This semester in my CEP assessment course, I am going to be exploring assessment. Last semester, I created a final Theory of Learning, outlining my theories of what learning is, where it takes place, and how it happens. In this blog post I am going to explain an (extremely brief) Theory of Assessment, outlining personal theories similar to my Theory of Learning.
What is assessment? I believe that assessment can be defined as any tool or practice used to gauge knowledge and understanding. Assessment comes in all shapes and sizes, ranging from 30 second exit tickets to 8 hour graduate school entrance exams. Some assessments are formative, others are summative. Assessments can be creative or rigid, high-stakes or low-stakes, collaborative or independent, and most importantly a learning opportunity or not. With a wide range of assessments at teachers’ fingertips, there is an endless possibility for differentiation in daily, weekly, and yearly assessments. Many students have a difficult relationship with assessment at the high-stakes level. Society places a large value on assessment performance, which can in turn cause assessment anxiety and/or uneasy relationships with assessment. Since I believe the goal of assessment is to gauge learning, this can be extremely problematic when students are too nervous to be able to accurately communicate their knowledge. Because of this disconnect, I strongly believe that assessments should be flexible and individualized. Shepard (2000) argued that “the measurement approach to classroom assessment … presents a barrier to the implementation of more constructivist approaches to instruction” (p. 4). This summarizes my view of current popular assessment strategies. While implementing constructivist learning environments is beneficial for students, if that is coupled with rigid classroom assessments, a large disconnect is present. This disconnect can lead to the mismatch in knowledge and performance as well. With this in mind, my view is not anti-assessment but rather pro-assessment-differentiation. We know that students learn best in their individual optimized environments. This needs to be applied to assessment as well, and it is generally not. Just like we know that some students prefer to learn in a hands-on active environment, and others prefer a more structured and direct instruction environment, some students may feel less pressure to have their knowledge assessed through creative and/or collaborative projects whereas others may feel more pressure when faced with creative projects. Assessment is an important aspect of learning, but I firmly believe that assessment should be studied and treated in the same manner as we treat instruction. Assessment is a critical tool and part of the learning process. Without assessment teachers won’t know if their students are learning, and similarly students won’t be able to push their knowledge to the next level. But assessment doesn’t have to be scary. I think there is a lot of work that needs to be done to reform the assessment standards in our society and breakdown some of the generalized beliefs around assessment. A pro-differentiation view of assessment is possible with support, research, and work. References: Shepard, L. A. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4-14. Alberto G. (June, 2011). Exam [Photograph]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/4311409835
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