In their paper, Ashford-Rowe, Herrington and Brown (2014), examined the 8 elements of authentic assessment from literature, which look at the connections between school-based ideas and real-world experiences. Again, the theme of real world practice comes into play. For teachers, what this means when developing authentic assessments, is planning. The idea of backwards design is critical in creating authentic assessments. Thinking about the end result before scaffolding the units and lessons themselves, helps educators plan the trajectory in which they intend to go and then work backwards to consider the many ways that instruction needs to take place in order for students to meet their end goals.
Understanding by Design (2005), looks at the importance of "backwards planning". Wiggins and McTighe raise an interesting point, when they state that you cannot start planning how you are going to teach until you know exactly what your students want to learn. Student input helps to develop content-rich curriculum that is rooted in student interests. They develop their ideas further to discuss the importance of transfer tasks, which allow for students to use the knowledge that they have gained in a scope much larger than a specific subject or strand. This approach to planning calls on the instructor to think of meaningful forms of student engagement and ways to accurately capture student understanding and successes.
http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/Understanding-by-Design-Expanded-2nd-Edition.aspx
Thursday, 18 June 2015
"Real World" and "Hands on Assessment"
The shift in higher education, to
provide more meaningful and authentic assessment opportunities, is in huge part
because of the shift in practices in K-12. In addition, higher education has
had to respond to the changing expectations of post-secondary students, who
seek higher education learning experiences consistent with that provided to
them in the K-12 component of their education journey (Koh, Tan, and Ng 2012). In the current K-12 climate, inquiry based learning has become a prevalent component of the Ontario curriculum and project based learning is being utilized as a response to curriculum development. With this approach to learning, comes the need for meaningful assessments that provide students with feedback that further develops not only their understanding, but their ability to take ownership for their work.
In his blog, Wiggins (2014) discussed the significance of real world and hands on assessment opportunities for
students to help them understand their areas of strength and to help them to develop in the areas where they may be lacking. The idea of developing an authentic assessment framework, is deeply rooted in the constructivist approach, where students are creating authentic projects that reflect their own understanding and allow them to work towards something larger than small subject specific tasks. Real world tasks, allow students to experience what life is actually like and to see the relevance of what they are learning from many different perspectives.
Authentic Assessment Supports Learners
Assessment is the foundation that helps to support and allow for development in education. "As an integral component of the education process, assessment supports learning
by providing learners with the opportunity to demonstrate acquired skills and
knowledge, while determining their professional, vocational and academic achievement" (Ashford-Rowe, 2014). Constructivist thinkers, share in this idea that the best approach to education, is to allow students to experience, learn and then, based on their own understanding, to create something that is contextual and relevant.
Wednesday, 17 June 2015
Establishing the critical elements that determine authentic assessment
This study, conducted by Ashford-Rowe, Herington
& Brown (2014), looked at the crucial elements that need to exist in order
for an activity to be truly authentic. In their work, they developed a
framework to analyze
The posts that follow, examine the significance of
this article and critically examine the connections between relevant theories
and current practices that help to support their notions and make reference to
relevant research and current practices taking place in education today.
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