Showing posts with label data. Show all posts
Showing posts with label data. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Everything is Subjective




This morning I read a post by Russ Goerend that hits on a lot of issues that have been going through my mind lately and the subsequent conversations on Twitter around the topic have clarified my thinking a little bit more. The topic is data.

In Russ' post he embeds a Tweet from another educator whose logic bothers him:



To which Russ replies:
If that’s what you are without data, what are you with data? “Just” a person with an opinion and data? Just a person with data?

This led to an even more interesting thought when Russ' post was discussed on Twitter:



William didn't reply so I felt the need to butt in. This line of reasoning is what I have been thinking about lately and felt this the logical place to express this idea:





To which set off a debate on the semantics of which was opinion, the data itself or the act of collecting it which to me is not nearly as important as the fact that this all calls into question the nature of data and the value of objectivity. Continuing to think through this conversation today I came to this thought which had not occurred to me before:






Two books I have recently read (actually one I am half-way through right now) address this issue but never quite nail it down. First, in Gerald W. Bracey's (2009) Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality: Transforming the Fire Consuming America's Schools Bracey discusses how data can be twisted around to make make arguments that the data itself doesn't necessarily support. One example he gives is the data that lies at the heart of the (1983) commission report, A Nation at Risk, which arguably set off much of the data-driven madness we are currently under. In that report Bracey says there was a data set consisting of 9 points (3 tests given to 3 different age groups). Of those 9 data sets all but one showed growth and improvement by students attending our school but the report only uses that one data set from that one test given to that one age group to base its claims that America's schools were in serious trouble. Here we have an opinion that is not only choosing the method of gathering data it is determining the data set upon which to focus attention. And, as so many education writers (Alfie Kohn, Diane Ravich, Herb Kohl, and Johnathan Kozol just to name a few) have pointed out, the instruments we use to collect this testing data are also flawed and reflect a cultural bias of the test makers. The data itself is boiling with bias and opinions.

Then, in Neil Postman's (1985) Amuzing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Postman points out that the nature of what we consider reliable data sources has changed over time. Once it was that “feeling is believing” then “saying is believing” then “seeing is believing” then “reading is believing” then “deducing is believing” and now “counting is believing.” Postman argues that it is the media driven culture that has reduced our concept of what is believable data to that which can be counted, that which can be objectified and abstracted.

So, as Postman points out, the nature of truth is flexible and as Bracey points out, there are ways to manipulate the truth. Among all this non-linear discourse on the matter was a conversation I had with Jennifer Borgioli stemming from and included in the conversation with William and Russ on Twitter. Jennifer nails the real issue with this tweet:



If you want to effect change the real issue is not how we use data. Data can be used as either a tool or a weapon but it is not the greatest source of power. Instead, we ought to be thinking about how to create new social constructs. Objectivity only exists within a context and objective measurement can only exist within that kind of frame of reference. Ultimately everything is subjective. Our collective fetish with data has caused many people great harm because it ends up being used as a weapon. Data is by nature an abstraction and when it is used to measure people it objectifies people; when people are objectified it opens them up to be exploited. The way to fight "counting is believing" is to construct a new context where something else is the arbiter of truth. What that looks like and how we get there I am not completely sure.






Reading is Believing:



Feeling is Believing:



Counting is Believing:



Never Tell Me the Odds!


Deducing is Believing:




Seeing is Believing:



That's no moon. It's a space station


Saying is Believing:

Posted by Carl Anderson at 2:49 PM 1 comments
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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Data Is Not a Flashlight #dayofdata #edchat #edreform

Yesterday the #dayofdata hashtag caught my eye as it floated down my Twitter stream so I decided to follow it and got sucked in by the current. At first I didn't know what it was but soon realized that this was the hashtag for an event featuring panelists that included "education reformers" such as Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee. Needless to say, I found a lot of what I was reading in the stream of live tweets from the event objectionable to say the least. But one tweet in particular has caused a rash that I just can't get out from under my skin:

@rita_pin_ahrens
Rita Pin AhrensAimee Guidera: Data isn't a hammer, it's a flashlight. Need to make sure data is meeting people's needs. #dayofdata 1 day ago via Twitter for iPad · powered by @socialditto



A quick search on YouTube finds this video from EdWeek where Aimee Guidera explains this statement:


I was actually hoping for something more eye opening and enlightening than that (or at least illuminating since after all, it is flashlights she is talking about).

So, anyway, here was my initial response when I read that tweet:

@anderscj
anderscj@rachelgwaltney data as flashlight has the analogy all wrong. In Plato's allegory the light created only shadows and echos. #dayofdata 1 day ago via web · powered by @socialditto


to which I got this reply:

@rachelgwaltney
Rachel Gwaltney@anderscj Better than being entirely in the dark! #dayofdata 1 day ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto



@anderscj
anderscj@rachelgwaltney I think you missed my point. 14 hours ago via Twitterrific · powered by @socialditto


I have written about this a few times before but I think Plato's allegory is perfect for understanding the problem with student data. If we must use a flashlight in our analogy for understanding student data the flashlight is the instrument which we use to extract the data by shining it on students. What the flashlight produces as a result are not students but rather the students' shadows. By saying we need to use student data to improve instruction is like saying that I should use my shadow to help me improve my appearance.

The big problem, and the one that makes arguing with these dataphiles so difficult, is in Plato's allegory the prisoners who were released and shown what makes the objects, shown the truth, were seen by the prisoners who weren't released as having come back unable to see.
[Socrates] And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the cave, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.
Who was at this event? Who was on the panel? Were there any teachers there? Did any of the panelists have any history in teaching (besides taping children's mouths shut and taking pleasure in firing people)? And who do these "reformers" listen to? A quick look at who the people at this event live tweeting follow on Twitter tells me they probably don't listen to the voices of educators who actually work with the students whose data they are concerned with. They probably see us as having lost our sight. We see students, they see shadows. The student doesn't matter so long as the shadow they cast looks good. The result is we end up bending and contorting students in ways that are unnatural and don't make much sense just so the shadows they produce with their data flashlight look good.




Posted by Carl Anderson at 3:32 PM 0 comments
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Friday, March 11, 2011

Why do you like your favorite class?


I conducted a survey recently of all 398 students grades 6-10 in one of the schools where I work. The questions were varied and most were focused on student home and school technology use. But, the one open-ended question I placed on the survey addressed school culture and attitude on more general terms.

From the 398 students responding to the survey question, “Think about the class you find most interesting and engaging. Without telling us which class that is, why do you like this class?” the following ideas/concepts/themes seemed to arise:
  • Value of the student-teacher relationship (community building and personal relationship)
  • Students liked the classes that were both fun and engaging
  • Students preferred hands-on projects.
  • Students liked classes and activities that allowed them to be creative and express themselves.
  • Students liked when they were given choices.
  • Students expressed the value of exercise and moving around.
  • Most students expressed that they liked learning things and liked classes that “make me think.”
  • Only one student mentioned grades or rewards as something they liked about their favorite class. And only one student said they liked the class because it was easy.
  • 12 students openly stated that they did not like any of their classes (7 of these were 8th graders) and 31 students refrained from answering the question (10 of these were 8th graders).

Here are some of the more interesting excerpts (note: some are rather flattering and others not so much but they all tell us something about what is important in the classroom/school):

“I like this class because im doing the best in it and i have friends in the class to”

“a teacher that understands the students”

“I like that class because the teacher is fun to be around as a person and because we do a lot of projects that give each person the ability to do what they want to, within certain limitations. The opportunity to be creative that that class offers is what I love the most.”

“The class that I find most interesting and engaging is the one that I feel challenges me by far the most, and that I feel I can expand upon ideas given to me, to make a deeper connection to the world around me.”

“I like that class because we use text books and other methods to learn and if I need help wit a topic, the teacher will take his/her time to help me instead of leaving me hanging. I like when we occasionally to methods that don't involve reading pieces of paper and we actually get up and do stuff.”

“its challenging, keeps me thinking, ands its a class that im doing very bad in.”

“I find this class interesting and engaging because we move around and do everything our self with a little guidence from the teacher. we also get to sometimes choose what we do.”

“I like the class that Im able to be creative and do coloring or painting. I dont like to write because i dont like my hand writing. Because last year my teacher was really strict with the writing. I like when you can explode things and experiment with things because thats fun.”

“Art is my FAV. class, i can be creative and have lots of fun being me. BUTTTT.... my absoulute FAV class is Tech. We can be smart, (but not nerdy ^_^) we can use craetivity, while havinga good time on computures. I usually am on FaceBook, but at school, i do other things, that are still intersting and ingadging.”

“I like any class that has to do writing and any class that I can have a hands on experience.”

“It makes me feel smarter and I love the hands on projects alot more than the paper writen ones. I feel like I learn more in that class.”

“I like this class because it's fun. It teaches me to be more outgoing and to try to put myself out there. I think it encourages you to try new and other things in your life. This class builds your self confidence and self esteem. You interact with others and see things in a different way each time. You get a better understanding of the world and other people around you. I like this class because it teaches you about the life/world ahead of you. It teaches you about your future.”

“Because that class have most of my friends and I like to chat with them and learn at the same time so I get educated. Learning from my friends helps me learn more than from teacher, I don't know the reason for that, but I just learn like that. This class also teach me things I like to know like helping me to understand more about my questions or my homework, the teacher is helpful too and is a very enjoyable class, easy to talk to, you can do what you want sometimes, and a lot of things. That's all.”

“because it gives you a form of freedom and lets you release your energy and there is not as much of a hassle like teachers that yell that make me hate them for like ever”

“Because the teacher doesn't act all high an mighty, she interacts with use at the same level as us.”

“Because we create projects, without using "modern technology". Also, we actually learn things that I didn't learn in 4th grade. Also, the teacher doesn't underestimate us, like most teachers at this school do.”

“I like how it is like a family, and how it's very musical. I also LOve the teacher and everyone else in the class!!”

“I like this class because my teacher is a fun and engaging person. He/She always interacts with the students and makes learning fun. Projects and assignments are put in a fun way that makes me want to work on them.”

“The teacher respects us. Therefore, we respect her.”


So, now what should I do with this kind of data?
Posted by Carl Anderson at 3:36 PM 2 comments
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