Welcome to Unit 5!
How do we understand what learners are understanding? We use assessment. This unit will help you discover more about the purpose of assessment, as well as methods.
- Overview & Defining Assessment: What do students think about assessment? In this section, students talk about what they think assessments are, what they look like, and what they can measure. Next, Professor Jody Clarke-Midura explains the differences between formative, summative, and performance assessments
- Perspectives on Assessment:Professor Jim Gee, Dr. Malcolm Bauer, Dr. Edys Quellmalz, Dr. Bob Mislevy, and Dr. Kristen DiCerbo present their views on assessment and explore how technology is changing the field of educational assessment and how it may lead to improvements.
- Learning by InquiryInq-ITS, a virtual assessment environment centered around inquiry-based science activities.
- Choice-based Assessments: Professor Dan Schwartz discusses his work regarding assessing students' ability to make good choices
- Future of Assessment: Professor Jim Gee, Dr. Malcolm Bauer, Professor Ryan Baker, Dr. Bob Mislevy and Dr. Kristen DiCerbothink about how assessing content and skills will change as new standards and frameworks evolve
We will be reading "Every Teacher's Guide to Assessment" (an Edudemic article by Amanda Ronan). Those who wish to dive deeper may read an excerpt from Beyond Basic Skills: The Role of Performance Assessment in Achieving 21st Century Standards of Learning.
Appearances by: Pembroke High School students, Oren Klopfer, Maya Klopfer, Jody Clarke-Midura, Jim Gee, Malcolm Bauer, Edys Quellmalz, Bob Mislevy, Kristen DiCerbo, Janice Gobert, Dan Schwartz, Ryan Baker
- Professor James Paul Gee (Jim), Regents' Professor and Fulton Presidential Chair of Literature Studies at Arizona State University, sees assessment as a natural part of learning if you view learning as progress through time. Given the ability of technology to collect large amounts of data, he talks about the importance of assessing learners on multiple variables and providing actionable feedback. He also touches on how video games successfully incorporate this type of assessment.
- Dr. Malcolm Bauer, Managing Senior Research Scientist at ETS (Educational Testing Service), sees assessment as the collection of data and observations, and the making of inferences about what people think and can do. He talks about what current assessments are good at measuring, what their limitations are, and what changes technology can bring about.
- Dr. Edys Quellmalz (Director of Technology Enhanced Assessments and Learning Systems in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program at WestEd) discusses how technology has enabled students to present and express their understandings in a variety of ways.
- Dr. Kristen DiCerbo, Principal Research Scientist at Pearson, sees assessments as a way of gathering evidence about what students know and can do. She talks about the many different purposes for assessments, and explains how we are currently on the shore of the "digital ocean" when it comes to collecting educational data.
Appearances by: : Susan Yoon, Hal Abelson, Mitch Resnick, and Ricarose Roque.