Assessment in the Classroom Revisited
In this week's module we looked at assessment in the classroom, what it looks like in its many forms, its purpose, history, and student choice in assessment. I was introduced to Vygotskian's Sociocultural Theory where everything is learned by first interaction and then integration into ones own mental structure. As well as Constructivism that basis itself on an understanding of learners constructing their own knowledge their own experiences. I don't feel like I have enough to be critical of these theories and ideas but I do feel like I can reflect on them in terms of my own experiences.
I reflect on these things in particularly to my own history through education. I am particularly stuck on my time in my undergrad and how much high stakes summative assessment felt like some of the only assessment. I got my Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography and I felt like there was a real lack of formative assessment through my time there. Often we would have two weeks to complete a project, at the end of those two weeks a final critique and grade. There was little in checking if students understood the basic idea of the assignment and understood how to recreate that idea visually. Once it was done that was it, on to the next two week project.
I appreciated the point of view of Dr. William in the McGraw Hill video talking about knowing WHY we are assessing. Asking what we, as educators, want to do with that information we receive. This can can help dictate the type of assessment and how it's implemented. I think there is a lot of value in exploring that more.
I am still trying to pinpoint specifically what assessment for my team looks like beyond a surface level. I think a lot of what we find to be assessment is pretty long term, for example usage statistics on the tools we teach faculty and the anecdotal experience they share with us about the impact they make on their courses as well as survey feedback about various technologies and the support for those technologies. I feel like there is more to it than that but am struggling with what that looks like currently. This is something I would like to chew on more in the future.
Ultimately our topic for this week is "What is the purpose of assessment in the classroom?" the purpose should be to learn but understanding how that works leads to multiple solutions as to what that looks like. Drilling down further in asking what is it we want out of each assessment and how do the students want to dictate their assessment allows us to answer a more granular question of "What is the purpose of THIS assessment?" which, I think, is what we should be thinking about as we develop courses and curriculum.
I reflect on these things in particularly to my own history through education. I am particularly stuck on my time in my undergrad and how much high stakes summative assessment felt like some of the only assessment. I got my Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography and I felt like there was a real lack of formative assessment through my time there. Often we would have two weeks to complete a project, at the end of those two weeks a final critique and grade. There was little in checking if students understood the basic idea of the assignment and understood how to recreate that idea visually. Once it was done that was it, on to the next two week project.
I appreciated the point of view of Dr. William in the McGraw Hill video talking about knowing WHY we are assessing. Asking what we, as educators, want to do with that information we receive. This can can help dictate the type of assessment and how it's implemented. I think there is a lot of value in exploring that more.
I am still trying to pinpoint specifically what assessment for my team looks like beyond a surface level. I think a lot of what we find to be assessment is pretty long term, for example usage statistics on the tools we teach faculty and the anecdotal experience they share with us about the impact they make on their courses as well as survey feedback about various technologies and the support for those technologies. I feel like there is more to it than that but am struggling with what that looks like currently. This is something I would like to chew on more in the future.
Ultimately our topic for this week is "What is the purpose of assessment in the classroom?" the purpose should be to learn but understanding how that works leads to multiple solutions as to what that looks like. Drilling down further in asking what is it we want out of each assessment and how do the students want to dictate their assessment allows us to answer a more granular question of "What is the purpose of THIS assessment?" which, I think, is what we should be thinking about as we develop courses and curriculum.
Dr. Wiliam did provide some valid points in his video about assessment. He brought to light the abundance of data that educators collect through assessment. A key takeaway, or more of an "ah-ha" for me, was when Dr. Wiliam stated the difference between being data-driven and decision-driven. How are these assessments shaping our classroom? How are the assessments challenging the students?
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned, "the purpose should be to learn but understanding how that works leads to multiple solutions as to what that looks like." I agree completely with this thought. We are in the new-age of technology, which allows for more assessment information and ideas.