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Assessing Student Learning
Overview of Student Assessment
Assessment drives the teaching, learning and decision making in colleges. "Assessment is not an end in itself, but a vehicle for educational improvement" (Alexander, Banta, Cross, El-Khawas, Ewell, Hutchings, Marchese, McClenny, Mentkowski, Miller, Moran, and Wright, n.d., p. 1.). To begin the assessment process, I would recommend following the Nine Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning developed by a team of educators for the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) Assessment Forum.
To fully evaluate a student's achievement, an assortment of testing procedures is imperative. The majority of learning assessments utilized in the classroom includes short answer, multiple-choice, or true-false. These assessment techniques only test how well a student can remember the information - basic memorization. Active learning strategies should be utilized to build critical thinking and problem-solving skills. To assess these strategies such as problem-based learning, projects, role-playing, peer teaching, and games, more in-depth assessment should be utilized. To assess these activities it is important to also use alternative assessments, such as checklists, rubrics, or portfolios, in determining the student's increased or decreased comprehension of course materials. A student may fully understand the material, but may not be a good test taker. Students need alternative ways to demonstrate their learning.
Daily interaction with students is one of the best ways for teachers to gain knowledge about their students. Through observation, they are able to discover the students' learning styles and personalities. Classroom assessment techniques (CATs) are excellent ways of assessing student learning. CATs include the one-minute paper, the muddiest or clearest point, and one sentence summary. These techniques allow the instructor to know immediately if students are learning the concepts or not. With this information teachers are better able to make decisions regarding their instruction and any changes that may need to be implemented. Student "improvement is best fostered when assessment entails a linked series of activities undertaken over time" (Alexander, et.al., n.d., p. 1.).
Fink (2003) suggests utilizing forward-looking assessments, self-assessments, criteria and standards, and FIDeLity feedback. FIDeLity means:
- F requent: Give feedback daily, weekly, or as frequently as possible.
- I mmediate: Get the feedback to students as soon as possible.
- D iscriminating: Make clear what the difference is between poor, acceptable, and exceptional work.
- L oving: Be empathetic in the way you deliver your feedback.
Assessment Overview
Student assessment should improve performance, not just monitor it (Cassie Morton and Mark Ferrer).
Quizzes, Tests, and Exams
The following suggestions can enhance your ability to design tests that are effective in motivating, measuring, and reinforcing learning (Barbara Gross Davis, University of California-Berkeley).
Teaching, Grading and Assessment
The links on this web site offers suggestions about how to assess various activities from class, as well as how to include students in this endeavor (Illinois State University)
Evaluation Issues
As the title of this section implies, testing is only part of the evaluation of learning. Every time you ask a question in class, monitor a student discussion, or read a term paper, you are evaluating learning (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ).
Assessment that Promotes Learning
Typically, college teachers evaluate their classes only a few times, using tests that telescope all of the relevant skills into a single number or letter grade. Thus, they may never understand their students' performance in a detailed way (Penn State - Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence).
What is classroom assessment?
Classroom assessment is both a teaching approach and a set of techniques. The approach is that the more you know about what and how students are learning, the better you can plan learning activities to structure your teaching (Angelo and Cross).
Collecting Student Feedback
There are four important points concerning student feedback.
Grading Practices
There are no hard-and-fast rules about the best ways to grade. In fact, as Erickson and Strommer (1991) point out, how you grade depends a great deal on your values, assumptions, and educational philosophy (Barbara Gross Davis, University of California-Berkeley).
Preventing Academic Dishonesty
Between 40 and 70 percent of all college students have reported cheating sometime during their academic career. There are specific steps you can take to prevent academic dishonesty Barbara Gross Davis, University of California-Berkeley).
