When reading the two short pieces discussing assessment by Grant Wiggins, I couldn’t help but think of the formal performance review process my company has all its employees participate in annually. Each individual selects a minimum of ten people (including peers and superiors) to evaluate their work performance for the year. Annual reviews are a big deal in corporate culture - they are a reflection of you, your attitude, your work performance, and your dedication to doing your job to the best of your ability. These reviews are crucial aspects in determining whether or not you’re the right fit for your position as well as compensation. In such a competitive environment, there’s really no room for a bad review. Managers are encouraged to offer informal feedback throughout the year prior to the kick-off of the formal process to ensure their team members get the best possible reviews; strengths and weaknesses are evaluated and goals are set, both short and long term, to encourage growth and progress. The end goal is to get those positive reviews regarding your work performance because you understand your role and the standards by which you should be measuring yourself.
Wiggins’ view of assessment in schools reminds me of what I’ve come across in the corporate world. He believes that educational planning should be focused on teaching for understanding in a real world context, not solely measured by formal testing. Wiggins describes testing as a snapshot, but the real goal is the whole family album, or understanding the larger picture (Defining Assessment). In my opinion, it makes so much sense to have school curriculums built on an assessment plan that teaches young students the mindset of understanding the bigger picture and how to apply it to real-life scenarios. Wiggins endorses backward design, where classroom learning goals and planning towards that goal is made the priority. Most of my classes in high school were “taught to the test” or involved memorizing a set of facts that I did not retain for very long after being tested. An environment where we are teaching students to be well-equipped with skills that will surely help them throughout their lifetime seems much more practical than bestowing information upon them that they may or may not remember in a few years.
I think you bring up an important point about what skills/content are important to assess--especially now when so much knowledge is available at our fingertips. What content is even important to memorize or know when you can just search for it online as you need it? It seems even more important to assess the ability to apply knowledge and some of the broader skills like thinking critically, communicating, working collaboratively, etc. rather than assessing the ability to regurgitate facts and specific content knowledge.
To approach this blog post, I've pulled some phrases and quotes that stood out to me and build off of those ideas in relation to my understand and experiences with assessment:
"One of the challenges in teaching is designing, and to be a good designer you have to think about what you're trying to accomplish and craft a combination of the content and the instructional methods, but also the assessment."
-- I wish I could highlight this and put a "like" icon beside it. When crafting curriculum, I am a firm believer of student-centered instruction where the content is contextualized and the student has a direct connection to the content. Instructional methods could include anything beyond lecture – group learning, jigsaw learning, video with discussion, etc. It is always imperative that the teacher is also transparent with their self and the students about what they hope the students learn from that lesson. Like many parts of curriculum design, this is easier said than done.
"Tracking information over time through technology is an important part as well."
-- Technology, if thoughtfully implemented, is a powerful tool in the classroom. I believe pedagogical uses of technology should encourage students to go beyond the consumer uses of technology. As teachers, we should allow for students to develop skills as curators, collaborators, citizens, and creators through multimedia platforms. Before doing so, they will need the front-loading of skill sets. So going back to design (Wiggins called it backward design), the teacher will have to be mindful of how they are not only scaffolding content but also the tools they use in teaching.
"Show What You Know As You Go"
-- In the title alone, this phrase screamed out to me as FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS! In my Teacher Education classes, this idea of formative assessments has become a huge part of how I approach teaching. In the undergraduate class I teach, we make use of Canvas journal entries to scaffold learning – very similar to these blog posts, actually. The purpose of the students' journal entries is to scaffold their learning and for us teachers to get written evidence of the how the students understood the material. When students come back to the classroom environment, they have some content already "preloaded" (or maybe some haven't yet), but the overall idea is for students to get more support for their learning on their own. The in-class discussion then builds off of the online conversations that have already taken place and for students who didn't get to respond, their participation in class gives a sense of how the students are doing.
Informal assessments, such as progress monitoring and observations, are also crucial to assuring how students are doing in class. These could be followed up with short check-ins on students or even temperature checks in class to see if more time needs to be spent on a certain subject area.
Lastly, my educational philosophy includes acknowledging that teaching and pedagogy put four elements at the forefront of instruction: Purpose, Context, Content, Methods. These elements intertwine with making a holistic classroom and are all directly connected to assessment.
The role of teachers and approaches to teaching and learning are being reshaped and redefined with the proliferation and integration of technology in schools and in to better prepare students for the demands of 21st Century job market. Teachers’ role is more than to impart information onto students and follow lessons from textbooks. Teachers’ in the schools that Wiggins envisions are designers, curators, creators, collaborators and value personalized education. In his visions, Wiggins sees assessment used not to ‘designate winners and losers at the end of the game’, but rather to serve a higher purpose. Assessment is used to gather important data that would inform future decisions about teaching goals and help teachers identify how individual students learn best so that they could cater to their needs. Assessment in his vision is ‘unobtrusive’ and ‘seamless’; it is carefully planned and integrated within the lesson that it is an organic part of the teaching and learning process. With the help of current and emerging technologies, educators, parents, students, and administrators would have access to timely and personalized feedback about students’ growth and performance.
I believe that this type of assessment coupled with a double-loop type of learning would help teachers and learners in achieving desirable educational goals. In a double-loop learning framework, teachers modify the goal of learning activity in the light of experience or possibly even reject the goal. In contrast, single-loop mindset is the repeated attempt at the same problem, with no variation of the method and without ever questioning the goal. Wiggins also highlights the importance of continuous and varied types of assessments. Assessing students at the end of the lesson alone is not sufficient not effective. Students often do not know how to use feedback constructively or even ignore feedback when it is given late in the lesson or the term when they cannot do anything about their performance. This is why, continuous assessment both formal and informal from teachers, peers, or self-assessment is important for students to be able to recognize areas they need to improve. There are various technologies such as clickers, e-exit tickets that could offer timely feedback, which is more aptly referred to as feedforawd since students can use this information to narrow the gap between their performance and the desired learning objective.
Grant Wiggins has clearly thought a lot about assessment. And it seems that he has had some influence on a lot of what is happening in education now. The new SAT that is being rolled out is more in line with what he believes is good assessment. The common core standards and the new testing associated with them are also more in line with Wiggins's ideas about assessment. Because of this, I found myself wishing that I had been reading more recent articles to learn his thinking about these recent developments. (The articles were from '97 and '02.)
Nevertheless, many of the ideas in the articles are still very important today. I am particularly interested in the concept of digital portfolios and the benefits and challenges of using them. Wiggins himself seems conflicted. In '97 he wrote about his vision for assessment and said the following:
"Some students are working on their digital portfolios, assembling the elements required for each of their learning plans. They select work that demonstrates what they are learning, including papers, test results, and video or audio recordings."
However, 5 years later he wrote this critique of digital portfolios:
"Many well-intentioned people say, 'Let's have student portfolios of the student's work K-12.' Well, that's fine for the student, but there's hardly another human being other than the kid's family that wants to wade through all that."
I get why he writes both of these things. Portfolios are an excellent way to get a well-rounded picture of a student and are great for both the student and the parents to see progress. But they are also sort of absurd because in the real world nobody has the time to either assemble that or look through all of it after it is assembled. In the real world, you need to be able to do things quickly and efficiently. Teachers don't use multiple choice test because they believe they are good assessments, they use them because they have 25 students and they need something that can be graded in a reasonable amount of time. It seems to me that digital portfolios might best be used as a method of self-assessment. If a student adds work to a digital portfolio over a period of years, they will be able to clearly see their own progress and growth. This will still be true even if nobody else ever has the time to look at all that stuff.
I remember learning about authentic assessment and backward design in my teaching credential classes at Chico State. We had to create a unit plan using backward design that included at least one type of authentic assessment. It was a great experiment for me, because at the time I didn't understand why exams fell short as a comprehensive assessment, and it was also good for my cooperating teacher. We tried to modify lessons in the future to include more authentic assessments.
School is just so different from the world. I don't know of any job where taking a multiple choice test is required as part of the job. I think a lot of teacher's lose sight of what these students are going to do in the future, and what they should really be learning, or how they should be learning. Administrators put emphasis on factual knowledge and high API scores but not on community, metacognition or life skills. Teachers should be encouraged to build lessons that require authentic assessment and that have direct and obvious connections to life outside of school.
I know we were not supposed to comment on the video and just the two articles, but this quote in Grant Wiggin's video "Understanding by Design" really struck me and I think is related to the topic of assessment:
"It’s possible to get straights A’s without critical or creative thinking. As long as your smart, compliant, do your work and are thorough you are going to get straight A’s."
Thinking back to my experience in high school I really don’t think I did much deep learning. I was a straight A student and I did really well on tests, but I don’t think I really did any deep or critical thinking until I got to college.
So, what are we assessing if it is possible to get good grades without critical or creative thinking?
I like how Wiggins characterizes the role of standardized testing as an audit, and I think it is true that these tests have a role to play, but is it pretty narrow and focused role.
However, even more than that I think it is important to keep in mind what the purpose of assessment is in the first place. I like that Wiggin’s said in his “Show What you Know” article, that “tests and other assessments are valuable only when they provide worthwhile information that can be used to improve student achievement.” Standardized tests only measure one aspect of learning and can be useful, but other forms of assessment are needed to get a full picture.
If the purpose of assessment is to improve student achievement then it is critical as Wiggins says that assessment happens in an ongoing and timely way so that student’s can incorporate the feedback as they go. I just read an article on the KQED blog, More Progressive Ways to Measure Deeper Level of Learning, and one of the teacher’s echoed that point saying that “students don’t want to know how they could have done better after they’ve already turned in the project.”
Wiggins also talks about self-assessment and getting students to think about what they are learning and how they can improve. That was echoed in the KQED article as well that, “the real power comes in the reflective process, both individually and with peers”. One of the teachers in the article mentioned that they often co-design rubrics with the students and students help to determine how and what will be evaluated.
I think this final quote from the KQED article sums up a lot of these theme about assessment and authentic assessments that, "…learning stops at knowing and we need to move that and broaden it to the doing and the reflecting."
Lisa, thank you for the reference to the KQED article, "More Progressive Ways to Measure Deeper Level of Learning". As a grad student and teacher's aide, I found it relatable and thought-provoking. In many situations, students most definitely would like to be aware of what is deemed necessary of them in assignments and projects. Expectations and requirements should be indicated before completion of an assignment, so that learning and improvement can work synonymously with one another.
What is understanding and how can we all attain it? Grant Wiggins noted that a particular pheonmeon was happening to many of his exceptionally bright, over achieving students. This pheonmemon being, that his “smartest” students were actually, maybe only clueless. How do planning and design lead to understanding? Wiggins used an excellent example from his own experiences in the classroom verses his experiences as a soccer coach. On the field, he had an ephiphany; An educator can teach tremendous amounts of material, give exponential amounts of homework, and complete assessments/tests beyond comprehension, but students do not have an understanding only until they try to transfer it all in the “game”. It’s instinctual that human beings learn from experiences and interactions within their enviornments. As an educator, the goal is to see your student’s apply and transfer the knowledge learned in their own personal experiences.
Grant Wiggins then expresses how, “Assessments should be taken throughout the learning process, not just at the end”. Wiggins wise words in Edutopia’s article, “Show What You Know As You Go: A Different Spin on Assessment”, highlighted his spirited opinions about the importance of assessment. Assessment undeniably plays a critical role in projecting whether an educator’s pedagogy is effective or ineffective. They can serve as a reference of understanding for what works and does not work during teaching time. In addition, assessments can be an excellent indicator of mastery of material. Assessment allows for an educator to see, track, and understand the progress of each student in their class. This individualized, expanding record for students can assist in predicting later academic success in all subject areas. Most significantly, assessment caters to those students that may be struggling and need more focused attention, so that they do not fall farther below set standards. Amongst some educators and administrators, a definite bias exists surrounding the usage of assessment and testing.
Thus far, working as an aide for various elementary schools has provided me with ample experience in a classroom setting. That being said, I see tremendous value in assessment and testing. My experiences also as a tutor have been backed by this notion. When implemented correctly and often, tests and assessments play a critical role in the learning process. When thinking back to my own early experiences in academia, I wish I had taken more tests and had assessments completed more often. This would have properly identified my own strengths and weaknesses in all subject matters. Going through the primary grades up until high school as an unaware student with learning differences, was not an easy feat. In retrospect, perhaps I could have been better served if exposed to frequent assessment and testing. I definitely would have had a much truer sense of my performance. Finally In high school, my areas of academic weakness were finally identified and I was able to find coping strategies and methods. In fact, an understanding of my academic weaknesses significantly improved my overall performance in school. I finally realized the necessary strategies and methods needed for my unique needs. I believe all students and lifelong learners (with or without learning differences) could immensely benefit in this same way. Educators should not take a didactic approach when it comes to testing and assessment in the classroom. How can an educator truly predict if students are mastering material if formal or informal assessments are not completed frequently throughout the academic year? With the accessibility of modern assessment methods and technology, educators can be progressive in creating detailed digital performance portfolios of the students entrusted to their care.
At the moment, I am experimenting with a free app by theTeacherCloud called “Evidence for Learning” that very recently has come onto the app scene. “Evidence for Learning” provides observations to any assessment framework, personalized PDFs, and sending of those PDFs to a email, cloud services such as Google Drive or Dropbox or even to other apps on your iPad. I am thinking of maybe using this app in digital lessons for my Digital Product because it seems geared toward my focus in the early primary grades.
Reading about Grant Wiggins and his thoughts on assessment made me think of how I am assessed in my own career. This week I had my 2nd formal observation from the Head of School. I knew no matter how much I prepared I couldn't predict how my students would behave or react to the lesson. I think about how I act differently when The Head of School is in the room. Not on purpose, just because of nerves. It's different when she drops by just to see what's going on in the room. I feel more comfortable because I know she's not looking and writing down everything I do. My own change in performance during the different circumstances makes me think about kids and the pressure they are feeling when we tell them it is a test. The pressure and anxiety can produce different results than when they are in a comfortable situations. I agree with Grant Wiggins in there is a place for both. Parents want to know what their child can and can not do. They want proof and evidence. Teachers also can tell by monitoring students during work the capabilities of a child, even if they perform poorly on an assessment.
When reading the two short pieces discussing assessment by Grant Wiggins, I couldn’t help but think of the formal performance review process my company has all its employees participate in annually. Each individual selects a minimum of ten people (including peers and superiors) to evaluate their work performance for the year. Annual reviews are a big deal in corporate culture - they are a reflection of you, your attitude, your work performance, and your dedication to doing your job to the best of your ability. These reviews are crucial aspects in determining whether or not you’re the right fit for your position as well as compensation. In such a competitive environment, there’s really no room for a bad review. Managers are encouraged to offer informal feedback throughout the year prior to the kick-off of the formal process to ensure their team members get the best possible reviews; strengths and weaknesses are evaluated and goals are set, both short and long term, to encourage growth and progress. The end goal is to get those positive reviews regarding your work performance because you understand your role and the standards by which you should be measuring yourself.
ReplyDeleteWiggins’ view of assessment in schools reminds me of what I’ve come across in the corporate world. He believes that educational planning should be focused on teaching for understanding in a real world context, not solely measured by formal testing. Wiggins describes testing as a snapshot, but the real goal is the whole family album, or understanding the larger picture (Defining Assessment). In my opinion, it makes so much sense to have school curriculums built on an assessment plan that teaches young students the mindset of understanding the bigger picture and how to apply it to real-life scenarios. Wiggins endorses backward design, where classroom learning goals and planning towards that goal is made the priority. Most of my classes in high school were “taught to the test” or involved memorizing a set of facts that I did not retain for very long after being tested. An environment where we are teaching students to be well-equipped with skills that will surely help them throughout their lifetime seems much more practical than bestowing information upon them that they may or may not remember in a few years.
I think you bring up an important point about what skills/content are important to assess--especially now when so much knowledge is available at our fingertips. What content is even important to memorize or know when you can just search for it online as you need it? It seems even more important to assess the ability to apply knowledge and some of the broader skills like thinking critically, communicating, working collaboratively, etc. rather than assessing the ability to regurgitate facts and specific content knowledge.
DeleteTo approach this blog post, I've pulled some phrases and quotes that stood out to me and build off of those ideas in relation to my understand and experiences with assessment:
ReplyDelete"One of the challenges in teaching is designing, and to be a good designer you have to think about what you're trying to accomplish and craft a combination of the content and the instructional methods, but also the assessment."
-- I wish I could highlight this and put a "like" icon beside it. When crafting curriculum, I am a firm believer of student-centered instruction where the content is contextualized and the student has a direct connection to the content. Instructional methods could include anything beyond lecture – group learning, jigsaw learning, video with discussion, etc. It is always imperative that the teacher is also transparent with their self and the students about what they hope the students learn from that lesson. Like many parts of curriculum design, this is easier said than done.
"Tracking information over time through technology is an important part as well."
-- Technology, if thoughtfully implemented, is a powerful tool in the classroom. I believe pedagogical uses of technology should encourage students to go beyond the consumer uses of technology. As teachers, we should allow for students to develop skills as curators, collaborators, citizens, and creators through multimedia platforms. Before doing so, they will need the front-loading of skill sets. So going back to design (Wiggins called it backward design), the teacher will have to be mindful of how they are not only scaffolding content but also the tools they use in teaching.
"Show What You Know As You Go"
-- In the title alone, this phrase screamed out to me as FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS! In my Teacher Education classes, this idea of formative assessments has become a huge part of how I approach teaching. In the undergraduate class I teach, we make use of Canvas journal entries to scaffold learning – very similar to these blog posts, actually. The purpose of the students' journal entries is to scaffold their learning and for us teachers to get written evidence of the how the students understood the material. When students come back to the classroom environment, they have some content already "preloaded" (or maybe some haven't yet), but the overall idea is for students to get more support for their learning on their own. The in-class discussion then builds off of the online conversations that have already taken place and for students who didn't get to respond, their participation in class gives a sense of how the students are doing.
Informal assessments, such as progress monitoring and observations, are also crucial to assuring how students are doing in class. These could be followed up with short check-ins on students or even temperature checks in class to see if more time needs to be spent on a certain subject area.
Lastly, my educational philosophy includes acknowledging that teaching and pedagogy put four elements at the forefront of instruction: Purpose, Context, Content, Methods. These elements intertwine with making a holistic classroom and are all directly connected to assessment.
The role of teachers and approaches to teaching and learning are being reshaped and redefined with the proliferation and integration of technology in schools and in to better prepare students for the demands of 21st Century job market. Teachers’ role is more than to impart information onto students and follow lessons from textbooks. Teachers’ in the schools that Wiggins envisions are designers, curators, creators, collaborators and value personalized education. In his visions, Wiggins sees assessment used not to ‘designate winners and losers at the end of the game’, but rather to serve a higher purpose. Assessment is used to gather important data that would inform future decisions about teaching goals and help teachers identify how individual students learn best so that they could cater to their needs. Assessment in his vision is ‘unobtrusive’ and ‘seamless’; it is carefully planned and integrated within the lesson that it is an organic part of the teaching and learning process. With the help of current and emerging technologies, educators, parents, students, and administrators would have access to timely and personalized feedback about students’ growth and performance.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this type of assessment coupled with a double-loop type of learning would help teachers and learners in achieving desirable educational goals. In a double-loop learning framework, teachers modify the goal of learning activity in the light of experience or possibly even reject the goal. In contrast, single-loop mindset is the repeated attempt at the same problem, with no variation of the method and without ever questioning the goal. Wiggins also highlights the importance of continuous and varied types of assessments. Assessing students at the end of the lesson alone is not sufficient not effective. Students often do not know how to use feedback constructively or even ignore feedback when it is given late in the lesson or the term when they cannot do anything about their performance. This is why, continuous assessment both formal and informal from teachers, peers, or self-assessment is important for students to be able to recognize areas they need to improve. There are various technologies such as clickers, e-exit tickets that could offer timely feedback, which is more aptly referred to as feedforawd since students can use this information to narrow the gap between their performance and the desired learning objective.
Grant Wiggins has clearly thought a lot about assessment. And it seems that he has had some influence on a lot of what is happening in education now. The new SAT that is being rolled out is more in line with what he believes is good assessment. The common core standards and the new testing associated with them are also more in line with Wiggins's ideas about assessment. Because of this, I found myself wishing that I had been reading more recent articles to learn his thinking about these recent developments. (The articles were from '97 and '02.)
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, many of the ideas in the articles are still very important today. I am particularly interested in the concept of digital portfolios and the benefits and challenges of using them. Wiggins himself seems conflicted. In '97 he wrote about his vision for assessment and said the following:
"Some students are working on their digital portfolios, assembling the elements required for each of their learning plans. They select work that demonstrates what they are learning, including papers, test results, and video or audio recordings."
However, 5 years later he wrote this critique of digital portfolios:
"Many well-intentioned people say, 'Let's have student portfolios of the student's work K-12.' Well, that's fine for the student, but there's hardly another human being other than the kid's family that wants to wade through all that."
I get why he writes both of these things. Portfolios are an excellent way to get a well-rounded picture of a student and are great for both the student and the parents to see progress. But they are also sort of absurd because in the real world nobody has the time to either assemble that or look through all of it after it is assembled. In the real world, you need to be able to do things quickly and efficiently. Teachers don't use multiple choice test because they believe they are good assessments, they use them because they have 25 students and they need something that can be graded in a reasonable amount of time. It seems to me that digital portfolios might best be used as a method of self-assessment. If a student adds work to a digital portfolio over a period of years, they will be able to clearly see their own progress and growth. This will still be true even if nobody else ever has the time to look at all that stuff.
I remember learning about authentic assessment and backward design in my teaching credential classes at Chico State. We had to create a unit plan using backward design that included at least one type of authentic assessment. It was a great experiment for me, because at the time I didn't understand why exams fell short as a comprehensive assessment, and it was also good for my cooperating teacher. We tried to modify lessons in the future to include more authentic assessments.
ReplyDeleteSchool is just so different from the world. I don't know of any job where taking a multiple choice test is required as part of the job. I think a lot of teacher's lose sight of what these students are going to do in the future, and what they should really be learning, or how they should be learning. Administrators put emphasis on factual knowledge and high API scores but not on community, metacognition or life skills. Teachers should be encouraged to build lessons that require authentic assessment and that have direct and obvious connections to life outside of school.
I know we were not supposed to comment on the video and just the two articles, but this quote in Grant Wiggin's video "Understanding by Design" really struck me and I think is related to the topic of assessment:
ReplyDelete"It’s possible to get straights A’s without critical or creative thinking. As long as your smart, compliant, do your work and are thorough you are going to get straight A’s."
Thinking back to my experience in high school I really don’t think I did much deep learning. I was a straight A student and I did really well on tests, but I don’t think I really did any deep or critical thinking until I got to college.
So, what are we assessing if it is possible to get good grades without critical or creative thinking?
I like how Wiggins characterizes the role of standardized testing as an audit, and I think it is true that these tests have a role to play, but is it pretty narrow and focused role.
However, even more than that I think it is important to keep in mind what the purpose of assessment is in the first place. I like that Wiggin’s said in his “Show What you Know” article, that “tests and other assessments are valuable only when they provide worthwhile information that can be used to improve student achievement.” Standardized tests only measure one aspect of learning and can be useful, but other forms of assessment are needed to get a full picture.
If the purpose of assessment is to improve student achievement then it is critical as Wiggins says that assessment happens in an ongoing and timely way so that student’s can incorporate the feedback as they go. I just read an article on the KQED blog, More Progressive Ways to Measure Deeper Level of Learning, and one of the teacher’s echoed that point saying that “students don’t want to know how they could have done better after they’ve already turned in the project.”
Wiggins also talks about self-assessment and getting students to think about what they are learning and how they can improve. That was echoed in the KQED article as well that, “the real power comes in the reflective process, both individually and with peers”. One of the teachers in the article mentioned that they often co-design rubrics with the students and students help to determine how and what will be evaluated.
I think this final quote from the KQED article sums up a lot of these theme about assessment and authentic assessments that, "…learning stops at knowing and we need to move that and broaden it to the doing and the reflecting."
Lisa, thank you for the reference to the KQED article, "More Progressive Ways to Measure Deeper Level of Learning". As a grad student and teacher's aide, I found it relatable and thought-provoking. In many situations, students most definitely would like to be aware of what is deemed necessary of them in assignments and projects. Expectations and requirements should be indicated before completion of an assignment, so that learning and improvement can work synonymously with one another.
DeleteWhat is understanding and how can we all attain it? Grant Wiggins noted that a particular pheonmeon was happening to many of his exceptionally bright, over achieving students. This pheonmemon being, that his “smartest” students were actually, maybe only clueless. How do planning and design lead to understanding? Wiggins used an excellent example from his own experiences in the classroom verses his experiences as a soccer coach. On the field, he had an ephiphany; An educator can teach tremendous amounts of material, give exponential amounts of homework, and complete assessments/tests beyond comprehension, but students do not have an understanding only until they try to transfer it all in the “game”. It’s instinctual that human beings learn from experiences and interactions within their enviornments. As an educator, the goal is to see your student’s apply and transfer the knowledge learned in their own personal experiences.
ReplyDeleteGrant Wiggins then expresses how, “Assessments should be taken throughout the learning process, not just at the end”. Wiggins wise words in Edutopia’s article, “Show What You Know As You Go: A Different Spin on Assessment”, highlighted his spirited opinions about the importance of assessment. Assessment undeniably plays a critical role in projecting whether an educator’s pedagogy is effective or ineffective. They can serve as a reference of understanding for what works and does not work during teaching time. In addition, assessments can be an excellent indicator of mastery of material. Assessment allows for an educator to see, track, and understand the progress of each student in their class. This individualized, expanding record for students can assist in predicting later academic success in all subject areas. Most significantly, assessment caters to those students that may be struggling and need more focused attention, so that they do not fall farther below set standards. Amongst some educators and administrators, a definite bias exists surrounding the usage of assessment and testing.
Thus far, working as an aide for various elementary schools has provided me with ample experience in a classroom setting. That being said, I see tremendous value in assessment and testing. My experiences also as a tutor have been backed by this notion. When implemented correctly and often, tests and assessments play a critical role in the learning process. When thinking back to my own early experiences in academia, I wish I had taken more tests and had assessments completed more often. This would have properly identified my own strengths and weaknesses in all subject matters. Going through the primary grades up until high school as an unaware student with learning differences, was not an easy feat. In retrospect, perhaps I could have been better served if exposed to frequent assessment and testing. I definitely would have had a much truer sense of my performance. Finally In high school, my areas of academic weakness were finally identified and I was able to find coping strategies and methods. In fact, an understanding of my academic weaknesses significantly improved my overall performance in school. I finally realized the necessary strategies and methods needed for my unique needs. I believe all students and lifelong learners (with or without learning differences) could immensely benefit in this same way. Educators should not take a didactic approach when it comes to testing and assessment in the classroom. How can an educator truly predict if students are mastering material if formal or informal assessments are not completed frequently throughout the academic year? With the accessibility of modern assessment methods and technology, educators can be progressive in creating detailed digital performance portfolios of the students entrusted to their care.
DeleteAt the moment, I am experimenting with a free app by theTeacherCloud called “Evidence for Learning” that very recently has come onto the app scene. “Evidence for Learning” provides observations to any assessment framework, personalized PDFs, and sending of those PDFs to a email, cloud services such as Google Drive or Dropbox or even to other apps on your iPad. I am thinking of maybe using this app in digital lessons for my Digital Product because it seems geared toward my focus in the early primary grades.
Reading about Grant Wiggins and his thoughts on assessment made me think of how I am assessed in my own career. This week I had my 2nd formal observation from the Head of School. I knew no matter how much I prepared I couldn't predict how my students would behave or react to the lesson. I think about how I act differently when The Head of School is in the room. Not on purpose, just because of nerves. It's different when she drops by just to see what's going on in the room. I feel more comfortable because I know she's not looking and writing down everything I do. My own change in performance during the different circumstances makes me think about kids and the pressure they are feeling when we tell them it is a test. The pressure and anxiety can produce different results than when they are in a comfortable situations. I agree with Grant Wiggins in there is a place for both. Parents want to know what their child can and can not do. They want proof and evidence. Teachers also can tell by monitoring students during work the capabilities of a child, even if they perform poorly on an assessment.
ReplyDelete