Student Voice Tool: Structured Reflection Protocol (SRP)

Listening to Student Voices
Self-Study Toolkit

Structured Reflection Protocol (SRP)

Results from the SRP Process:

builds a learning community concretely focused on improvement
enables participants to develop new instructional or assessment approaches or strategies for working on schoolwork
opens participants' minds to new ways of thinking
can produce profound changes in practice
teaches dialogue and reflection skills
reduces teacher isolation
provides participants practice in active listening and framing feedback

Other Protocol Processes Useful to Schools:

A number of school reform models have protocols for examining student work. For some additional information, visit the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at the Brown University Web site at http://aisr.brown.edu/LSW/
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“Protocol helped me to create more imaginative ideas.”
   Travis Franklin, Fourth-grader
   Alexander Elementary School
   Jackson, Tennessee

“It's helped the children tremendously…they like getting ideas from others and they also like challenging each other.”
   Pamela Dunnigan, Teacher
   Alexander Elementary School
   Jackson, Tennessee

“Structured Reflection Protocol…gives [teachers] ownership of the discussion…they can begin to examine what they are doing with their colleagues…out of that can grow staff development.”
   Earl Wiman, Principal
   Alexander Elementary School
   Jackson, Tennessee

Structured Reflection Protocol (SRP) is a time-efficient group dialogue process. It may be used by either students or staff to explore indepth what helps students to learn and improve their work. During the protocol, participants analyze student work, using it as a starting point to promote self-study, reflection, and strategies for improvement.

How Structured Reflection Protocol Process Works

Preparing: Adult or student participants who will discuss the student work form an analysis team (two-six people). The analysis team develops a focusing question to guide their discussion. If a group is examining student writing, for instance, a focusing question might be: "Are students able to make effective transitions in their writing?" With the focusing question in mind, each team member gathers the student work he or she will analyze with the group.

Analyzing: The analysis team now conducts a discussion in front of a group of listeners who form the feedback team. The analysis team provides an overview of the assignments that students completed, and discusses how this work informs the focusing question and how instructional experiences impacted student learning in this area. The analysis team's discussion is held to a predetermined time limit of 15-20 minutes. Giving Feedback: When the analysis team has completed its discussion, the feedback team presents highlights of the analysis discussion and notes any issues that may still need further discussion. Feedback teams are also allotted a limited time.

Reflecting: The analysis team is given an opportunity to discuss what it heard from the feedback team, along with new insights or next steps.

Debriefing: The final step in the process is a short debriefing for the whole group. The entire SRP process can be done in 35 to 50 minutes. The process may be repeated periodically, with different collections of student work each time to address a different question. Since students' work is the basis for the dialogue in the Structured Reflection Protocol, student perspectives are also taken into account.

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Date of Last Update: 8/31/01
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