ESCalate Seminar- Assessment: Challenging Practice
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Transcript of ESCalate Seminar- Assessment: Challenging Practice
What are we really trying to do with assessment in teacher education:
Resolving Conflicting purposes and principles
Sue Bloxham
Certification
to identify and discriminate between different levels of achievement, and between students,
providing a license to practice in the case of professional programmes,
enabling selection of students for further study and employment.
This is assessment of learning.
Quality assurance
to provide evidence for relevant stakeholders (for example headteachers, ofsted, external examiners)
to enable them to judge the appropriateness of standards on the programme
This is assessment of learning.
Student Learning
to promote effective learning
formative and diagnostic
steering students’ approach to learning
giving the teacher useful information to inform changes in teaching strategies.
This is assessment for learning.
Lifelong learning: sustainable assessment
This is assessment as learning.
to achieve an understanding of standards,
to learn how to make judgments,
to be able to use criteria,
to be able to tell when you really understand something
Reformed vision of the curriculum•All students can learn•Challenging subject matter aimed at higher order thinking & problem solving•Equal opportunity for diverse learners•Socialisation in to the discourse and practices of academic disciplines•Authenticity in the relationship between learning in and out of school•Fostering of important dispositions and habits of the mind•Enactment of democratic practices in a caring community
Cognitive and constructivist Learning Theories•Intellectual abilities are socially & culturally developed•Learners construct knowledge and understandings within a social context•New learning is shaped by prior knowledge & cultural perspectives•Intelligent thought involves ‘metacognition’•Deep understanding is principled and supports transfer•Cognitive performance depends on dispositions and personal identity
Classroom Assessment
From Shepard, L.A. (2000)
Discussion
Discuss with those sitting near you:
• Where you think the emphasis lies in your programmes.
• Do assessment strategies include, explicitly or implicitly, all four purposes or do they major on one or two.
Conflict in assessment purposes
Group assessment
Un-seen
examinations
Peer & self assessment
Presentations, debates
Unseen
exam
Essay
Poster setting out scientific work for lay readers
Press release
Reflective journal
Debatespeech
Designing a leaflet for parents or web resource
School-based project
Working in a group to make a radio programme
Curating an online exhibition
Familiar ‘safe’ assessmentMethods. Examiners will understand.
Newer methods which may assess a wider range of learning and different communication skills
Tutor marked
Self, peer and tutor marked
• comes at the draft stage,
• Isn’t graded• is forward looking• focuses on skills
rather than content.
• Look only at final pieces
• Look for comments that justify the mark against the learning outcomes
encouraging a focus on marks, and feedback on content
Studies suggest that useful feedback to students
But moderators and external examiners
Who is the tutor writing their comments for?
Dealing with conflict
Two potential ways forward
• Taking a programme approach to assessment design
• Making greater use of assessment methods which combine different purposes
Programme assessment environment
Factors• How many exams• Variety of ass. Methods• How much summative
assessment• How much formative
assessment• How much oral feedback• How much written feedback• Timeliness of feedback• Explicit criteria & standards• Alignment between outcomes
& assessment
Can influence• Student effort• How much of the syllabus they
cover• Usefulness of feedback• Use of feedback by students• Whether students know what
is expected of them• Whether they focus on deep or
surface approaches to learning• Whether exams encourage
learning
From Gibbs & Dunbar-Goddet (2007)
Programme assessment map
modules Programme outcome 1
Programme outcome 2
Programme outcome 3
Programme outcome 4
Programme outcome 5
Programme outcome 6
101 D D
102 D
103 D D D
104 DA D
105 DA D
203 DA D D
204 D
205 DA D D
206 D D D
D= developed A=assessedCon’t through all modules/ placements
Discussion
• How successfully do you think your programmes achieve a programme approach to assessment?
• Do they plan and co-ordinate assessment across the different elements of students’ programme?
Combining the different purposes of assessment
Two things we need to do:
• identify what are the key characteristics of learning-oriented assessment
• choose assessment methods that meet those characteristics whilst also fulfilling the purposes of certification and QA
Reformed vision of the curriculum•All students can learn•Challenging subject maater aimed at higher order thinking & problem solving•Equal opportunity for diverse learners•Socialisation in to the discourse and practices of academic disciplines•Authenticity in the relationship between learning in and out of school•Fostering of important dispositions and habits of the mind•Enactment of demoncratic practices in a caring community
Cognitive and constructivist Learning Theories•Intellectual abilities are socially & culturally developed•Learners construct knowledge and understandings within a social context•New learning is shaped by prior knowledge & cultural perspectives•Intelligent thought involves ‘metacognition’•Deep understanding is principled and supports transfer•Cognitive performance depends on dispositions and personal identity
Classroom Assessment•Challenging tasks to elicit higher order thinking•Addresses learning processes as well as learning outcomes•An on-going process, integrated with instruction•Used formatively in support of student learning•Expectations visible to students•Students active in evaluating their own work•Used to evaluate teaching as well as student learning
From Shepard, L.A. (2000)
Characteristics of learning-oriented assessment
• Formative• Demands higher order learning • Learning and assessment are integrated• Students are involved in assessment• It promotes thinking about the learning process; • Assessment expectations should be made clear;• Involves active engagement of students, developing
independent learning;• Tasks should be authentic and involve choice ; • Tasks align with important learning outcomes• Assessment should be used to evaluate teaching.
Field-based enquiry
• includes formative stages, students can get help and feedback in a low stakes way
• Expectations available to students both in written criteria and embedded in feedback
• Potential to integrate learning from university with learning from other contexts
• integrated with the learning• encourages independent and active learning• involves students in the assessment process (avoiding grades in the early stages)• higher order skills, complexity• authenticity, choice
Interactive exam
• higher order thinking• integration of university knowledge and classroom knowledge• authenticity• student involvement in assessment• gaining feedback (from expert solutions) and taking action on
it.
• Involves reflection• Exam marking scheme
shared with students before the exam
Patchwork text
• Integration of professional and subject learning
• Focus on learning process• Assessment is integrated with
learning• Integrates formative and
summative assessment • Student involvement in
assessment• Complex task requiring higher
order and critical thinking• Independent, autonomous learning• Reflection