How Far Should Students Be Empowered To Control Their Own Learning

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How Far Should Students Be Empowered To Control
Their Own Learning?

• Beyond Web-Based Exercises
• In an Aural Skills Course
• Chuck Lord and David W Sogin
• University of Kentucky

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Context

• Earlier version reported in 2002
• Less experimentally prepared
• Too many variables at once
• Technology itself newer to students then
• Email
• Web based

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• Dropped, then returned with more preparation,
  intentionality
• Overlap between presentations
• Value of multiple attempts, differences in results

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Outline

• Posing questions
• The rationale
• The experiment itself
• Results
• Student performance
• Student self-perceptions
• Student comments
• Concluding thoughts

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Questions not Statements

• Our goal as educators - transformation
• From passive consumer of knowledge to active
  investor in seeking it
• From participant within others learning system
  to creator of own learning system

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The Question of the Day

• How best to facilitate this transformation?
• How much control to maintain over student
  learning vs. how much to release to them?

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Pedagogical Degrees of Control

• Expert in front of class (classroom)
• Transmit knowledge from one mind to another
• Over the shoulder coach (supervised lab)
• Focus on processes, draw them out
• Learning manager (seminar, independent study,
  web-based / distance learning)
• Establish parameters, turn them loose

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Evaluation and Control

• Types of student evaluation measurement
• Performance, quality of
• Progress toward performance
• Process, investment in

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Music students experience all three types

• Performance
• academic courses
• Progress
• studio work
• Process
• Ensembles

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The Course

• Required aural skills class
• Often not perceived as core by students
• Rarely a top priority
• Disconnected from other curriculum?
• 4th of 4 semester sequence
• No downstream damage
• Greatest level of (evolving) maturity to date

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Problems To Solve

• Student strategies
• Focus on best grade, not best learning
• How to enable better learning?
• Anxiety
• Physiological barrier to learning
• How to reduce?

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Goals for Revised Course

• Remove barriers to focusing on weaknesses
• Give students responsibility for their learning
• Shift student focus from getting through the
  system to preparing for future career
• Meet students needs logistically
• Maintain quality control
• Protect myself from embarrassment(!)

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The Experiment

• Suppose we removed the pressure of grades?
• Apply process-based evaluation to a previously
  performance-based course
• What would happen?
• How will they perform on exams?
• How will they respond to the learning
  environment?
• Will they work less hard, perhaps harder?
• Will they sense they learn less, perhaps more?

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• Control Year 2004-05
• Both semesters performance-based
• Track final ear training exam scores
• Experimental Year 2005-06
• Fall as before, Spring new model
• Same number of sections, same staff
• Statistically equivalent student groups
• Fall final exam scores w/o SSD
• Tracking only students who completed both
  semesters during same academic year

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The Subjects

• Study includes only those who completed both
  semesters during the same academic year.

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The Parameters

• Automatic A awarded on Day 1
• To maintain process evaluation only
• Attendance standards
• Assignment-completion standards
• honor code pledge
• Performance, progress dont count
• Assignments still performance-graded
• For their information only

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Exam Tasks

• 3rd and 4th semester ear training exam format
• I. Corrective Listening
• Score of correct version provided
• ID/correct errors in pitch, rhythm, dynamics,
  articulation, tempo..
• 4th sem Prokofiev, Classical Symphony, III
  (first section of minuet) - reorchestrated for
  flute/piano

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• II. Description (formal/stylistic analysis)
• (4th sem) Using entire 20th century rounded
  binary piece, diagram its phrase and sectional
  form annotate each subsection ID overall design
• Incorporate multiple musical parameters in
  notation and/or comments
• Blank sheet of paper provided

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Visualization of musical context

• IIIIV. Eight-measure period set for horn and
  strings
• Two-system score provided
• Key and meter given
• Transcribe melody
• Transcribe structural bass
• Add harmonic function/inversion labels
• Vocabulary included several chromatic chords (sec
  dom/o7, diatonic 7th, 6th)

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Performance Measurement

• Same final exam each semester, each year
• Similar format each semester each year
• Higher level of skills required spring than fall
• Charts show raw scores and statistical
  significance
• Paired T-test P-values
• P 0.05 or less indicates statistically
  significant difference.

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Summary

• Fall groups are equivalent (no SSD)
• Control Year
• Fall - Spring increase is SSD
• Experimental Year
• Fall - Spring decrease is SSD
• Spring - Spring
• Decrease is SSD

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Correlating Factor

• How many followed good process and accepted the
  offer?
• Percentage of As actually awarded as final
  grades
• Take your best guess

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Student Surveys

• Three part self-survey
• Compare end of fall vs. end of spring
• Ability on each skill trained (4 aural skills)
• Effect of different grading system (4 measures)
• Overall experience (2 ways)

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Comparisons

• Pilot Study
• Less formal, more difficult to assess accurately
• Example question
• I worked much harder for this course than for
  last semesters
• 1 - 7 (disagree agree)

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• This study, parallel topic
• Overall how hard did you work for this course?
• Last semester
• 1-5 (not very much.very much)
• This semester
• 1-5 (not very much very much)

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I. Specific Aural Skills

• Corrective listening exercises
• Descriptions
• Melodic transcriptions
• Bass/harmony transcriptions

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• I would rate my performing ability on
• Corrective listening exercises
• At the end of last semester (1 - 5)
• At the end of this semester (1 - 5)
• Same format for each activity

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II. Effect of Grading System

• Question The overall grading system was changed
  from 100 performance on assignments/exams to
  100 process (automatic A assuming consistent
  effort)

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• Fall 2005 Under a traditional grading system
• How hard did you work?
• 1-5 (not very muchvery much)
• How hard did you work on your weaker areas?
• How much did you enjoy the course?
• How much did you learn?
• Spring 2006 Under the automatic A system
• same 4 questions/response options

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III. Bottom Line Perceptions

• Overall how hard did you work for this course?
• Last semester
• 1-5 (not very muchvery much)
• This semester
• 1-5 (not very muchvery much)
• Overall how much did you learn from this course?
• same as above

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Individualizing the results

• Global data is valid and valuable, but
• Individual responses give insights masked by
  averaging

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Struggling hard worker

• I think the program is Great and I feel I
  have done much progress this semester than last
  3, regardless my grade. ESL student

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Getting it

• I just dont get this stuff. But by the end of
  the semester without all the pressure I was
  getting it.

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Athlete Thriving Under Pressure

• Swimming doesnt grade you on how hard you
  worked on improving yourself in practice, only by
  the time on the scoreboard. So of course Im
  going to work harder when my back is against the
  wall or Im hanging over the edge of a cliff.
• That being said, it was extremely comforting to
  know that if I crashed during a sight-singing
  lesson, I would leave without bruises.

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A counter-example

• The required attendance policy is all well and
  good, but because of the grading system, I didnt
  try hard at all.

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Top Talent, Highly Motivated

• No written response, but face to face expression
  of appreciation and enthusiasm for opportunity

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Dropped his crutches

• Without the pressure of numerical grades, I
  really was able to experiment with new kinds of
  techniques for solving problems w/out the
  crutches I usually used. If the grade is at
  stake, you rely on crutches for insurance. The
  new policy changed that for me.
• This really has helped me. I have still done all
  of the coursework and even though my grade is
  not as high as I want, I have actually retained
  knowledge through personal experience. Thanks
  for this opportunity.

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Summary

• Trade-offs, are they worth it?
• Less pressured learning environment
• More flexibility for student and teacher
• Slightly lower performance level(?)
• Some take advantage
• Some thrive more than before
• Some get it who hadnt before

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More questions

• Inconsistencies between exam and student response
  data
• How reliable the exams scores?
• How reliable their self-perceptions?
• Would this be a viable option within existing
  system?
• Train to thrive within system or
• Create new system?
• Look more closely at other systems?

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• When, how much control to release?
• Graduate, senior, sophomore, freshman
• How much should we be
• Inviting rather than controlling?
• In what ways?
• How soon?

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• Chuck Lord and David W Sogin
• School of Music
• University of Kentucky
• 105 Fine Arts Building
• Lexington, KY 40506-0022
• chuck.lord_at_uky.edu
• sogin_at_uky.edu