Page 87 - Beyond Methods

Maximizing learning opportunities 75 3.2.2 Write down, again in key words, your reaction (your first im-
pression) to their responses to each of the items, and complete the table.
3.2.3 For the purpose of interpretation, you may look at student re- sponses to each of the items, and try to understand them in relation to your own teaching agenda. Or, you can form two clusters: Cluster One consisting of responses to questions 2, 3, 4, and 5, and Cluster Two con- sisting of responses to questions 1, 6, and 7.
3.2.4 Look at Cluster One. Think about possible reasons why they say they learned certain words completely, certain other words partially, etc. Recall your teaching, or if necessary, replay the relevant video/audio seg- ments to see what might be the connection between how you generated learning opportunities (i.e., what you did, how you actually explained the meaning of a word, or the kind of questions you asked, etc.) and the degrees of learning perceived by the learners.
3.2.5 Now look at Cluster Two. Compare the targeted teaching items as per your lesson plan and student responses to questions 1, 6, and 7. The comparison must be very revealing. It should reveal, for instance, the gap between the teacher’s agenda and the learners’ understanding of it, and the gap between what is taught and what is available to learn.
3.2.6 There is yet more useful information you can draw from the data you have collected from Student Response Sheets. You have in- formation about what every individual learner said he or she did or did not get out of this particular lesson. There will definitely be individual variations. Student responses to a couple of more lessons on different teaching items will show which student will have difficulty coping with the challenges of your classroom objectives. Think about how you can make use of that information if you wish to individualize your class- room instruction or student counseling.
3.2.7 Finally, reflect on what you learned from the process of doing this two-part exploratory project. Does it provide valuable information? Is it doable? Time consuming? Will it become easier once you do it a couple of times? Will it help if a group of teachers join together as a team and help each other collect, analyze, and interpret data? Anything else?
In Closing
I began this chapter with a series of questions on maximizing learn- ing opportunities. There are no satisfactory answers to those ques-