The saying "History repeats itself" can often times be as repetitive as the actions that have occurred in the past. Regardless of how many times you've heard the saying, it still holds validity. It's important to see where we've been before we can move forward; it's also an effective use of time to look at the past for reference and use that knowledge as a resource for future work.
Looking as assessment through this lens, it's beneficial to look at the past because assessment is rooted in change and development. Assessment also uses time as a main factor in their researching; purposefully planning the span of time the study and evaluation should encompass, or deciding the length of time after a specific event to ask for feedback from participants.
The idea that i found great interest in was Barr and Tagg's proposal of moving from providing instruction to producing learning. Reflecting back to my education, I know that I was not as nearly engaged in the courses that were heavily instruction-focused due to that fact that my active participation was not much of an expectation. From the instructor's end, it can seem that they are sticking strictly to a schedule set by their supervisor or department chair.
Moving towards a model of producing learning, it makes the students stakeholders in their learning and makes the experiences more collaborative. Reading this chapter, I am reminded of a program that my undergraduate institution, Quinnipiac University, implemented in the last few years. The university created 14 essential learning outcomes (ELOs) that all students should have knowledge in or master in their collegiate career. The same ELOs are used in academic settings as well as co-curricular experiences and organizations. Some reasoning behind this is so that students can create an all-inclusive e-portfolio, tracking their progress and successes, with a finalized product upon graduation as well as highlighting the ability for transferable skills in and out of the classroom.
Due to the fact that learning is more subjective and qualitative, it can sometimes be harder to track if progress is being made. With administration and the "higher ups" needing to know numbers to promote "success" externally, I wonder what would be some effective and clear ways to assess learning and putting it in terms that parallel more numbers-based data.
No comments:
Post a Comment