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Assessment Matters:

Assessment Matters:. Discovering How Well Our Students are Learning what We’re Teaching Kutztown University. “There is a lot more teaching going on around here than learning and you ought to do something about that.”. Graduating Senior King’s College 1968. Audit. Accountability.

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Assessment Matters:

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  1. Assessment Matters: Discovering How Well Our Students are Learning what We’re Teaching Kutztown University

  2. “There is a lot more teaching going on around here than learning and you ought to do something about that.” Graduating Senior King’s College 1968

  3. Audit Accountability Documentation Norms Validity ASSESSMENT Quality Measurement Data Value-Added Outcomes

  4. Why Might Faculty Resist Assessment • The “A” word • Pride in Teaching Ability • Value Individuality • Resist Authority (Internal and External) • Not enough time/Overwhelming task

  5. Questions Regarding Assessment: • Who is doing this to us? Why? • What is assessment? • Why can’t we simply use standardized tests? • What fundamental skills do our students have? • Which faculty will “buy” this? • Who needs the extra work?Where are the rewards? • Can we “wait out” this fad?

  6. Rationale for Assessment External Accountability: • Government • Parents • Employers • Accrediting Agencies

  7. Rationalefor Assessment Internal Accountability: • Mission • Improve Student Learning,Teaching, and Curriculum

  8. PROBLEMS WITH TRADITIONAL FORMS OF TESTING/ASSIGNMENTS • Little testing for higher levels of cognitive ability • No multiple chances of providing feedback • Few suggestions for learning/performance improvement • Did not match goals/objectives

  9. Problems with Traditional Forms of Testing/Assignments • Expectations not clearly conveyed to students • Did not encourage cumulative learning • Little focus on higher learning

  10. Higher Learning • An active, interactive, self-aware process that results in meaningful, long-lasting changes – in knowledge, understanding, skills, behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and/or values… Angelo, T. A ‘Teacher’s Dozen’: Fourteen General, Research-based Principles for Improving Higher Learning in Our Classrooms.The AAHE Bulletin, 45(8), April 1993, pp. 3-7 & 13.

  11. Summative: To measure To validate To improve The Curriculum The Program The Institution Formative: To enhance To improve To redirect Student Learning Assessment Goals

  12. Questions Teachers Ask That Lead To Good Assessment Strategies • Are my students learning what I think I’m teaching? • Do I tell students what I want them to know and to be able to do? • What constitutes acceptable (more than acceptable) work?

  13. Questions Teachers Ask That Lead ToGood Assessment Strategies • How do I help students to identify competence and quality, and to adopt my standards of excellence? • How can the quantity and quality of student learning be improved? • What part do my courses play in a plan for students’ cumulative learning?

  14. Cumulative/Integrative Learning Do we want our students to integrate their learning into a holistic framework, to see the elements of their studies as interconnected and relevant?...If we want our students to approach the world as a set of atomistic fragments, disconnected and irrelevant, then we should proceed to offer and support a curriculum that does precisely that, and to do our work in the isolated cells of our classroom and the cellblock of our departments. If we want them to see the world whole, must we not at least see our colleges whole? From Tagg, J. The Learning Paradigm College (2003) P. 350

  15. What ConstitutesGood Assessment? • Defining goals/objectives for learning that students can understand • Designing assignments that provide students with multiple opportunities to achieve these goals • Defining criteria to judge student performance that can be shared with students so they can meet faculty expectations • Using the results of the assessment to improve teaching, learning, and curriculum

  16. ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL ASSESSMENTS • High, attainable expectations • Practice and time on task • Active, collaborative learning • Prompt and frequent feedback • Sequential and cumulative learning

  17. ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL ASSESSMENTS • Multiple opportunities to develop abilities • Synthesizing experiences • Clear and available criteria to judge performance • Opportunities to reflect on learning

  18. Subject to on-going revision based on the faculty’s experience of student performance Faculty designed Course-embedded Follow the plan of: Objectives Strategies Criteria COMMON FEATURES OF ASSESSMENT DESIGN AT KING’S COLLEGE All of the assessments we do are:

  19. Developing Goals for the Major • Best Features • An inspirational introduction and invitation to the discipline • Idealistic but also practical definitions of goals students are expected to attain rather than goals of the program or faculty • An integration of the major goals with the goals of liberal learning • An expectation that students will participate in activities to enable them to contribute to the betterment of professions they enter and the society and global environment in which they will play an important role

  20. Developing Goals for the Major • What should graduating students in your discipline know and be able to do? • Are the goals linked to general education requirements? • Are the department’s goals conveyed to students?

  21. Sample of Goals for the Major • History: Practice “Historical Mindedness:” Know essential historical facts; know fundamental themes of historical development in American and other societies; understand how and why history affects the contemporary world; comprehend how historical circumstances change; recognize the existence of multiple causation, and demonstrate caution about single fact explanations. • http://www.historians.org/pubs/Free/LiberalLearning.htm

  22. More examples of Major Goals • Psychology • The student can integrate and synthesize course content with perceptions, thoughts, and insights about the non-classroom world. These processes involve an appreciation of how psychology influences our view of humanity, how each of us is a part of that totality, and how sensitivity and service to others ultimately enhances our understanding of behavior. • Also see http://www.apa.org/ed/pcue/taskforcereport2.pdf

  23. Goals for the Neuroscience Major • The student can integrate the many sub-disciplines of the neurosciences. The student can assess and interpret behavior drawing on the biological, chemical, and neural underpinnings that support the behavior. • The student can design and conduct original research in a specific area of the neurosciences: molecular, systems and functions, behavioral or cognitive neuroscience.

  24. MAKING THE TRANSITION FROM A TEACHER-CENTERED TO ALEARNER-CENTERED SYLLABUS GOALS: Make Available Foster Develop in Students Provide Help Give Encourage Cover Teach Evaluate VS. T S W B A T

  25. A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy (From Anderson & Krathwohl, 2000) CREATE Generate, Plan, Synthesize, Produce the New EVALUATE Critique or Judge based on Explicit Standards/Criteria ANALYZE Break Down, Relate Parts & & Whole, Organize APPLY Follow Procedures to Solve Problems or Carry Out Tasks UNDERSTAND Connect New Learning to Prior Knowledge by Interpreting, Classifying, Comparing, Summarizing, etc. REMEMBER Elaborate, Encode, and Retrieve Information from Long-term Memory

  26. Communicating Objectives and Criteria to Students • http://www.kings.edu/womens_history/witch/

  27. Connecting the Core Curriculum to the Major • The Sophomore-Junior Diagnostic Project • Builds on the transferable skills of liberal learning • Demonstrates knowledge/methodology of major field of study • Identifies skills/knowledge deficiencies and remedies

  28. Pulling it all together: The Senior-Level Integrated Assessment • Command of knowledge base of the major field of study • Mastery of the methodology of the major field of study • Competence in the transferable skills of liberal learning as related to goals of the major

  29. Developing Abilities throughout the Curriculum: Competency Growth Plans • An outline that describes how and where in the curriculum that students will develop the transferable skills of liberal learning • Ability- What should the student know and be able to do • Strategy-In what course(s) will the student be able to develop the ability; what kings of assignments will enable the student to achieve it? How do we encourage cumulative learning and avoid needless repetition? • Criteria-How will the instructor and student know that the ability has been achieved? How will the students’ performance be judged?

  30. TRANSFERABLE SKILLS OF LIBERAL LEARNING • Critical Thinking • Effective Writing • Technology Ability • Effective Oral Communication • Quantitative Reasoning • Library and Information Literacy • Moral Reasoning

  31. COMPETENCY GROWTH PLANS • Strategy: In what course or courses will the student be able to develop the ability; what kinds of assignments will enable the student to achieve it? How do we encourage cumulative learning and avoid needless repetition?

  32. COMPETENCY GROWTH PLANS • Criteria: How will the instructor and student know that the ability has been achieved; How will the student’s performance be judged?

  33. Goal is to elicit students’ discovery and construction of knowledge The Instruction Paradigm Aim is to provide/deliver instruction STUDENT-CENTERED TEACHING: A NEW PARADIGM • The Learning Paradigm • Aim is to produce learning • Goal is to transfer knowledge from faculty to students • Focus is on improving the quality of instruction • Focus is on improving the quality of learning

  34. Faculty are primarily designers of learning methods and environments The Instruction Paradigm Emphasis is on covering material STUDENT-CENTERED TEACHING: A NEW PARADIGM • The Learning Paradigm • Emphasis is on deep (higher) learning • Faculty are primarily lecturers • Instructional methods tend to produce passive,lower-order thinking • Instructional methods encourage active,higher-order thinking

  35. The Instruction Paradigm Assessments are infrequent, summative, and primarily assess lower-order thinking skills STUDENT-CENTERED TEACHING: A NEW PARADIGM • The Learning Paradigm • Assessments are frequent, formative, and primarily assess higher-order thinking skills Adapted from Barr and Tagg, 1995

  36. A Final Thought: “What and how students learn depends to a major extent on how they think they will be assessed.” John Biggs, Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What The Student Does. Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press, 1999, p 141.

  37. Thank You!Questions?

  38. Helpful Websites with Lots of Links • http://www.ysu.edu/catalyst/list.htm • http://www.kings.edu/academics/celt.htm • http://www.msche.org

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