Student reporting system for learning and development : a case study in an inviting school

Abstract

In an attempt to enrich the previous research on student reporting system, this study explored contextual factors that appeared to influence the effectiveness of a well-established but non-traditional reporting system in a Hong Kong secondary school. The school is an “inviting” school that adopts invitational theory to energize people to realize their individual potentials. The system was designed specifically to enhance students’ learning and development. It provides constructive feedback that aims to support and encourage students’ development as self-regulated learners. In the report book, all teachers write personalized feedback and detailed advice for each student. Emphasis is placed on specifying and reinforcing students’ current achievements, and suggesting ways to improve.

Employing an ethnographic approach, a single case study was used. Information was collected from fieldwork involving formal and informal observations and from individual and group interviews with personnel in the school (students, teachers, support staff, parents). The two-year study involved sixty-two visits. The effects of various influences within the social and cultural environment were explored in relation to the students’ learning and development. The study also examined how students and teachers perceived the effectiveness and value of the reporting system. Any associations between the feedback given to students and their subsequent development of greater self-regulation were considered. Themes that emerged from the different sources of data influencing the reporting system were identified. The study also addressed difficulties of a contextual nature that the school was encountering while implementing the reporting system.

The three most important influences that emerged from the data were “Teachers’ beliefs and attitudes”, “Constructive comments /feedback” and “Teacher-student relationships”. These factors are associated highly with the theory underpinning Invitational Education, and are interpreted here from that perspective. The potential relationship between feedback and self-reflection, and the roles these factors play in the acquisition of regulation in students, are discussed. Implications are addressed for how the reporting system can be connected to invitational theory and the school guidance so that students can reach their full potentials as self-regulated learners. Suggestions for consideration by school staff, policy makers and future researchers are provided.