Chapter 1: Introduction. "A study of the relationship between Interpersonal Choices and Performance Task achievement in an International School in South-east Asia"

Author: Daryl Thompson

Interpersonal Choices and Performance Task achievement

A study of the relationship between Interpersonal Choices and Performance Task achievement in an International School in South-east Asia

By

Daryl Thompson – 4334540

MA Education (Flexible)

Dissertation submitted to the University of Nottingham in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

Marking Tutor: Gary Mills

August 2021

Abstract

The rapid increase in information and the proliferation of technological advances has fundamentally changed the needs and requirements of today’s learner. Graduates need to be armed with thinking skills and problem solving tools in order to be successful in modern society. While there have been many qualitative studies on the implementation and impact of such cognitive pedagogy on attitudes and engagement, few studies have been dedicated to its relation to student achievement that justifies the increased cost and time for its implementation in the modern high-tech school curriculum.

This study looks at how Interpersonal learning (PL), the tailoring of instruction to meet diverse needs, affects student achievement in authentic, real world problem based performance tasks (PT). It focuses on an international school in Cambodia which has aligned PL to the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework for learning and teaching. Achievement data was collected and analyzed using multiple linear regression (MLR) to ascertain the correlation between the extent to which making choices and personalizing learning affects achievement in PTs, compared to knowledge and skills acquisition, conceptual understandings and the cognitive dispositions of the Habits of Mind (HoM).

The study found a significant level of correlation between Interpersonal learning and PT achievement. The reasons behind the findings are discussed, and recommendations are made for implementation, and for further research.

Glossary of Terms

BoD = Board of Directors

DoG = Dimensions of Growth

EQ = Essential Question (overarching, open-ended questions designed to promote inquiry into big ideas and debate and discussion)

HoM = Habits of Mind (cognitive dispositions for intelligent behaviour) K&S = Knowledge and Skills Assessment

MLR = Multiple Linear Regression

PL = Interpersonal Learning

PT = Performance Task

SLO = School-wide Learner Outcome

UbD = The Understanding by Design framework for curriculum planning UTG = Unit Transfer Goals

WASC = Western Association of Schools and Colleges

Acknowledgements

I would like to extend much appreciation to Bena Kallick (co-author of Interpersonal Learning with Habits of Mind) for her collaboration within the regular meetings of the International Habits of Mind Research Community. I also very much appreciate the guidance and inspiration offered throughout the research by Tom Mclean (High School Social Studies Subject Coordinator), James Fry (High School Social Studies Teacher), Hans Brandsar (High School Social Studies Teacher), Norman Still (Curriculum Coordinator) and Phillip Muscott (Head of Curriculum).

Chapter 1: Introduction

In a world full of change and uncertainty there is a need for education to provide students with a range of diverse skills to equip them for the challenges which may lie ahead. Traditional industries such as mining and manufacturing are in decline and the traditional knowledge acquisition approach to education which served them is becoming obsolete. The security of a job for life is no longer viable as the jobs of the near future do not even exist as yet and the labor force will be bolstered with Artificial Intelligence and automated systems. Employers now value adaptable, flexible candidates who can solve problems that invariably arise within the workplace. With information now being at the touch of a button, education must move towards a curriculum which provides opportunities to process not acquire that information through conceptual understandings and cognitive thinking skills. This change is all the more necessary now as schools and authorities who are not making this change are experiencing high student dropout rates coupled with disillusionment of the aims of the school system (Special Report / Why Students Drop Out, n.d.)

The curriculum in most schools is still fixed, standardized, uniform, a one size fit all. Historically, most classrooms have been `curriculum-centered’ rather than ‘student-centered’ yet students are anything but uniform or standardized (Rose and Gravel, 2012). They have unique interests, aspirations, needs and desires and the requirements of the 21st Century have accentuated this.

Instead of a job for life, the students of today will face a future of short term contract and freelance work which will result in multiple changes in employment and career focus. A report published by Dell Technologies and The Institute for the Future (IFTF) states, “An estimated 85 percent of jobs in 2030 haven’t even been invented yet” (Institute for the Future & Dell Technologies, 2017, n.d. p.14)). Effective learning and teaching should always keep two questions in mind for students: “What is life?” and “What is my place within it?” . The role of educators is to give opportunities to students to explore their characteristics, perspectives, skills and understandings of the world in order to find that place within society. The learner will need to be given a certain amount of autonomy within this process in order to arm themselves with the widest possible repertoire of skills and understandings required to be employable in the widest range of pursuits possible.

There is an increasing urgency for a model which can cater for individual needs and requirements to meet the complexity and uncertainty of the modern job market. Therefore, educational leaders need to act quickly in order to move from an acquisition based curriculum to one which embraces conceptual and cognitive dispositions which allow the processing of information in order to solve problems. This requires a theoretical and philosophical shift from teacher centered instruction to student centered. It is increasingly thought that students require greater control and voice in how this change will be delivered. Zmuda et al. (2015) advocated for “a balanced approach through which the teacher and student collaborate in the design of the learning experience” (p.13). Through this increased agency, students can be provided with a quality 21st Century education that incorporates the opportunity to develop their thinking dispositions so they can solve difficult problems in an intelligent manner (Costa and Kallick, 2008; Kay and Greenhill, 2012). This approach has often been termed as Interpersonal learning (PL), an umbrella term which is often defined as the move to student autonomy and control. Plenty of research demonstrates that when students are given an element of control in their learning journey that there is much more engagement and motivation within that task and unit (Watkins, 2009). It would therefore seem likely that a student who is intrinsically motivated to learn through the exploration of their own interests, passions and personal experience will have a greater chance of academic success.

This approach to learning will enable students to acquire a completely different set of competencies for the workplace, the ability to learn quickly and continuously, the ability to think independently and critically, to question, to assimilate and analyze, to innovate and solve problems; to excel in teamwork and collaboration, communication, personal management and organization (Wagner and Dintersmith, 2016).

This may indeed create tension with other curriculum and pedagogical thinking around core knowledge, cultural literacy and cultural capital which is affecting many schools around the world at this time. There is a huge emphasis on defined bodies of knowledge, testing and retesting, which results in a reduction of dispositions toward conceptual and cognitive thinking. Recently, educational goals have been described in seemingly functional terms associated with globalization, the knowledge economy or the ‘knowledge wave’. The idea that education is some sort of servant to the economy is anathema to the purpose of nationalization where students are liberated to make choices, take control, form their own perspectives and chart their own learning journey.

In order to provide more conceptual understanding and cognitive thinking skills into the curriculum a progressive framework is required. The school used in this study employs the Understanding by Design (UBD) curriculum framework which embodies constructivist learning theories. It is within this framework and philosophy that students become more self-directed, learn through authentic real life contexts and most importantly be equipped to transfer their learning to new situations in and beyond the school (Potter, 2013). In terms of the UBD framework, transfer is when students can independently draw from the knowledge, skills and understandings accumulated within the unit of study to solve problems in new and authentic situations.

Therefore, the goal of the UBD framework goes beyond simple acquisition of knowledge to encompass both conceptual understanding and increasingly embed cognitive thinking skills in order to solve real world problems. Evidence of understanding is revealed through the six facets (Wiggins et al., 2005), the capacity to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess. These facets are embedded in the instructional path of the UBD template and aligned to the transfer task at the end of the unit. How this is specifically applied to the curriculum in the school of study will be further explained in the conceptual framework section of Chapter 3.

This study will look at whether implementing the concept of Interpersonal learning, and its intrinsic connection to 21st Century Skills and cognitive learning theories will add value to the existing UBD framework. This aims to reinforce previous studies which have concluded that cognitive learning pedagogy which includes such elements as the Habits of Mind (HoM), a set of 16 problem solving dispositions (Appendix 1), do in fact positively influence achievement in tasks which ask for transfer of understanding (Muscott, 2018). This approach would endorse the belief that the goal of education is surely to prepare students for life, where there are no teachers to provide the learning framework in order to achieve goals, so therefore enabling students to ‘personalize at school is simply preparation for life after graduation.

This study builds on Muscotts work with a similar quantitative correlation study, as the school attempts to widen its use of cognitive skills through the personalization of learning. It is vital for schools to test the suitability and validity of new pedagogical practices before full implementation into the curriculum. The purpose therefore of the study is to gauge whether the implementation of a new cognitive disposition such as personalization will enhance their performance in authentic assessment. This leads to the research question “To what extent is there a correlation between Interpersonal choices and Performance Task success?”

The researcher’s position within the school of study is the Middle and High School Curriculum Coordinator for Humanities. This role includes the responsibility of refining and improving the curriculum through a data driven improvement plan (DDIP). The goal is to prepare the students for the information age through authentic transfer tasks. The introduction of Interpersonal choices within the lesson activities and final PT may give the students a greater chance of success within these tasks. The research study aims to test that hypothesis with the view of either formalizing personalization within the curriculum or not.

School Culture and Context

This study is focused on an independent international school in Cambodia. The school is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) (Accrediting Commission for Schools, 2021), one of only four schools in Cambodia that are fully accredited from PK-12 and which meets ACS WASC requirements and standards. Accreditation validates the integrity of the school’s program and transcripts as well as facilitating the transfer of credits to other English-speaking schools which is critical for college/university acceptance worldwide.

The school is currently expanding and opening up additional campuses. Currently there are approximately 200 teachers with 33 nationalities and 3100 students from 25 nationalities. The vast majority of students are Cambodian which is not the norm within international schools in Phnom Penh. This is mostly due to the fact that the school is affordable to many middle class Cambodians unlike many of the elite schools in the capital. The school originated in 2004 in a small villa on the outskirts of Phnom Penh with 14 students who were mostly the children of the Board of Directors (BoD). Their vision was for an affordable school that provided an international standard of education suitable for equipping students for admittance to universities around the world.

The main researcher has been at the school since 2009 and shortly after under the tutelage of a teacher who eventually became the Head of Curriculum a major transformation occurred. This change is at the heart of this research paper, a move from a traditional text book, march through the curriculum school, to one which is embedding progressive constructivist learning theories through the Understanding by Design framework (UBD). The researcher is originally from Belfast in Northern Ireland and spent ten years working in finance in the city of London. He was very lucky when relocating to Phnom Penh and stumbling upon a school which has ultimately become the most progressive in the country. Initially the students were guarded about voicing their own opinions and perspectives but now through a culture of questioning, enquiry, discussion and debate have become confident speakers and formed a coherent worldview. This has resulted in the school being awarded first prize in the regional team debate section of the World Scholars Cup of 2019, participation in the Model United Nations (National Model United Nations, n.d.) and recently second prize for the HS debating team in a competition in Vietnam.

One of the reasons the researcher has stayed so long with the school is the sense of liberation in shaping the destiny of the students and education in general with no outside constraints. The BoD are very rational and progressive Cambodians who care about the future of their own children and the nation’s children and are very receptive to current educational research. The school is very much a school which values constructivist learning theories, has embedded the UBD framework, which has this theory at the heart of its approach, and has institutionalized the HoM as an element of cognitive learning which enables students to become effective problem solvers.

A new High School campus has just been built which utilizes innovative learning spaces for students to work independently and self-directed. Many educators today are challenging the traditional rows of seats and desks that are not conducive to discussion and debate within the classroom. Technology and collaborative spaces are quickly replacing archaic seating arrangements. Learners are choosing where they fit in the space to learn, collaborate, create, and design by transitioning to different spaces based on the task at hand.

Not only is the culture and structure important for the implementation of new initiatives, but the school philosophy and framework must welcome change. The one size fits all set up previously mentioned does not feel comfortable with change. It requires a very different type of schooling: one that is bound by rich and varied artifacts to demonstrate growth over time rather than a collection of scores, bound by mastery rather than seat time, and bound by learning that happens 24/7 rather than at certain times of the day and year. As teachers and students’ roles evolve, so, too should those of leaders and policy makers. Riveros et al. (2012), explained that in order for teachers to create a culture of thinking in their classrooms, teachers needed schools that were cultures of thinking which immersed them in quality discussions of the teaching of thinking and learning.

Unlike many other International schools, beliefs within the research school are not prescribed. Instead the students are tasked with investigating and critically appraising all world views in order to allow them to cultivate their own political, economic, moral and spiritual beliefs and values. This is the result of many years of enquiry based instruction through the lens of overarching open ended Essential Questions. Students’ conceptual understanding of the big ideas are explored through discussion and debate. Examples of Essential Questions (EQ) are ‘Is religion a force for good in the world?’ , ‘Does one nation have the right to intervene in the affairs of another nation?’, and ‘How can we effectively handle conflict and misunderstanding?’ . An example of an understanding or ‘big idea’ which may ensue from the first EQ is ‘Students will understand that religion has an important impact on the world, with varying significance to individuals and influence over the way people live. It can range from shaping personal perspectives on ethics and morals to being a catalyst of conflict around the world.’ The inquiry and discussion around the big ideas allows the students to tackle domestic and global challenges without the shackles of adherence to the status quo, thus arming them with the cognitive tools to develop creative and innovative ideas to facilitate a brighter and more thoughtful world. The traditional Cambodian view of education and the values of parents have been a constant challenge to this approach. Pellini (2005), noted that “Development is often a process where local cultural values and traditional norms collide with models from another culture” (p. 205). Cambodian students in progressive international Schools are exploring critical thinking skills which give them the autonomy to decide which ideas to adopt, adapt or discard in a way which preserves the rich cultural heritage of Cambodia but also gives them opportunities to explore the diverse values and beliefs of a globalized world.

It is in this philosophical prism that ideas such as the voice and choice of Interpersonal learning and the problem solving skills of the HoM can flourish. The school has been using the HoM (Costa and Kallick, 2008) for a number of years now. It is the belief that this set of 16 problems solving, life related skills are required to successfully navigate an ever changing 21st Century society. The school has since become accredited as a HoM School of Excellence and the Head of Curriculum is the current chair of the International Habits of Mind Research Community.

It is imperative that in order to successfully test the correlation between PL and PT achievement, the culture, framework and philosophy of the school provides the required student autonomy for successful implementation and practice of the initiative. This requires the school to view learners as co-investors in their learning and to nurture their aspirations and commitment to learning (Sebba et al., 2007). The students must feel that autonomy is not something to simply expect but to demand. The school in this study has institutionalized this student control into a country where traditionally students viewed teachers as the oracle and purveyors of truth. The teachers within the school are very careful not to convey any personal worldviews which may influence the student’s ability to form their own perspectives on the burning issues of today. Kallio and Halverson (2020), distinguish between educators who focus on learner interests, where students take ownership of the goals and means of their learning, versus learner needs, where educators determine goals for students.

Online/Covid

The Covid Pandemic has transformed the perception around the future of education. Traditional schools were left behind and were woefully unprepared. The HoM have become a powerful tool for educators in these times. The levels of anxiety, uncertainty, and complexity about opening a school year with distance learning are at high levels. Managing impulsivity to better understand what we know about learning and learners is definitely needed. Schools that treat the pandemic as a learning experience and not one of survival are the ones that will thrive.

There was a need to streamline the curriculum, to strip back all the elements which may not be essential, which resulted in the implementation of the cornerstone tasks to ensure that all the desired results were sufficiently covered. However, problem solving tasks and student choice within those tasks still remained as a vital element in keeping as many students as possible intrinsically motivated during the online learning experience.

Covid was a major factor in the planning, preparation and implementation of the research. The research was aborted twice yet this allowed for a period of self-reflection and to learn valuable lessons from the situation instead of simply being reactive like many schools were throughout the world. Moving from the traditional onsite classroom environment to a hybrid/online instructional delivery certainly provided unprecedented and unique challenges for teaching and learning. However, it was essential within the change to remote learning that the philosophical approach to debate, discussion, interaction and teaching for transfer and understanding were not sacrificed. It was vital that teachers quickly adopted interactive digital software tools such as Peardeck, Edpuzzle and Padlet in order for such pedagogy to continue outside of the physical classroom.

In summary, this research is based within the theory that a change in education is required in order to meet the change within the world in general. The explosion of information through the technological advancement of the internet has resulted in a move from the need to acquire knowledge to one where the processing and the understanding of that knowledge is needed. In order to do this education is required to adopt more conceptual and cognitive dispositions to create problem solvers which can deal with the myriad of uncertainty. Research is needed to determine which of these cognitive dispositions result in success within problem related transfer tasks and then how to implement them within the curriculum. This brings back the focus of the Research Question, “To what extent is there a correlation between Interpersonal choices and Performance Task success?”

DMU Timestamp: January 21, 2022 19:02

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