pepsmccrea.bsky.social
Keeping you (teachers) informed // Director of Education, Steplab // Author of Evidence Snacks, a weekly 5-min email read by 25k+ teachers → https://snacks.pepsmccrea.com 🎓
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SUMMARY
• Learning is invisible. Assessment is an attempt to make it more visible
• Validity refers to how well any inference we make from an assessment reflects the reality of student understanding
• We should avoid attaching high stakes consequences to low validity inferences
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🎓 For more, check this short article from Daisy:
https://my.chartered.college/early-career-hub/assessment-why-it-matters-and-what-you-need-to-know/
Or this fresh new series from Becky & Matt:
100assessment.substack.com
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(A similar health warning exists for basing pay or promotion on observations of teaching, or job allocation on interview performance).
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Allocating students a grade which influences their access to employment or further education should only be done if we have high levels of confidence that our conclusions reflect reality.
Otherwise, it just ain’t fair.
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Instead, we typically use a carefully selected sample of the domain to make as valid an inference as possible with the 2 hours I have available for examination.
Finally, the stakes we attach to any assessment should be in proportion to the validity of our inferences.
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EG
I could construct a fairly valid assessment of a 6yo’s times-tables understanding by testing them on all their times-tables.
But if I want to gauge the understanding of a 16-year-old, I can't easily test them on everything they should know... this would take days.
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Designing assessments that yield valid insights about general understanding becomes trickier as subjects grow in scope and complexity.
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Let's say I asked my class to give me a few examples of osmosis.
If they all answered correctly, I could conclude—with reasonable validity—that they understand osmosis.
But any conclusions I draw about their wider understanding of science would be much less valid.
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NOTE
Validity isn't a property of a test itself.
Instead, it relates to the inferences we draw as the result of a test.
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EG
If I claim you’re good at juggling based on how well you describe the process of juggling, the validity of my inference is low.
Whereas if I claim you're good at juggling based on how well you juggle 3 balls for 1 minute, the validity of my inference is much higher.
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Validity refers to the extent that any conclusions (aka 'inferences') we draw from an assessment are an accurate reflection of reality.
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Learning is invisible.
Assessment is the process by which we attempt to make learning more visible, so we can do things like give students a grade (summative assessment) or guide our subsequent teaching (formative assessment).
A key concept to understand within assessment is validity.
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Link to paper ⤵️
link.springer.com/article/10.... (🔓)
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SUMMARY
• The power of a group norm is modulated by the norms of adjacent groups
• When the norms of multiple groups are aligned, they amplify each other (and vice versa)
• We can harness alignment by committing to row together and getting explicit about a shared approach
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🎓 For more, check out this article on establishing positive norms and routines in school:
https://my.chartered.college/impact_article/establishing-positive-social-norms-for-a-productive-classroom-environment/
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This last point is important, because norms don’t just bleed between classrooms, but between schools and families.
The more we can work with parents and community groups to align around key norms, the greater the overall effect will be.
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2 Coming together to agree on the norms we think should be consistent across classrooms (and those things we are happy to be different).
3 Capturing and codifying these norms in a form that can be shared with new staff and the wider community.
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We can harness the power of norm alignment in schools by:
1 Committing to row together, even when it impinges on our own style, because it's the best thing for the students in our care.
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This is why co-constructing rules with individual classes can be problematic.
It can lead to differing expectations and weaker overall norms across a school (not to mention frustration from teachers and pupils because 'Mr Jones allows me to do it').
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Whereas, if a student moves between teachers and they experience varying norms around how students act when it comes to asking questions
...then the very idea that a norm exists will begin to dissipate.
Everything becomes up for grabs.
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For example, if a student moves between teachers within a school, and they experience the same set of behaviours and attitudes around listening in class...
they will feel considerably more compelled to go along with the tide.
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Schools contain, and exist within, multiple groups: communities, classes, friendships.
When the norms of these groups are aligned, they amplify each other.
When the norms of these groups are misaligned, they attenuate each other.
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Norms are powerful forces in school (and society).
However, their power is modulated by how much the norms of adjacent groups are in alignment.
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Ah, okay. Good to know (and will have to tell my friend Singh!)
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Link to paper ⤵️
bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111... (🔓)
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SUMMARY
• Norms are the unwritten rules that govern the behaviour & attitudes of a group
• We influence norms by raising the visibility of those behaviours & attitudes that we want others to emulate
• And we should avoid accentuating things we don’t want to happen
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🎓 For more, see this paper on the pitfalls of social norm interventions:
globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10...
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It would've have been more productive to emphasise those students who DID do their homework, or highlight a time when the class had a high submission rate.
In short, when nudging norms, it's best to amplify what we WANT to happen, not what we DON'T.
We must accentuate the positive.
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I was basically signalling that the emerging norm was one of NOT doing homework.
And so, those few students who DID do their homework were now questioning whether they were at risk of not aligning with expected group behaviour (unconsciously at least) 😱
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EG
Previously, there were times when a large proportion of my class didn't do their homework. I'd come in the next lesson and chastise them:
"Team, this isn't good enough. Loads of you didn't do your homework. Sort yourselves out."
But what message was I sending?
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Some aspects of this are obvious. You likely do lots of amplification already...
"Singh has come in and got started on the task straight away."
But some aspects are less obvious. In particular: the importance of 'accentuating the positive'.
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100% adoption is the ultimate goal... even a single dissenter makes it easier for folks not to follow along.
When we see one person picking up litter, we might consider doing it.
When we see EVERYONE else picking up litter, we start to worry about being left out.
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The best way to harness the power of norms in school is to raise the visibility of those behaviours and attitudes that we want others to emulate.
What we amplify, we encourage.
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Norms are the unwritten rules that govern the behaviour and attitudes of a group.
They are so powerful that they often override more formal rules or policies.
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💯
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Want more?
Mange les (evidence) snacks
→ snacks.pepsmccrea.com
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16/ Working paper on school Heating, Cooling, And Ventilation
→ finds that better HCAV facilities tends to lead to fewer absences and suspensions, and small gains in learning
edworkingpapers.com/ai24-1093
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15/ Study exploring self-explanation in physics
→ suggests that giving students guided prompts to explain their mistakes helps them fix errors and apply learning to similar problems (although not very different ones)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...
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14/ Study testing a knowledge-rich literacy program in early years
→ finds that it boosts vocabulary and domain knowledge (especially for those who start with stronger vocab)
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/20...
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13/ Cracking new (free) e-book by some of the biggest brains in education feat. @dylanwiliam @ProfDanielMuijs @P_A_Kirschner
→ explains how knowledge-rich curricula can support deep student thinking
link.springer.com/book/10.100...
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12/ Paper exploring prior knowledge & curiosity
→ finds that students learn most when they experience a ‘not quite sure’ state of knowing (moreso than feeling ‘curiosity’)
link.springer.com/article/10....
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11/ Study exploring reading for knowledge building
→ finds that reading multiple related texts supports retention and metacognitive accuracy (whereas rereading single texts promotes overconfidence without long-term benefits)
link.springer.com/article/10....
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10/ Paper on retrieval practice for children with Down syndrome
→ finds it enhances understanding and retention
(adding to the evidence that pretty much everyone stands to benefit from a focus on effective teaching)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...
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9/ Review of the state of children’s reading in 2024 from @Literacy_Trust
→ finds record lows in both enjoyment and daily reading amounts 😢
nlt.cdn.ngo/media/docum...