Improvement is a Never-Ending Process

Looking for ways to improve should be an expectation, not something that is optional. Whether at the individual or system level, the fact remains that there is always room for growth. So why is this the case? Pursuing improvement is a never-ending process because the landscape of knowledge, technology, and human understanding is in a perpetual state of evolution. As we advance in one area, new challenges and opportunities emerge, necessitating continuous adaptation and enhancement. The dynamism of the world, driven by scientific discoveries, technological innovations, and cultural shifts, ensures that there is always room for improvement. Each achievement unlocks doors to new possibilities, inviting a cycle of refinement and progress. Moreover, the interconnected nature of global systems means that advancements in one field often have cascading effects on others, creating a ripple effect that fuels the ongoing need for improvement.

Furthermore, the human capacity for growth and learning is boundless. Individuals and societies possess an innate drive to overcome limitations and seek better ways of doing things. This intrinsic motivation propels the never-ending quest for improvement in various aspects of life, including personal development, business practices, and societal structures. The recognition that there is no absolute pinnacle of achievement fosters a mindset of continuous improvement, encouraging a commitment to learning, innovation, and the pursuit of excellence. In this dynamic environment, embracing change and consistently striving for improvement becomes not just a goal but a fundamental aspect of the human experience. I shared the following in Disruptive Thinking:

Chase growth, not perfection.

The above quote embodies so many of the schools and districts that I have been fortunate to work with over the years, including Wells Elementary (TX), Corinth School District (MS), Davis Schools (UT), Randolph Howell Elementary (TN), Juab School District (UT), and many more. While you can read specifics by clicking on the hyperlinks above, the one common thread has been a collective belief held by all educators that improvement was and always will be a natural component of teaching, learning, and leadership.

My work with Quest Academy Junior High School (UT) validates why change succeeds or fails. It all comes down to a realization that even small shifts to practice are not only doable but necessary in a disruptive world. Principal Nicki Slaugh and her staff are committed to evaluating and reflecting on their pedagogy to provide their students with the most effective learning experiences. In her words, they never settle for average. They engage in professional learning every Friday, as it is built into their schedule. You also see teachers during prep periods, lunch, and after school constantly involved in learning conversations. To top it off, at the end of the school year, Nicki leads a retreat that establishes the focus going forward. 

During my first coaching visit at the school two years ago, I questioned how I could help get them to the next level as I saw firsthand the best scalable implementation of competency-based learning in the country. To put it bluntly, I was in awe. Nicki, being the visionary she is, knew exactly where there were opportunities to grow based on the Utah PCBL Framework and insights from one of my presentations she attended. From there, we worked out goals and success criteria aligned to voice, choice, rigor, relevance, co-teaching models, and inclusion. As we near the end of the partnership, more and more evidence is being collected and analyzed to show improvement in each identified area.  

In the case of Quest, success is a collective effort, as every staff member sees the value in refining their craft. They crave feedback and aspire to be the best iterations of themselves for students and each other. When it is all said and done, I have learned so much from them and I hope the feeling is mutual. Coaching is not a one-way flow of information, ideas, concepts, and feedback. It is an organic process that enriches the learning of all involved.  

The pursuit of improvement is a perpetual journey, a dynamic expedition that resonates with dedication and resilience. For educators, the path of progress is not a destination but a continuous evolution, an unwavering commitment to refining their craft and enhancing the learning experience for every student. Embracing the notion that improvement knows no bounds, educators become architects of innovation, constantly seeking new strategies, adapting to evolving methodologies, and inspiring a culture of lifelong learning. In this relentless pursuit, they discover that the true magic lies not in reaching a pinnacle but in the transformative journey of growth itself—a journey that shapes not only the minds of their students but also the indomitable spirit of the educators themselves.

Self-Regulation in the Personalized Classroom

One of the best and most gratifying aspects of my job is getting into classrooms and providing feedback to leaders, who, in turn, help their teachers grow. Most of my blog ideas materialize during these times of bliss. Without this practical lens, I don’t think I would be able to write anything of value. Over the years, the state of Utah has provided me with a plethora of opportunities to work with schools on Personalized Competency-Based Learning (PCBL). Not only is this area of focus dear to my heart, but there are always various nuances that can be explored in greater detail. 

I am always fascinated by how high-agency strategies can unlock the potential of learners. In particular, I see a clear connection to how path and pace can promote self-regulation, a competency that is important for students in school and all of us in our professional lives. Research provides a sound rationale for its importance and impact on learners. An article by Y. B. Chung and Mantak Yuen (2011) in the Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice states the following:

In the context of schools, self-regulation is evident not only when students control their own behavior in and out of the classroom (self-discipline or self-control) but also when, during lessons, they are able to set their own goals, plan appropriate strategies for achieving these goals, monitor, evaluate and adapt their own actions, and control their effective use of available learning time and resources (Ormrod, 2010). A large body of empirical evidence suggests that self-regulated learners are more effective, confident, resourceful, and persistent in learning (Pintrich, 1995; Schunk & Zimmerman, 1994; Winne & Hadwin, 1998; Zimmerman & Campillo, 2003). 

With the right conditions in place, learners who effectively self-regulate can:

• Establish goals and applicable strategies to accomplish them
• Effectively monitor progress
• Reflect on performance to self-evaluate

A recent coaching cycle at Quest Academy Junior High School unearthed numerous instances where teachers had integrated personalized strategies to promote self-regulation. In Shawn Berry’s 8th-grade math class, I observed students writing down individual learning goals for the lesson based on unpacked standards in the form of learning targets. Once done, they added each of these to a whiteboard. After reflecting on this, I reached out to principal Nicki Slaugh and asked if she could get some more details from Shawn. Here is what she provided:

In a self-paced classroom, it's essential to help students manage their time. I noticed my eighth graders were struggling to stay focused and on target in our self-paced math program. I got the idea for them to create a specific to-do list for the 57 minutes they are in the classroom. The first 5 minutes are for a spiral review or math talk question and we need 1 minute at the end for closure. That left 51 minutes to organize, so I decided to divide that into 17-minute sections. 

Each student creates a to-do list based on three sets of 17 minutes. I use a timer on the TV that visually counts down and has an alarm. In the beginning, we discussed how to make sure the tasks they chose for their lists were reasonable to finish in 17 minutes. Some students were choosing tasks that were too short or too long. At the end of class, the students add their post-it to our chart on the class whiteboard to show how many of their tasks they finished. 

Since starting this, more students have felt success during class and are able to stay on task. Some students have realized future tasks are dependent on the outcome of their first task, so they either make a plan A and plan B list or complete their to-do list after completing their first task. I love seeing 13- and 14-year-olds learn how to manage their time using short-term deadlines. The academic deadlines for their course are sometimes hard to conceptualize because they take weeks to accomplish. This is a skill they will definitely need in their future!

Self-regulation is a hallmark of personalized learning. Students are more prone to own their learning as they are taking proactive steps to identify where they are, where they want to be, and what is needed to succeed. In life, this might be the most critical competency that educators can cultivate in the classroom. 

Ormrod, J. E. (2010). Educational psychology: developing learners (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Prentice Hall. 

Pintrich, P. R. (1995). Understanding self-regulated learning. San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass.

Schunk, D. H., & Zimmerman, B. J. (1994). Self-regulation of learning and performance: Issues and educational applications. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 

Winne, P. H., & Hadwin, A. F. (1998). Studying as self-regulated learning. In D. J. Hacker, J. Dunlosky, & A. C. Graesser (Eds.) Metacognition in educational theory and practice (pp. 279-306). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 

Zimmerman, B. J., & Campillo, M. (2003). Motivating self-regulated problem solvers. In J. E. Davidson & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.) The nature of problem solving (pp. 239), New York: Cambridge University Press. 

Better Feedback for Deeper Learning

In order to learn and grow, some type of feedback is needed along the way. While an experience can be a foundation for learning, it is the feedback that often serves as a catalyst for reflection. At this point, learners gain valuable insight into the strategies being used so that adjustments can be made to make better progress. There is also a robust research base to validate its importance. Goodwin & Miller (2012) provided this summary:

In Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock's 2001 meta-analysis, McREL researchers found an effect size for feedback of 0.76, which translates roughly into a 28-percentile point difference in average achievement (Beesley & Apthorp, 2010; Dean, Pitler, Hubbell, & Stone, 2012). John Hattie (2009) found a similar effect size of 0.73 for feedback in his synthesis of 800 meta-analyses of education research studies. It was found that feedback ranked among the highest of hundreds of education practices he studied.

All feedback isn’t created equal. For it to have an impact, it must be timely, practical, specific, facilitated in a positive manner, and consistent. Hattie and Timperley (2017) shared the following.

Hattie and Timperley (2007) say that effective feedback must answer three major questions: Where am I going? (What are the goals?) How am I going? (What progress is being made toward the goal?) Where to next? (What activities need to be undertaken to make better progress?)

Besides the elements listed above, the medium used matters, especially in the classroom, since time is at a premium for teachers. While the desire is there to engage learners in a feedback dialogue, the reality is that it can be a challenge with large class sizes in addition to other demands. Hence, the reason I shared the feedback log concept in Disruptive Thinking in Our Classrooms.  

Think about all the conversations that educators have with learners on a daily basis. The valuable information, in many cases, aligns with what the research has said constitutes good feedback. The problem, though, is the reasonable possibility that learners forget what they have been told regarding progress or improvement and don’t have the ability to later reflect on the feedback given. Having students create a feedback log solves this issue by helping them remember, retain, reflect upon, and chart their progress of improvement. Best of all, it requires no extra time on the part of the teacher.

While I presented the concept in my book, it wasn’t until recently that I saw an exemplary feedback log during a coaching cycle with Quest Academy Junior High School in Utah. I am still in awe of the vision and culture that principal Nicki Slaugh has worked with her staff to create. So many sound strategies were seen consistently, such as exit tickets, learning targets, self-pacing, and learner autonomy for personalization. When visiting Courtney Hutchins’ ELA class, I saw students following their own path in a self-paced format. As they worked, she used data to call up individuals and engage in a feedback dialogue. During the conversation, students were asked to write down the feedback in a log. You can see an example of this below. 

Try This

• Develop your own feedback log template or adapt the example pictured above. The most important aspect is to unpack the standard(s) into learning targets and ensure that the feedback that is verbalized helps students advance to these goals.
• Have students keep this log in a binder or online document and have them reflect on what they have done to incorporate the feedback.
• Let families know you are using this strategy so they can review and support their kids at home. 

Implementing feedback logs saves precious time, can be seamlessly aligned with research-based strategies, will help students monitor their understanding of concepts, and can be used to provide more targeted support to those who really need it to succeed. Best of all, they can serve as an empowerment tool to help kids exert more ownership over their learning. 

Goodwin, B. & Miller, K. (2012). Research says good feedback is targeted, specific, timely. Educational Leadership, 70(1), 82–83

Hattie & Timperley (2007) The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research (Vol 77, No1).

Your Ticket to More Effective Lessons

During my training to become a teacher, I was immersed in the work of Madeline Hunter when it came to lesson plan design. Her Instructional Theory into Practice (ITIP) model helped me identify the strategies I would use on a daily basis to help my students learn. These included the anticipatory set (hook), reviewing prior learning, checking for understanding, forms of practice, and closure. Every lesson had these elements and I often received positive feedback from administrators on these when they observed me. Closure is something I was incredibly proud of and I always ended lessons with some form of paper exit ticket.   I shared the following in Disruptive Thinking:

While the opening moments with students are crucial, so are the final minutes. Think about this for a second. What’s the point of an objective or learning target, whether stated, on the board, or students having the opportunity to discover for themselves, if there is no opportunity at the end of the lesson to determine if it was achieved? Learning increases when lessons are concluded in a manner that helps students organize and remember the point of the lesson. 

At the time, this model was both a practical and effective means for planning direct instruction and was readily embraced as this was the primary strategy used in classrooms. It streamlined practices in an efficient way that could be replicated day in and day out. Herein lies the main disadvantage of ITIP. It was a one-size-fits-all approach centered on the teacher making all the decisions from an instructional standpoint at the expense of developing competent learners who can think.  

Like many things in education, elements of ITIP still have value depending on how they are used. Closure is still critical, in my opinion, as a means to determine lesson effectiveness and serve as a catalyst for reflective growth. Exit tickets, when constructed well, represent a sound strategy to be implemented at the conclusion of a lesson. In simple terms, these are ungraded formative assessments that assess what students learned during the course of the lesson. The data from then can be used to identify the following:

• Level of mastery
• Areas of difficulty
• Opportunities to reteach
• Gaps in learner understanding 

The information gleaned from them provides the teacher with additional insight as to how the lesson went and what can be done to improve it in the future. A recent visit to Quest Academy Junior High School, where I began longitudinal work on personalized competency-based learning (PCBL), got me thinking more deeply about this strategy. The principal, Nicki Slaugh, is a trailblazer in this area and I am fortunate enough to be providing coaching support to her staff to take them to the next level. While visiting classrooms with Nicki, we saw a slew of outstanding practices in action. However, I was incredibly impressed with the exit ticket created by science teacher Melanie Hueftle, which you can see below.

Not only does this meet the criteria for a well-designed exit ticket, but it also goes much more profound and serves as a more powerful reflective tool for both the teacher and the student. As reported by John Hattie, self-reported grades/student expectations are one of the most effective strategies out there (effect size = 1.44). The exit ticket puts the “personal” in personalized as each learner determines where they are in relation to the learning target. I also love the fact that they can advocate for support from not one but two different teachers. Knowing Nicki and her incredible staff, what you see above is most likely the norm in many Quest Academy classrooms.

Try This

• First, if you’re already using exit tickets or some other means of lesson closure, that’s great, but take a minute to reflect on whether they’re providing the type of substantive info I’ve outlined here, or if they’re simply making your lessons slightly longer. Consider if your use of closure elements might be tweaked to provide greater value to you and to your students. As you approach future lessons, zero in on what these tasks are telling you about student learning—on an individual basis and as a whole group. Are you seeing any patterns? How might you adjust your instruction to provide more focus where each student needs it?
• If exit tickets are new to you, that’s great, too—what an opportunity! First, consider what feedback would be most helpful to you and your students. The example I provided here is just one, but Google “exit tickets” and you’ll see a number of examples. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Find one that fits your needs and modify it to make it yours. What lesson this week is a natural fit for an exit ticket? Choose one, develop your ticket, and just try it with your class. Then reflect on the information it provides—how does this align with your expectations around what you want your students to understand? What steps will you take to adjust your instruction? Remember, data is great, but it’s what we do with it that matters.

My hope is that these simple tips help you improve what you are already doing or provide the means to develop powerful exit tickets that not only serve as closure, but set the stage for your next lesson.