Looking at Student Work: Should Exposure Be Mandatory?

A few years ago, I participated in a Deeper Learning MOOC. The topic for Week 2 of the course was "looking at student work." Specifically, we were asked:

• What can teachers and students learn from samples of student work? 
• What methods have teachers used to evaluate project-based learning (PBL) or expeditionary (Outward Bound-style) learning? 
• Can we establish objective criteria for assessing deeper learning? 
• What happens when teachers encourage students to look at each other's work? Are they able to facilitate effective peer reviews? 

I wondered how these questions might apply to me as a home educator because I didn't think of myself as an evaluator. I was more like a coach or a mirror, reflecting back what I noticed, calling attention to what had been accomplished, pointing out to my kids (and other students) where they had grown strong and where they might still have room to grow. My goal was for them to learn how to evaluate their own progress, set their own high standards, and then do their best to live up to them. I didn't believe in testing or grading my kids (as I explain in The Testing Effect).

Over time, however, I began to understand why assessments based on objective criteria were important—certainly for schools, and perhaps even for home educators. Sure, my casual one-on-one assessments through conversations with my kids enabled me to get a sense of how they were doing overall,  but there were times when I also needed to evaluate their progress based on specific goals. Were her writing skills strong enough to permit enrollment in a college-level literature course? Had he mastered algebra well enough to go on to calculus? Formal assessments, or evaluations based on predetermined criteria, served a key purpose: they let me (and my kids) know exactly what had been mastered and what hadn't. They gave us feedback that said, "Hey, you might want to pay more attention to this!" or "These skills are solid. You can move on to something else now." Without that sort of feedback, it would have been hard for us to evaluate the effectiveness of our approach to learning a particular subject.

It's human nature for people to become complacent over time. If we think what we are doing is working pretty well, we tend not to change our practice. In a classroom, a teacher might be muddling along with one lesson plan after another without realizing that a few tweaks here and there could dramatically enhance student interest and retention. In a home, a parent might be going through each day's routine as always, unaware that her child hasn't really mastered geography as well as he (and she) thinks he has.

How can teachers and students get the feedback they need to do a better job? How can they determine to what extent their actions are helping or hindering progress?

The old-school method for evaluating progress was standardized testing. Granted, if the goal is to assess retention of facts (1+1=2), testing might be the answer. However, testing is limited and clearly fails to measure "deeper learning," those qualities of education that make it meaningful, relevant and lasting. That's why another form of assessment is necessary.

Which leads me to back to the topic of this post—peer reviews and "looking at student work."

So, Exactly How Do Teachers Look At Student Work?

I was curious to see how schools were conducting non-traditional (ungraded, peer reviewed) evaluations, so even though I had little to contribute to the Week 2 discussion I paid attention to what my classmates were sharing. Professional teachers posted examples of their students' project-based learning (PBL) and expeditionary learning (Outward Bound-style), and I was impressed. I enjoyed learning about their unique projects, such as this detailed illustration of a dwarf dwelling (shared by Bart Miller and created by a student from a 5th/6th grade classroom at the Shutesbury Elementary School in Shutesbury, Massachusetts).

I tried to think of examples from my own experiences with homeschoolers, but at first I came up with nothing equivalent. Sure, we had organized science fairs, art shows, musical and theatrical performances, student newsletters, international days (for which students researched and prepared an exhibit, talk or demonstration about a chosen country), and year-end "Expos." Through these activities, my kids had an opportunity to speak in public and show their work, but a formal evaluation was never part of the process. We encouraged attendees of all ages to ask questions, but they were given no rubrics to use. The Q&A period was informal and spontaneous. Some kids got asked many questions, others didn't get asked any, but it didn't really seem to matter. Everyone received applause.

Throughout our homeschooling years, our family's focus was primarily on having the experience, not on evaluating it. Optimizing a system for assessment—in the way that the teachers contributing to the Week 2 discussion had done—simply hadn't been a goal for us. But I wonder: should it have been?

Feeling Exposed: Students Who Don't Want Others Looking at Their Work

Coincidentally, while all of this was going on in DLMOOC, I had noticed that one of the students in my Thriving in the Digital Age class had not been keeping up well with his assignments. While his classmates faithfully contributed posts to our online discussion, he held back. I knew from previous conversations with him that his reluctance was not due to lack of ability or commitment. When asked why he hadn't been participating, he said he "didn't have anything worth sharing." Also, he added, he hated to expose rough drafts of his writing, so he tended to spend too much time polishing his Google+ posts, trying to get them perfect. Overwhelmed by the need to have his thoughts perfectly articulated and profound, he ended up contributing nothing at all. The few times he did share what he had, though, his work was extraordinary.

My thoughts about him and his feelings about participating led me to wonder: is it always beneficial to require students to make their work public or even semi-public? Must all students be subjected to peer or community reviews? What if the goal of an open assessment is not in line with a student's personal goals?

Consider an average MOOC and the "problem" of non-participation. How many of the lurkers in a typical MOOC decide to withhold their contributions because they aren't comfortable sharing their writing publicly? Is this necessarily a problem, or simply a natural and unavoidable situation when you are working with students with diverse needs and temperaments?

I believe all learners, myself included, struggle to balance our desire to participate with our equally compelling need to proceed in a way and at a pace that feels right to us. Who can say how much participation is enough? One student may choose to sit quietly, taking everything in, soaking up content and conversations in the privacy of her own mind. Another may need to talk through everything, to "think out loud" about how one idea relates to another. Is one approach necessarily better than the other?

I have observed that the extent to which a person gets involved depends on so many factors that it's hard to know why one student "lurks" while another is actively involved: Is it the level of interest, available time (competing interests), past experiences, present goals? Perhaps lack of participation—or, more specifically, lack of participation at a level that someone else has deemed "adequate"—isn't necessarily a sign that no learning is taking place.

 Respecting Privacy

One of the things I enjoyed most about homeschooling was being able to accommodate individual differences. My kids could learn in the ways that suited them best. That said, it was still hard for me to know when to push them beyond their comfort zone and when to make allowances for their personal quirks and preferences.

When one of my kids, the most introverted of the three, rebelled against the whole idea of participating in group exhibitions, I gradually relented and excused him from them. Unfortunately, because I felt it was important for him to develop public speaking skills, I didn't give up without a fight. I dragged him along to group events as an observer. He came but would have preferred to stay home (not an option because I had to bring his two older sisters, who enjoyed giving presentations). By the time he was 10 or 11, I was helping him prepare presentations and exhibits, partly because I wanted to see if it was the actual presenting or the work of preparation that was holding him back. Neither appealed to him very much. Thinking he might feel more comfortable if he presented with a sibling or friend, I encouraged him to do team projects. It helped—but mostly because he let the other person do all the talking.

Although my son did what he was asked to do, he made it clear that he wasn't happy about it. He was a private person and didn't like being scrutinized. He preferred the written test, and written portfolio, as a way of demonstrating what he had learned. Why was I insisting on other forms of review?

Did his lack of enthusiasm for the limelight hinder him in any way? Not really. This same student joined a drama troupe and over time developed multiple on-stage personas. As a teen, he recognized the need for public speaking skills and worked on developing them. He started with a small group of close friends, with whom he felt comfortable, and worked up to speaking in front of small groups of strangers in college courses while he was in high school. Although he still dislikes presentations, he has overcome his aversion to preparing and giving them. His is now confident and capable of presenting his work in practically any situation.

Offering Real Choices

Thanks in part to the internet, it is becoming common practice for teachers to require students to make their work public. I worry about students who are not permitted to choose alternatives. Just as some students are test-phobic and fail to do well on standardized tests, there are other students who are introverted and unable to do well when they are put on display. During the DLMOOC, I saw videos posted of students who were working on their projects. Granted, some students actually enjoy being recorded, but what about the ones who don't? As a young student, my son preferred to keep his work private, and I regret I was not more sympathetic. I have to believe there are other students who, like my son and his friend, might benefit from being able to opt out of peer reviews and community exhibitions. Hopefully, teachers will respect their wishes.