phil Walker, Principal at Westmere School shares “Generally feedback has been positive. The issue or main ‘sticking point’ is that EVERYONE is used to reports, so changing this mindset and selling the positives of real-time reporting continues to be a work in progress.

Celebrating the process and not so much the product is also not something that comes naturally to society, we are just not geared that way, so again this needs to be worked on and we need to continue to sell the WHY”.

Redefining curriculum and assessment

competency-based education
reexamine assessment structures
redefine success

In this Year 1 learning post (shared by Alischa Little, Westmere School) you can see the school tracks growth mindset competencies (communication, focusing, perseverance and risk taking)
The school has developed these over time and now has a more embedded culture for these as drivers of learning in the school. Each class develops their own criteria and language around what each growth mindset competency means.

Expanding the concept of school

the impact on online/virtual learning
greater community engagement, more networking among and between schools

The impact of COVID19 and lockdown for Aotearoa has had an impact on what teachers, students and parents know is possible with online and virtual learning.
Some schools still produced their mid-term reports, while other schools that have adopted real-time reporting approaches had no need to do this.

Year 3-4 student (left) and new entrant student (right) at St Anthony's School, Seatoun. — *Year 3-4 student (left) and new entrant student (right) at St Anthony’s School, Seatoun.*

Technology Theme

We live in a time where the pace of change is driven by new technologies and technological advancements. This is having a huge impact on learning and what we experience in our educational settings. There is a range of drivers to consider within this theme; digital literacy and citizenship, curriculum support, personalised learning, accessibility and improving efficacy.

What does this look like in a practical sense for real-time reporting?

Significant influences	Practical application
Personalised empower individuals to be more in control of their learning designed to interact at a very user-centric level personal identity and access management	Empowering learners. How are students empowered to post and share their learning in particular the process not just the end product? Does the device and platform you are using allow choice, control and flexibility in how they post? For example interactive tools, audio, video, photo, text. Parents and whānau have flexibility in how they respond. For example in Seesaw comments can be made using audio recording.
Ubiquitous learning anywhere, anytime knowledge-building community location-awareness (privacy and safety)	Setting up a real-time learning culture in your educational setting is important. Can the students access devices to post their learning?. Where can do their learning post e.g a place to record audio/video? What settings within the platform do you need to consider e.g can students see each others’ learning posts and do they know how to respond appropriately?
Intelligent artificial Intelligence (AI) will infuse all areas of the digital services what makes us human?	What sort of functionalities does the platform you’re using for real-time reporting allow to extract and track information? For example AI can be used to ‘data-mine’ a cohort’s results, or an individual’s, to determine common areas requiring additional or explicit teaching. AI can also be used to power the school’s curriculum within a platform.
Interoperability data integrity and ownership computer systems/software to make use of and exchange information	Something to consider with real-time reporting is the learning journey of the student and the ability for the platform used to share or exchange with another. Also if the learning journey travels with the student. Some schools use different tools and platforms for different purposes. For example, LINC-ED is used as a teacher-driven tool to gather progress and achievement data and Seesaw is used as the student-driven tool. Links from Seesaw learning posts can be shared within LINC-ED. Another example is Google integration within Seesaw.
Sustainability technology use is based on principles of sustainability technology as part of a solution	We need to consider the key drivers for real-time reporting. Ten Trends 2019 identifies societal influences when it comes to real-time reporting: Demand for more timely, personalised feedback Greater emphasis on formative assessment and reporting Technological developments What platform or tool is going to best align with the values of your educational setting for you to deliver real-time reporting? Think about what you need as the outcome and what will do this for you.

Significant influences

Practical application

Personalised

empower individuals to be more in control of their learning
designed to interact at a very user-centric level
personal identity and access management

Empowering learners.

How are students empowered to post and share their learning in particular the process not just the end product?

Does the device and platform you are using allow choice, control and flexibility in how they post? For example interactive tools, audio, video, photo, text.
Parents and whānau have flexibility in how they respond. For example in Seesaw comments can be made using audio recording.

Ubiquitous

learning anywhere, anytime
knowledge-building community
location-awareness (privacy and safety)

Setting up a real-time learning culture in your educational setting is important.

Can the students access devices to post their learning?.
Where can do their learning post e.g a place to record audio/video?
What settings within the platform do you need to consider e.g can students see each others’ learning posts and do they know how to respond appropriately?

Intelligent

artificial Intelligence (AI) will infuse all areas of the digital services
what makes us human?

What sort of functionalities does the platform you’re using for real-time reporting allow to extract and track information? For example AI can be used to ‘data-mine’ a cohort’s results, or an individual’s, to determine common areas requiring additional or explicit teaching. AI can also be used to power the school’s curriculum within a platform.

Interoperability

data integrity and ownership
computer systems/software to make use of and exchange information

Something to consider with real-time reporting is the learning journey of the student and the ability for the platform used to share or exchange with another. Also if the learning journey travels with the student.
Some schools use different tools and platforms for different purposes. For example, LINC-ED is used as a teacher-driven tool to gather progress and achievement data and Seesaw is used as the student-driven tool. Links from Seesaw learning posts can be shared within LINC-ED. Another example is Google integration within Seesaw.

Sustainability

technology use is based on principles of sustainability
technology as part of a solution

We need to consider the key drivers for real-time reporting. Ten Trends 2019 identifies societal influences when it comes to real-time reporting:

Demand for more timely, personalised feedback
Greater emphasis on formative assessment and reporting
Technological developments

What platform or tool is going to best align with the values of your educational setting for you to deliver real-time reporting? Think about what you need as the outcome and what will do this for you.

Economic Theme

The Economic Theme in Ten Trends 2020 reminds us about the importance of preparing young people to contribute to society and the growth of the economy. We also need to consider within this theme the investment in education. To bring us back to our focus here with real-time reporting, it’s about considering the investment in curriculum and technological resources.

What does this look like in a practical sense for real-time reporting?

Significant influences	Practical application
Preparing learners with the skills and knowledge required to take their place in the future workforce	This point links closely back to the competencies we need as drivers within our curriculum delivery. The learning post below is an example from a Year 5 student from St Anthony’s School- Seatoun (teacher Francesca Von Lanthen). The school has been on a journey to develop their digital fluency and knowledge and understanding of the digital technologies (Technology Curriculum learning areas). They needed to find equipment that was affordable, durable and could extend the learning experiences and interests for students learning. The micro:bit fitted the criteria and students are now exploring and creating more solutions and possibilities with learning provocations. The learning post below is an example of a student posting about this learning, the tags the teacher has used to track and monitor learning and teacher feedback.
Impact of technology	Year 5-6 students, St Anthony’s School, Seatoun In this photo a group of students collaborate to create their own desired outcome. The students were given exploration time with Edison robots in pairs. The group started discussing and wondered if they could connect two Edison robots together with lego and what the programming code would need to look like to perform their predetermined path. The impact of technology in this situation encouraged collaboration, communication, critical thinking and problem solving. It was fascinating to see this unfold at the time. How does this relate to real-time reporting? In this situation, the students were free to explore and learn. The teacher took photos that can be later accessed by the students to share and reflect on their learning.

Significant influences

Practical application

Preparing learners with the skills and knowledge required to take their place in the future workforce

This point links closely back to the competencies we need as drivers within our curriculum delivery.
The learning post below is an example from a Year 5 student from St Anthony’s School- Seatoun (teacher Francesca Von Lanthen). The school has been on a journey to develop their digital fluency and knowledge and understanding of the digital technologies (Technology Curriculum learning areas).
They needed to find equipment that was affordable, durable and could extend the learning experiences and interests for students learning. The micro:bit fitted the criteria and students are now exploring and creating more solutions and possibilities with learning provocations. The learning post below is an example of a student posting about this learning, the tags the teacher has used to track and monitor learning and teacher feedback. francesca-seesaw-1

Impact of technology

st-anthonys-yr-5-technology — *Year 5-6 students, St Anthony’s School, Seatoun*

In this photo a group of students collaborate to create their own desired outcome. The students were given exploration time with Edison robots in pairs. The group started discussing and wondered if they could connect two Edison robots together with lego and what the programming code would need to look like to perform their predetermined path.

The impact of technology in this situation encouraged collaboration, communication, critical thinking and problem solving. It was fascinating to see this unfold at the time.
How does this relate to real-time reporting? In this situation, the students were free to explore and learn. The teacher took photos that can be later accessed by the students to share and reflect on their learning.

Reflections on lessons learned

Alischa Little shares lessons learned from Westmere School’s real-time reporting journey.

A big lesson in real-time reporting is that you have to let go. We want students to be more responsible for their learning. It has been hard to let go and allow students more freedom and ownership over what they post, when they post it and how they are going to share it (what tool they will use).

Real-time reporting has allowed for a more on-demand approach to sharing with whānau. It has also allowed for full-time working parents to be more engaged in their child’s education. Student data is accessible and understandable for families.It’s a fantastic way for families overseas and around Aotearoa to stay in contact and stay up-to-date with student learning.

I find the real-time reporting is ongoing, so there isn’t the rush at the end of the term to write reports. It enables parents and whānau to see their child’s progress on-line in real-time. The process is driven by our students with appropriate scaffolding by their classroom teachers. The learners decide what to share with the people who are significant to them. The children in our school just love it!

To engage further, join the Ten Trends Real-time reporting conversation. Here you’ll find out what other schools are doing around the shift to real-time reporting. Share your thinking, questions or what strategies you are using to approach real- time reporting effectively.

Note: To join the conversation, you must first create an account or log in to edSpace.

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Changing roles; a collaborative practice impact story

Posted on November 6, 2019 by Katrina Laurie

If we understand what collaboration is and the impact this can have on ākonga (learners), and on our own teaching practice, we might be more likely to commit time and energy towards collaborative practices. This relates to the changing role of the teacher trend (CORE Education, 2019) and how we can harness the power of collaboration because as teachers, we work in increasingly complex and diverse settings. So what are the benefits or impacts collaborative teaching and learning practice provide for our learners, and for us as teachers? First we need to understand what it is and make sure we are clear about the difference between cooperation and collaboration.

“Collaboration refers to the capacity to work interdependently and synergistically in teams with strong interpersonal and team‐related skills including effective management of team dynamics, making substantive decisions together, and learning from and contributing to the learning of others.” Michael Fullan (2004)

Collaboration is about everyone creating and moving towards a shared goal that is greater than we would have been able to achieve independently. Through developing collaborative practice we can support building relational trust across teams. This is one of the many key drivers in the changing role of the teacher trend. Sometimes we think we are a collaborative team for example, when we say “we plan together”, but collaboration in this context goes beyond taking different areas of the curriculum and planning it. So what do we need to do to ensure that we are a high performing collaborative team that positively impacts learning for all ākonga?

Where do we start?

Crafting our ‘Why’ or what we believe needs to be done together and mutually agreed upon is a good place to begin. Using a framework like Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle will help to clarify thinking.

The time taken to kōrero and explain our own thinking is an important part of collaborative learning because it enhances everyone’s understanding. Sinek’s Golden Circle is similar to Julia Atkin’s approach ‘From Values and Beliefs about Learning to Principles and Practice’. Why do we believe collaboration is important? If mutual belief is at the centre of what we do then it is easier to reflect on whether we are achieving what we value and believe, and allows us to ask if our belief matches our current state.

Linton Camp School has been focusing on collaborative practice for two years. Recently they were asked to think back to the beginning of the journey and what their initial thoughts and assumptions were about collaborative practice.

“Getting to the core of what collaboration was versus cooperation was eye opening and that helped me to focus my thinking when I thought about how our collaborative practice would look like. Also that collaborative practice meant more than just having shared goals and mutual respect, it’s about a high level of mutual trust, having vulnerability and a shared vision and shared values. When we worked together as a staff to develop a shared vision for collaborative practice it allowed us to generate new ideas as a team and agree on shared values that would be at the heart of our practice.” Ella Diprose (Junior Team Leader, Linton Camp School)

“Initially I assumed that collaboration was all about cutting holes in the wall and having to share a space with another teacher. I was worried about how that could clash with my style but I was pleasantly surprised by all the new learning and approaches that we could use to make it a truly collaborative practice.” Jamie Taylor (Bi-lingual Teacher, Linton Camp School)

The key part of the process is deciding together on ‘The Why’ (our belief), ‘The How’ (The principles that guide our belief) and ‘The What’ (action in practice) that will help your team to collaborate successful. This all helps to make explicit what you stand for and what gives direction to your actions in practice.

These examples from Linton Camp School and St Anthony’s School (Seatoun) show the outcomes from the process of developing a schoolwide collaborative vision. They look different, because they were developed authentically and collaboratively to suit the context. You can’t pick up what someone else is doing, this needs to be created from scratch so that has purpose and is meaningful

The next step was to take this even further. Teams within the school developed what Dalton & Anderson (2016) call a Team Charter. Some schools have named it an ‘Essential Agreement’ or a M.A.T.E’s (Mutually Agreed Team Expectations). This was an opportunity for teams to decide on and craft shared understandings about what they do as a team, and how they work and talk together. Suggestions for teams to craft shared understanding about from Dalton & Anderson (2016) include:

Meetings (how these are run, agenda, purpose, chair, timing, how priorities are identified)
Actions (accountability, responsibility)
Communication (how are we respectfully honest and open, different perspectives, how we challenge ideas)
Conflict (how we disagree respectfully, issue/person)
Decision making (strategies for decision making, explanations, communicating the decision)
Progress and celebration (how we celebrate, how we monitor and evaluate)

The impact of developing Team Charters:

“The MATES document has been amazing. Writing our expectations in clear language and being able to refer and refine it as things changed. This has flowed on into many other aspects of my life- my whānau, kōhanga and wider community projects. It really helps to set boundaries, expectations and build trust and respect.” Jamie Taylor (Bi-lingual Teacher, Linton Camp School)

“One of the biggest successes of collaboration is the growth in collaboration with our team which started from out MATEs agreement and has just grown from there. I believe our team is a supportive and collaborative unit.” Anna James (Senior Teacher, Linton Camp School)

“The MATES agreement work has really helped me as a leader now and into the future.” Warrick Price (Deputy Principal, Linton Camp School)

Ok, now what?

The next challenge was transferring and applying the shared understandings to practice. How do we design learning experiences where students can develop social skills and relationships, collaborating with a range of different people and peers? Linton Camp School decided to focus on Maths as a team to start testing the waters out with collaborative practice, using their vision and team charter to help guide them. A flurry of exciting, innovative and creative ideas started flowing as they designed their collaborative team approach.

junior-science-jpg — **Left:** Teachers trying out a collaborative learning design task (Dance Squad Challenge with Sphero) **Right:** Juniors science collaboration – learning about simple machines. These photos were of groups of 3 or 4 students working collaboratively to create an inclined plane car ramp.

“The ‘aha’ moment was definitely the Maths hub organisation. Working together to provide a high-quality maths programme using the principles of collaboration was excellent and has stood the test of time as we are willing to continually refine the processes.” Warrick Price (Deputy Principal, Linton Camp School)

“The Maths Hub has been a big change to our practice and we really have a sense of ‘our’ students as a senior team. I think the focus on collaboration with the students, moved them from cooperation.” Anna James (Senior Team Teacher, Linton Camp School)

“I would say there was a lot of ‘aha’ moments. The maths hub organisation was one of them and being able to develop our practice and learning systems for the students to bring greater success. I also loved having the MATEs agreement to have something to refer back to.” Kiri Parkinson (Senior Team Teacher, Linton Camp School)

The teachers used the CORE Education Collaboration Framework as a way to monitor and reflect on collaboration as a team. One of the five sides to the pentagon framework is ‘Challenge and Critique Practices for Transformation’. This helped to guide the conversations to debate and inquire into each others’ thinking.

The impact of working collaboratively

What has been the most effective approach/strategy that has supported your team to be collaborative and why?

“Our Maths Hub. The shared planning and regular discussion about effectiveness and tweaks required to ensure success. The focus is on student achievement and we are reliant upon all team members playing their part for success.” Anna James (Senior Team Teacher, Linton Camp School)

When you started to transfer collaborative practice into the classroom, how did your plans focus on capacity building and cultivating the expertise of every learner?

“As a team, we have purposefully planned for learning experiences that require students to take on specific roles that help the team to succeed. These structures are still being refined but I know we are onto a winner.” Warrick Price (Deputy Principal, Linton Camp School)

“When we began to bring our collaborative practice into our classrooms we worked to model collaboration first amongst us teachers in front of the students in our science focus in Term 2 as for example we would model in writing. The students enjoyed seeing the teachers working together and it was a great opportunity to practise working collaboratively.” Ella Diprose (Junior Team Leader, Linton Camp School)

“We were open with the students about the teachers learning to be more collaborative in our practice. I shared with them the journey we were on and talked about how the Maths Hub and our communication unit (Podcasting, Audio Books, Stop Motion) were ideas that have come about from our work. We used strategies such as students building MATEs agreements, role assigning and building success criteria and matrices to support the learners.” Anna James (Senior Team Teacher, Linton Camp School)

“Modelling collaboration by the teachers and using hands-on activities to engage them. We showed different types of learners and also modelled what wasn’t collaboration.” Hanna Bills (Junior Team Teachers, Linton Camp School)

“Having students having specific roles that were clear and defined to them. Modelling collaboration and using it a lot in our regular teaching vocab to build students’ understanding.” Kiri Parkinson (Senior Team Teacher, Linton School Camp)

What impact has the collaboration vision, principles and practices had on learners and how do you know?

“There has been an obvious impact on the students as the vast majority of the PLD we did has become commonplace within the senior team learning systems. The links with the 21st century skills has been an obvious match for collaborative practice and we are as a result structuring more and more learning areas to reflect collaborative systems.” Warrick Price (Deputy Principal, Linton Camp School)

“This is one of the most motivating and engaging PLDs I have ever been involved in. If I am enthusiastic then this rubs onto the students. I believe our students are more aware of the 21st century skills and the importance of these for them. We are planning for a lot more collaborative activities and systems. As a result the students are working more collaboratively and definitely improving in this area.” Anna James (Senior Teachers, Linton Camp School)

Linton Camp School teachers identified once they took collective responsibility for the progress of all learners they found there was improved learning and achievement in the Maths area (this was the focus for their pilot) and higher level thinking skills. Learners expressed satisfaction with the learning experience. The teachers had a deep understanding of collaboration within their teaching team which supported them to effectively model the skills with students. It also allowed the teachers and students to be creative with how they use their spaces which impacted engaging in increased professional conversations about all students, the approach and feedback on their own teaching.

The collaborative practice approach also led to improved empathy skills, social interaction skills, self-management skills and opportunities to develop leadership skills. The list can be extensive when highlighting and identifying the impacts and effects of collaborative practice. One of the biggest benefits is the opportunities it allows for improved dialogue (with all learners) and communication skills.

“Collaborative learning aims to promote dialogue. Dialogue enhances understanding when learners explain to each other. As learners become more adept in talking themselves through problems and contexts, their ‘outer speech’ develops, and so does their ‘inner speech’, giving greater power of self-direction.” -Watkins (2009)

It is important to allow opportunities to review the experiences of collaborative learning with your students and your team.This helps to grow assessment capabilities with students so they can articulate their thinking about their learning. A few key questions could be:

What helps our group/team work best?
How was our communication? (how we talked together, equal chance to talk, managing disagreements)
Next time, what would we like to improve?

A final thought from Linton Camp School teachers…
“We have proven that single cell spaces can still have great collaboration happening in them. Developing systems that promote collaboration between students is important and it relies on understanding what collaboration is and designing tasks that help students to improve their skills.”

If you have a story to share, question to ask or a response to this blog post then head to the edSpace discussion around the changing role of the teacher.

References

Atkin, J. (1996). From Values and Beliefs about Learning to Principles and Practice. Harden-Murrumburrah. Retrieved from http://lnnz2.vivid.net.nz/shared/professionalReading/1124.pdf

CORE Education. (2019). Changing role of teachers » CORE Education. Retrieved 6 November 2019, from http://www.core-ed.org/research-and-innovation/ten-trends/2019/changing-role-of-teachers/

CORE Education. (2019). Collaboration Framework » CORE Education. Retrieved 6 November 2019, from http://core-ed.org/research-and-innovation/resources/white-papers/collaboration-framework/

Dalton, J., & Anderson, D. (2016). Learning talk: Important conversations at work, Volume 5. Hands On Educational Consultancy Pty Limited.

Fullan, M., & Scott, G. (2014). Education PLUS [Ebook]. Seattle: Collaborative Impact SPC.

Grow Waitaha. (2019). Shirley Primary School – Using team charters for collaborative practice. Retrieved 6 November 2019, from https://www.growwaitaha.co.nz/our-stories/shirley-primary-school-using-team-charters-for-collaborative-practice/

Watkins, C. (2009). Co-operation vs collaboration. School Leadership Today, 1(1), 22-25.

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Two boys sit at a table looking at a computer screen

Time to get real with reporting

Posted on May 29, 2019 by Katrina Laurie

How relevant is a six-monthly report by the time it gets home?

Yr 4 student using sentence structures to help them articulate their learning. — 5yr old using Seesaw to share learning about creating a repeating pattern.

Adapting assessment practices to gather evidence of 21st Century outcomes/skills is becoming urgent!
Providing timely personalised feedback to students which lets them monitor their own progress and develop self-regulatory skills is becoming a high priority!
Connecting with parents/whānau to develop genuine collaboration to help build insights about student’s learning progress and challenges is vital!

Although this is easier said than done, and can feel overwhelmingly challenging, it is also achievable. One strategy is by leveraging digital technologies. “New possibilities for diversifying collection and judgement of evidence Smart technologies allow online, anytime, anywhere, and on-demand assessment” (Murgatroyd, 2018). The benefits by far outweigh the current six-monthly reporting model. Digital tools add to curriculum/assessment alignment challenges by enabling “just in time” assessment close to the learning and an opportunity to engage, deepen and extend the learning conversations.

What’s driving the need for this change? The CORE Education 2019 Ten Trends identify these societal influences when it comes to real time reporting:

Demand for more timely, personalised feedback
Greater emphasis on formative assessment and reporting
Technological developments

Building assessment capabilities

Teachers need to build their own and their students’ assessment capabilities so that they can develop and bring to life formative assessment using digital technologies in their learning environment. Actively involving students is an important part and provides opportunity to develop the language of learning. “The evidence is unequivocal that self and peer assessment practices are strongly associated with student achievement.” (Hipkins & Cameron, 2018). We need to allocate time in our learning programmes for peer to peer assessment conversations and how we respond appropriately to feedback from teachers and peers.

The call for reporting on progress in real time will allow the learning gains of every student to be acknowledged.

Have you considered the following?

Do learners know what is expected? Are they clear on the purpose?
Do learners know what quality looks like? Do they know where they are at with their own learning progress?
Are learners comfortable with giving and receiving feedback? Peer and self assessment/reflection?
Can learners articulate their learning clearly and concisely?
Can they manage their own learning by responding to feedback that was designed to move them forward?

Some practical strategies to get started with learners:

5 year old student using a support sheet to develop digital literacies to share learning.

If you are starting out with developing the language of learning so students can articulate their learning you might want to support them with sentence structures.

I was pleased when…
I found out…
I now understand…
I worked hard to…
I practised…
It was hard but I managed to…
It was interesting when…
I used to…but now I…
The next thing for me to work on is…
I wondered if…
Sometimes I need to remember…
I tried…
Today I learnt…
I am proud of…
My question is…

Support students to develop digital literacies to move towards becoming digitally fluent (they can choose the digital tool fit for purpose). They will learn different ways to share their learning and the digital tools that enhance this. For example if you are using Seesaw you can develop how to use the different in-built tools (camera, video, voice recording, drawing, labels, links).

Deepening the learning conversations

Relationships between home and school are important! How can we get parents/whānau to engage in more meaningful feedback and conversations beyond responding with ‘that’s cool’ or a ‘like’. We want online conversations to amplify our face to face conversations. Students are our best advocates to move the online conversations to foster collaboration. Once the students have developed confidence with the language of learning they can ask for specific feedback. The following example shows how Clifton Terrace Model School in Wellington launched a school wide approach to deepen learning conversations through students posting on Seesaw.

The next steps

Allow time for students to read the responses and scaffold how to respond. Initially this could be a “thank you”, then move into using the Key Competencies. How do we respond to positive feedback? How do we respond to constructive feedback?

The principles of effective reporting and information sharing from the Ministry of Education clearly indicate the requirement to move to using digital technologies that enable parents and whānau to see their child’s progress on-line in real time.

To engage further in this conversation go to: https://edspace.org.nz/discussion/view/102871/ten-trend-real-time-reporting. You will find out about what other schools are doing around the shift to real time reporting. Join the conversation and share your thinking or what strategies you are using to approach real time reporting effectively. Will making a shift to real time reporting be a more effective use of teacher time and be more beneficial for students than a six monthly report?

References

CORE Education. (2019). Real-time reporting. Retrieved from http://www.core-ed.org/research-and-innovation/ten-trends/2019/real-time-reporting/

Hipkins, R., & Cameron, M. (2018). Trends in assessment: An overview of themes in the literature [Ebook]. Wellington: NZCER. Retrieved from https://www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/Trends%20in%20assessment%20report.pdf

Ministry of Education. (2019). Principles of effective reporting / Reporting to parents & whānau. Retrieved from http://assessment.tki.org.nz/Reporting-to-parents-whanau/Principles-of-effective-reporting

Murgatroyd, S. (2018). New approaches to the assessment of learning: New possibilities for business education. In A. Khare
& D. Hurst (Eds.), On the line—business education in the digital age (pp. 141–155). Switzerland: Springer

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