Testing and Beyond
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How can assessment improve learning?
Assessing learning can provide both the learner and the teacher with data on progress toward learning goals.
Assessment FOR learning is key for students to understand where they are at and what they need to do to achieve learning goals.
Assessment OF learning is necessary to determine where learners are at so that instruction can be adjusted to help students attain the learning goals.
Assessment Principles, Processes, and Practices
Principles
Assessment Purpose
- What is the purpose of the assessment?
Assessment Users
- Who will use the assessment results and what will they be used for?
Designing Assessment for Learning
- What are the learning goals to be assessed?
- What is the best way to assess those learning goals? (Consider purpose, users, and learning goals)
- Will the results of the assessment be a true representation of the learning of all who are assessed?
Collect and analyze the evidence
- How will data be captured?
- How will the data be analyzed? (keep in mind the purpose, users, and learning goals)
Findings
- How will results be communicated to the users?
- How will results be used for grading? (if at all)
- Do learning goals and/or the assessment need to be adjusted based on the findings?
Processes
- Identify/articulate learning goals so all can understand them (requires sharing the learning goals with students)
- Determine/design the activities that will elicit the learning
- Identify key points in the activities for measuring the learning (consider assessment principles)
- Create an assessment around those key points
- Collect assessment data
- Review data for assessment purpose
- Provide feedback to primary (and secondary) users of assessment data
- Revisit learning goals
Assessment Methods
Selected/Closed Response
- Used when there is a right answer and to ensure the learner has the necessary foundational knowledge to do higher order thinking.
- Types: Multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, true/false, matching, short answer
- Good for assessing foundational knowledge
- Examples: Recalling the safety procedures for a lab. Ensuring foundational knowledge of a topic.
Essay/Open-Ended Response
- Used when assessing the reasoning underlying an answer
- Types: Short answer, extended answer, formal paper, discussion
- Good for assessing foundational knowledge
- Examples: Articulating a procedure used to arrive at an answer.
Product/Performance Assessment
- Used when assessing a product or an in-process perfomance
- Types: Product, Performance
- Great for assessing collective knowledge, reasoning, and skills.
- Examples: A written research report (product). A music recital (performance).
Practices
Creating / Analyzing / Refining your Assessments
1. Understand and share the purpose of assessment with all involved.
2. Identify who will use the results and what they will use them for.
3. Identify and share the learning goals the assessment is trying to surface.
4. Choose an assessment method that supports a strong connection between learning goals, users, and purposes.
5. Gather enough assessment data to support sound decisions.
6. Check for accuracy and reduce biases and distortion.
Examples of assessment beyond testing
Portfolis/EPortfolios
Journaling/Blogging
Sample Classroom Assessment Techniques:
Background Knowledge Probe
A short, simple questions at the beginning of a course, at the start of a new unit or lesson, or prior to introducing an important new concept, to help you understand students’ existing knowledge
The Minute Paper
What is the most important thing you learned today? What questions remain uppermost in your mind as we conclude this class session?
The Muddiest Point (adaptation of minute paper)
What was the muddiest point in the lecture or lab today?
Link to a muddiest point case study and discussion [[1]]
Directed Paraphrasing
Assess a student’s understanding of a concept or procedure by asking them to paraphrase it in two or three sentences for a specific audience.
Applications Cards
Assess students’ skill at transference by eliciting possible applications of lessons learned in class to real life or to other specific areas.
What are common problems/concerns with testing/assessment?
Assumptions and Concerns
- I have to test so I can give a grade
- Takes too much time
- I'd like to learn ways to write more effective test questions.
- I'd like to learn new ways to assess learning
- Test question design
Resources
Web Resources:
Assessment Training Institute Resources
Classroom Assessment Techniques National Teaching & Learning Forum
References:
Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Hutchings, P. (1990). Assessment and the way we work. ERIC document # 322845.
Stiggins, R. J. (2005). Student-Involved Assessment FOR Learning (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. [2]
Stiggins, R. J., & Chappuis, S. (2005). Putting Testing in Perspective: It’s for Learning. Retrieved February 21, 2006 from http://www.assessmentinst.com/papers.php.
Theoretical Underpinnings of Assessment
Qualities of Sound Assessment
Focused purpose, clear targets, proper method, sound sampling, accurate and free from bias and distortion
Stiggins, R. J. (2005). Student-Involved Assessment FOR Learning (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. [[3]]