I think Dylan Wiliam's point boiled down to "If you only have X dollars to spend you should spend them on getting formative assessment in the classroom because when compared to other reforms/improvements (which presumably included class size although I don't know that for a fact) formative assessment techniques made the biggest most powerful difference regardless of level or country when you compared statistics from many dozens of studies.

We all want smaller classes but if you can't afford both, do formative assessment first. It is possible to have a smaller class and not do formative assessment which then will not help those struggling students who most benefit from it. 

Regarding praise, there is good praise and bad praise.This is not a black white or intuitive issue. The North American formative assessment expert Anne Davies whose work I HIGHLY recommend, shows ways to give helpful praise. If you just say, "Great job" the student doesn't know necessarily what was great about it so as to be able to replicate it and additionally, sometimes students disbelieve such comments. Thus formative assessment experts say praise needs to be specific, like "I see you answered every question!" or whatever. 

For more on how praise can be problematic or even damaging, read "Punished by Rewards" by Alfie Kohn. 

 

Mary Schneckenburger

Program Coordinator

Literacy Volunteers-Androscoggin

60 Court St., Auburn, ME 04210

207 333 6601 X 1323

mschnec at juno.com

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bruce C 
  To: specialtopics at nifl.gov 
  Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:29 PM
  Subject: [SpecialTopics 777] Re: EducationGuardian.co.uk: Smaller classsizes 'not cost effective


  Regarding small class size....

  Excuse my language, but regarding the comments of regarding class size attributed to Prof Dylan Wiliam, Deputy Director and Professor of Educational Assessment at the Institute of Education, University of London, I say ...

  "BALDERDASH!!! and HOGWASH!!!!" 

  I can't believe anyone who has been a teacher would ever say "...as long as pupils are well-behaved, then what you can do with a class of 20 is generally possible with a class of 30." 

  Maybe this was taken out of context. Prof. Wiliam (yes it's only one "L"--I checked.) says some interesting things about formative assessment and personalized learning on this "Learning About Learning" website: 

  http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/learningaboutlearning/aboutlal/biogs/biogdylanwiliam.asp

  He does say a few wacky things--like that praise hurts students. 

  Prof. Wil.i.am. says that formative assessment "encourages teachers to take constant readings about where students are." He says it's important to do this "minute by minute, day by day."  That's why I can't believe this dude really thinks that class size doesn't matter. I think a teacher with 20 students in his/her class can get a better sense of where everyone is than a teacher with 30 students. 

  Sure there may be things we can do that are cheaper than reducing class size...

  But so what?

  If that is how we define "cost effectiveness" why not TRIPLE class size and save tons of money? 

  You get my point, right? 

  from Bruce Carmel





  Prof Dylan Wiliam, deputy director of 
  the Institute of Education says, 



  "David J. Rosen" <djrosen at comcast.net> wrote:
    Colleagues,

    Tom Sticht spotted this on the EducationGuardian.co.uk site and sent 
    it for our formative assessment discussion.

    -------
    Note from Tom Sticht:

    This article about formative assessment appears in todays (2/25/08 
    Education Guardian online.
    -------

    To see this story with its related links on the 
    EducationGuardian.co.uk site, go to http://education.guardian.co.uk

    Smaller class sizes 'not cost effective'
    Anthea Lipsett
    Monday February 25 2008
    The Guardian

    Reducing school class sizes in an attempt to raise pupil achievement 
    is a waste of money for all but the youngest children, one of the 
    country's leading experts on assessment said today.

    Cutting class size by 30% gives children the equivalent of four extra 
    months of learning a year, but costs around £20,000 for each 
    class every year, according to Prof Dylan Wiliam, deputy director of 
    the Institute of Education.

    He said the more effective method of "formative assessment" - where 
    teachers monitor their pupils' progress continuously and provide 
    appropriate feedback - could provide eight extra months of 
    educational development for only £2,000 per classroom per year.

    "It can therefore be 20 times as cost-effective as reducing class 
    size in terms of pupil achievement," he told the annual Chartered 
    London Teachers Conference today.

    "Smaller classes do confer a benefit if pupils are unruly, because 
    fewer pupils in a class means less disruption. But as long as pupils 
    are well-behaved, then what you can do with a class of 20 is 
    generally possible with a class of 30.

    "Smaller classes can also be more cost-effective for five to seven- 
    year-olds, but research suggests the class size needs to be reduced 
    to 15 or less," he said.

    Wiliam added that investments in information communication technology 
    have also shown a poor return. But international studies have 
    confirmed that formative assessment can double the speed of pupil 
    learning.

    Some teachers use a "traffic light" system and ask pupils to hold up 
    different coloured cards to show whether they have understood what 
    they have been told. Red means "no", amber means "partly", and green 
    "yes". Pupils are also encouraged to evaluate their own work and 
    advise their classmates on how they can improve.

    The English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish education departments 
    have all provided varying degrees of backing for formative assessment.

    After three years of research in both the UK and the US, Wiliam 
    concluded that the approach would only take off properly if teachers 
    work together in school-based groups to refine their classroom methods.

    Wiliam and his co-researchers found that groups of eight to 10 
    teachers who meet once a month for at least two years can be most 
    effective. "It takes time to change teachers' ways of working, 
    particularly if they have been in the classroom for many years," said 
    Wiliam. "Simply telling teachers what to do doesn't work."

    "For example, most teachers have heard about research from the 1980s 
    which shows that if they wait three to five seconds after asking a 
    question their pupils' performance improves because they have been 
    given some time to think.

    "Even so, many teachers are still allowing less than a second for 
    pupils to respond. The conclusion we can draw from that is that 
    knowing what to do is the easy part of teaching. Actually doing it is 
    what's hard."

    Wiliam told EducationGuardian.co.uk that teacher quality was key to 
    any improvements.

    "To reduce class size from 30 to 20 would need 150,000 more teachers 
    and that would dilute the quality of teachers," he said.

    "We need to change what teachers do day in day out in the classroom 
    and we need to get better teachers into the profession."

    Martin Johnson, acting deputy general secretary of the Association of 
    Teachers and Lecturers, said the research should encourage the 
    government to "put its money where its mouth is".

    "Staff need to work together to learn how to teach more effectively, 
    but schools will need more resources to do this. [Wiliam] reminds us 
    that this would be very cost-effective.

    "Schools have benefited hugely over the last decade from having more 
    classroom based staff but much more training is needed to make their 
    deployment fully effective.

    "And while the government says it encourages assessment for learning, 
    its testing policies have stolen teachers' self-confidence so new 
    training must be provided and resourced.

    "School staff desperately need a contractual entitlement to training 
    which meets their individual needs."

    Copyright Guardian News and Media Limited



    David J. Rosen
    Special Topics Discussion Moderator
    djrosen at comcast.net



    -------------------------------
    National Institute for Literacy
    Special Topics mailing list
    SpecialTopics at nifl.gov
    To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics
    Email delivered to bcarmel at rocketmail.com





------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. 


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  -------------------------------
  National Institute for Literacy
  Special Topics mailing list
  SpecialTopics at nifl.gov
  To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics
  Email delivered to mschnec at localnet.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20080227/6468d1ca/attachment.html