Stepping into the classroom to learn more about students
We finally got our necessary clearances to visit South Fayette High School!
Planning the visit
From the beginning, we knew we wanted to spend a lot of time on-site at South Fayette High. Though interviewing educators and conducting secondary research has been helpful thus far, nothing would beat conducting primary research at the high school for us to gain valuable insight into students' lives and motivations.
We attended classes and observed students to see firsthand how students engage with the material being taught.
We were especially interested in gaining more insights into the following:
- What is the level of engagement in class?
- Are there differences in attitude and treatment between different groups of students?
- Does teaching feel personalized?
- What is the general vibe of teachers? How much variation is there in the instruction format?
- What is the physical environment like at South Fayette High School? How do teachers and students interact with the environment?
Observing diverse classes
Arriving on-site, we found that the teachers were very welcoming and passionate about teaching, which we appreciated since we weren’t sure how we were going to be received.
After observing several classes, we quickly realized that the vibe of classes was super different depending on the teacher. While some classes were structured like lectures where students would listen to the teacher as they went through a Powerpoint presentation, other classes seemed much more free-form, where the teachers would ask each student to give their input, and the class discussion would go on tangents from there. The style of student engagement also seemed to differ a lot — some classes had students raise their hands in a more structured manner, while in other classes, students would simply chime in whenever they felt like it with comments or jokes.
While it was insightful for us to be able to observe different teaching styles (where we don’t feel like one teaching style is strictly better than the other), we started to wonder if the difference in teaching styles could potentially be overwhelming for students to adapt to. This is something we would be interested in diving deeper into in the future.
Differences between “levels” of students
Something interesting that came up was the difference in perceived competence/efficacy between honors/AP students and “general” students We had many observations about how different “levels” of classes seemed to be structured differently, with the vibe of the honors/AP classes seeming more conducive to having students be able to challenge teachers.
“We should just guess C, I don’t even try on the Keystone exams” — Student quote from non-AP class (self-deprecating joke)
We hypothesize that this difference in treatment and class environment may have a large impact on the motivations of different levels of students. Many non-AP students seemed to have a self-deprecating attitude, making jokes about how they did poorly they were doing academically and bonding over low grades.
Whereas we may have to shift the motivation of students in honors/AP classes to care about their learning instead of just their grades, the key barrier to student motivation for non-AP students seems to be low self-efficacy, which would be affected strongly by environmental factors like peers, teachers, and parents.
Disclaimer
The work and knowledge gained from this project are only intended to be applicable to the company and context involved and there is no suggestion or indication that it may be useful or applicable to others. This project was conducted for educational purposes and is not intended to contribute to generalizable knowledge.
