Background

Shannon Feineis teaches several physics classes at Barrington High School, primarily to juniors. Shannon describes one class as very emotional and reactive; “If they feel dumb, they turn off,” she said. Though Shannon has often told her students that she welcomed their wrong answers, she has had trouble changing their performance-focused culture.

Shannon used Copilot as part of Equal Opportunity Schools’ Equity Leader Labs project.

Starting out

After the first survey, Shannon and the rest of her teacher group decided to focus on improving students’ perceptions that they were receiving feedback for their growth, as measured by agreement with statements like “This week in class, I got specific suggestions about how to improve my skills.” Her goals were to encourage more risk-taking and reduce fear of failure. She also wanted to help students see their work in class as meaningful to their lives outside of school. “I thought I had tried real hard to establish that culture, and that we had it going,” she said, “but as a result of the survey I tried to be very blunt.”

A new approach - naming her goals and providing peer feedback

Shannon became very explicit with her students about the surveys and her goals for the class, even using the terms “feedback for growth” and “meaningful work.” The approach resonated. “My students are very literal,” she said. When it was time for the class to do group presentations, she had the students do practice presentations that were not for grades, and she encouraged them to give each other “feedback for growth.”

Results

Shannon achieved a 24 percentage-point gain in Feedback for Growth and a 24-point improvement in Meaningful Work. Additionally, 96% of Shannon’s students believed that she would use the survey results to improve the class — a reflection of her transparency and sincerity about her reasons for implementing the program. For Shannon, the peer-to-peer component of her work proved especially valuable. “They are social beings,” Shannon said of her students. “They want to be helpful to each other and not let each other down.”