When DDL Goes Wrong: The importance of constructive alignment for learners and teachers in DDL contexts

This reflection on practice study explores the critical role of constructive alignment (CA) in the successful implementation of corpus-based data-driven learning (DDL) in secondary education, focusing on two interventions conducted at an Australian secondary school. While DDL offers potential for enhancing language learning through corpus consultation, its integration into secondary school contexts remains hindered by limited teacher training, administrative support, or alignment with pedagogical goals. In this exploratory study, one DDL intervention targeting passive voice use in science writing succeeded, yielding learning gains and positive feedback. However, a parallel intervention for English as an Additional Language/Dialect (EAL/D) students, which aimed at mastering cognitive verbs, failed despite identical resources and the assistance of an experienced DDL practitioner. Qualitative data from students’ discussion forum responses, written assignments and revisions, and post-intervention group interviews suggest the failure stemmed from a lack of CA, as materials designed for one cohort were misaligned with the EAL/D learners’ needs, prioritising discrete linguistic items over functional understanding. Student feedback highlighted a preference for simpler tools like Google, reflecting poor engagement with DDL. Our findings suggest that without aligning DDL activities, learning outcomes, and assessments to the teachers’ and learners’ contexts, interventions risk failure. We therefore advocate for increased backward design, teacher-researcher collaboration, and ongoing evaluation to ensure DDL’s efficacy, offering a cautionary tale for future implementations.