Engaging with data for decision making

Just as is the case in other schools in the country, Dinaledi School faces challenges related to teaching, learning and assessment. As a result, assessment data is part of the constant

conversation and questions among staff members at this school that enables them to work together to find solutions, and improve teaching and assessment practices. According to Ingram, Louis, and Schroeder (2004:1259) questions can help schools engage with data to improve teaching and learning. Questions such as: “What type of decisions do teachers make and what type of data are meaningful to them?” and “What factors promote or impede use of data for decision making?” can be helpful to stimulate conversation and enable educators to reflect.

The use of questions to stimulate discussions is an existing school culture to encourage collaboration among educators and the SMT, enables them to identify problems presented by assessment data, and other teaching and learning issues that may require them work together to find solutions to such problems. For example, ANA results were used to regroup learners and reallocate teaching resources. This is said to have been the result of discussions with members of the SMT and teachers within their phase or subject teams.

Analysing our ANA results is, we realised that children need to work in the level that they are suited to, to where they’re at, so that we can accelerate, build on strengths,

92 close the gaps.And amongst the teachers then, they then started to talk [to determine what to do]. One teacher would take the group that was fine with the concepts and we could accelerate them. The other group was consolidating concepts and the other teacher was supporting the children to get to the concepts. At the end they all wrote the same tests, because obviously our assessment within the school has to be

standard. (Dinaledi Principal)

The constant conversations that goes on between teachers and the SMT also encourages sharing of ideas about what may be a challenge for other teachers. In the Foundation Phase:

We talk about that all the time, and I encourage them to [talk] amongst the teams they should be aware who’s having problems, as in learners that are really battling. And then we are fortunate to have extra members of senior staff who are not having classes, because having classes it’s another admin on its own. So we have senior classes and senior teachers available in every grade to take out individual children. I might be dealing, let’s say common nouns, proper nouns, or adjectives, or something in maths, where if I’m having children that are battling, because your children that are labelled weak, there are children that may be weak in all the learning areas, but you might find that there is a group of children who don’t even go to those support teachers, who battle with a [particular] concept. And I would have to write those things down and give them to the support teacher of my grade, when she comes to help. Ok, you are busy with what at the moment, trying to ok, let’s say natural disasters, and there are children who just are battling to get the concept, division, breaking down, she’s ready to come in and take that particular group. (Foundation Phase HOD)

The teaching members of staff not only ask questions, but engage in deliberations based on learner performance so that the staff at Dinaledi is aware of necessary changes in teaching, to improve learner performance. The maths focus group teachers mentioned that their meetings are not always about learner assessment; they are also about sharing ideas to improve

teaching a particular aspect of the subject. They rely on knowledge they have about learner performance in order to introduce a topic.

Some of our discussions are informal discussion and when the opportunity arises. It’s not always about formal, assessment, but may be informed by how we know our learners. If I do content assessment worksheets, and I distribute amongst the other teachers of maths in the grade, I would [alert a teacher that] I know has very weak ones go through it carefully with them one step at a time. Whereas the group I’ve got, I will give them the whole worksheet and say to them, “this is based on our times and dividers opposite, go for it and do it”. [For the other class it can’t just happen], she

93 has to go through it step by step with the children. So in that way, we are prepared to allow the children to get to the point that we want them to be at. But then again, you’ve got 22 and I’ve got 27. And in the top third of those two classes, you won’t have to give them additional instructions, you can give it to them with the written instruction and they’ll be able to cope. And often we then find that we have not set our assessment at a high enough level for the top group, because we’ve been

concentrating on making it possible for your middle group and your weaker group to enable them be able to do the assessment. We are so concerned that children don’t become de-motivated that we’re not actually allowing enough scope for those, and as was saying, for your top children. I do feel as though we’re neglecting them. (Maths FG T3).

Most of responses, from both members of the SMT and teachers, indicate that at Dinaledi there is a shared vision to create and develop a culture that promotes a high standard of teaching to enable effective learning.