Data-literacy

What is Data-literacy?

Data-literacy is set of skills that enables to collect appropriate, reliable and valid data. It is a competency that 'encompasses the strategies, skills and knowledge needed to define information needs and to locate, evaluate, synthesize, organise, present and/or communicate information as needed.' (Eric Verbiest et al. Becoming a data-wise school leader).

What data sources are there?

In each of the following sections, we have summarised key points to remember when choosing the particular data source and provided further literature to guide your data gathering process.

Interviews

Interview is an appropriate data collection tool if there is a need to get an in-depth information about the stakeholders' opinions, feelings, ideas and thoughts about the particular priority. An interview is a process in which an interviewer asks questions and the interviewee responds to them. The questions may be open-ended and closed questions. You can organise either an unstructured (informal conversation), structured (standartized) or a semi-structured interview.

You can read more about how to organise and conduct interviews in the following papers and books:

Surveys

Surveys are particularly well suited to get a good overview of the opinions and observations among your students, parents, or teachers. Surveys can be used for primary diagnostics and further exploration of the particular issues. A good survey could help you identify areas for improvement, as well as for formative or summative evaluation to gauge changes in student engagement or classroom processes.

You can explore and develop existing surveys and align questions with your objectives, or develop new surveys, or do both. Developing surveys is not an easy task. Low quality surveys may lead to low quality decisions. Therefore, it is suggested to ask education research specialists to design surveys for your specific context and questions of inquiry.

If you choose to prepare your own survey, we recommend you to do thorough further readings on:

Other highly suggested reading materials and resources:

A guide to good survey design by Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa (2019)
Recommendations for communicating survey results by Edurio, Ltd. (2018)
Doing survey research
Improving Survey Questions: Design and Evaluation Fowler, F. J. Jr. (1995)
The Science of Asking Questions by Schaeffer, N. C., and Presser, S. (2003)
The Psychology of Survey Response by Tourangeau, R., Rips, L. J., and Rasinski, K. (2000).

Focused discussions

Focused discussions are guided discussions between two people or a group based on specific topics with the goal of understanding a topic more in depth. By providing a structure for questions and selecting a set of participants that represent different stakeholders and perspectives, you create a space for discussion and idea generation that will help you gain insights on your topic.

Why choose focused discussions?

They are an easy way to get a diverse set of viewpoints on a topic
They conclusions of the discussion can be tailored to bring specific action steps for the participants involved
People with certain types of learning or other difficulties can participate more freely than in other data collection methods, such as surveys
You get a diverse set of useful evidence from different people at the same time; participants feel heard and can work together to come up with different ideas for your topic
They help you get a better understanding of important topics through group consensus and how the experiences of participants impact their decisions

Classroom observations

Classroom observations is the process of observing another educator's lessons with the goal of seeing various aspects of classroom dynamics, that are later discussed and reflected upon to analyse strengths and weaknesses of regular classroom work.

Why choose classroom observations?

They help to improve teacher practice based on feedback that is timely and specific
They help teachers to be more reflective on their teaching practice and its impact on students
They help to inform professional learning at the individual, team, school and system levels
They help to open conversation among colleagues to discuss their successes and struggles
They help to identify benchmarks for external accreditation

Assessment

Assessment helps teachers and students know how successful the teaching and learning have been, and what adjustments should be made to move forward. It can be split up into several different sub-categories. Teachers need to understand when which sources of data are appropriate for instructional versus assessment or grading decision making.

Formative assessment provides ongoing data on how a student is learning. These are usually low-stakes ways to monitor progress, to catch issues before they become bigger problems.

Summative assessment provides a snapshot of how well a student has learned a certain topic or curriculum standard in relation to his/her age group - class level, grade level or nation level. Standardized test scores are often the leading data sources used to make decisions across a district or in a school, but it is very important that when making data-driven decisions, standardized test scores are not the only data source used because they do not always represent the whole child as a learner.

When to collect data?

When and how often to collect data may be a difficult aspect to gauge. It is very important to keep in mind that the amount of data collected and the frequency with which it is collected should be proportionate. Be mindful of the workload of teachers and eliminate any excess data collection that is not necessary or directly linked to the priority you are trying to explore. Additionally, consider the appropriate amount of data collection that is needed for each data source - for example, increasing assessment frequency is not necessarily going to improve the outcomes for students.

You can collect data:

Every day / Every week
At the end of a unit of inquiry
At the end of the semester
From year to year

While planning when to collect data you need to think of it in two ways - short term and long term plans. First, what data is necessary to give an insight for your hypothesis. Then, how this data will be used to measure progress as you go forward with your interventions. Research suggests that 'if schools develop improvement measures, these can typically be implemented during the next school year, at the earliest. This means results can be evaluated no sooner than one school year later.” (Poortman, Schildekamp. Teaching and Teacher education).

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