PBA’s, learning objectives, and academic anxiety
As a course designer (I’ve had the pleasure of writing every course I’ve taught), I’ve used PBA’s a lot – both before I knew that there was such a term/acronym, and before my involvement with MET.
A quick sampling:
- In Aboriginal art history, my students produce photo essays of Aboriginal and Aboriginal-inspired art in Vancouver.
- In Museum Anthropology, my students prepare exhibit proposals, complete with the gallery they would exhibit at, the objects they would use, and the representational strategies they would employ (and why…).
- In Anthropological Theory and Methods, my students develop full length (~10 page) grant proposals in line with the standards of professional research councils in the discipline.
- Even on final exams (I don’t do midterms), my students usually have to apply course concepts to a reading of some image or object they’ve never seen before.
The PBAs I design are firmly in line with my learning objectives for the course. When designing them (the PBA’s, as well as the learning objectives), I ask myself: What do I want to the students to have really learned long after they forget the arcane details of, say, the history of public museums or Southwestern weaving?
As I’m reading everyone in our course’s reflections on the use of PBA’s in MET, I’m reading people feeling very comfortable with PBAs, as I am, and happy that they focus our attentions on practical applications of the theories and methods we’re learning. I’m also reading some relief from test anxiety.
I found this interesting because in my undergraduate classrooms, it’s these PBAs that cause high anxiety amongst students because they ask them to think about course material in a way that they have seldom thought about it before. Certainly, a lot of modeling and scaffolding is required. In the end, I get lots of positive feedback from the students on these PBAs. I think this is because it’s pretty clear that they relate to explicit learning objectives; I have the distinct sense that students are very wary of poorly designed PBAs that amount to little more than make-work activities. That being said, there are always those who would prefer the lather, rinse repeat standard exam or paper that, imho, tests little apart from their abilities to write an exam or undergraduate research paper.
Posted in: Week 10: Product-Based Assessments
Everton Walker 8:38 am on November 11, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Allie,
Great post! Do you see where your courses will one day omit exams in their totality? Is there a possibility that exams will one day be a thing of the past?
Everton
Doug Smith 9:32 am on November 11, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
That’s a very interesting observation Allie. Typically I think of high-stakes testing as being a part of anxiety, but I can see how a new or different way of assessment (and therefore learning) can cause anxiety. As you say though, the hope is that the end of the process ties back towards the learning process, and here again I think we are seeing the importance of reflection.
My next question that comes to me is I wonder if there is an EVM (product or service) which can help educators or learners ease through this process of anxiety?
cheers
Doug
andrea 7:27 pm on November 11, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Allie, someone in another post mentioned that sometimes PBA-style assignments take us outside our comfort zone, and you’ve really reinforced what that looks like here. Once we’re in the habit of writing papers or exams for every course, for some people it’s unsettling when they’re asked to do something different. We know how much time it takes to study, or to research and write a paper. A project that involves something more authentic is intimidating both because it requires *real* skills and because it’s an *unknown*. Thanks for describing your experience on the teaching side of this so clearly!
Andrea