Step 3: Feedback and Assessment Procedures
In a content-centered course, two mid-terms and a final exam are usually
considered sufficient feedback and assessment for the teacher to determine whether
the students “got it” or not. But a
learning
-centered course calls for a more
sophisticated approach to this aspect of course design. A set of feedback and
assessment procedures collectively known as “educative assessment” is needed to go
beyond “audit-ive-type assessment” (that which is designed solely to give the teacher a
basis for awarding a grade). Educative assessment actually enhances the quality of
student learning. In Figure 3 (next page), the four key components of educative
assessment are contrasted with the more traditional audit-ive assessment.
Forward-Looking Assessment incorporates exercises, questions, and/or problems
that create a real-life context for a given issue, problem, or decision to be addressed.
To construct this kind of question or problem, the teacher has to “look forward,”
beyond the time when the course is over, and ask: “In what kind of situation do I
expect students to need, or to be able to use this knowledge?” Then, create a question
or problem that replicates this real-life context as closely as possible. The problem also
should be somewhat open-ended and not totally pre-structured. If necessary, certain
assumptions or constraints can be given, in order to be able to assess the quality of
student responses.
To illustrate this distinction, let me draw from a course I have taught on world
geography in which students have studied, for example, a unit on Southeast Asia. A
backward-looking assessment would ask students to tell what the differences are in the
population and resources of the various countries in that region. In a forward-looking
assessment question, I would ask them to imagine that they are working for a company
that wants to establish itself in that region; the company wants the students’ opinions
on which country has the necessary political stability, purchasing power for their
product, prospects for economic growth, etc. This kind of question asks students to
imagine a situation where they could actually
use
what they have learned.
Teachers should explain clearly the criteria and standards that will be used to
assess student work. Teachers need to ask themselves, and then share with students:
“What are the general traits or characteristics of high quality work in this area?” These
are the
criteria
for evaluation. Then, on each of these criteria, how good does the work
have to be, to be acceptably good or exceptionally good? The answers to these
questions reveal the teacher’s
standards
.
It is also important for teachers to create opportunities for students to engage in
self-assessment. Later in life, students will need to assess their own performance, and
they should start learning how to do that while in the course. You may want the class
to do this initially in groups, and later individually. Somewhere along the way, students
need to generate—and perhaps discuss—appropriate criteria for evaluating and
assessing their own work.