Real Time Color Codes in a Classroom

Position Paper

Laura Dzelzkaleja

Riga Technical University, Faculty of E-sudy Technologies and Humanities, Kronvalda str.1, Riga, Latvia

Riga Technical University, Cesis Affiliate, Piebalgas str.3, Cesis, Latvia

Keywords: Colour Codes, Classroom Management, Learning Analytics, Learning Evaluation.

Abstract: This paper is a next step after establishing a new system for real time classroom and virtual learning process

evaluation. In a previous paper a theoretical system from three colour codes was established: red for "have a

problem", yellow for "work in progress" and green for "job done". The hypothesis is that Colour code usage

improves learning process evaluation, teacher’s reaction ability and learning pace. An experiment was

conducted to test the hypothesis and the Colour code method in a real learning environment. In this paper first

experimental results in a real classroom are analysed and discussed. Experiments took part in the first grade

(7-8 years old children) and in the fourth grade (10-11 years old children) in Latvia. The results suggest that

there are less and lower implementation barriers for the children in these age groups as thought before, and

children are eager to use the new tools and mostly aren’t bothered by the extra effort needed to remember to

use the system tools. The biggest challenge seems to be in the teachers’ side - in adjusting the flow of the

learning process and start using the system in advanced mode for data gathering. Another conclusion from

this is that the colour code system is easier adopted in vocational education and for teachers and trainers that

work with changing learner groups. Teachers and learners would benefit also because the colour code system

serves as a good tool for changing teachers’ tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge which can benefit in

knowledge sharing and operationalization. Another interesting conclusion was that the colours in the colour

tool need to be complemented with graphical or other colour independent pattern to use with people with

colour blindness. Overall it is now clear that the system works and the next step can be taken to test the method

in the computer based learning environment.

1 INTRODUCTION

Key focus for organizations today is production and

distribution of information and knowledge, in what

has been termed the Knowledge Age (Soares, 2013).

Especially important it gets in the education field

which is all about knowledge.

The epistemological dimension distinguishes

between tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit

knowledge is subjective, deeply based in personal

experiences. Tacit knowledge is understood to be

more sensitive to space (Howells, 2012) as it is

acquired through interaction, demonstration,

imitation, performance and shared experiences

(Schmidt, 2015). On the contrary, articulated or

explicit knowledge is objective and can be untied

from the situation by which it was acquired. This

knowledge is related to the rational, theoretical, and

scientific activities in a positivistic sense. These

characteristics make explicit knowledge easier to

express and transmit than tacit knowledge (Martı´n-

de-Castro, 2008).

Possibility to evaluate and improve the learning

process is getting more and more topical. It is spoken

a lot about educational system and change of

paradigms. New and digital age based educational

paradigms are emerging (e.g., connectivism

(Siemens, 2005)). But the question about how to

found out, what improvements are needed in the

learning process and content, is still actual.

It is always hard to make changes in the existing

system, especially in such an inert system as

education. And change is difficult, complex, and

risky because it has unintended side effects. Effects

of change ricochet through systems via interactions

between its parts (Mitra, 2008). That is why people

are intuitively rather cautious with any kind of change

in the educational field because the consequences are

160

Dzelzkaleja, L.

Real Time Color Codes in a Classroom - Position Paper.

DOI: 10.5220/0006357201600165

In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2017) - Volume 2, pages 160-165

ISBN: 978-989-758-240-0

often not observed right away and too much other

systems depend on the educational system to

experiment with education blindly, since knowledge

is the chief resource in our economy (Drucker, 2000).

Analysis on a situation can be one of the

observational results’ processing cases. In the

analysis of a situation, the same as in observation, a

set goal is needed about what exactly is analysed –

action, psychical phenomenon, teacher’s or students’

behaviour (Šteinberga, 2011).

Pedagogical experiment definitely is one of the

best research methods in pedagogical psychology. A

specific characteristic of an experiment is a particular

pedagogical or psychological method, manner or

shape usage in an experimental group that are

different form the ones used on every day basis. As a

result, a comparison is derived between students’

satisfaction rates, assessment and self-evaluation

using experimental and traditional methods. The

interpretation of the results gives and information

about method utility, about further research etc.

(Šteinberga, 2011).

In the classroom learning process the speed of

completing tasks differs from child to child. Some

children complete the tasks fast and start to get bored

or talk to each other; others need bigger teacher’s

attention and have more questions; some just work

slower. To make teacher’s work in a class more

effective and the teacher could react faster to the

needs of every learner, the author proposes this new

method.

In this way students’ exhausting need to keep their

hands raised for a long period of time is reduced. The

raised hand also doesn’t allow to use the time

efficiently and start completing other tasks while

waiting for teacher’s assistance. Another gain that is

predicted is teacher’s possibility to react operatively

and decide about extra tasks. Furthermore, the usage

of Colour codes forces the pupil to be more

responsible about his/her learning process and to

evaluate his/her work process. On the other hand,

teacher can evaluate the overall process in the class

and identify problem situations and unclear tasks

easier.

Raising hand is considered to be inefficient

method to follow the learning process successfully. A

more sophisticated learning process division is

needed as opposed to the two states of hand (“hand

raised” and “hand down”). There are also situations,

when students are ashamed to raise hand because it

attracts to much attention and/or causes a sensation of

student’s “failure” to understand is revealed to the

teacher and fellow students which consequently

causes a sensation of shame.

Author proposes to use the Colour code method to

reduce the problems connected with raising hand and

communication with teacher in an efficient way. But

there are be certain setbacks to implement the method

– as all new things the method integration into

existing learning process and content demands extra

cognitive resources form both students and teachers;

it is important to understand about amount of extra

effort needed and is it small enough to overcome it.

There is also a risk that method won’t work because

of other reasons. The hypothesis is that Colour code

usage improves learning process evaluation, teacher’s

reaction ability and learning pace. An experiment was

conducted to test the hypothesis and the Colour code

method in a real learning environment.

2 DESCRIPTION OF THE

EXPERIMENT

The experiment took part in the November –

December of 2016 in the Cēsis town (<20 000

inhabitants) in Latvia. The town profile is low

industrial activity and rich culture and history

heritage, in recent years different creative industries

emerge.

2.1 Colour Code Method

A new approach, presented in the authors previous

paper (Dzelzkaleja, 2016) for continuously

evaluating learning process in real time was

presented. In this paper the method is further analysed

with the data gained form the first experimental

observations.

In all cases (school, adult, non-formal distant or

blended learning environment) the main principle of

the method is as follows: there are three colour codes

which are used by learner to show teacher the

progress in every moment of the learning process.

Proposed cardboard tool is shaped as a triangular

prism with each of the three prism faces representing

one of the three codes. The codes are defined as

follows:

 “Red” is used to show that the task is not clear or

difficulties have appeared during the process and

an assistance is needed (in the form of teacher or

some extra learning materials);

 “Yellow” is used whenever the task is being done

and everything is clear – no need for assistance;

 “Green” is used when the task is done.

In the case of using colour tools in a classroom

environment every child is provided with a tangible

Real Time Color Codes in a Classroom - Position Paper

161

colour code tool. In the most simplified way code

(and thus progress) changes are not recorded

digitally, and provides teacher with a visual real time

information without any external data analysis. The

simple tools were used in the experiment described in

this paper.

These tangible non-digital tools are meant to be

put on a desk for a teacher to see a one face of the

prism. Children turn the face accordingly to any

changes in their learning state. And teacher is able to

quickly evaluate the class in every moment of the

lesson and react accordingly.

In the non-digital code tool version it is not

possible to get a lot quantitative data, but teacher can

observe process characteristics and analyse learning

materials accordingly, but still a teacher’s subjective

view remains in the conclusions. The next upgrade

offered by the Colour code method would be

introduce a digital code tool for every learner. In this

case a lot of quantitative and tangible data would

gather in the database continuously, and data sets

allow to make personalised learning interface for

every learner and teacher as well. The data gathered

for digital tools would give a possibility to introduce

benchmarking and compare students, as well as give

every student an objective external view of his/her

learning process.

Making the digital code design, it is important to

maintain the possibility for the teacher to see real time

codes in the classroom. In case of distant learning, the

codes should be installed so that the learner could

click on the appropriate colour on the screen

conveniently in every moment of the learning

process.

2.2 Experimental Group Description

During the experiment, the method was introduced in

a primary school environment. Since the possible

target group for method implementation is very wide

– from children to adults and from classroom to e-

study environments, author decided to scale down the

target group to primary school for this particular

experiment as method reality check.

The author of the paper observed lesson process

in 1

and 4

grades that mostly corresponds to 7-8

years old children and 10-11 years old children with

23 children in the 1

grade and 24 in the 4

. Teacher

introduced the children with tools before the

observations: in two lessons in the 4

grade and in

three lessons in the 1

grade.

Each pupil has a separate desk, making four desks

in six rows. Pupils sat by height – shorter ones in the

front rows and taller in the back rows.

The author observed during math test in each

class. Tests were to be filled by writing (not oral) and

consisted of a paper sheet with a few

exercises/questions that need to be solved. The tests

were identic for the whole class and each pupil filled

the test independently from other and at their own

pace. Each math test lasted for one academic hour (40

minutes) and at the end of the lesson pupils had to

hand in the filled tests.

2.2.1 Observations

The code tools were in a box and every pupil took a

tool and put on the desk before the lesson. Teacher

wrote the meaning of codes on the blackboard: yellow

= I’m working, green = I’ve finished, red = I don’t

understand. This approach was the tool integration

interpretation of the teacher. When the teacher saw

that children are finishing the tasks, she wrote on the

blackboard which tasks are to do next and where to

find them.

The biggest part of the 4

grade students turned

the yellow side of the tool for the teacher to see. A

small activity in code tool usage was observed in the

beginning of the lesson, when children had some

qualifying questions about the tasks in the test. In the

end of the lesson the activity increased – both because

of some questions and because of finishing test.

Table 1: Main experiment parameters and observations.

Parameters 1st grade 4th grade

Children in the lesson 23 24

Lesson type

Individual

Math test

Individual

Math test

Max red at the same time 8 4

Minutes of red maximum

(range 1-40)

15-20

30-32

25-28

Max green at the same time 6 7

Minutes of green maximum

(range 1-40)

35-37 30-36

Children count that raised

hand

6 2

Cases of raising hand 12 2

Cases of forgetting to take

the code tool

2 0

If we compare 1

and 4

grade students, there were

some differences observed. In the 1

grade students

switched the colour codes more, because they needed

teacher assistance more often. 4

graders used colour

tool to attract teacher’s attention and almost didn’t

raise their hands, but some of the 1

graders forgot to

use the colour tool and still raised hands. This

happened for one of the two reasons: either children

went impatient because teacher didn’t react to the red

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code as quickly as they wanted and seemed to worry

weather teacher is noticed the red colour at all; either

children had forgotten about colour tool and, when

remembered about the code, put the hand down

quickly and turned the code tool.

Most children from the 4

grade didn’t have any

need for teacher’s assistance, so there was little action

with the red code. Most action was observed in the

third part of the lesson when children were starting to

finish the tasks and turn the green colour. In the 1

grade in contrary there was a lot of red colour usage

during all lesson. There were some students in the 1

grade that didn’t need any assistance (and thus red

code) at all, but the proportion was small, and those

were also the ones to finish the test quickest (and turn

the green colour). Overall it was observed that

younger children have more questions and confusion

about tasks, and need teacher’s assistance more,

which is normal situation, and the younger also

struggled more using the codes.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Despite the fact that children were introduced to the

Colour codes only recently, they accepted and used

the code tool remarkably naturally. From the

interview with the teacher, it was discovered that after

the scientific observations in the class has ended,

children in the next lessons were so used to the tools,

that many of them took the tool form the box even

without teacher saying anything about using them.

That means that children get used to the tool indeed

fast and the usage of the codes comes quite natural

and without big cognitive load. This is with

consistency of the hypothesis in the author’s previous

paper introducing the Colour code method concept.

In the 1

grade it was observed that children

needing the teacher’s assistance more, also were the

ones raising the hands and forgetting to use or turn the

colour codes the most. That shows evidence of

children having trouble to understand the tasks also

need more time to adapt to the Colour code method.

It seems that for those children Colour code method

could be of more cognitive load while adapting to it.

This information need to be taken into consideration

when introducing the method.

The observations also showed that especially for

younger children the way of introducing the Colour

code method is important. In the 1

grade it was a

common situation that 6-8 children had turned red

colour to the teacher and start to fidget impatiently

and worriedly, some start to raise hand because think,

that teacher haven’t noticed the red colour (which is

sometimes right) if teacher doesn’t come right away.

In this case, when a “jam” is formed, a previous

preparation is of great importance.

If the teacher tells children what to do, if she/he

doesn’t come right away, unnecessary stress among

the students can be avoid. One solution to this would

be telling the children to proceed with other tasks

until the teacher will come and help. In this way

children are not wasting the time on waiting and

worrying. In such a way students are also developing

a skill to work not only linearly, but also plan their

time and make a decision about the order of

completing the tasks to gain the maximize the output.

Another solution to lower the stress about teacher not

coming is to introduce a system of addressing

students in row so that in every moment every student

can predict when teacher is coming and avoid a

situation when teacher doesn’t notice the code or

helps first the ones that are closer and not those who

are waiting the longest; children are tended to react to

this kid of “injustice” feeling hurt and thus adding to

the stress levels.

Colour code method usage gives teacher a way to

see differences in children behaviour because of

change of seat and task type. The codes show the

change in more objective and quantitative way than

intuitive way used so far. Teacher can subsequently

faster identify the characteristics of a learning group

and individuals that need more attention. Teachers

mostly learn these things without any tools working

with the same group daily, but the Colour code

method helps to do it faster and more objective –

possibly before teacher has developed subjective

conclusions about the learners, which can be false.

The Colour code method will help teachers to

bring out the tacit knowledge, formulating the process

in the class quantitatively and making the results

more transparent and understandable for others in this

way improving knowledge sharing. Afterwards the

newly gained explicit knowledge about the learners’

behaviour allows to combine the tacit knowledge with

the explicit brought by objective tools like Colour

code method. In this way perceptions about learning

process become more profound and objective.

This approach is especially important in the

knowledge intensive processes (KIP), and such is an

educational system and learning processes within this

system. Data gained from the Colour code method

may not mean the same in different environment, for

example, in schools in different countries. Spatial

distribution crucial in the way knowledge is made and

transferred. Cultural, historical and political

differences can have a significant effect on the results

(Schmidt, 2015).

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163

The experimental observations also suggested that the

risk of using the codes intentionally misleadingly or

not using at all is not very relevant in the age group

of 7-11 years old that corresponds to primary school

in Latvia. The cultural and spatial characteristics and

learning culture could be influencing factor for

mentioned risk and would be advisable to observe

learners from other cultural, historical and

geographical backgrounds for more valid results.

4 CONCLUSIONS

From the theoretical research, experience so far and

the experimental data, in can be said with certainty

that method is applicable in wide range of the learners

– from kindergarten children to the adults and distant

learners, and that is because the method is simple,

doesn’t require any particular user knowledge or

skills. The effectiveness of the method is largely

dependent on the teacher that implements the method,

analyses and react on the data brought by the colour

tools. Children that have more difficulties in

understanding the tasks, also need more adaptation

time to the Colour code tool.

Teachers and learners would benefit also because

the colour code system serves as a good tool for

changing teachers’ tacit knowledge to explicit

knowledge which can benefit in knowledge sharing

and operationalization. This approach is especially

meaningful in the Knowledge intensive processes,

and educational system can be perceived as one.

Overall in the experiment it was observed that

younger children (1

grade) had more questions (code

“red”) than older (4

grade) and consequentially 1

graders turned the codes more often. 4

graders also

didn’t forget to use the codes while 1

graders

sometimes raised their hands instead of using the

code either because of forgetting about the code or

getting impatient after turning red code to the teacher

and not receiving the attention as fast as they wanted.

The codes in their simplest (not digitalized)

version are relevant to use for bigger groups than 10,

because small groups don’t require so much resources

to understand the dynamics. In a case of big groups,

the size of the colour tools builds relevance as well,

because there is a need of teacher seeing the codes

clearly from several meters away.

In accordance to E. Eriksen (Wallerstein, 1998)

classification children from six to twelve-year age

(which correspond to primary school age) need to

learn to make a choice between initiative and guilt.

Since Colour codes are connected to a degree of self-

initiative and self-regulation, it is highly possible that

the method could contribute to the development of

age appropriate psyche development.

From a teacher’s feedback the author concluded

that colour codes need to be complemented to some

graphical symbols or other colour non-attached codes

that allow to use the method also for people with

colour blindness. It needs to be taken into

consideration since as many as 8 percent of men and

0.5 percent of women with Northern European

ancestry have the common form of red-green colour

blindness (NEI, 2015), and 99% of all colour-blind

people are suffering from red-green colour blindness

(Colblindor, 2016). In the computer based learning

the colours could be complemented with shapes:

diamond shape for red as the figure represents a static

situation with a possibility of activity and movement;

circle for yellow since this figure gives an impression

of smoothness, movement and process; square for

green since this figure gives an impression of stability

and completeness.

After observations and based on the experience, it

was concluded that the Colour code method would be

very useful in the vocational, non-formal and distant

education field where teacher mostly meet with their

audience for a short period of time or very rarely to

be able to understand the group dynamics and

individual needs properly. From this situation may

suffer both: teachers because of the high stress levels

and need to be flexible and agile all the time as well

as learners that get a poorer learning experience and

teaching/mentoring quality. The Colour code method

can contribute to solving these problems because:

 It helps to frame learning event and defines a few

basic rules already at the beginning. Some

framework is necessary to remove stress levels

connected with learners not understanding the

learning process goals and learning management

process. This framework is especially important

for the learners with sensing mode that

corresponds the temperament of artisans and

guardians (Keirsey, 1998), that desire concrete

experiences, structure, and sequential learning

(Stokes, 2001).

 It helps react to learning process without guessing

so much and without a need to build experience of

being able to “read” the group.

 It decreases the cases of someone dropping behind

the learning flow if raising hand (or similar

activities) to attract teacher’s and/or other

learners’ attention is too resource intensive. Not

willing to raise hand can occur from low self-

esteem two cases: (a) “my question/confusion is

not relevant enough to bother others with it” and

(b) “what will others think”, as well as from

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unconcern about the learning process and its

results, basically, low learning motivation. These

issues can be decreased with the Colour code

method since it requires very little effort to change

colours and inform teacher, and it is done in a very

discrete manner without driving big attention

from others. When time resource is limited, and in

the vocational and non-formal education it is

especially true, teacher doesn’t have possibilities

to resolve learners’ emotional and personal

problems (if only it is the goal of the event), and

need to concentrate on the deliverables. And

teaching in the most convenient and comfortable

way for the students lowers negative stress levels,

which hinder the knowledge building and sharing.

It can be concluded with certainty that system

works and the next step can be taken to test the

method in adult educations and computer based

learning environments complementing learning with

differently shaped and coloured process evaluation

buttons - codes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank the teacher Marita

Dzene who was so kind and agreed to try out the

method, observe the lessons and give a feedback on

the Colour code method. Thanks also to teacher

Loreta Juškaite and Jānis Kapenieks for a feedback.

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