Assessing Student Learning - core principles Enhancing learning by enhancing assessment Assessment is a central element in the overall quality of teaching and learning in higher education. Well designed assessment sets clear expectations, establishes a reasonable workload (one that does not push students into rote reproductive approaches to study), and provides opportunities for students to self-monitor, rehearse, practise and receive feedback. Assessment is an integral component of a coherent educational experience. The ideas and strategies in the Assessing Student Learning resources support three interrelated objectives for quality in student assessment in higher education. The relationship between assessment practices and the overall quality of teaching and learning is often underestimated, yet assessment requirements and the clarity of assessment criteria and standards significantly influence the effectiveness of student learning. For most students, assessment requirements literally define the curriculum.
7 Strats Ch 1.pdf How the School of the Future Got It Right This New York City, 6-12 school measures student ability through formative assessments, presentations, exhibitions, and tests. Their special sauce? A rigorous focus on measuring "authentic" tasks tied to real world challenges. Rising eleven stories above midtown Manhattan, School of the Future (above) boasts a rooftop with a weather station and a green house -- and a dedicated core of teachers (top and above right) who are making learning relevant and assessment a rigorous part of the process. Credit: Tom LeGoff The School of the Future (SOF) is a grades 6-12 public school in New York City's bustling Gramercy Park neighborhood. What makes this school different is this: SOF measures the full range of student ability through formative assessments, presentations, exhibitions, and tests that focus on authentic tasks to assess students' skills and knowledge as they relate to real-world endeavors. Like all schools, SOF faces its own peculiar challenges. Authentic Assessment Planning
Selecting Assessment Methods Determine the optimum mixture of assessment tasks At the course level, an assessment plan that comprises several different components or tasks will increase the likelihood that students experience at least one task type that suits their preferred learning style. As a guide to planning for the optimum mixture of assessment tasks, consider a range of dimensions. These prompts may be useful when you are thinking about the parameters of individual assessment tasks, and how they will combine into a well-integrated and coherent assessment plan. Figure 1: Some dimensions of assessment tasks Broad assessment task activity Think of assessment tasks in terms of the main overall activity through which students demonstrate their learning. Figure 2: Broad assessment activity types A single assessment task can combine several activity types. The following examples are loosely clustered into the 4 types. "Doing" tasks However, "doing" tasks can also cause considerable performance anxiety for students.
onlineed.pdf The Key Differences Between Summative And Formative Assessments It’s not a stretch to say that assessment is a hot button issue in education; however, you’d be hard pressed to find an educator who doesn’t see the value in measuring student progress. Assessments themselves have been vilified, when, in fact, it’s why assessments are given and how the data is used that is really the issue. The Glossary of Education Reform gives this great overview of what high-stakes testing is and how it impacts students, teachers, and schools. Basically, high-stakes testing has consequences for the test-takers and givers—sometimes in the form of a high school diploma, grade advancement, and even teachers’ salaries. Let’s take a look at what assessment is, why it’s important, and how it can be delivered in the classroom in a useful manner. What is assessment? Assessment is the measurement of what students are learning. Why do we do it? The information gleaned from assessments is extremely valuable. Assessment Basics Types of Assessment Question Types Delivery Methods
Assessment Advice & Forms for Teachers Highlights November Calendar of Events November is full of events that you can incorporate into your standard curriculum! Our Educators' Calendar outlines activities for each event, including: Geography Awareness Week (11/13-19), Transgender Awareness Week (11/14-20), America Recycles Day (11/15), Thanksgiving (11/24), and Buy Nothing Day (11/25). Plus, celebrate Aviation History Month, Child Safety and Prevention Month, International Drum Month, and Native American Heritage Month all November long! Bullying Prevention Resources Bullying can cause both physical and emotional harm. Conflict Resolution Teach your students to how resolve conflict amongst themselves without resorting to name-calling, fights, and tattling. Immigration Resources Studying immigration brings to light the many interesting and diverse cultures in the world. Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving!
E-Guide: E-Tutoring: Designing and supporting online learning Introduction E-tutoring can be defined as teaching, support, management and assessment of students on programmes of study that involve a significant use of online technologies (TechLearn, 2000). Thus, at first glance, e-tutoring is only different to tutoring in terms of the involvement of technology. Herein, however, are contained vital differences in terms of time, distance and the specific technologies adopted, and these all have implications for teaching staff. The capabilities required can be quite different to face-to-face teaching both in terms of integrating appropriate forms of technology into learning activities and in managing and supporting students' learning online. This guidance note is aimed at teaching staff involved in designing and delivering online learning. Strategies for teaching online Online learning raises important and interconnected issue for students, course developers, lecturers and senior managers. Considerations Opportunities and challenges for lecturers
Choosing appropriate assessment Vary assessmentsStudent learning styles vary widely, and their strengths and challenges with respect to assessment vary as well. Instructors need to consider that variation as they choose assessments for their courses. By varying the way we assess student understanding, we are more likely to offer opportunities for every student to demonstrate their knowledge. This can be accomplished by creating courses with three or more forms of assessment, for example papers, class projects and exams. This can also be accomplished by offering choices of how to be assessed, for example giving students the option of writing a paper or taking an exam for a unit of instruction, as long as by the end of a course they have done both forms of assessment. This might also be accomplished by offering multiple questions, and having students choose which to answer. Consider intervals for assessmentThe frequency of assessment varies widely from course to course. Reflection of Faculty Expectations top of page
Formative Assessment Definition Formative assessment refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support. The general goal of formative assessment is to collect detailed information that can be used to improve instruction and student learning while it’s happening. What makes an assessment “formative” is not the design of a test, technique, or self-evaluation, per se, but the way it is used—i.e., to inform in-process teaching and learning modifications. Many educators and experts believe that formative assessment is an integral part of effective teaching. Reform Debate
Scoring rubrics: what, when and how?. Moskal, Barbara M. Barbara M. MoskalAssociate Director of the Center for Engineering Education Assistant Professor of Mathematical and Computer Sciences Colorado School of Mines Scoring rubrics have become a common method for evaluating student work in both the K-12 and the college classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to describe the different types of scoring rubrics, explain why scoring rubrics are useful and provide a process for developing scoring rubrics. What is a scoring rubric? Scoring rubrics are descriptive scoring schemes that are developed by teachers or other evaluators to guide the analysis of the products or processes of students' efforts (Brookhart, 1999). Figure 1 displays a scoring rubric that was developed to guide the evaluation of student writing samples in a college classroom (based loosely on Leydens & Thompson, 1997). Figure 1. When are scoring rubrics an appropriate evaluation technique? Scoring rubrics are one of many alternatives available for evaluating student work.
26 Teacher Tools To Create Online Assessments You teach, which means you need to know what students do and don’t understand. Which means you need to assess. You teach in the 21st century, which means you use the internet and digital tools to plan, share, and curate learning. This means online assessments could be a boon to your teaching, whether for blended learning, a flipped classroom, eLearning, to better communicate learning progress to parents, or for students to track their own mastery. So then one or two of the 26 teacher tools to create online assessments by Classroomaid Chuang may prove useful to you, yes?
Assessing Student Learning - five practical guides ‘If lower-order learning is an unintended educational consequence of on-line assessment, then any perceived or real gains made in efficiency, staff workload reduction and/or cost savings are at a questionable price.’ Why consider on-line assessment? A good deal of investigation and development is underway in Australian universities into the possibilities for effective and efficient on-line and computer-based assessment. There are many reasons why on-line assessment is being adopted by Australian universities. The move to on-line and computer based assessment is a natural outcome of the increasing use of information and communication technologies to enhance learning. At the same time, in a climate of increasing academic workloads, the adoption of on-line assessment may help to manage large volumes of marking and assessment-related administration efficiently. Is on-line assessment improving the assessment of student learning? Realising the educational benefits of on-line assessment NB.
The lessons to be learnt from three recent high profile child abuse cases Daniel Pelka (Credit: Rex Features) In less than a month two high profile serious case reviews and a criminal trial have concluded, which all involved a mother killing one of her children, despite the involvement of several agencies in the child’s life. The first was the case of Daniel Pelka, a four-year-old living in Coventry who was singled out for abuse and neglect by his mother and her partner until his death from a blow to the head in March 2012. The second was the case of Keanu Williams, a toddler living in Birmingham who died with 37 separate injuries on his body, inflicted by his mother in early 2011. The last was the conviction of Amanda Hutton in Bradford Crown Court for the severe neglect and manslaughter of her four-year-old son Hamzah Khan. The boy’s mummified remains were found in his cot in September 2011, two years after his death in the squalid flat where other children were living. Tucker is hopeful that more multi-agency safeguarding hubs (MASH) will provide a solution.