Jocelyn Zhang - Classroom Opinion Polls

Classroom Assessment Technique

-Classroom Opinion Polls

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

This study was conducted at HD Ningbo School, a private K-12 bilingual school in Zhejiang Province, China. The school is open to students from diverse backgrounds, but due to the high tuition fee, all the students come from upper-middle- class families. It offers students a world-class education, preparing them for university study throughout the world. The population of the primary division is about 400. Local Chinese students mainly make up the student body, while around 5% of the students hold overseas passports from USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Peru. Approximately one-quarter of the students can use English fluently in daily life and study.

Currently, I am the Head of Science for the primary division and the science specialist teacher for all the Year One and Two students. Our unique science curriculum combines the Chinese National Standard with Cambridge Primary Science Framework. I am also the member of School ICT Committee and provide training for teachers and parents on educational technology integration.

RESEARCH METHOD

Classroom Opinion Polls was used for one of my Year Two classes during a science lesson last Monday. This CAT provides the opportunity for students to give feedback on how they feel and what they want for the course. It also supports several of my long-range teaching goals including “Improve self-esteem/self-confidence, develop a commitment to one’s own values” and “Develop respect for others”. Helping students with their personal growth has always been a big concern for me. Through Classroom Opinion Polls, I want to let students know not only how I value their contribution to make the course better, but also how they can make wise decisions for their own learning.

I have been teaching class 201 for one and a half years, so they are familiar with my teaching methods and philosophy. This class is made up of 11 girls and 11 boys with only one non-Chinese native speaker. 20 out of the 22 students participated in the Classroom Opinion Polls, while one low-achievement student and one high-achievement student were absent that day. It was the last week of school before Chinese New Year holiday. We finished all the units and assessments for semester one so reflection time was planned as part of the lesson.

I used the platform called Plickers to collect and analyze answers from the students. Before the lesson, I set up twelve questions on my Plickers account using School Desktop and added them to the question queue. The first five questions are about their confidence in using the science learning techniques I provided for my science lesson, followed by two questions on what they are most interested in learning for next semester. Then I asked five questions reflecting on their learning strategy and behavior of themselves. At the beginning of the class, I explained the purpose of doing the CAT and my MSSE program. Then each student got a unique QR code printed on a card which can be scanned by the camera on my phone. The way they positioned the QR code determined the answer they were giving.

Every time after a question was shown on the Smartboard, I read it in English and Chinese and then gave the student about ten seconds to choose their answers and position their cards (Appendix A). During the scanning of QR codes, the synchronous data statistics will be displayed on the screen. Students can see how may answers have been scanned and the number of votes for each choice instantaneously.

APPENDIX A

REAL CLASSROOM PHOTO USING PLICKERS

DATA ANALYSIS

For the first five questions, greater than 60% of all students indicated a very clear understanding of each learning method (N=20). Seven students are not so confident about the third question on ClassDojo points; some explained that they knew how to earn the points but were not sure about how it is related to their grades. One student accidentally positioned the card wrong and indicated that he had no clue on how to use Quizlet, however he meant to choose “Very clear” (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Student answers for the Classroom Opinion Polls, (N=20).

Question six and seven are asking about what they are more interested in learning for the next semester. Seventy percent of the students showed they are most interested in learning Chemistry, while the most popular unit for the coming semester is Design and Invention. Chinese National Standards include Technology and Engineering as part of the science curriculum even though it is not mentioned in the Cambridge Primary Science Framework. We spent the last four weeks of semester one learning the technology behind common man-made products including locks, movie projectors and touch screens. The Design and Invention unit for next semester will be the extension of what we have learned and inspire students to put their own ideas into practical plans.

The next five questions focused on self-reflection and students were required to give an answer according to their own behavior. Only one student said she occasionally raised her hand and shared her opinion in class while no one chose “Never”. On the other hand, three students agreed with the statement that they seldom write down important information and results in their notebook. Fifteen percent of the students answered “False” for question ten and eleven which means they have some space to improve in taking care of the tools in the science room or working with other people. Although the survey was anonymous, I noticed one of the students selected “False” for both questions. Finally, I introduced the student as teacher program for next semester, which gives them the chance to choose a topic and prepare a ten to fifteen minute lesson in which they teach their classmates. Nine students expressed enthusiasm on being the student teacher, and another eight said they might try if they were very interested in the topic.

CLOSING THE LOOP

Since the results of the Classroom Opinion Polls were displayed on the screen right after the vote, I was able to discuss with my students immediately. I told them I appreciated their honesty in answering the questions and they don’t need to worry about answering correctly. I gave each student who finished the survey one ClassDojo point for following the instruction and participating in the class activity. I asked for suggestions about how I can demonstrate the first five learning methods better so they can use them confidently in supporting their learning process. My students also helped me realize that I should make clear links between the ClassDojo points and their science grades which they would get at the end of the semester. I am going to explain the connection in detail at the beginning of the next semester for students and parents.

My students also got an idea about what areas they can improve in the future. We all agreed, that the learning culture we want in the science room is kind and helpful. They need to take responsibilities for their learning and contribute to the development of the science class as well. According to their feedback on the unit topics, I promised I will spend more time on the more popular units which also made them understand their input can affect the way I do my lesson planning.

VALUES AND CLAIMS REFLECTION

I think this CAT went quite well, and both the students and I got valuable information through the process. The way I used Plickers and QR codes was very efficient and easy for collecting answers and analyzing the data. Writing the questions in both English and Chinese was a good choice, for all the students were able to understand without any problems. If I am going to do another Classroom Opinion Poll, I will use fewer questions each time, while separating the whole survey into different sections. This is because I noticed that twelve questions might be too much for young students, and sitting still for more than 20 minutes was a little bit challenging for some of them.

I was very glad that I did this at the end of semester one, which allows me to use the feedback formatively in redesigning my planning for the next semester. I will have focus areas based on the interests of the students and keep using different CATs to track students’ progress and improve my own teaching.

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