Teaching Circles

Pace University

Peter McDermott Ph.D

Jennifer Pankowski Ed.D

Elizabeth Smith Ed.D

Assessment is More Than Data: Using Dynamic

Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning

The Role of Students in Classroom Assessment

Having viewed this video

• What are the key claims of

the video?

• Which ones do you agree?

• What questions do you have

about assessing student

learning?

Developing Authentic Assignments

• Do you currently have authentic or performance-based

assessments in your courses?

• How do you balance authentic assessment (task with rubric,

portfolio) with traditional assessments (multiple choice, short

response, essay)?

What is Authentic Assessment?

“Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performance effectively and creatively.” (Wiggins,1993)

Authentic Assessments differ from traditional assessments that test knowledge and skill sets.

Why use Authentic Assessment?

Expanding bodies of knowledge/information and technological

progress has transformed the labor demands of the world economy:

“The economic trends and the training needed for the new

workforce require that … [schools] shift from a fact oriented

curriculum to one that emphasizes problem solving and innovation.”

(Stanford School Redesign Network, 2008)

How do you Create Authentic Assessment?

1. Identify the standards: What should students know or be able to do?

2. Select an authentic task: What indicates students have met these standards? (Performance, Product, or Constructed Response)

3. Identify criteria: What does good performance on this task look like?

4. Create a rubric: How well did the student perform?

(Mueller, 2016)

Using Conferencing for Student Learning Outcomes

What is Conferencing and Why it Works

• 1 on 1: student to faculty or student to student (peer)

communication to discuss a current or recent assessment to help

the student improve.

• Conferencing provides the opportunity discuss assignment

expectations and how well the student is doing to meet these.

• Conferencing provides the opportunity to receive feedback in a

productive and respectful manner for future success.

Benefits

• Gives students personal feedback to improve (DI).

• Reinforces what the student is doing well.

• Allowing students to see and correct errors.

• Provides students not in conference practice, research, peer review (if done during classtime).

• Helps the instructor better understand the cause of student challenges and respond in a way that works for each student.

Providing Feedback to Students

Have students ask the following questions:

• Am I on the right track?

• What improvements can I make?

• What am I doing well?

• How am I doing overall?

How to Be Effective

• Be corrective, feedback should provide a direction and explanation of what they are doing correct and what is non correct and how to improve.

• Be timely, timely feedback is necessary for it to be most effecting.

• Be specific to a criterion (use a rubric).

• Allow students to provide their own feedback, self reflection and assessment is very effective in skill development.

• If you use peer-to-peer feedback provide a model.

When to Use Conferencing and Feedback

• All assessment practice, both summative and formative can and should

include “quality, timely feedback.”

• Conferencing can be particularly effective for summative assessments,

writing projects, and other multi-dimensional assignments that students

have the opportunity to demonstrate the corrections discussed but also

apply these skills to the next component.

• Online - When teaching an online course the private email tool in

blackboard as well as Turnitin features can be very helpful for writing

assignments.

Examples DIMENSION OF FEEDBACK MODES Examples

• Comments on a first draft of assignment• Online self-assessment quiz• Adaptive tutorial

FORMATIVE<- ->

SUMMATIVE

• Peer grading of group oral presentations• Summary of rationale for a grade

• Individual consultations• Comments on assignment• Peers reviewing each other's work

INDIVIDUAL<- ->

GENERIC

• Summary of class strengths / weaknesses after grading

• Use of clickers in lectures

• Peer feedback on examples worked in class groups

MANUAL<- ->

AUTOMATED

• Automated feedback through online quiz tools• Adaptive tutorials

• Class discussion of an assignment in progress

• Recorded thinking-aloud commentary on student work

ORAL<- ->

WRITTEN

• Posts to class discussion board• Email to individual students

• Self-assessment reflections on submitted assignment

• Peer assessment

STUDENT-LED<- ->

TEACHER-LED

• Annotated examples of previous student work• Industry guest's comments on a student forum

Models of Feedback

Formative Self-assessment

Students reflect on the

quality of their work, judge

the degree to which it

reflects explicitly stated goals

or criteria, and revise

accordingly.

Purpose of Self-assessment

• To improve learning and achievement and to promote academic self-regulation

• Students who set goals, make flexible plans to meet them, and monitor their progress tend to learn more and do better in school than students who do not

Conditions for Self-assessment

1. Define the criteria by which students assess their work.

2. Teach students how to apply the criteria.

3. Give students feedback on their self-assessments.

4. Give students help in using self-assessment data to improve

performance.

5. Provide sufficient time for revision after self-assessment.

6. Do not turn it into self-evaluation (grading).

Rubric: Self-assessment of an Argument Paper

Infographic Checklist

1. The infographic pertains to a topic in your discipline – one that you might teach.

2. It presents a single-line story such as:

• DNA Is important because…;

• Fracking is dangerous to the environment;

• The pharmaceutical industry needs limitations on its profits;

• Schools should model healthy diets of vegetables and fruits, etc.

3. It presents some kind of data – descriptive or quantitative of some kind tosupport the story.

4. The infographic contains interesting design and color.

Checklist: Infographics

Quick Writes/Exit Cards

Digital Bulletin Boards – quick writes/reflections

https://padlet.com/petemcderp/oqow293j6scs

Padlet

Peer Review – Your Thoughts

Reference

Andrade, H. & Valtcheva, A. (2009). Promoting learning and achievement through self-assessment. Educational Theory

and Practice Faculty

Scholarship. Paper Available at http://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/etap_fac_scholar/12