WIDE World

One Year Follow-up

One Year Follow-up Survey

In June 2007 WIDE World surveyed 1040 course participants from 2006 courses to learn how their educational work and their students' learning might have changed in the year following participation. We obtained very favorable findings, most of which held true regardless of individual demographic characteristics or school contextual factors. We also received some compelling stories of educators? successes as they applied what they had learned in our courses. Finally, we learned a bit about some specific aspects of school environments that seemed important in supporting or hindering teachers' application of Teaching for Understanding.

Effect on practice

Ninety percent of the 266 respondents found that the course had led to some improvement in their professional practice. This improvement was seen as either "significant" or "dramatic" by 68%. About as many cited improvement in each of the specific areas of lesson design, assessment of students, and collaboration with other educators.

Lesson design

Ninety-nine percent of respondents characterized Teaching for Understanding (TfU) as currently playing some role in their lesson design. In fact, two thirds considered it either "quite important" or "extremely important." Several common themes have emerged from participants? accounts of their applications of course ideas to lesson design:

use of understanding goals to design more focused, purposeful lessons
taking into account hindrances to learning, entry points, learning styles, and student input
creating learning tasks that are more project-based and authentic
using new kinds of assessment that involve students more and promote constructive criticism
finding better ways to teach with technology

Professional community

We also found many indications of WIDE courses' benefits for educators looking to build a professional community, on- or offline, that supports the sharing of ideas. This was another important theme in the survey comments. A number of peopled described how WIDE gave a boost to professional development efforts they were promoting in their schools or districts. Lessons learned in the courses enabled them to better support staff members in lesson design and gave them a common language, based on TfU, for discussing classroom instruction.

This passage from a principal and teacher touches on many successful outcomes from the WIDE course.

" [...] The framework made it all so clear, so possible, so supportive of the multiple considerations that one follows to pull together an interdisciplinary unit [...] What does this mean to me? My teachers can also use this framework and really make a difference in our classrooms; it is not this theoretical, elusive technique that confuses or is unattainable. It is the answer to helping any teacher understand how to decide on what is important in the first instance and then follow through to guide students to understanding, again with a visible performance, so that the student realizes personal ownership in the learning process." -- Constance Balawender, School director/Literature and anthropology teacher, Eton School, Mexico City, Mexico

Effect on students

Ninety-one percent of respondents indicated that their participation in the course had led to improvements in their students' understanding. Two thirds considered this improvement either "significant" or "dramatic." Ninety-three percent noted improvements in the quality of student work, with again a majority reporting "significant" or "dramatic" changes.

Three examples of ways in which the course helped teachers make a difference for students:

"I believe the students benefited. They were able to demonstrate greater understanding of the content through academic tasks and performed well on standardized testing. This is no small feat since I teach students with disabilities." -- Teacher from Canberra, Australia

"The expansion of the use of English to explain mathematical concepts has helped students to concentrate on understanding by in effect teaching it to others." -- Teacher from Glasgow, Scotland, UK

?[Students] felt that learning became an enjoyment, not a burden. They experienced success, not being overshadowed by failure all the time. Through understanding performances, they developed good learning habits, their thinking become more organized and they felt that they were making progress.? -- Teacher from Shanghai, China

Student Benefits presents more details on this topic.

* * * You can download the full version of this report or our report on the June 2006 follow-up survey.

-- RBS, September 27, 2007


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