Focusing on Florishing

Focusing on Flourishing

MS HOLLY O’SULLIVAN WILLIAMS DEPUTY PRINCIPAL

You may hear your child talk about engaging with data in Maths in both the Senior and Junior Schools. Perhaps when we hear the word ‘data’ being used in schools, it provides different connotations for many of us. In engaging in data, it is with the purpose of firstly educating our young people to understand data and as a result, providing them with the best chance of reaching their potential in order to flourish.

Dr Selina Fisk in her book Using and Analysing Data in Australian Schools, advocates for schools to be data informed rather than data driven. When we hear data driven it perhaps paints a picture of fearful micromanagement of students, intrusive checking and inflated accountability for the people involved. It really doesn’t sound very liberating at all. However, Dr Fisk describes data informed as understanding that data will inform rather than drive decision making because there are rational, political, and moral elements in decision making and data is only one important element in the process.

Data is used differently across the world. In some countries data is competitively driven by the sole purpose of achieving higher educational outcomes. The delivery of standardised testing is controlled and places emphasis on students becoming experts at taking tests as the main priority. Such an approach lacks any real form of ownership from the student and limits creativity and innovation with success dictated by the sole test score alone.

When used correctly though, data can tell us more than just a test score. It can provide clarity around what our students need, and we can adjust our strategies for individual students accordingly. Kotter (2017) introduces two neurological responses - survive and thrive, and their significance in educational institutions. Survive is fear driven, focused on accountability and does not promote a positive working culture. Thrive on the other hand, is freedom to do and be, helping students to flourish.

Our focus at St Aidan’s in using data remains on finding the positives in each and every student. That is, what they can do rather than focusing on what they can’t. It isn’t about compliance rather it can be used effectively across pastoral, sporting and curriculum contexts. Often the data captured from each of these contexts is intertwined allowing us to know more about our students. When teachers engage with parents and vice versa, using data across various contexts of a student’s schooling life provides more concrete information and understanding, rather than a gut-feeling or simply generalised feedback. When engaging with data, feedback plays a crucial role and has a significant impact on a student’s ability to flourish. But, perhaps I’ll leave the power of feedback until next time!

Acknowledgement: Fisk, Selina (2022) Using and Analysing Data in Australian Schools, Hawker Brownlow Education, Victoria Kotter, (2022) Survive + Thrive - Kotter. [online] Available at: <https://www.kotterinc. com/research-and-insights/survive-thrive/.