Remember That We Defined

7/26/2019 Remember That We Defined

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Remember that we defined learningas "a relatively permanent change in behavior (or

behavior potential) as a result of experience or practice." Remember also that we said

maturation, or relatively permanent change as a result of biology and genetics, is the

only other explanation for relatively permanent change. That is, when a person is

different today than he or she was yesterday, or last week, or last month or last year,etc. it is because that person either matured or learned something, or both. hen both

of these occur simultaneously, in a way that is difficult to study independently, we

refer to that as development. !n addition, development has the connotation of

improvement or increase in complexity or level. !n reality, most of what we do in

education has both learning (i.e., providing experiences for students) and maturational

(appropriate for a given biological functioning) aspects. owever, in this course we

will focus mainly on learning with less emphasis on development. The ma#or

exception is when we study the cognitive theory of $ean %iaget.

&nother important issue in the area of teaching and learning is the difference between

aptitude and achievement. 'y aptitude we mean the potential one has to learn andor

develop. &ptitude is a measurement in the present that is intended to predict future

events, especially the capacity of an individual to learn (i.e., change as a result of

experience or practice.). !is a measure of academic aptitude. *tudents with higher

academic aptitude will show more achievement than students with low academic

aptitude if both are given the same +uality and amount of experience or practice.

ther examples include manual dexterity, spatial, mechanical, musical, etc.

&chievement, on the other hand, refers to capacities or skills or knowledge one has

now that one did not have in the past. That is, achievement is a measurement in the

present that refers to behavior or effort or learning done in the past. !t is especially

important that our educational system not mix the two. &chievement is likely the

result of specific training or experiences whereas aptitude is more likely the result of

genetic inheritance and general experiences that may or may not have been explicitly

provided to all students. !f some students have been provided appropriate learning

experiences, while others have not, we should not use achievement measures as

measures of aptitude. Rather we need to provide students with specific learningexperiences, making sure that they have the prere+uisite skills necessary to learn,

before we make #udgments about aptitude.

&nother important distinction is between instruction, assessment, and evaluation.

Remember that assessmentrefers to the collection of data to describe or better
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understand an issue whereas evaluation refers to the comparison of data to a standard

for the purpose of #udging worth or +uality. !nstruction is defined as "the purposeful

direction of student learning" and is one of the three ma#or categories of teacher

classroom behavior (the other two are planning and managment.) !nstruction, then, is

providing experiences for learners that will allow them to successfully move fromtheir present level of knowledge, skill, etc. to a desired level. !t is an active process

involving both teachers and students moving towards specific desired end results. !n

relation to instruction, assessment is the collection of data before, during, and after

instruction. -valuation is the process of making #udgments at these specified times.

hen done before instruction we might make decisions as to a students having the

prere+uisite skills or the necessary aptitude to learn the material in the specified time

allotted. /uring instruction, we might make decisions about the appropriateness of the

student effort or student learning. &fter instruction, we can make decisions about

whether or not the student has mastered the material sufficiently to go on to the next

learning experience.

!n future presentations we will discuss the concept of "hat 0ou 1easure !s hat

0ou 2et" (01!02) which highlights the tendency to focus during instruction on

those outcomes you intend to measure or that will measured by some outside

individual or agency. !n addition, we will discuss how the changing re+uirements of

the digitalinformationconceptual agedemand that educators revise curricula to focus

on important outcomessuch as critical thinking and social skills in addition

to achievement in basic skills.

&nother issue already discussed is related to reliabilityand validity. 'oth are

important for every aspect of evaluation and research. Reliability refers to the

consistency or the dependability of the data whereas validity refers to the truthfulness

or correctness of the data. &s previously stated, assessment data and evaluation

decisions may be reliable (consistent) without being valid (correctly #udging the truth

of the data relative to intentions.) owever, the reverse is not true (i.e., data cannot be

valid if they are not reliable.)

Three issues are important for classroom assessment that is under the control of the

teacher. The first relates to what data (assessments and measures) we will use for

making #udgments . The issue of traditional versus performance assessment is

important in this regard. 'y traditional assessment we are referring to the types of

assessments generally found in classrooms3 multiple4choice, true4false, or matching
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ob#ective exams or fill4in4the4blank, short4answer, or essay exams. %erformance

assessment, on the other hand, refers to data collected during the actual

accomplishment or demonstration of a particular set of skills or knowledge. & ma#or

difference is that traditional assessment is almost always done out of context (i.e.,

separate and apart from the situation in which it will be used.) %erformanceassessment, on the other hand, includes as much of the context as possible. !t may be

that a student fixes an engine, or perhaps gives a speech to a group of parents. !n any

case, the situation is as real as possible.

& second issue, that of formative versus summative assessment, is an issue of timing

of assessment and evaluation. 5ormative assessment refers to any data collection that

occurs before or during instruction. !f it is done prior to instruction for the purpose of

determining a students readiness for instruction, we call that diagnostic assessment.

*ummative assessment is done at the end of instruction to determine what has beenlearned. There is no expectation of further instruction at that point.

The third issue is one of the most important issues in measurement and evaluation3 the

difference between criterion4 and norm4referenced testing. !n general, criterion4

referenced testing is done when we want to know how much a student knows vis4a4vis

a pre4set standard and norm4referenced testing is done when we want to know how

one student or group of students compares to other students in terms of the content or

skills being tested. !ts important to be knowledgeable regarding this issues so that you

can explain test results to students and parents.

!n this course, we will be integrating the issues of assessment, measurement, and

evaluation into the study of learning theory and classroom applications. !t is not

enough simply to know these terms6 we must also be able to apply them in the

classroom.
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Remember That We Defined