presentation topic reshaping assessment in education gedu 6154 05 curriculum issues in the 21 st...

Presentation Topic

Reshaping Assessment in Education

GEDU 6154 05 Curriculum Issues in the 21st Century

Humble Presenters: Bruce Abriel & Suzanne Cookson-Wehbe

Reshaping Assessment in Education Eisner (pgs. 195-200)

History of Educational Evaluation• Enlightenment – 17th and 18th centuries• Psychological Laboratories – 19th century

* Nature was orderly* Rational Procedures* Regularities Constructed* Quantifying

Goal was to create an objectively detached true description of the world as it really is.

• Early 20th century• 1929 (Alpha and Beta tests)• 1960’s

Reshaping Assessment in Education

Reshaping Assessment in Education Eisner (pgs. 195-

200)Science of the Social

ToDescriptions of Human Life

ToScientific Management

ToTechnology of Testing

ToEnhancing Educational Practice

ToEthnography

Reshaping Assessment in Education

Reshaping Assessment in Education

… Kindly commence the process of ‘warning and warming’ your mental faculties to respond (like straight “A” FI students) to the following question …

What considerations are excluded in Evaluation that are included in Assessment?

Reshaping Assessment in Education

There’s no doubt about it,

She’s a Toughie!

Pardon me again, but Are we ready to continue now?

Well hello, I bet you teachers didn’t know I graduated top of my swamp in

1207 AD. I’ll stick around During

the presentation

making sure your

presenters steer away

from Medieval evaluation practices

Reshaping Assessment in Education

• During the 1960s a broader concept of “educational evaluation” was stimulated through numerous many curriculum reform movements.

• At the time, efforts to reform educational evaluation lost its momentum due to significant pressure from the American public and other interests outside education.

• Negative feedback from military, private sector employers, and increasingly low SAT scores, created concern with the state of American schools, student ability and questionable quality of teaching.

• As a remedy, government policy makers and the American public established MININMUM STANDARTS for all school districts and their schools to achieve.

• Tougher (SAT) Specific Achievement Tests were designed to bring about improvements, to monitor and measure and to provide informed reports of change in student learning & ability within schools and school districts.

Reshaping Assessment in Education

RECENT PAST, CURRENT SCENE Eisner (pgs. 200, 201)

Reshaping Assessment in Education

• From this emerged the operative term “ACCOUNTABILITY” on the part of the school system, districts and schools.

• For nearly two decades Achievement TESTS remained the predominant method to determine, compare and communicate the progress / improvement of schools, students and teaching to the public and private sectors.

• Communication was maintained with military, private sector employers and public to determine the extent of progress achieved as a result of the newly mandated educational changes.

• Mid 1980’s, the demand for better qualified students softened, while groups of educational stake holders realized tougher SAT tests and mandated assessment practices was not the answer to the problem of unprepared students and poor school results.

• Most “reformers” felt real problem was quality of school programming and poor pedagogical practice.

• The “concerned groups” suggested reporting practices should be more generous, more complex and more aligned with life experiences over individual performance tests. Thus, the new term “ASSESSMENT” symbolized the ambitions of the next decade.

RECENT PAST, CURRENT SCENE Eisner (pgs. 200, 201)

Ok enough of the chubby guy lets hear from Sue again . . .

Be sure to keep an eye out for your own pedagodfathers, I mean,

Baord’s evaluation policies . . . Up next

some Functions of Assessment

Eisner (pgs. 201-202)1. Educational Temperature Taking – collecting data; not

designed to report on students or school districts

2. Gate Keeping – assessments such as SAT

3. Course Objectives Have Been Attained – on going assessment

4. Feedback to Teachers – assessment to determine quality of a teacher’s professional practice

5. Quality of the Program – assessment of the type of activities, sequencing of events in the program, materials, etc.

Reshaping Assessment in Education

Reshaping Assessment in Education

some Functions of Assessment

Eisner (pgs. 201-202)According to the HRSB policy, “Student Assessment and

Evaluation Policy and Procedures”,

• The #1 reason to assess is to determine how we are doing as a system, school, and classroom in order to improve student learning. That is to build on strengths and focus resources where needed to improve student achievement.

• Teachers will use this information to guide decision-making, student learning, and teaching practices. i.e Is the student meeting the outcomes? Provides descriptive feedback to inform students and parents about learning and to make decisions about what is next for the learner.

Reshaping Assessment in Education

some Functions of Assessment Eisner (pgs.

201-202)Eisner sees assessment as a tool to look at:The ProgramThe TeacherThe Student

It is mainly used as for accountability purposes. (Identification)

LITTLE TO NO Reference about using the information for student development.

HRSB model – appears to use non-judgemental language and the theory behind the policy sounds ideal and has positive implications for the role of assessment

Reshaping Assessment in Education

We have taken the liberty of creating small activity groups:

1. Ron, Sonja, Nancie, Debra (HS), and Jennifer

2. Mark, Pat, Roy, and Debbie (ES)3. John, Adrian, Carolyn, and

Stephanie

Reshaping Assessment in Education

Lets hear what the presenters are thinking about this?

But wait, we might be doing this a different way . . .

Reshaping Assessment in Education

Group Activity

It is the end of October and your principal informs you that you will have a new ESL

student from Mexico with little English language skills. Report cards are due in

December, how are you going to evaluate and assess this child’s abilities and skills?

Reshaping Assessment in Education

Reshaping Assessment in Education

Features of the

BEFORE discussing the invigorating details of FONA, please lend us your minds for another brief yet stimulating activity of ‘cooperative cognitive calisthenics’.we now require, 8 non-competitive teams, if that is possible? No 3 buddy teams (i.e., John, Mark, Ron). We would also ask our esteemed professor Simpson to participate in this activity.

Due to time constraints, we have allotted but a moment in time for this activity, so please begin - upon reading the next slide.

Soo, your team’s task is to complete each Assessment statement using the word bank sheets provided . YOU HAVE 6.85 MINUTES . . .

Hello its me againYOU now HAVE 2 minutes Left

Are we ready to check & review $ share insights on Eisner’s FONA

Oh FONA, she was such a pretty little thing . . . Ooops my bad . . Back to the presentation

Reshaping Assessment in Education

Features of the

Eisner (pgs. 209 – 206) Assessment tasks should provide students multiple forms of representation to display their learning. (pg. 209)

Assessment tasks should require students to display a sensitivity to configurations or whole, not simply discrete elements. (pg. 208)

Assessment tasks should have curricular relevance but not be limited to the curriculum as taught. (pg. 207)

Assessment tasks should make possible more than one acceptable solution to a problem and more than one acceptable answer to a question. (pg. 206) * (content area consideration)

Eisner includes the following features as Appropriate for Creating & Appraising New Assessment Practices.

Hello again, is everyone getting this stuff? I’m sure Bruce isn’t doing a

great job at elaborating on the topics . . .

Don’t tell him

I said that it would

crush him

You know he sports the gotee just to appear tough

Reshaping Assessment in Education

Features of the

Eisner (pgs. 205 – 203) Assessment tasks need not be limited to solo performances. Many of the most important tasks we undertake require group efforts. (pg. 205)Assessment tasks should reflect the values of the intellectual community from which the tasks are derived. (pg. 204)

The tasks used to assessment students should reveal how students go about solving a problem, not only the solutions they have formulated. (pg. 204)

The tasks used to assess what students know and can do need to reflect the tasks they will encounter in the world outside of schools. not merely those limited to the schools themselves. (pg 203)

Some have suggested that throughout the process of educational inquiry observation and interpretation without application is a form of

abortion.. Wasn’t Me

Sounds like more fun to me . . . Let’s get started. then

Reshaping Assessment in EducationPersonal Pedagogy Application Task

“Lest We Abort Our Learning Experience”

DON’T BE AFRAID TO THINK

Most ImportantlyThank You for Your Attention and Participation

List 2 – 3 components, methods or ways you could change (how you educate) to make your assessment practices more informative, meaningful and valuable when doing your job?

Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not a preparation for life but is life itself.

John Dewey

• Missing Features of New Assessment Activity (Answer Sheet)(FIY)

• Assessment tasks should provide students multiple forms of representation to display their learning. 1

• Assessment tasks should require students to display a sensitivity to configurations or whole, not simply discrete elements. 2

• Assessment tasks should have curricular relevance but not be limited to the curriculum as taught. 3

• Assessment tasks should make possible more than one acceptable solution to a problem and more than one acceptable answer to a question. 4

• Assessment tasks need not be limited to solo performances. Many of the most important tasks we undertake require group efforts. 5

• Assessment tasks should reflect the values of the intellectual community from which the tasks are derived. 6

• The tasks used to assessment students should reveal how students go about solving a problem, not only the solutions they have formulated. 7

• The tasks used to assess what students know and can do need to reflect the tasks they will encounter in the world outside of school, not merely those limited to the schools themselves. 8