Formative Assessment

Fink’s Integrated Course Design

Fink asks:

What are the important situational factors in a particular course and learning situation?

What should our full set of learning goals be? What kinds of feedback and assessment should we

provide? Are all the components connected and integrated?

Are they consistent with and supportive of each other?

Fink’s Course Design Model

The first step in designing assessments is ….

Identify the learning goals. What do you expect students to learn by

completing this assignment? What kinds of intellectual skills do you expect them

to practice or acquire by completing this assignment?

Are your goals for students, in terms of their learning, explicit?

Assessment

Audit-ive vs. Educative Assessment

Fink

Not a single event, but a continuous cycle. An open process. Promotes valid inferences. Employs multiple measures of performance. Measures what is worth learning, not just

what is easy to measure. Supports every student’s opportunity to

learn important _______ (fill in the blank)

Principles for Assessment (Steen, 1999)

Clearly stated learning outcomes; share them with students.

Match assessment to what you teach and vice versa.

Use multiple measures and different kinds of measures.

Teach students how to do the assessment task. Engage and encourage your students. Interpret assessment results appropriately. Evaluate the outcomes of your assessments.

Fair Assessment Practices (Suskie, 2000)

Assessment

Formative

Provides timely feedback about performance or attainment of goals

Interactive Low stakes Administered continuously Fosters life-long learning

It is empirically argued that it has the greatest impact on learning and achievement

Summative

Focused on achievement Provides grades High stakes Administered at intervals Standardized or

formalized Huba & Freed, 2000

Assessment

What is the value of summative assessments? What can they tell us? What is the value of formative assessments? What can they tell us?

How do you incorporate both types of assessments in your class?

Discuss these with a small group, and then share with the class.

Assessment Examples

Formative Project (including group projects,

collaborative learning) Experiment Development of a product Performance Community-based experience

(service learning) Exhibition Case study / Critical incident Clinical evaluation Oral exam or presentation Interview Comprehensive exam Portfolio

Summative a midterm exam a final project a paper a recital

As a result, consider the following when planning assessment Differentiate feedback from assessment Make the focus on learning, not just

summative assessment Encourage students to reflect on their learning

and experiences in class

Assessment

Consider assessing your students’ prior knowledge before giving out assessments.

Students come to class with a variety of learning experiences and different backgrounds.

These all should be considered before you plan your assessments.

Prior Knowledge

Questions to consider:

What facts and concepts should students know? What procedures and steps should students be familiar

with? What metacognitive practices should students be aware

of? How is knowledge and skills applied in real world

contexts and problems in my discipline? Do my assessments reflect the complexities of the field, or are students assessed out-of-context?

Prior Knowledge

CATs are quick assessments that enable both you and students to check their comprehension of important information, concepts and details for your course.

CATs are easy to administer and relatively easy to grade. Angelo & Cross, 1993

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)

Knowledge & Skills The Muddiest Point The One-Minute Paper Chain Notes Student Generated Test Questions Focused Listing One Sentence Summary (Angelo & Cross, 1993; Haugen, 1999)

Examples of CATs

Reflection & Self-Assessment Journals Blogs

Reactions to Instructional Methods Exam Evaluations Suggestion Box Personal Course Feedback Forms (Angelo & Cross, 1993; Haugen, 1999)

Examples of CATs

What types of assessment do you use in your classes?

What types of assessment that you are not using do you envision yourself using?

For the next workshop session, please bring an assessment you currently use or a draft of an assessment idea you are thinking about using.

We will use these assessments to design a rubric.

Assessment

Assessment

What types of assessment do you use in your classes?

What types of assessment that you are not using do you envision yourself using?

For the next workshop session, please bring an assessment you currently use or a draft of an assessment idea you are thinking about using.

We will use these assessments to design a rubric.

Angelo, T. A. & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Assess teaching & learning. Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation. Carnegie Mellon. Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/index.html

Fink, L. D. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-

Bass. Gross-Davis, B. (2009). Tools for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Haugen, L. (1999). Classroom assessment techniques. Center for Teaching

Excellence. Iowa State University. Retrieved from http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/cat.html

Huba, M. E. & Freed, J. E. (2000). Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses - Shifting the Focus from Teaching to Learning. Boston:

Allyn and Bacon. Steen, L. A. (1999). Assessing assessment. St.Olaf College. Retrieved

from http://www.stolaf.edu/people/steen/Papers/assessment.html Suskie, L. (2000). Fair assessment practices: Giving students

equitable opportunities to demonstrate learning. The American Associationfor Higher Education Bulletin, May. Retrieved from http://uncw.edu/cas/documents/FairAssessmentPractices_Suskie.pdf

References