Assessment is the Hurdle
Day 27 (of 187) – October 11, 2018
Wow. Today was a learning day for me… and I am so grateful that I have a class whom I can learn from. Talk about modelling what you preach. TEACHERS ARE LEARNERS. Assessment and evaluation has been at the heart of my teaching practice for most of my career. Ranging from doing what you think you should do… to differentiating formative and summative in the context of a secondary mathematics classroom… to being a HUGE Assessment FOR Learning advocate… to higher education in Teacher Education. It’s a curious situation when you want to model what you want to see… and then, you learn something. There was no question in my mind that how I assessed and evaluated students dictated how I taught my class. For example, when I taught a course that had a provincial exam, we spent much of our time catering our teaching and learning to meet “the standards” of the provincial exam so that student would “succeed” on the exam. It was almost like teaching 2 classes… one for math and the other training for the exam.
Free from exams and teaching teacher candidates about BC’s New Curriculum and competency-based learning, I am compelled to swing the pendulum to the opposite end of the continuum and focus on FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT and holistic assessment in the course. First problem, students were not accustomed to this and it was TOO RADICAL for students to comprehend especially when they felt that their “grades” were at risk, but also students wanted some feedback to understand how they were doing. Although I thought I was giving feedback during their demonstration of learning in REAL-TIME, there was some expectation to get “some closure” on their learning activity. We just finished an article today in class on “competency based learning” and it was recognized that ASSESSMENT IS A HURDLE, along with other variables such as mass education, systems, credentials, and education policy. It’s complex and the article was 17-years old… yet still relevant as we continue to implement BC’s New Curriculum that is competency based.
There is no question in my mind about the AWESOMENESS of the learning demonstrated when we are “final exam free.” Personally, I believe that Teacher Education is a competency-based program as we are trying to engage students in learning experiences to hone their knowledge and competencies to develop their pedagogy and become novice teachers. What I learned today is, assessment is required soon after the demonstration of learning to help with their learning. Although this does not have to be “mark driven” and focused on number acquisition to 100%, it does have to comment on how students have done and suggest how they could be better next time, if needed to. This alone created a STRUCTURE within in our course where students are now asked to self-reflect on their demonstration of learning (e.g. Assessment AS Learning), be provided with feedback from the instructor but also students from the class (e.g. Assessment FOR Learning), and make a judgement on how they are doing using a SINGLE POINT RUBRIC with specific criteria as “meeting” or “not meeting expectations” (e.g. Assessment OF Learning). I think the pendulum has swung back to the middle. I’d like to thank my students for their feedback, honesty, and inquiry. Truth… this is what makes teaching and learning BETTER!!!