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Designing authentic assessment

Tina OvertonSchool of Chemistry

The challenge

The employable

graduate

Subject knowledge

Problem solving, communication, team work, time

management, handling data, etc

Professionalism, creativity,

entrepreneurial, global

The challenge

The employable

graduate

Subject knowledge

Problem solving, communication, team work, time

management, handling data, etc

Professionalism, creativity,

entrepreneurial, global

What is authentic assessment?

• Authentic genuine real

• Using and applying knowledge and skills in a real world setting

• in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills (Meuller, 2014)

• Smilariry betgtween thinking required for assessment task and real life situation (savery & Duffy, 1995)

• Use of same skills, knowledge, attitudes that would need to apply in professional life (Gulikers et al , 2004)

• Aa must be aligned to a instruction (Biggs, 1994)

• Students demonstrate competencies through signigcant and meaningful r=tasks (Wiggins, 1993)

• Authenticity is subjective. Must be oerceivedas authentic ton students to influence learning

• Task mimics professional role

Constructive alignment

Learning outcomes

AssessmentL&T

activities

Science TLOs

Assessment of learning

Assessment for learning

KnowledgeApplication,

competences, skills

Lower order cognitive skills

Higher order cognitive skills

21st Century science graduates.....

• Are entering a rapidly changing workplace

• Will tackle as yet unthought-of of problems

• Will tackle global challenges

• Live in an information-rich and connected society

• Will have to be

– Flexible, entrepreneurial, creative, problem solvers, global citizens.

• Are paying for their HE

How do we prepare them for this?

Learning outcomes

AssessmentL&T

activities

How do we prepare them for this?

Learning outcomes

Assessment

How do we prepare them for this?

Learning outcomes

How do we prepare them for this?

What does 21st Century pedagogy look like?

What does 21st Century pedagogy look like?

What does 21st Century pedagogy look like?

What does 21st Century pedagogy look like?

What does 21st Century pedagogy look like?

What does 21st Century pedagogy look like?

What does 21st Century pedagogy look like?

Have things changed?

Does it work?

The drive to innovate

• make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products

What about impact?

• ‘Evaluation of teaching’

• Evaluation

– Determine value or worth

• Did it work? How do we evaluate?

– For who?

– Happy sheets?

– Questionable data

– Beware the Hawthorn effect

From evaluation to research

• Quality and quantity of data

• Identify meaningful learning gains

• Understand how students learn

• Attitudes, aspirations, experiences

• Collect valid, reliable, transferable evidence

• Evidence informed innovation and change

• Build the discipline

Why bother?

• Improve student outcomes and experience

• Convince others

• Reinventing the wheel

• Build your CV

• Publications

• Funding

• Reward

Some personal favourites!

Information processing modelMiller, G.A., (1956), The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81-97.

Events

Instruction

Attention

Interpreting

Rearranging

Comparing

Processing

Response

Storage

Linked

Discreet

Working SpaceLong Term Memory

Perception Filter

Storing

Retrieving

Cognitive load in learning scienceJohnstone, A.H., El-Banna, H., (1986), Capacities, demands and processes: a

predictive model for science education. Education in Chemistry, 1986. 23(3),

80-84.

Cognitive load in the labJohnstone A.H., Watt A. and Zaman T.U., (1998), The students’ attitude and cognition change to a physics laboratory, Physics Education, 33, 22-29.

Johnstone A.H., Sleet R.J. and Vianna J.F., (1994), An information processing model of learning: its application to an undergraduate laboratory course in chemistry, Studies in Higher Education, 19, 77-88.

Better performance, retention, attitudes

Pre-lab

Skills training

Clear aims

Cognitive load in the lectureSirhan G., Gray C., Johnstone A.H. and Reid N., (1999), Preparing the Mind of the Learner, University Chemistry Education, 3(2), 43-46.

Remove lecture time

Replace with background

reading

Improved exam results

Loss of correlation

with previous background

Pre-lectures

Active learningBonwell, C.C., and J. A. Eison, Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom, ASHEERIC Higher Education Report No. 1, George Washington University, Washington, DC , 1991.

They must read, write, discuss, or be engaged in solving problems…..to be actively involved, students mast engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation….strategies promoting active learning be defined as instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing.

…leads to better student attitudes and improvements in students’ thinking and writing……surpasses traditional lectures for retention of material, motivating

students for further study and developing thinking skills

xBL• Context-based learning

– Enhanced motivation and attitudes

Pilot A. & Bulte A., (2006), Why Do You “Need to Know”? Context‐based education, International Journal of Science Education, 28, 953-956.

• E/Inquiry-based learning

– Deep learning, research skills, nature of science, transferable skills

Brickman P. et al, (2009), Effects of Inquiry-based Learning on Students’ Science Literacy Skills and Confidence, International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 3, 1-24.

• Problem-based learning

– Deep learning, motivation, research skills, interdisciplinarity, range of skills

Boud D & Feletti G, (1991), The Challenge of Problem-based Learning, KoganPage.

Always detractors

Flipping or flopping?

The pen is mightier….

Meuller P. & Oppenehimer D., (2014), The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantage of longhand over laptop notetaking, Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159-1168.

So why?

How do we convince?• Present meaningful evidence

• Lead by example

• Mentoring, support, training

• Link to employability

• Use students as advocates

• Student representation

• Peer observation/assessment

• Define professional standards

• Retention

• Preparation for honours and PhD

• Criteria for reward, recognition, promotion

How do we get there?

And when it seems hopeless….

Thank you for listening

tina.overton@monash.edu

@tinaoverton