Data...Drop the Bias to Improve the Results

Edworthy Park

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dandy

Storm

Calgary at night

Cannon beach, Oregon

The world is driven by data. Yet, in reflecting on the latest article by Katz and Dack, I have come to a conclusion that we need to do a better job of recognizing our cognitive bias before we get into the process of using the data to improve outcomes at the school level. “For data to be effective, it needs to facilitate real learning defined as accommodation; it needs to create the conditions for conceptual change” Katz and Dack (2013). At the beginning of each school year we are asked to review results data, pick apart our weakness and strengths, and design a goal that reflects both. However, as professionals we are all too quick to walk into the process with a quick fix. Known as the activity trap, professionals often will take a short cut to a solution by committing quickly to an idea that they are familiar with. Familiarity that confirms what people already know is referred to as confirmation bias which can be another obstacle to conceptual change. The real learning that is described in this article is accommodation. It is teachers realizing that they can and need to change their beliefs to fit data that they are presented with. As creatures of habit, sometimes we drift into more of a learning routine called assimilation where we change data to fit our familiar. This kind of thinking will not lead to any kind of lasting conceptual change. When teachers are open to letting data drive conceptual change, they will make their beliefs explicit and then consider ways that those beliefs may be inadequate and move forward to integrate their old beliefs with the new information to form new beliefs. Teaching is hard and it is messy and consistently changing. Yet, bias continues to lurk when we have teachers that become risk averse and think it is ok to exist in status quo- this is known as an omission bias. Another obvious bias that exists is vividness bias. This is the idea of focusing on what we remember or recall as being memorable whether good or bad; this has the capacity to high-jack data on an agenda that addresses something that the data did not even register because we overemphasized it. Luckily for educators, there is a process to disrupt this bias that exists. We can develop robust inquiry questions regarding the data, develop a working hypothesis, determine the route and evidence to be collected for success, implement, analyze, reflect and determine next practices…sounds like SRL is going to fit this disruption model! Final thoughts? In a salient quote that comes directly from the article; “becoming a skilled and confident consumer and user of data for school improvement is a way of thinking that interrupts the status quo in the service of real professional learning.” Data matters and how we use it matters more!

Source: Katz, S., & Dack, L. A. (2013). Towards a culture of inquiry for data use in schools: Breaking down professional learning barriers through intentional interruption. Studies in Educational Evaluation