Assessing Student Learning
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Transcript Assessing Student Learning
Assessing Student Learning
principles and practices of
effective student assessment
A workshop developed for
Bilkent University by
Gordon Suddaby
Gordon Suddaby - [email protected]
Rationale
Students can, with difficulty escape from the effects of
poor teaching, they cannot (by definition if they wish to
graduate) escape the effects of poor assessment. (Baud,
p.35 in Knight, 1995)
Assessment is at the heart of student learning. (Brown
and Knight, 1994).
Gordon Suddaby - [email protected]
An assessment riddle!
Why do we measure with a micrometer, mark with
chalk, and cut with an axe?
Gordon Suddaby - [email protected]
Why we assess?
Crooks identified 8 reasons:
1. Selection and placement
2. Motivation
3. Focusing learning
4. Consolidating and structuring learning
5. Guiding and correcting learning
6. Determining readiness to proceed
7. Certifying and grading achievement
8. Evaluating teaching
Crooks, 1988.
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Assessment as part of learning
There are two critical factors:
Formative approaches to assessment
Summative approaches to assessment
Scriven, 1967.
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Formative assessment
Biggs and Tang note:
Formative assessment is provided during learning, telling students
how well they are doing and what might need improving (p.97)
In formative assessment, the results are used for feedback during
learning. Students and teachers both need to know how learning is
proceeding. Formative feedback may operate to both improve the
learning of individual students and to improve the teaching itself.
(p.163)
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Assumptions related to formative
assessment
It is a powerful teaching and learning activity
It promotes growth
It encourages autonomy
Factors:
Involves intrinsic motivation
Encourages reflection
Requires prompt feedback
Requires clear criteria
Requires shared understanding
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What formative assessment activities
do you use?
I would like to record these on the board
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Summative Assessment
Biggs and Tang
...summative [assessment is provided] after learning, informing how
well students have learned what they were supposed to learn (p.97)
In summative assessment, the results are used to grade students at the
end of a course or to accredit at the end of a programme. Summative
assessment is carried out after a teaching episode has
concluded....That result, the grade, is final. (p.164).
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Assumptions related to summative
assessment
Represents reliable and valid sample and judgement
Its purpose is explicit
Factors
It is taken seriously
It grades and ranks
It sums up achievement
It is an endpoint
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Activity: 8
Who are assessment “stakeholders”?
Identify an ‘end user’ of your assessment other than the
student?
What sort of information does that user need?
Is that what they get?
How do you know?
Compare that information with that which the student
wants/gets?
Discuss with colleagues sitting nearby and compare
differences and similarities
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The assessment stakeholders”?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
The student
Other students
Teachers
Mentors
Employers
University management
Funders
...
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Some assessment issues
If we are not careful our assessment practices may;
Tend to focus on what is easiest to assess/mark
Influence students approach to learning (surface)
Encourage a focus on grades
Encourage students to seek cues
Not reveal misconceptions
Encourage students to focus ONLY on what is assessed
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Some principles of effective
assessment
Assessment should foster improvement
Students need self-assessment skills
We should only assess what really matters
Assessment should enhance motivation
Assessment should encourage cooperation
Assessment shouldn’t be a burden
Think about assessment ‘due dates’
Think about flexibility!
Requirements need to be explicit
Crooks, 1993
How do your assessment practices measure up against
these?
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Activity 10: The big lie
It doesn’t matter what I think, write what you
believe!
Or should this be?
It doesn’t matter what is said or written, just
make sure you learn the stuff that will be
assessed!
Remember, the students are always looking for cues and
clues!!!
So make a note of the messages you give
students?
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Activity 11
Task specification
Make a paper dart from the paper supplied completing
the task within 3 minutes
Stipulation
The dart must fly
The dart must look like a paper dart
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Assessment criteria
Now:
Develop a schedule for marking and grading the
finished product
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Assessment criteria
Now:
Develop a schedule for marking and grading the finished
product
Give your dart to a colleague to assess using their
assessment schedule (you will mark another
colleagues dart using your schedule)
Mark 2 other colleagues darts using your schedule
Compare grades
What comments can you make about the marking process?
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Issues
What assumptions have been made in relation to
this task?
What were the difficulties encountered in
carrying out the task?
What would have made the task more do-able?
What difficulties were there in assessing the
outcomes?
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Assumptions
You know what a dart is and looks like
You have some knowledge of dart-making
You know what the assessor is looking for
Everyone has the same perceptions of ‘standards’
i.e. There is an understanding of the
assessment criteria
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Seven Principles of good feedback
From the conceptual model and the research literature on formative
assessment it is possible to identify some broad principles of good
feedback practice. A provisional list might include the following
seven.
1. Facilitates the development of self assessment (reflection) in learning.
2. Encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning.
3. Helps clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards expected).
4. Provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired
performance.
5. Delivers high quality information to students about their learning.
6. Encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem.
7. Provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape the teaching.
8. From; Juwah, Macfarlane-Dick, Matthew, Nicol, Ross and Smith for the
Higher Education Academy
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Examples of criteria
Appearance
Flying ability
Paper usage
Shape
Decoration
Distance flown
Size
Complexity
...
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Formative assessment
Using assessment to improve learning.
It is assessment provided during the teaching process.
Strongly linked to processes of evaluating own teaching
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Guiding principles
Effective Assessment should:
Promote and reward desired outcomes
Distinguish between essentials and extras
Recognise workload implications
Reflect consistency of standards
Communicate requirements to students
Provide effective feedback
Combine marks with care
Give weight to professional judgement
Crooks, 1993.
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Levels of assessment criteria
Implicit to the tutor (I know one when I see one!)
Known to the tutor, but not revealed to the student
Revealed to the student, but what counts as evidence
isn’t!
Criteria and examples of what counts as evidence
revealed to the students
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How do the students know what is
important?
Clarify criteria
Tell the students what is important in the
beginning, as you teach it, and at the end.
Tell them what is important when you set your
assignments
Tell them why you are giving them a particular
assignment
Tell them what the marks will be awarded for
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Don’t be afraid to use a variety of
approaches
Tests
Lab work
Assignments
Using a digital presentation
Case Studies
Clinical observation
Projects
Workbooks
Journals
Portfolios
Orals (vivas)
Examinations
Seminars
Open Book Exercises
Posters
Reports
Learning contracts
Simulations/role Plays
Debates and presentations
Scenarios
Artifacts/products
Field work
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Reflecting on assessment
Do you provide/develop clear, explicit criteria for your own
courses?
Is there a performance component associated with the
criteria?
Are you clear as to what constitutes evidence that indicates
the criteria have been met?
Are the students aware of this?
What additional information would help your students do a
better job?
What questions remain in your mind?
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Aligning assessment and learning
“From our students’ point of view, assessment always defines the
actual curriculum” , (Ramsden, 1992), its the tail that wags
the dog!!!! - the term used to describe this is ‘backwash’.
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Constructive Alignment
A concept developed by Biggs
Constructive because it is based on Constructivist theory i.e
reflects Shuell’s statement that;
“What the student does is actually more important in
determining what is learned than what the teacher does”
(Shuell, 1986)
Alignment demonstrates that the intended learning outcome,
the teaching and teaching activity, and the assessment are all
aligned
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Designing constructively aligned
teaching and assessment
Describe the intended learning outcome in the form of a
verb (learning activity), its object (the content) and specify
the context and standard to be attained
Create a learning environment using appropriate
teaching/learning activities that address the verb and
therefore are likely to bring about the outcome
Use assessment tasks that contain that verb thus enabling
judgment using rubrics as to how well students performances
meet criteria
Transform these judgments into standard grading criteria
Biggs and Tang, pp. 54 - 55.
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