Challenge and selection

In the educational institution for which I work, which has to do with teaching a second language, in  this case English, we usually face a challenge, and it is like keeping our elementary and high school  students not only motivated, but making constant use of the language they are studying.

It depends on this in many ways, that their productions are much more autonomous, and directed  towards the real use of the language in a contextualized way.

The pillars of second language teaching with a communicative approach are based on the  competent acquisition of 4 basic skills:

Listening, Speaking, Reading Comprehension, Writing

The department I am in charge of is composed of 20 teachers with a degree in foreign languages.  The results of the first term of the year indicate that there is a percentage of about 10% of  students, who are facing difficulties in one or more of these skills.

As a consequence, the teachers are asked to generate a report in the form of a pie chart in which  they can see the result in terms of percentages. In order to quantify the most evident weaknesses,  the teachers hand in the pie charts individually to the head of the department.

After considering the data reflected in each of the reports, the principal decides to call a meeting  with the entire work team in order to socialize the results of each one, with the intention that they  themselves can analyze the information verbally and that similar patterns can be found among the  different grades.

The tool that is decided to apply of design thinkink, is visualization, for which, it is exposed in the  meeting the basic concepts of the tools of design thinking, and a chronogram of meetings is  established initially in an individual way, for which each teacher must have meditated and applied  the four instances What is, what if, what wows and what Works, in their process with each one of  his groups, and have at least 3 innovative proposals, which they would never have done in the  past, no matter how crazy these were.

Application

What is:

At the end of the cycle of meetings with each teacher and having collected all their assessments,  the team meets again, and is made aware of the risks identified and possible solution scenarios.  One indicator that stands out is the results in formal evaluations, which differ from those obtained  in less formal ways in classroom activities, the former being low and the latter reporting much  better results.

What if:

Teachers, listening to the participation of others, propose:

1- change the way in which formal assessments are made.

2- generate strategies that allow for a better understanding of students' learning styles.

3- To inquire about the teaching styles of the teachers.

4- To allow self-evaluation as an evaluation strategy.

5- To allow peer evaluation strategies in cooperative work.

What wows:

An important increase in autonomous production of students from grade 6 to grade 10 has been  detected.

A survey is carried out with students in which the perception of class dynamics and its effects on  them are investigated.

The results of this survey show the following:

70% of the students surveyed are comfortable with the changes included in the way of evaluating,  since not only the final result is measured, but also the process.

95% of students in grades 6 and 7 identify themselves with the results in learning styles, and have  noticed the change in many of the activities and in their approach to the content and purposes  being taught.

40% of students agree to be assessed by their peers, but have restrictions on the fairness of their  peers when doing so.

60% of teachers find it difficult to identify their own teaching style.

Insight & Approach

What Works:

Although the moments of the design process, are still applied, because we are in the moment  identifying what, works, and what does not, a very generous positive impact was observed in  making the students participate in the evaluation processes, or at least they consider that teachers  do not only care about us as numbers that pass or lose a formal or official test.

Teachers need to be accompanied in their assessment designs, and 3 awareness-raising workshops  are proposed, in which the change of roles from teachers to students is emphasized.

The fact that we focused on possible solutions as a team definitely brought us much closer to  substantive solutions, not only in terms of form, but also in terms of applying the knowledge  acquired and demonstrating its positive effects.

