Introduction
Collecting and using data has become one of the essential tasks for contemporary educators. Without data, it is impossible to track progress and identify areas for improvement that will help teachers develop effective learning strategies for their students. For this assignment, two data collection charts were developed, one to share with a student and the other to collaborate with colleagues. This paper is a reflection on the process of developing charts to track a student’s progress and share data with colleagues.
Student Data
For this assignment, two data collection charts were created – both assess the student’s knowledge of math topics. Still, one of the charts is completed by the student and the other by the teacher, both presented in the Appendix. The following charts help determine students’ math skills using both student-led and teacher-facilitated assessments. Both charts were developed using examples by Craver (2016) for student assessments. The objective of the targeted teaching activity was to assess the student’s knowledge of the topic of factors and multiples and identify students who struggle with the definitions and application of these concepts.
Identifying a Student and Targeted Teaching Activity
To identify the selected student, a formative assessment for the studied topic was used. These students were asked to fill out the chart and evaluate their knowledge of the definitions learned in class that related to factors and multiples. This assessment was completed twice, to track the progress and identify the students that still have a gap in their knowledge. In addition, a formative teacher assessment that would provide an objective evaluation of the students’ understanding of the core concepts was carried out twice. The charts have two answer options – “yes” and “no,” and the student who had the most significant number of “no” answers in their chart was selected. This was done because the data suggests that this student is struggling with the definitions of terms.
The learning objective was identified by analyzing the student’s responses and the teacher’s assessment. Since the evaluation was completed twice, some progress could be seen. However, the student did not recall the definition of a prime, both in a self-assessment and in teacher evaluation. This suggests that the techniques used in a classroom to explain this term and its application were not suitable for the selected student. The information from both assessments was used to choose an alternative strategy for teaching the term “prime.” Also, students’ feedback under the colomn “one thing I can improve…” was used to design the activity.
Data Collection and Use
Data is a primary source of information when developing learning instructions. Data relevant to the teaching plan was collected by designing the assessment charts. Next, they were distributed at the first lesson dedicated to the topic and two lessons after the beginning. The student’s responses were compiled and analyzed by determining the number of “yes” and “no” answers for each term. Insights derived from the analysis were used to identify improvement areas.
Collaboration with Stakeholders
The following assessment practices are a representation ethical and professional responsibilities of a teacher for analyzing and reporting data. Data tracking allows proving that students in the classroom make progress in their studies using formative or summative assessments (Craver, 2016; Goodman & Cole, 2017). A teacher is accountable to the student’s families and the school’s administration. It is an ethical responsibility of an educator to help students overcome learning difficulties. For this purpose, the first data collection chart was created to collaborate with a student since Craver states that “data tracking is involving students in their progress so that they can take ownership of their learning” (p. 3). Hence, it is a professional and ethical responsibility of a teacher to use data-driven practices.
Data collection helps support the teacher’s observations and recommendations, helping explain areas of improvement to these stakeholders. According to Correia (2016), the involvement of stakeholders leads to better management of educational resources. The steps of sharing information include identifying the stakeholders, in this case, the student’s parents, teachers, and the school’s administration, identifying the information that can be relevant to them, and defining a communication method. The data should be reviewed with a student, and a report card for the family members and other stakeholders should be prepared.
Conclusion
Overall, data collection is one of the essential elements of modern-day teaching and the only way to identify students’ learning needs and progress. For this assignment, two charts for data collection were created, one to help share the progress with the student and the other to receive insights from colleagues. The process of collecting and using the data for a targeted teaching strategy was described. Besides, the ethical implications of teacher data collection were explored.
References
Goodman, K., & Cole, D. (Eds). (2017). Using data-informed decision making to improve student affairs practice: New directions for student services, number 159. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Correia, A. P. (2016). Alternative ways of involving stakeholders: The rise of entrepreneurialism in higher education and the case of learning enterprise. In T. Brinda, N. Mavengere, I. Haukijärvi, C. Lewin, & D. Passey (Eds.), Stakeholders and information technology in education (pp. 124-127), Guimarães, Portugal: Springer.
Craver, E. (2016). Classroom data tracking, grade 4. Greensboro, NC: Carson Dellosa Education.