- I am glad we were specifically asked to make the leap from the role of students to that of educators. This is a struggle for me personally because I am so well trained to take on the role of a student. But then I realized - every time I fill out a feedback form, I'm assessing. Every time I have an interaction with a patron at the reference desk (even now as a student), I am providing assessment. A new spin on how we traditionally think of roles.
- The McGonigal presentation on gaming was interesting and informative. Even though I have no interest in gaming, I like the idea of taking something that people already spent a lot of time doing and making it serve a different purpose. Also, I felt the exercise we completed after class, grouping different types of feedback questions, was an interesting way to segue into how we design surveys as feedback and assessment tools. Coming from a social science research background, I can really appreciate the power of a good survey and how easy it is to make a bad one.
- I also appreciated that we talked about when it is appropriate to use summative assessment vs. formative assessment. I think it's really important to understand the value of all tools and when to use them.
- My favorite idea from class tonight was the thought about summative assessment used as formative assessment. Though this is particularly true when considering summative assessment as data for the "A" part of an ADDIE cycle, what really struck me was the example of some law school students considering their class grades as formative assessment for eventually taking the bar exam. What if more education worked this way? Looking at individual assignment grades as feedback with regards to your long-term standing in a course could be an interesting model to consider. This would also take some restructuring of how classes are taught - not only resulting in more assignments worth smaller percentages of the final grade, but also how students are taught or socialized to think about the purpose of assignments. Is the purpose of an assignment to play the numbers and figure out exactly what you have to do to get ___ grade? Or is it to learn something that fits into the larger picture of the course? My feeling is we'd all like to say assignments serve the latter purpose, but are they really presented that way and do students approach them that way?
- Additionally, I was thinking about the notion of fixed vs. malleable views of intelligence and how it could also be important to consider in the conversation about assessments. Do learners with different mindsets respond better to one type of assessment over the others? Or do they differ in their response to how these types of assessments are presented?
Monday, February 7, 2011
Class Reflections 02/07/2011 - Assessment
Here are a few of the my highlights from tonight's discussion about assessment:
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Love your last point. Surely there must be ways to word questions so as to promote growth/malleable/flexible mindset ... what a fun idea to play with.
ReplyDeleteAs for the grading game ... I think both parties are complicit. And how does our own self-perception fit in with the receipt of grades? And to channel Joanna, if this behavior is learned, can it be unlearned?
I think different people do respond better to different types of assessment. I also think that for some, the type of assessment they grew up with is the kind that they are most comfortable with. Looking back, I think teachers mostly gave me summative assessment. But I think it is interesting that I can remember those instances when I received formative assessment much better than the many times I received summative assessment...and that the formative assessment feedback was incorporated into my later assignments and work.
ReplyDeleteI liked your comment that one way teachers have tried making summative assessment formative is by giving numerous assignments of smaller weight. The idea, perhaps, is that students would increasingly know what is expected and improve throughout the term, instead of resting on a good average or sandbagging with the intention of "making it up later." Kristin has said that she would prefer not to give grades at all, and just rely on feedback. But again, it assumes the best of the students. Unfortunately we are, it seems, complicit in the grading game, as she puts it.
ReplyDeleteI think even making the first assignment of the semester either a non-graded/feedback assignment, or a smaller portion of the grade, can help students establish a better marker of their position relative to performance expectations. I have experienced each of these, and I must say, I slept a lot better the night an assignment was due in these classes versus others!
ReplyDeleteI'm also really intrigued by your last point. My instinct says that formative assessment is probably more correlated with a malleable conception of intelligence, since formative assessment is grounded on there always being room and capability to improve, whereas summative assessment is more bright-line you got it or you don't, which feels more strongly aligned with a fixed view of intelligence. But I don't actually have anything to back this up. I smell someone's Ph.D. in education project....
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