3rd session. Assessment – Assessment methods
During this session we covered the third of the main pillars of the teaching process. We started with PLANNING, then we touched IMPLEMENTING and now it was time for ASSESSMENT. Personally I was willing to touch this aspect. The first two topics are – in a very general way – quite clear but assessment intrigued me as being part of the final judgement given to a student and the possible effects on student's motivation.
OUR PLANNING: we started our preparations for our next teaching sessions relatively late. I say relatively because between our last and our next sessions there was time for the Educational Science module. The high level of pressure on some colleagues was perfectly understandable as everyone has its own personal responsibilities added to the deadlines for this session. All in all, in about one week we managed to have the meetings for task division, individual research, creation of presentation and extra material, sharing of findings and even space for doubts and questions. The topic was very well defined and interested me from the very beginning. The big challenge came during the task division. At first we did not find a suitable way of linking the chosen assessment methods to a suitable practical exercise that would show the dynamics of these methods. What it seemed to be a complicated matrix on assessment methods as by Hyppönen & Lindén (2009, p.67) turned out to be a creative and interactive way of understanding the whole process. This will be explained a bit ahead but great job from the PINK team!
OUR PRESENTATION: it is a bit of a handicap to be the last ones to present. Everyone is already tired, those who already presented tend to relax and not to be very active listeners and on the top of it all, the risk of overlapping at that time is very high. On the other hand we have the advantage of having the warm up already done and – what is really useful – the previous information presented is fresh in our minds and ready to be used during our exposition.
After describing the lesson and explaining the general concepts to keep everybody in the loop through basic definitions, frameworks and challenges, we moved towards the real stuff of describing concrete assessment methods and disclosing their features. It was great to perform a diagnostic survey right at the beginning to get the general outlook and know the level of knowledge on this subject. Equally interesting was to set ground for a discussion with the results for this survey.
Assessment methods may be hundreds, maybe thousands, so we chose to list some of the most commonly used and from that list we still selected three of them for a further analysis. And here is where we faced the most challenging part of the presentation: How do the assessment methods differ from each other?
The question may sound simple but the difficulty strives on how to: 1) describe the selected methods 2) create an attractive and interactive way to present them 3) adapt this – at first sight – complicated matrix ("courtesy" of Hyppönen & Lindén 2009):
And the answer came from an Excel spreadsheet that could be explicative and at the same time interactive:
– Assessment methods matrix through an Excel – 👈 (click the link to see)
+ extra track:
During our research we stumbled on some very interesting pieces of information on COVID-19 and its impact not only on planning and implementation of teaching methods but subsequently on the assessment process and its consequences. We got to the conclusion that we are not perhaps ready to measure the complete impact of this new situation now but it is quite clear that it will have its consequences on the way we apply assessment nowadays. Although limited by time, we had a short discussion on this issue.
ORANGE TEAM:
Is there a difference between assessing competences and assessing the learning process?
Yes there is.
The goal might be the same but the purpose is clearly different. Competence as we saw during the first contacts is a deeper concept that implies not only the fact of acquiring knowledge but demonstrating in a practical way the results of the learning process. This phenomenon is especially practical when dealing with vocational studies where in general terms is required more abilities than theoretical data. The differences could not be better summarised than in this slide:
During this presentation I found quite inspiring the quote below by A. Einstein that awoke in me the philosophical question of how reliable and necessary assessment is. It was curious to notice that brilliant people like Einstein or Edison performed very poorly during their years as students. Was it due to a defective way of assessment? Is assessment a valid way to measure people's capacities? How student motivation is affected by a deficient or unfair assessment method?
Those questions are in the air. Or perhaps Albert has the answer:
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| Source : pngegg.com |
GREEN TEAM:
The core aspect of this presentation was the link between learning theories and their implications and influence on assessment. Learning theories describe how students receive, process and retain knowledge but: how do learning theories and assessment relate to each other? Well, taking into account the previous definition of learning theories, assessment then should play the part of a benchmark during the learning process. So if we take into account the following learning theories:
Behaviourism: stating that knowledge existed independently and outside de individual then assessment should be applied through high doses of observation considering the student environmental factors and situation. By doing this, the assessment will be carried out according to the relationship between stimuli and responses.
Cognitivism: relates previous experience to current stimuli, that is to say that a reorganisation of experiences is required. As a kind of learning 'psychoanalysis' the assessment process digs into the students as a kind of introspective.
Constructivism: student constructs his/her perspective of the world based on individual experiences and backgrounds. Everyone creates its own vision of knowledge then. Having this particularity in mind, assessment should measure a continuous process applied to problem solving to capture knowledge in different contexts and perspectives.
In general, assessment should be applied following these premises:
- Defining predetermined outcomes
- Selection of appropriate assessment measure and application to the learning outcomes
- Analysis of the results and in consequence:
- Adjust the learning program according to these outcomes.
BLUE TEAM:
Goals and outcomes of assessment in vocational/higher education.
During this presentation I discovered that the concept of assessment goes far beyond an evaluative perspective. I understood the psychological features of the concept from a motivational, cognitive and activating point of view. Assessment can be used in different purposes as an external tool towards a group or an individual. According to Räisänen & Frisk (1996), these purposes can go from guidance, controlling (checkpoints during the learning process), as a selection tool (to get a better understanding of how a candidate would perform in a determined position), as predictions (on assumptions on the study progress), motivational and as corrector of the student's development.
To sum up, the power of assessment in moulding the student path could be summarised in the following sentence presented by the Blue Team: "If you want to change the way your students learn, you need to reconsider your assessment/feedback methods".
Sources:
European Commission. Education and Training. Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. March 2019.
European Commission. EACEA National Policies Platform. Eurydice (2020).
https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/assessment-vocational-and-technical-upper-secondary-education_en
European Credit System For Vocational Education & Training. ECVET. (2020)
Hendriksson, K. A. Assessment in Finland: A Scholarly Reflection on One Country’s Use of Formative, Summative, and Evaluative Practices (2012).
Handbook for teachers. 2009. Hyppönen, Olli. Linden, Satu. OECD (2020), Education Policy Outlook: Finland.
✅
- The philosophical debate around assessment (Is it really needed? Is it always fair?).
- Well defined topics with very concise explanations.
- Good research work with all the teams going the extra mile.
❌
– Overlapping of topics in different presentations.
– Huge presentations with too much text and not relevant information in some slides.
– Confusion between higher education / primary education assessment.
What is your personal opinion? Leave your comment down here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Your summary of the whole webinar and the assessment methods was well described.
ReplyDeleteI agree on the +/- of the whole session.
Thank you very much for your comment and your general impressions.
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