Good Morning!!

1. Good Morning!! Welcome to the Outcomes Development Workshop Highline Mathematics Department Professional Development Day Activity Fall 2003

2. Schedule: 8:35 – 9:05 Presentation/Discussion of the terminology and concept behind a focus on outcomes. 9:05 – 9:20 Small-group conversations about responses to the (emailed) self- reflection questions. 9:20 – 9:50 Practice defining outcomes and related assessments. 9:50 – 11:10 Small-group development of outcomes for departmental operations.

3. Outcomes, Objectives, Assessment:Are they more than fancy words?

4. The Big Picture:What do we want to have at the end? Goals Outcomes Activities Assessment

5. For whom are we doing this?…and why?

6. Key Terms I • Goal - A generally defined statement of values or intentions. • Outcome - A careful description of a measurable result, outcomes are typically derived from goals with consideration of possible supporting activities. • Activity - An action undertaken in an attempt to achieve a particular outcome.

7. Key Terms II • Assessment (General) - A process of gathering information to make decisions; the process of observing learning (describing, collecting, recording, evaluating and interpreting information about a person's learning). • Formative assessment - An assessment used to measure progress toward an outcome or the effectiveness of a particular activity with the intention of using the results to improve the activity.  (Could take the form of student self-assessment, progress reports, SGID, etc.) • Summative assessment - An assessment used to judge whether an outcome has been achieved.

8. Generic examples of these terms • Goal – What we hope students take from our classes, such as “they understand graphing.” • Outcome – One of the bullet points from our CAF: “Students will be able to graph points and lines in the rectangular coordinate system.” • Activity – Anything we do in class to “cover the material.” • Formative Assessment – Quizzes, Homework • Summative Assessment – Section exams, cumulative final

9. A more specialized example • Goal – Students will learn from their mistakes, and not dismiss them as “dumb errors.” • Outcome – Each student will be able to accurately describe some of his/her error patterns, along with reasons for their recurrence. • Activity – Students will present work on board; teacher will guide students through process of self-evaluation after quizzes. • Formative assessment – Students will discuss their post-quiz self-evaluations in small and large groups. • Summative Assessment – As part of the midterm and final evaluations, each student will be required to submit the original quizzes, a written analysis of the errors, and suggestions for avoiding the errors in the future.

10. The First Step:Examining Goals and Their Consequences

11. In your groups, share your responses to the questions sent out via email. DO NOT DEBATE THE RESPONSES!!

12. Now consider the goal: “Get students to appreciate mathematics.” Within your groups, try to describe two outcome-activity-assessment sequences that address this goal. It may be productive to work on the outcome-assessment pair first, THEN think of supporting activities.

13. The Second Step:Applying these ideas when developing departmental outcomes

14. Tasks: • Begin by brainstorming a list of goals your group thinks should be pursued by the department. This can be goals from the preexisting list, or something new. • Return to the first of the current departmental goals. • Check that it supports one of the goals identified by your group, and reword if necessary. • Determine if the goal is directly measurable: • if so, describe the necessary assessment, • if not, formulate the necessary outcomes so you can describe specific assessment tools/strategies that would be used.