Hope for the Future: Building Hope via Project-Based Learning and Advisory Groupings

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Hope for the Future Building Hope via
Project-Based Learning and Advisory Groupings

• EdVisions Schools
• 2005

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Issues in Todays High Schools

• Student passage through high school is
  accompanied by gradual decreases in
• Student engagement
• Intrinsic motivation
• Attention and effort in school
• Interest in learning
• Achievement
• Drop-out rates remain basically the same despite
  the constant churn of reform initiatives
• 347,000 - 544,000 per year in the decade
  preceding the year 2000
• Drop-outs have reduced chance of success as adults

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A Critical Transition

• Adolescence marks the emergence of psychological
  disturbances, such as depression, anxiety, eating
  disorders
• Increase in high-risk behaviors, such as
  substance abuse, delinquency
• These psychological and behavioral problems can
  inhibit intellectual growth and emotional
  maturation and impede the transition to adulthood
• Experiences in adolescence can impact a persons
  life trajectory (educational attainment,
  employment opportunities, relationships) in
  significant ways

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Stage-Environment Fit Theory

• Mismatch between emerging adolescent needs and
  the developmental context is causally related to
  negative outcomes like disengagement, drop-out
  and emotional problems (emphasis educational
  context)
• What are the key developmental needs for
  adolescents?
• Autonomy personal causation making choices
  according to your own personal interests and
  desires being the origin of your own behavior
• Belongingness the depth and quality of the
  interpersonal relationships in an individuals
  life (both peer-to-peer and student-teacher)

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Implications of Stage-Environment Fit Theory

• A typical high-school environment (large and
  impersonal, rigid curriculum, competitive ethos)
  may not be supportive of adolescent needs
• A better match in terms of adolescent needs and
  the educational context should result in higher
  levels of motivation and engagement
• Sizable research literature to support this claim
• Placing students in a more developmentally
  appropriate environment should have a positive
  effect on student psychological health
• There is relatively little research that directly
  addresses this claim

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Appropriate Environment EdVisions

• Self-directed, project-based learning gives
  students high levels of choice in directing their
  own process of learning
• Should lead to greater perceptions of autonomy
• Evaluation done through live performance
• Long-term advisory groups pair each student with
  an adult and a group of peers for an extended
  period
• Should support the formation of solid teacher and
  peer relationships, which should lead to greater
  perceptions of belongingness
• Instead of seeing 7 or 8 teachers a day for 50
  minutes, and a new group of teachers every
  semester, a student has a single adult advisor
  for their entire educational career

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Research Questions

• Are autonomy and belongingness associated with
  greater engagement and psychological health?
• Cross-sectional sample with many demographics
• Do project-based learning and advisory grouping
  support greater levels of autonomy and
  belongingness when compared to traditional school
  environments?
• And, if so
• Do students in these schools demonstrate greater
  engagement in learning and healthy psychological
  development?
• Targeted comparison, controlling for differences

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Measuring Psychological Health

• Hope a generalized expectancy for achieving
  goals
• Correlated with dispositional optimism, positive
  outcome expectations, self-esteem, happiness
• Lower rates of depression, anxiety
• In a longitudinal study of college students, hope
  scores predicted GPA even after controlling for
  entrance examination scores on the ACT
• In the same study, 57 of the higher-hope
  individuals had graduated from college after six
  years, while only 40 of the lower-hope
  individuals had graduated
• Hope is a stable component of a persons
  disposition that does not change over time
  without targeted therapy

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Data Point 1

• Measurements taken in Nov/Dec 2004
• Measuring autonomy, belongingness, engagement in
  school, and hope
• Belongingness composed of
• Teacher academic and personal support
• Peer academic and personal support
• 804 students surveyed at 8 EdVisions schools
  (urban, suburban, medium-sized town, rural)
• 140 students surveyed at two traditional schools
  (rural and suburban)

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Data Point 2

• Measurements taken in April/May 2005
• Measuring autonomy, belongingness, engagement in
  school, and hope
• Data collected from 3 closely-matched schools
• Two EdVisions schools (Schools A and B) and one
  traditional school (School C) 231 students in
  total
• Located in rural area southwest of Minneapolis
  within 50 miles of each other
• Similar demographics and school/teacher qualities
• School A uses project-based learning full-time
• School B uses project-based learning part-time
• Schools A and B use advisory grouping

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Q1 Are autonomy and belongingness associated
with greater engagement and psychological health?

• Autonomy and belongingness are critical for
  engagement in school
• Encourage positive change in engagement over time
• Peer academic support did not predict engagement
• Academic support likely to be important when
  coming from friends rather than larger peer group
• Engagement in school mediates the effects of
  autonomy and belongingness on hope
• Feeling of being liked/accepted by peers has
  direct impact on hope that is not mediated by
  engagement
• Both engagement and peer personal support
  encourage positive change in hope over time

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Q2 Comparing Environments
Estimated Marginal Means from ANCOVA Comparisons
Between Schools
Variable
 
School
N
A
B
C
Autonomy
227
1.75a
.62b
-.91c
Teacher Personal Support
229
4.16a
4.09a
3.27b
Teacher Academic Support
229
4.47a
4.44a
3.80b
Peer Personal Support
229
3.37a,b
3.58a
3.19b
Engagement
228
9.94a
8.14a,b
4.32b
Hope
230
50.24a
49.97a
47.50a
Note. Means in the same row that do not share the
same subscript differ at p lt .05 in post-hoc
comparison w/a Bonferroni adjustment.
Student-level differences in age, gender, race,
SES, previous educational experience number of
years in current school are controlled.
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Q 2 Discussion

• Project-based learning encourages significantly
  higher levels of autonomy
• School A gt School B gt School C
• Advisory grouping enables the creation of
  significantly better teacher/student
  relationships
• Schools A and B gt School C on teacher
  relationships
• Effects on peer relations somewhat ambiguous
• Students in the project-based learning
  environment exhibit greater engagement in
  learning
• Schools A and B gt School C
• No significant differences in hope

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Q3 Change Over Time
Note. p lt .05. p lt .001.
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Change Over Time, 06
School Hope 05 Hope 06 Difference
A 50.24 49.63 -0.61
B 49.62 51.91 1.29
C 46.72 50.35 3.63
Ave. 48.86 50.93 2.07
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Conclusions

• Project-based learning and advisory grouping are
  effective pedagogical techniques for meeting
  adolescent needs for autonomy and belongingness
• Together, these techniques can provide an
  environment in which adolescents can flourish
• This sort of positive growth can help to buffer
  students from the turbulences of adolescence and
  provide a stronger platform for future success
• These results also point out the necessity of
  continuous improvement through measurement

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Continuous Improvement Through the Hope Study

• Creation of documents to support school
  improvement
• School-wide Assessment Rubric
• Assessment Rubric establishes continuum of
  development of Design Essentials in
• A self-directed project-based program
• A democratic school culture
• A culture of constant assessment
• A culture of teacher ownership

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Strategic Planning

• By utilizing the assessment rubric, learning
  community teams develop plans for improvement
  via
• Data collection and analysis
• Professional Development Plans
• Long-range strategies to meet the mission of No
  Child Left Unknown

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Hope for the Future

• Hope can be grown by creating a stage-
  environment fit for adolescents that
• Increases adolescent decision-making (autonomy)
• Increases significant relationships and support
  between peers and teachers (belongingness)
• Increases interest in learning (engagement)
• A project-based setting with full-time advisories
  is a proper stage-environment fit for adolescent
  psychological health!