Aren’t assessment and evaluation the same thing??? Apparently they aren’t. There are many new thoughts around improving assessment techniques to make it more authentic. How do you do assessment for learning as opposed to assessment of learning? How do you quantify a student’s knowledge? Ideas?
As well, from this point forward, let’s try something new. Let’s view cross observations as the platform for conversation, not supervision. This is relevant in this week as the cross observations are intended to be assessment for learning, not evaluation of the teacher candidate, per se. To this end, all cross observations from this point onwards should be informal UNLESS the teacher candidate wants them to be otherwise.
Rubrics are your friends. I think as the Ministry of Education makes its changes to how we assess and evaluate we will need to find/embrace ways do so, and rubrics is just one way of doing so. Over at SLSS and in some other science classrooms throughout Richmond, many science teachers are using rubrics to determine how well students can perform science skills rather than just the content itself.
There exists an opportunity for students to learn through the assessment process, by making them partners, rather than receptors, in the equation. Ken O’Connor (2007) advocates for the involvement of students, “they can – and should – play key roles in assessment and grading that promote achievement”. Moreover, Stiggins (2007) notes that “[assessment for learning (AFL)] turns day-to-day assessments into a teaching and learning process that enhances instead of merely monitoring student learning” (p. 22). Through collaboration and the incorporation of numerous methodologies such as rubrics and portfolios, Stiggins (2007) suggests that AFL “provides both students and teachers with understandable information in a form they can use immediately to improve performance” (p. 23). For example, through portfolio assessment, students can demonstrate their knowledge and growth in learning through self-selected evidence. Over the course of the semester or linear year, they can correct what they do not know based on periodic progress checks and extend or challenge themselves to demonstrate that they can utilize what they have learned in new and different ways. As such, the assessment process is intertwined with the learning process, highlighting the fact that the two are not mutually exclusive, and reinforcing progress and improvement, rather than ranking and punishing. Moreover, AFL falls in line with the ethical principle that assessment be tied solely to student achievement, and not behavior or work habits. While this is not the one perfect system or “silver bullet” to the issue of assessment misuse or manipulation, by engaging the AFL process, teachers recognize the fact that assessment can play a key role in the learning process and highlights the ability of our practice to improve student achievement and support further student learning.
Here’s a recent blog post of mine…topical.
6 Common Misunderstandings About Assessment and Evaluation
Over the past two decades there has been a lot written, and much discussion, around the use effective use of assessment in the classroom. Unfortunately many educators, particularly at the secondary school level, continue to cling tenaciously to “traditional” practices which are, at best ineffective and at worst, counterproductive to the goals of modern education. Here are six common misconceptions about assessment and evaluation that we need to abolish.
1. “Assessment and evaluation are the same.” No they’re not! Too many people, particularly those not employed in the field of education, conflate these two and too often within the field we evaluate student work and tell ourselves that what we’ve done is assessment. Assessment involves timely, detailed feedback based around clearly defined learning outcomes. Evaluation is “giving a grade” to a piece of work, usually based on normative criteria, but too often in comparison to the work of other students.
2. “Most assessment is summative.” Well, unfortunately that may still be true in many quarters, but it should not be. As we’ve learned over the past two decades or so assessment can be a very powerful learning tool in and of itself. As Dylan Wiliam has been saying for years, we need to constantly assess both student work and our own teaching, adjusting as we go, such that by the time we get to the end of a unit of study students have already had an opportunity to rethink and revise their work. There are still far too many teachers who rely too heavily on one single summative assessment at the end of each unit and then move onto another topic no matter the outcomes.
3. “Assessment is one way communication, the teacher gives feedback on student work”. Well, yes that’s true, but the most productive assessment should be a dialogue. In traditional assessment and evaluation models students complete a task, the teacher assesses the work and tells the student how they’ve done and, in formative cases, how to improve the work. But when students engage with the teacher to discuss work, talk about what they’ve done and why, both student and teacher stand to gain far more from the experience. Modern technology makes two way communication between teacher and student much easier and far more ubiquitous, let’s start using it more effectively.
4. “Assessment is for grading purposes.” This is one of the most pervasive and potentially damaging holdovers from bygone eras in education. Yes, final grades should reflect some of what has gone on between student and teacher regarding assessment. But the “collecting of marks” to arrive at the final grade is counterproductive in many ways, here are just two. First, the collation marks too often includes work which was done before students had mastered the material. As has been said by others, when we redo things like driving tests we don’t “average” the results, why do we do this with school work. Secondly, every teacher, especially in secondary schools, is aware of how the pursuit of ‘marks’ often distracts students’ focus from the work at hand. This is doubly damaging because neuroscience is telling us that brains under stress from external stimuli can have significantly diminished learning capacity.
5. “Student work should be given a mark”. In summative situations, or where marks are necessary, this assertion is true. But too often we put a mark on student work when we’re hoping to use the work formatively, which is a mistake. As soon as students see a grade on a piece of work, be it a letter or number grade, the focus is immediately taken off of any meaningful feedback and, in the student’s mind, that piece of work is complete. It’s time to move on. No matter what the teacher intends grades imply a finality that’s hard to overcome in students’ minds.
6. “If assignments are late I deduct marks.” There is no pedagogically defensible reason for doing this. This is simply trying to modify behaviour using coercion through grades. There is nothing wrong with having some consequence for late work, but the assignment of grades (when necessary) should reflect student learning, nothing more. Put another way, if a student hands in work worthy of an A today, is that work somehow different if it were handed in tomorrow?
My experience has been that when teachers rethink and reform their views about what assessment is about, and what its primary purposes are, their feedback is invariably positive. When we pry the “mark book” out of the collective hand of those in the teaching profession, and allow individual teachers the freedom to use assessment in more productive ways, we find that assessment becomes far more authentic and fruitful and far less about the drudgery (and judgment) of marking.
http://where2fromhere-fromgoodtobetter.blogspot.ca/
Assessment is tallying marks.
Formative assessment is valuable in that it allows the teacher to modify and adjust the lessons, and determines which students may need extra assistance. It can also help the teacher in determining student groupings for activities. Summative assessment is the opportunity for students to provide evidence of their learning over time.
Evaluation is using those marks you collected to determine whether the students have met the objectives set out for them.
But there is a distinction between formative and summative assessment and evaluation is understanding that distinction.
As an example, a math teacher has a grade 8 student who averages 40% during the six formative weekly quizzes, but manages 85% on the term test.
The formative tests were a total of 95 questions. The final test was 80 marks. If the marks are considered of equal value then the student is barely passing.
What mark does the teacher give that student? The student has clearly shown mastery in the summative assessment. Yet his average mark is 60%
The term grade will be determined by how that teacher evaluates- or values the marks. Is there any question that this student should receive a high grade?
This scenario, of course, is highly unlikely, but it does emphasize the importance of posting your evaluation strategies at the beginning of the course. Formative assessment is usually given some value in recognition of the virtue of attending classes, doing homework, and being part of the activities. But what value should be given?
The teacher will eventually have to support the evaluated grades to parents. A pass here might allow for some voluble discussion.
Summary. the best way to ensure your students are successful with any assignments you give them is to explain how you intend to mark. That tends to focus students on your aims. It also makes your marking easier and quicker, and allows for the possibility of effective peer evaluation.
The main point to consider is that you should be determining your evaluation strategies as part of your planning. Evaluation should be based on the student objectives you recognized as part of your original planning.
Maybe it’s too late to add this, but I came across this site on twitter; it has some interesting ideas. See what you think. http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/10-assessments-you-can-perform-in-90-seconds/
Hope you all enjoy the long weekend, folks! (Boo hoo, so sad to see the end of this Break!)