Assessment OF, FOR and AS Learning

Hello blog readers and welcome back for round two! Hope you enjoyed my first entry and please feel free to chime in with your own comments below. Please. Anyone.  

Today I have decided to discuss educational assessment, an important focus of my current studies and certainly a relevant consideration as a prospective educator.

  

I want to begin by connecting the issue of assessment with my first blog entry. I have mentioned in the past how curriculum, assessment and instruction are all integrated aspects of teaching and education.  Each of these aspects influences and informs the others. For example, the backward design process of unit planning asks teachers to use assessment to bring curriculum to life and drive their instruction. Therefore, as I previously pondered the evolution of the educational system from the old story to the new, it is important to understand that assessment too is in a state of transformation (Drake, Reid & Kolohon, 2012).

How about a quick history lesson?  A Brief History of Assessment

While the above video (and this blog for that matter) only scratches the surface of assessment, it undoubtedly describes the shift in philosophy regarding the purpose of assessment within a classroom. In Ontario, this move toward a more holistic approach to curriculum and learning has led to the ideas of assessment OF, FOR and AS learning (Drake, Reid & Kolohon, 2012).

Mistakenly, assessment is often confused with evaluation. In a classroom, students hear the word assessment and teachers immediately sense the collective shudder as they panic and tremble, fearing the next quiz or major test. Many students loathe report card day or rack their brains thinking about the cruelty of a 79% grade.

While assessment OF learning is an important means of evaluating student learning, it should not be the only consideration. Students may not test well, can have bad days (based on mood, illness, etc.) or face issues regarding performance anxiety. Unfortunately, it is assessment OF learning that is often the deciding factor in determining student academic success (Drake, Reid & Kolohon, 2012).

However, it is clear that assessment is (or at least is supposed to be) so much more, especially when it involves detailed feedback and meaningful work, as pointed out in the video.

I tried to think of instances in my own educational career where constructive feedback and engaging learning experiences led to opportunities for authentic assessment, and I keep coming back to the same idea. Music.

In high school, I would learn a piece of music every month for performance class. Leading up to the performance, I would meet with the teacher regularly, both on an individual basis and in a group setting, to identify sections of the music I was finding difficult or that needed more practice, to receive helpful tips about certain musical interpretations and to set goals for the following week or the actual performance. To me, this is assessment FOR learning. And while there was a formal evaluation at the end of the road, I enjoyed the process. Oh and by the way, I learned something!

Maybe that’s why, even today, I don’t mind sitting down at the piano and learning a new piece, particularly when the pressures of a final performance or conservatory exam are removed. Yet, I have never written a research paper outside of the context of school. I don’t practice algebra equations in my spare time. So, how do I capture the authentic nature of learning music and translate these ideas into my history class? How do I create opportunities to authentically assess learning? Don’t even get me started on questions about developing assessments that are reliable, valid and fair (Drake, Reid & Kolohon, 2012). Ah, the many apprehensions of becoming a teacher…no one ever said this would be easy. 

And if the rambling above is not enough to deliberate on as a future educator, don’t forget that teachers must also ensure their students reflect on their learning and attempt to understand their own metacognition. Assessment AS learning is something I have really only begun to consider since arriving at university. Engaging in self-assessments, understanding my own learning strategies, and being well-educated in success criteria or levels of expectation have allowed me to get to this point (Drake, Reid & Kolohon, 2012). Strangely enough, this blog itself is a form of self-assessment, which I can use to gauge my own understanding as it relates to class material, readings and other reviewed educational resources.

So, wait a minute…if a majority of assessments in classroom should be formative in nature and assessment FOR and AS learning are essential elements of student development, why are grades and marks the focus of academic success? Can you envision an educational system with no marks or grades? Can you imagine that at the end of the school year, the only thing a student needs to ask in measuring there level of achievement is a simple question: “What did I learn?”

References:

Drake, S.M. & Reid, J.L. & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21 Century Learner. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.