My apologies to everyone for posting late. I was snowbound in Newark, NJ for the past two days and while there was email access at the hotel there was a timer on each of the computers as to how long one could be on it. I finally arrived back in SF at 11pm after an 8 hour flight (I know I should have been in Hawaii by the time I left the plane!)
I am really excited and intrigued by Ozar's notion of student learning being tied to outcomes. It is actually more difficult than it appears. In her own work she cites the National Congress on Catholic Schools for the 21st Century (p.64) that violates her definition of outcomes, "stated from the student's point of view and indicating observable behavior"(p.27). If top members of the NCEA can't seem to stay away from goals, how are we to do it? With the exception of students will, "speak at least one second language" (p.66), all the other outcomes are actually goals! Stating outcomes, rather than goals, is really more difficult than it appears.
One item that Ozar talks about at the end of the chapter links student graduation outcomes to something that many of us struggle with in Catholic secondary schools- Service Learning. I know in my previous school we always had a service requirement which was linked to number of hours in a given year. Goals seem to push for quantity. Outcomes may open the door for quality. Rather than marking hours in a given year, a culminating service project which synthesizes the "doing" with the "learning" would more accurately reflect what many of us state in our school mission statements- to be caring and participatory members of society, Church and the world. One downside to this notion is that now many states require a particular number of service hours for public school graduation and other scholarships. Moving to a culminating service project may put our students at a disadvantage for funding, but I think we are smart enough in Catholic circles to "play the game" for the sake of student learning.
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Yes, stating outcomes is more difficult than stating goals. When thinking about Ozar's question 'what will students be able to do as a result of my instruction?'- it’s hard to choose a set of outcomes that you know will be the best and most efficient for your school and/or class. Goals are more generic and broad, allowing room for interpretation (as far as measuring success). With that being said, I agree that every other statement on Figure 5.4 is a goal not an outcome. As you said, "Goals seem to push for quantity. Outcomes may open the door for quality." As a former student who also had to participate in mandatory service hours in order to graduate high school, I can honestly say I was definitely "doing" rather than "learning". Creating a culminating service project is a wonderful idea that would provide significant learning for all students.
ReplyDeleteJohn- sorry to hear about your hellish journey. You pointed out the definite difficulty of creating outcomes rather than simple goals...it's like creating the unattainable- or at least immeasurable. I think that there is such value in the process for all parties too. I also think you hit on something when you spoke to service hours. So often it's the requirement that is looked at and not the experience; so true with lessons. Are we filling time- hitting standards or creating experiences for our students so they carry the lesson beyond the classroom. Sounds great on paper (probably like your travel itinerary) but not always easy to accomplish! I joked with an admin the other day that it would be ideal to send the kids home for a school year to hammer out all of the work we needed to do so that when they came to school- everything would be in place. I always tell my kids that when I open my own country- all will be perfect.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of having a project due at the end of a service requirement so that there is a reflection piece attached to the experience. Or maybe a journal reflection that is due after every service experience so that they are constantly reflecting on what they are doing and witnessing. At our school we were really inspired by this idea of service learning and committed to at least 4 school wide service during the school year. We get in "families" of kids from each grade level and do the service activity together. We call it C.A.R.E. which stands for Commit Act Reflect Evaluate. The idea is to recognize a problem through learning in the classroom, Act towards fixing the problem, Reflect on what effect the Act will have, and evaluate further possibilities for improvement or additional services to provide. It's a great system, but the trend in the last 2 years that we have been doing it is to put a lot of time and planning into the Act part and then when that's over, the reflection and evaluation piece is sort of lost as the energy of the planner is all used up. :) Our intention is pure and good but carrying it out loses something with the absence of time for planning.
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