Static on the Line: Challenges in Educational Professionals' Sensemaking of School Performance Feedback

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Building a Better Dashboard: Input From Teachers, Students, and Service Providers (San Diego)

Abstract

The present study identifies challenges in (individual) sensemaking of school performance feedback. We interviewed 22 school leaders and sixth-grade teachers who recently participated in a low-stakes national assessment. Via a think-aloud protocol with follow-up questions, we gauged their ability to explain criterion- and norm-referenced results and documented their subsequent interpretations and inferences. Selected preliminary findings suggest that unfamiliar modes of representation pose difficulties, compromising user validity and sensemaking. Furthermore, teachers in particular feel that school performance feedback does not answer their information needs, as raw numeric data do not make sense on their own. Additionally, many schools do not seem to have collaborative sensemaking routines in place, which limits opportunities to correct mistakes or frame results from different perspectives.

Authors

• Evelyn Goffin, University of Antwerp

• Rianne Janssen, KU Leuven

• Jan Vanhoof, Antwerp University