Open-Ended Interview Questions
How can you describe your experience in application of different methods of assessing authentic learning?
What benefits can be realized by adopting and implementing different methods of assessing authentic learning?
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What guidelines need to be followed during implementation of different methods of assessing authentic leaning?
What are your perceptions on the effectiveness of performance/tasks assessment?
What strategies are used in conducting performance/tasks assessment?
Why are organizations insistent on the need for performance/tasks assessment?
In what areas are checklists and rubrics useful?
How does one go about developing checklists and rubrics?
Why are graphic organizers included as important tools in your line of work?
What critical operational issues do users of graphic organizers need to consider when using the tools?
Essay – Critical Analysis of Lessons from the Interview and Research
In any undertaking, assessment is critical in determining whether the goals are being meet or not. Assessment methods represent the strategies, tools, techniques, and instruments for collecting information needed to determine the extent to which students demonstrate desired learning outcomes. Application of different methods of authentic learning involves administration of short-term or long-term assignments for students. It is important to point out that authentic assessment learning opportunities have no specific time attachments, but a complete authentic system should include a balance between longer and shorter performance assessments. Authentic assessments require active participation of students in learning as it allows demonstration of knowledge and skills. These are important aspects of student portfolio, an authentic assessment model focused on the other diverse authentic learning opportunities to showcase the growth of student over the duration of the course. In an educational setting, assessment methods are necessary to examine a broader range of skills, motivate students, cope with large class sizes, and deter academic malpractices. Therefore, different methods of assessing authentic learning represent a richer mix of high quality assessment formats that not only reduce the overall burden of assessment for teachers and students, but also measure less, but measure better. The observations are consistent with Raymond et al. (2013) assertions about authentic assessment having powerful influence on learning due to is potential to influence strategy for different teaching and learning approaches. The design of authentic assessment to mimic the complexities of real world scenarios necessitate a combination of skills, knowledge, and attitude by students, hence providing useful insights in understanding the extent of learning outcomes.
Adoption and implementation of different methods of assessing authentic learning is founded on an understanding that using one method to provide information on the program will reflect only part of the student achievement. Student learning outcomes may be difficult to assess using a single method. Each student learning outcome requires the use of combined direct and indirect assessment methods. For instance, responses from student surveys can be informative, but they can be made more meaningful, valid and reliable when combined student’s test results. According to Kuh et al. (2014), the proliferation in the use of different methods of assessing authentic learning is driven by the need to know the level of students’ knowledge and capabilities. Therefore, benefits of the model can be realized at classroom and policy levels.
Classroom Benefits
Use of tasks that reflect normal classroom activities, hence advancing real life learning,
Focuses on higher order thinking skills,
Embeds assessment in the classroom context that reflect real world context,
Deploys active performance to showcase understanding – kinesthetic involvement,
Employs a wider range of assessment strategies,
Requires collaborate efforts by the teacher and student to determine assessment methods,
Focuses on progress rather than weaknesses.
Policy Implications and Benefits
Involvement of more faculty,
Prioritizes sustenance of recent progress in institutional assessment work,
Effective use of assessment results by institutions of higher learning,
Establishment of continuing learning as a high priority,
Cultivation of a culture that encourages gathering and use of student learning outcomes data to foster success and increase institutional effectiveness.
Implementation of different methods of assessing authentic learning can be a dynamic and complex undertaking. The need for a combination of methods implies each learning program must select the assessment strategy that with the potential to provide the most useful and relevant information. The selection of the assessment methods must take into consideration the questions that need answering, resources available, and the usefulness of the results. Important guidelines to follow include:
Collecting information that answers thee program question,
Using different methods to assess each student learning outcome,
Including both direct and indirect assessment strategies,
Using both qualitative and quantitative frameworks,
Choice of methods that assess both strengths and weaknesses,
Utilizing capstone courses, projects, and assignment to directly assess students’ outcomes,
Using established standards and accreditations during development of the assessment plan.
Performance assessment allows deeper exploration of the meaning of phenomena in the pedagogical settings. This is evident from the fact that responses of students to assignment and assessment items generate a single correct answer scored using an answer key or a scanning machine. On the contrary, performance tasks adopt an open-ended approach that calls for individual judgment when evaluating the resulting outcomes and performances. Performance/task assessment is necessary to establish links between program objectives and outcomes and inform implementation of necessary adjustments. VanTassel-Baska (2014) contended that performance assessment is an indispensable strategy in the assessment of gifted student learning. Through challenging performance/tasks, gifted student gets the opportunity to express their intellectual capacity and energy. On the other hand, teachers gain insights into students’ domains of capability and knowledge. Overall, performance/task assessment is a strategy for determining whether an act of learning has successfully impacted students with the content knowledge, acquired skills, works habits, and their application in real world situations. Through performance-based learning and assessment, it is possible to engage students in meaningful activities that aid acquisition of relevant knowledge and skills.
Performance-based learning revolves around performance of activities and tasks that are meaningful and engaging. The culmination of this strategy of learning is the demonstration of evidence of understanding through transfer of skills by students. In addition to addressing aspects of accreditation and standards, performance-based learning must meet the expectations of the contemporary society including creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, and communication and collaboration. These aspects of performance or task-based learning evaluated using content, process, quality, and impact can be realized through a number of strategies namely:
Presentations – They are an easy way to have students complete performance-based activity. Presentations are intended to gauge student’s capacity in regards to providing information, teaching skill, reporting progress, or persuading others.
Portfolios – these items represent the student’s creation and collection over time, and show their progress from the onset to the end of the learning undertaking. Depending on the subject, teachers can advise students to select their best represented works to include in the portfolio.
Performances – the strategy employs dramatic performances that have the potential to be used as performance-based assessment. In these collaborative activities, students are required to create, perform, or develop a critical response through some forms of art, dance, dramatic enactment, or recital.
Projects – projects are usually used by teachers as performance/task-based activities and may require students to apply their knowledge and skills to complete the assigned work. Projects can be aligned to reflect advanced levels of creativity, analysis, and synthesis and can be worked on individually or in groups.
Exhibits and fairs – they are platforms where students can exhibit their works. Exhibitions involved projects that students work on to be displayed publicly. They demonstrate in-depth learning and may attract feedback from viewers, and in some instances, students may be called upon to demonstrate their mastery of content by explaining some aspects of the project.
Debates – these are performance-based strategies used to teach students varied viewpoints and opinions. Participation in debates endows students with skills in research, media and argument literacy, evidence evaluation, reading comprehension, public speaking, and civic skills. Examples of debating formats commonly used in classroom settings are the fishbowl and mock trials.
A number of instructional advantages in physical education settings can be drawn from performance-based assessments because they have the potential to increase effectiveness and of content delivery and evaluation systems (Lund, & Kirk, 2010). Major benefits of using performance/task-based assessment include:
Opportunity to directly observe student learning,
Offers good instructional alignment,
Provides interesting assessment approaches,
Ease of delivery of instructional feedback,
Potential for measurement of diverse objectives and concepts,
Aid active student learning,
Develop higher-order thinking skills,
Provide multiple changes to get it right, and
Allow the student to enjoy the learning process.
Evolution in has necessitated the development of versatile tools with the capacity to address assessment requirements of modern pedagogical settings. Checklists and rubrics are among the assessment strategies and tools that have gained significance among teachers. A checklist refers to a set of criteria teachers provide to ensure students understand how to fulfill all requirements of an assignment. On the other hand, a rubric is given to students before a project is undertaken and should clearly show how their work will be evaluated. By providing detailed information on what is needed, teachers and students can gather information and make judgments about their knowledge and capabilities in relation to the outcomes. The tools offer systematic ways of collecting data on specific behaviors, knowledge, and skills. It is important to note that the benefit of checklists and rubrics is dependent on direct involvement of students in the assessment and comprehension of thee feedback provided. Checklists and rubrics are used:
Where tools for systematic recording of observations are needed,
In case there is need for self-assessment,
To provide samples of criteria for students prior to collecting and evaluating data on their work record the development of specific skills, strategies, attitudes and behaviors necessary for demonstrating learning
To clarify students' instructional needs by presenting a record of current accomplishments.
The need to ensure conformity of checklists and rubric to institutional and subject standards is imperative. This is particularly important to ensure students all aspects of importance are covered to guarantee the student success in the project. To develop a checklist or rubric, the teacher must review the learning outcomes and associated criteria for success. They should then decide on the format to use including the level of success or the scale, which must be simple to be understood by students and communicates information about student learning to guardians. Clarity and specificity of the tools must be noticeable. Space for recording anecdotal notes is necessary. Teachers must ensure that checklists and rubrics are dated to track progress over time. They must use generic templates that become familiar to students and to which various descriptors can be added quickly, depending on the outcome(s) being assessed. Overall, the checklist or rubric should be within the student level in complexity to facilitate achievement of intended outcomes.
Graphic organizers are tools comprising of graph and diagrams for visual organization of ideas. They play an important role in helping the reader to classify ideas and communicate with less difficulty. Their visualization feature makes them indispensable for teaching and learning because it arouses curiosity among students and creates enjoyment. Bromley (2015) posited that graphic designers represent the evolution in the concept of drawing to digital creations, while the retaining the important realm of creating expressing ideas through drawing. They play an important role in simplification of the process of learning. They can be used to make learning enjoyable and efficient by showing relationship, visualizing and simplifying ideas, and organizing information. Major uses of graphic designers include:
Showing relationships – Relationships in graphic organizers are showing with vivid shapes, symbols and connectors. The task is accomplished using Venn diagrams, cause and effect diagrams, mind maps, and flowcharts among others.
Visualizing and simplifying ideas – A picture is worth a thousand words and graphic organizers can simplify complicated ideas by visualizing them, hence more comprehensible especially for visual learners.
Organizing information – The brain experiences difficulties in decoding large amount of information. Using graphic organizers, information can be arranged in a logical manner making it easier to comprehend and memorize. For instance, timeline may be helpful for remembering the chronological sequence of historic events. A storyboard can assist in summarizing a story in terms of time, place, event, and climax. Teachers can use a KWL chart to engage students better during the class.
However, teachers and parents need to be aware that not always are graphic designers a tool of choice for students. Some students may feel skeptical about using the tool based on their past interaction with it. If they found it difficult to understand, their confidence would be affected hence negativity would develop. Such children find it had to adapt to the change. In addition, the terminology used in most graphic designers is confusing. For instance, a “story map” graphic organizer may ask of a theme, rising action, climax, and resolution, terms, which the student may not be familiar with. Moreover, most graphic designers are geared towards younger children, making adjustment for use by higher age groups difficult. Nevertheless, teachers can overcome the challenges of using these tools by ensuring clarity of the deeper purpose, allowing some flexibility, using the graphic organizer backwards, removing the scaffold, and finding organizers that are more age appropriate. It is also important to recognize that not students are visual leaners, and the use of graphic organizers is likely to be detrimental to them. A pragmatic approach that includes audiovisual may be necessary under such circumstances.
Pedagogical settings are witnessing an evolution in instructional and learning strategies that call for renewed efforts to ensure students get maximum benefits from the changes. Teachers are central to the adoption and implementation of different strategies and tools that aid in learning. The impetus is on understanding their perceptions about the use and efficiency of the emerging frameworks that requires active collaboration between the teacher and student to realize learning outcomes. The interview questions are designed to capture pertinent aspects on the use of contemporary teaching and assessment tools to determine the level of knowledge and capacity for successful implementation. The responses to the questions are intended to serve as a learning curve for teachers who must review the outcomes and integrate them where necessary to ensure conformity to the standards dictating the use of these strategies and tools. In addition, the essay provides useful insights that can be used to influence policy on teaching and instruction strategies in accordance to supporting evidence that can be generated through further research.
References
Bromley, K. (2015). From drawing to digital creations: Graphic organizers in the classroom. Handbook of Research on Teaching Literacy Through the Communicative and Visual Arts, Volume II: A Project of the International Reading Association , 423.
Kuh, G. D., Jankowski, N., Ikenberry, S. O., & Kinzie, J. L. (2014). Knowing what students know and can do: The current state of student learning outcomes assessment in US colleges and universities . Champaign, IL: National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment.
Lund, J. L., & Kirk, M. F. (2010). Performance-based assessment for middle and high school physical education . Human Kinetics.
Raymond, J. E., Homer, C. S., Smith, R., & Gray, J. E. (2013). Learning through authentic assessment: An evaluation of a new development in the undergraduate midwifery curriculum. Nurse Education in Practice , 13 (5), 471-476.
VanTassel-Baska, J. (2014). Performance-based assessment: The road to authentic learning for the gifted. Gifted Child Today , 37 (1), 41-47.
