DESCA Report

Kirsten dos Santos Southwestern College Inspiring Active Learning Report April 15, 2013 The following report measures the difference between my perceptions of my students abilities and their own. Since I only have five more days with these learners I decided to give them a survey assessing their cumulative opinions about the course. Using a modified version of the DESCA questionnaire (see Appendix), I first discerned the disposition of each student across three different sections of College Writing II. Later I provided my students with the same questionnaire and then compared the results. I decided not to require learners to include their names to increase the validity of the survey. Individual differences between the categories can be viewed within in each sections chart. I also averaged the greatest amount of marks in each category to help me assess the overall feelings associated with that grouping. For example, one can notice that in Section I more students stated that they agreed with number four which signified that they felt more energized in class. Very few stated that they put little energy into their work. Therefore, I averaged the Student Perception of Energy in this class room at four. It is significant to mention that not all students were in attendance for the survey. However, over fifty percent were present leading to comparable results related to my own perceptions. After tallying these scores I reflected on the overall DESCA qualities demonstrated in each section. These comments can be read after each sections DESCA chart. Overall, I found this to be a very beneficial exercise. I especially appreciated the comparisons between classes. Knowing where I failed in some areas and succeeded in others will help me to better plan my future courses.

Section I: 19 total students 12 assessed

DIGNITY My Perception Student Perception ENERGY My Perception Student Perception SELF-MANAGE 1 2 3 4 5 AVERAGE

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4 3-5 4 4

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My Perception Student Perception COMMUNITY My Perception Student Perception AWARENESS My Perception Student Perception

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3 5 2 4 3 4

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COMPARISON Dignity: I thought that most of the students in this course exhibited positivity and felt secure. However, their input demonstrated more fluctuation than I had anticipated. There were a few with very low self-esteem and those who felt unsure about their feelings averaged out with those who felt more secure. I attribute this to the fact that this class has had some unfortunate issues related to racial and ethnical barriers. I had to work very hard not to let them segregate themselves, and several arguments broke out as a result. Energy: My perceptions of the energy level in this class were very similar to my students feelings about their behavior in class. Even though it was an early morning class, their energy was pretty high most of the time. Self-Management: This particular group of students was for the most part independent and met their deadlines. Interestingly, most of those students surveyed fell into the category signifying high selfmanagement. Again, I attribute this in part due to the fact that there were some very strong minded individuals in this course. They were very firm in their beliefs, and this unwavering sometimes caused conflict. Community: I was very surprised to see that these students indicated that they felt generally positive about their peers. As I have mentioned before, these are students who struggled with cultural differences and as such I had anticipated them feeling less accepted by others. Perhaps my efforts to bring them together worked better than I had realized. Awareness: Sometimes it has been like pulling teeth when I ask these students to elaborate their ideas within the context of our classroom. This resulted in me believing that most of these learners were unsure as to their level of awareness in class. However, this was probably one of the starkest discrepancies between our two assessments. Overall, students in this classroom felt that they were aware and alert most of the time. At this point, I am unsure as to where we disconnected here. In the future when I have classes such as these, I may need to incorporate more variation in the delivery of my lessons.

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Section II: 14 total students 10 assessed

DIGNITY My Perception Student Perception ENERGY My Perception Student Perception SELF-MANAGE My Perception Student Perception COMMUNITY My Perception Student Perception AWARENESS My Perception Student Perception 1 2 3 4 5 AVERAGE

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3 4 4 4 4 4-5 4 4 5 4

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COMPARISON Dignity: I was pleasantly surprised that more students felt positive and secure in this class than I had thought. There are a few learners in this section who struggle academically, and I thought that this was affecting their self-confidence more so than it actually does. Energy: It seems as though I was spot on with regards to the energy level in this classroom. These students have a good report with one another, which makes our discussions lively. We really do spend a lot of time laughing. I am comfortable with this level, and am not sure I would want it to rise to highly active. My apprehension stems from how it might affect the level of focus; particularly with this group who is easily detoured if I didnt real them back in. Self-Management: I encourage students to be independent in my classroom. Much of what writing is about deals with finding ones voice. So I am not surprised that most students feel that they think for themselves. Where we are not meeting eye to eye is that they are managing their time wisely. More learners here believe they are getting their work done on time than I am actually recording. Community: We have a lot of fun in this class. Students love to debate and we have some really interesting conversations. They all work well with each other in their heterogeneous teams and although I sometimes need to alternate participants throughout the semester, this was not necessary with this group. I am not surprised that they feel good about each other. However, it has been my experience that students in college usually express disdain at the idea of working in teams. This

DESCA Report may be why some students indicated that they did not appreciate the idea of helping others. I think this is a product of working in so many groups where individual participants were not held accountable for their own work. I make an effort to illustrate this difference in my classroom. Nevertheless, it seems that I need to keep working on that in the future; especially with respect to inspiring students to help one another. Awareness: Apparently, I thought these learners were more aware in class than they actually were. However, it seems we agree that for the most part these students were alert. It seems that where I thought they were unsure about their awareness, they were actually consciously ignoring me, or maybe even bored. Some of this stems from the fact that this is a course that they are required to take, and really dont want to be there. There is also a pretty even number of low learners in this class. I should keep this element in mind in the future and implement more learning strategies that raise the consciousness of my low learners without losing the concentration of my high learners.

Section III: 18 total students 16 assessed

DIGNITY My Perception Student Perception ENERGY My Perception Student Perception SELF-MANAGE My Perception Student Perception COMMUNITY My Perception Student Perception AWARENESS My Perception Student Perception 1 2 3 4 5 AVERAGE

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4 4-5 5 4-5 3-4 5 5 5 4 5

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COMPARISON Dignity: My learners in this particular section are a breath of fresh air most days. Surprisingly, the majority is average achievers, and struggle with concepts related to writing. Many came into class feeling pretty low as a result. I made a concentrated effort to raise their self-esteem. It actually feels really good to see that my efforts have been verified here. At least one of the students I was most concerned with felt better about themselves than I had anticipated. Energy:

DESCA Report This class is highly energized and often loud, but we still get work done. I actually feel that these learners feed off of that energy between one another. We move around often in this class and individual groups interact and assist each other adding a whole new level to interdependence. Self-Management: Similar to the previous section, I can see that my efforts to encourage individual thinking have paid off much more than I had anticipated. These students really feel comfortable expressing their true thoughts. Their confidence here may in part be due to the fact that I entertained their innovative ideas and often modified lessons accordingly. Even though quite a few of these students struggle, they all work diligently and only a few miss deadlines. This may be where the ambiguity came in with regards to my perceptions of their self-management. Community: The camaraderie in this classroom is outstanding and among my best ever. According to the numbers, we obviously agree. This class is happy all of the time. We always laugh, sometimes to tears. Students seem to love one another and demonstrate real concern and compassion. In comparison to other sections, this leads me to believe that some classes respond to techniques I use in class better than others. It is interesting to me that, although I implement similar strategies in all my classrooms, I dont always get the same desired results. I do think that community is one of the key factors related to all other elements in the DESCA scale, however. When I go back to the drawing board with my classes in the future, I will spend more time reflecting on what made this class work so well in this regard. Awareness: Again, because students were happy in this classroom they paid more attention. It was my perception that they were active learners and truly wanted to participate in lessons. Their scores on this DESCA scale confirmed a greater awareness than I even realized. Students rarely exhibited boredom and when they did, the rest of the class lured them back in. No one was allowed to be a loner and everyone was accepted. Students seemed to notice when their peers were lost, and immediately brought them up to the task.

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Appendix: DESCA Questionnaire as modified from Harmin and Toth (2006, p. 11) Please indicate your disposition with regards to this class by checking one item in each category.
**This is an anonymous questionnaire and will not affect your grade in anyway.

Self-Dignity This course reinforced my self-esteem. I felt fairly positive and secure in this class. I am unsure how I felt. I didnt always feel very good about myself in this class. I usually felt inadequate, hopeless, or stupid as I sat in class. I was comfortably active and energetic all the time. I was comfortably active and energetic most of the time. I am unsure how I felt. I did not put much energy into my work. I felt inactive and low, or anxious and stressed. I thought for myself, managed my time wisely, and met deadlines in a timely fashion. Most of the time I thought for myself, and usually submitted work on time. I am unsure how I felt. I drifted along, not using much of my own will power. I was controlled or bossed around, not at all self-responsible. I felt that I was a part of the group and wanted to help others. I had generally positive feelings about others. I am unsure how I felt. I did not feel fully accepted by others and didnt want to help them very often. I felt only selfishness and rejection from others. I was aware and alert all the time. I was aware and alert most of the time. I am unsure how I felt. I often was unresponsive or bored. I paid little attention. I was very unresponsive or bored. Back to top

Energy in Class

Self-Management

Community in Class

Awareness in Class

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References

Harmin, M. & Toth, M. (2006). Inspiring active learning: A Complete Handbook for Todays Teachers. 2nd Ed. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.