Views About Success - Artifact 8
The last two questions of Survey #1 dealt with understandings student views on success. I thought it was essential to take into consideration what my students believe ‘success’ and ‘being successful’ means since the meaning of success is very subjective. Asking student to express what their beliefs of success gave me a better understanding of my students as individuals and their personal goals.
Question #9, from Survey #1 asked:
Question #9, from Survey #1 asked:
Table 1 of Artifact #8 students responses to this question. These data show that the majority of students believe studying and having high test/quiz grades are important to being successful in this pre-IB chemistry class. I found it interesting, although it was also what I expected, only a minority of students, 5 total, selected answers 7 and 8. These answers dealt with long term and enduring aspects of learning, which do not necessarily equate to immediate or success in a class. One student wrote “understanding” as one of her answers in the space of answer 10. This answer was especially interesting because it seems so obvious, if you understand then you will be successful academically. As I read this I wondered if she meant understand in a superficial sense, being able to preform well on the next assessment, or if she meant in a deeper and more long-term sense of understanding. Since this student selected answer 8 as her other choice I am lead to believe the later. When answering this question she most likely meant understanding in terms of applying the understanding beyond this class.
Question #10 from Survey #1 asked:
Question #10 from Survey #1 asked:
Table 2 of Artifact 8 shows students responses to this question. This question required students to express what ‘success’ or ‘being successful’ meant to them. There was a great variety in their answers. Students’ answers included everything from being the president of the United States of America to getting straight As in their classes. Since students answered this survey quietly by themselves during class I believe their answers are very true to their own thoughts and feelings. I categorized the 38 student answers to this question into 11 major topics based on the key descriptors they used in their answers. The majority of students mentioned at least one of the following descriptors; happiness, achieve goals, and hard work. It was a great experience as a teacher getting to read through students’ answers to this question. It gave me a much better understanding of each student and what some of his or her values are. I think this is a critical piece of being a teacher of the whole student because their learning and experiences are not isolated to the classroom. This data really speaks to how different the meaning so success is.