Now That My Marking’s Done,Now What???

Brent GallowayLori Stuber

Assessment can be a source of motivation and engagement for students.

Use of formative assessment is essential to nurturing critical thoughtful students who

become active, engaged, and critical assessors of their own learning.

There are many right ways to support student learning through classroom assessment. There

are no hard and fast rules, only ideas to be thoughtfully explored and decisions to be made.

Becoming is more important than beingThe journey is more important than the destination

The learning is more valuable than the grade

Our students live in a culture characterized by expectations of entitlement. In this culture, students learn to value what they have more than who they are, and success is measured by how much they have, not by how much personal effort and growth it takes to achieve something.

Identify Learning Targets/Outcomes Determine

evidence to show learning

of outcomes

Plan the learning activities to teach the outcomes. Communicate criteria to students

Interpret results to determine next steps

Examine evidence to determine

level of achievement

Assessment: Formula for Success A Five Step Planning

Process

Three Step Interview

InterviewerRespondentRecorder

Topic #1:What are the essential knowledge, skills, and attitudes of your course/program and how do you/could you communicate these to the students?

Assessments Measure

What Matters Most

Assessments are a Source of

Motivation and Engagement

Assessments nurture continued

growth

Three Keys to Assessment Rich Instruction

Why Change Classroom Assessment Practices?

For post secondary schooling to remain relevant to the 21st century

To adequately prepare all students for an active role in an uncertain future; they need to be creative, critical thinkers

To respond to changing societal demands of education and the demand for more accountability and transparency

Education – Past and Present

Past• Schooling beyond basic

skills and knowledge seen as required only by a few

• Learning believed to be the accumulation of bits of information best learned through repetition

• Learning ended after school was done

Present• High school graduation seen to

be the minimum education required for all; learn for life

• Students need to be proficient in critical thinking, problem solving and effective communication

• Learning viewed as a process of constructing understanding by fusing prior knowledge with new learning

Assessment – Past and PresentPast

• -Used as a mechanism for creating an index of learning

• -Teachers taught, tested and made judgments about student achievement

• -grades more important than feedback• -Norm referenced

Present• -Assessment is a powerful process for enhancing

learning• -Assessment can either motivate or de-motivate• -Informs teaching allowing for adjustments to meet

individual learning needs and curricular needs• -Criteria referenced

Changing Assessment Paradigms

Assessment Assessment As Learning of Learning

(Summative)

Assessment for Assessment for Learning Learning

(Formative)

Assessment of Learning Assessment As Learning

(Self Reflection)

Traditional Paradigm Emerging Paradigm

Putting the Paradigm Shift in Perspective

The heart of the paradigm shift in assessment is: To gather rich, complex pieces of evidence To provide the necessary scaffolding, practice, feedback and

guidance to students to help them to reach their fullest potential To acknowledge that students have various learning styles and

other factors may impact on their performance To consider most consistent to garner an accurate picture of

the student

Five Key Questions to Course Design with Assessment in Mind

1. What are the key learning outcomes that my students need to acquire in my course? (skills, knowledge, attitudes)

2. What evidence will I collect to demonstrate student achievement of these outcomes?

3. How will I provide students with feedback, guidance and an opportunity to improve their work?

4. How will I use the evidence I gather to determine the student’s final grade? What criteria will I use to determine this?

5. How will I clearly communicate my assessment and grading practices to the students? (words, numbers, percentages, letters)

What Evidence Will I Collect to Demonstrate Achievement?

Tests Projects Seminars Debates Essays/Reports Reflection Logs Portfolios Presentations Research Papers

Labs Quizzes Exit Cards Journals Models/Demonstrations Posters Interviews Self Evaluations and much more

How will I provide students with feedback, guidance and an

opportunity to improve their work?

Quizzes as practice

Rubrics Conference with

students Written Anecdotal

responses

Peer Assessment Self Assessment Criteria Checklists Highlighted comments

with no grade Exit interviews and much more

What criteria will I use to determine a student’s grade?

Criteria informs our assessment allowing instructors to make reasoned judgments about the quality of student work and their degree of success at achieving curricular outcomes

Three Step Interview

InterviewerRespondentRecorder

Topic #2:How could you assess these essential knowledge, skills and attitudes, and what kinds of critical evidence will you gather to demonstrate this?

To assist students in reaching their fullest potential we must design

curriculum which seamlessly weaves together effective instruction, rich

feedback, opportunities for practice and revision, and allows for risk taking.

If you want the Sistine chapel, you need to

prepare the scaffolding!

Powerpoint adapted from the work of Garfield Gini-Newman, Lecturer, OISE/UT

ggininewman@oise.utoronto.ca