CSIC 8100 Post 6

New Research Question

If we define the number of teacher student conferences required in a specific time period,
will the number of teacher student conferences increase?

Preparation for Analysis

The kind of data I collected is about the number of one-to-one interactions teachers have
with students. It gives information about a learning action that the teacher and student
have engaged in. It is quantitative data about a qualitative assessment method.

At the start of Term 1, 2019 our kaiarahi team decided to take some actions to encourage
more kaiako conferencing one to one with ākonga. The first action we took was to define
our expectations; kaiako are to meet with each ākonga in your puna ako group once every
2 weeks.

I collected pre and post intervention data about the number of one-to-one conferences a
teachers and students engage in.

Of the 21 examples I collected, I eliminated one result because the 2018 result was 0 and
I could not calculate a percentage.

Analysis of the Data

The data I have collected indicates the frequency with which teachers and students are
engaging in a particular learning activity. The results can be seen in the graph below.

In the first 6 weeks of 2019, teachers and students have completed 56% of the
number of learning conferences that they completed during all of 2018.

The lowest percentage a single teacher achieved was 8%. This teacher had completed a
high number of conferences with this particular student during 2018.

The highest percentage a single teacher achieved was 100%. This was achieved by two
teachers.

These percentages are also indicative of an increase in the actual number of learning
conferences. If teachers continued to conference with students at a this rate for the
rest of the school year; the number of learning conferences would be more than three
times the number held this year.  

Interpretation of the Data

Gray (2012) points out that “Data does not speak for itself”.

It is clear from this data that the number and frequency of teacher conferences have
increased during the first six weeks of 2019. This would indicate that teachers have
responded positively to the exact stipulation of kaiarahi expectation of one conference
for every student every two weeks.

In addition to stipulating the number of conferences required over a two week period;
kaiarahi also gave teachers more time to complete conferences. I think I might be able to
surmise that offering teachers more time to achieve their conferencing goal has contributed
to their success. However I am assuming that teachers used the extra time for learning
conferences and I don’t know that for sure. Assuming that the time was used for learning
conferences; I do not have information on the number of extra conferences completed in the
extra time.

I also do not have any information about the duration of learning conferences or the content
of learning conferences. I am therefore not able to comment on the quality of interaction
between the teacher and the student.

References:

Data Quality Campaign What is Student Data? dataqualitycampaign.org

Retrieved from:-

http://2pido73em67o3eytaq1cp8au.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/
What-Is-Student-Data.pdf

Gray; Jonathan. (2012) What data can and cannot do. Retrieved from: - https://www.
theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/may/31/data-journalism-focused-critical