Cheri Smith
By applying outcomes-based education (OBE) in her Advanced Placement program, Cheri Smith has significantly improved the academic standing of Yale Secondary School in Abbotsford, British Columbia. OBE is a philosophy that focuses more on what students can do by the end of a course than on the facts and figures they may have memorized. The school's combined score on provincial exams exceeds overall provincial scores. Individually, Cheri's students have regularly placed above the 95th percentile in national and international contests, and have captured awards and medals at provincial, national and international science Olympiads.
During her time at Yale Secondary, the percentage of students on the honour roll has risen from 22 percent to 52 percent. Even more significantly, and contrary to all expectations, second-term enrollment in science at the school is greater than that in the first term.
Two of her former students, both Advanced Placement Scholars of Distinction, and the only women in Canada to be so honoured the year they graduated, say they would never have achieved as much without Cheri's guidance.
Approach to teaching
"In teaching as in coaching, you have to have a variety of strategies in your play book."
How can we best move from mediocrity to excellence? How can we encourage people to become lifelong learners? I ask myself these questions each time I begin to work with students or to plan a new course. My search for answers has led me to emphasize attitude. My goal is to inspire a successful attitude in all my students. I also try to share a vision of the ideal teaching environment with my colleagues and administrators.
When I left pharmaceutical chemistry to teach biology and chemistry, I had to go back and relearn. I went through the process the kids go through, and I discovered that it's not a matter of how many degrees you have, but whether you are willing to learn throughout your life. As a woman science head and teacher I can serve as a role model.
When I first heard about outcomes-based education, I was interested because it sounded similar to what I was already doing in the classroom - for example, retesting students and writing down a list of intended outcomes for each course. I didn't adopt some alien system; I modified it to suit my existing teaching style.
Transferable experience
I build a positive attitude by making students responsible for their own development. I tell them what I expect them to learn each term, so that they can track their performance through the frequent exams, tests and laboratories that I assign.
When planning my lessons, I also keep the school's six exit outcomes in mind. These are things that all students must be able to do by the time they graduate, such as communicate well and learn independently. I keep a cumulative grade that is regularly updated, so that students always know how they are doing. They also assess me and my classes regularly through questionnaires, allowing me to measure my own performance. I use these techniques in all of my classes, not just the Advanced Placement class I teach.
I believe strongly in mastery learning. All students should be able to master 80 percent of the course material. To help them do this, I create parallel versions of all my tests, using my list of intended outcomes for each unit to write different questions that test the same knowledge and skills. Students can retake a test if they show me they have made a good effort to relearn the material. While some students are retaking tests, others who have learned the material more quickly move ahead to enrichment exercises; everyone learns at his or her own pace.
Mastery learning involves a lot of extra effort for both the teacher and the students - time spent devising and taking alternate tests, effort spent in lunch hour and after school tutorials - but the students really appreciate the opportunity to do well.
As well as traditional tests, I also try to give my students at least a couple of chances each year to do "culminating demonstrations." These allow groups of students to show what they have learned in a fun way, by producing a videotape, presenting a play or running a game. In culminating demonstrations for a unit on the periodic table, for instance, one group wrote a play featuring various elements as characters, while another group did a takeoff on the game show "Family Feud," with families of elements squaring off against each other.
Every year, a couple of students in my Advanced Placement chemistry class design and produce a fun class t-shirt, which is immensely popular. It's just one indication of the team spirit of the class - the sense that everyone is working together toward a common goal. It also shows students throughout the school that chemistry isn't just for nerds, and that it's a cool thing to be bright.