LEARNING DIVERSITY AND AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT TOOLS

Learning Diversity and Authentic Assessment Tools

Learning Diversity and Authentic Assessment Tools

Skillful and effective teachers require students to analyze and synthesize information, apply what they have learned, and demonstrate their understanding of material according to specified criteria. They have developed learning and assessment experiences to engage students and teach them how to “produce,” rather than simply “reproduce” knowledge. In these classrooms, the emphasis shifts from facts and isolated knowledge to active learning, where students work together to examine information and issues, solves problems, and communicates ideas.

These shifts in emphasis are often accompanied by changes in assessment practices typified by involving students in authentic tasks, measuring a variety of outcomes, and involving students in self-assessment and reflection. The focus of this chapter is on the “tools” used to conduct authentic assessment. It is important to preface this discussion by thinking about some key contextual issues. As anyone who has ever worked with tools of any kind knows, tools can be (and often are) misused. They are often used in ways and for purposes other than those for which they were designed. To press the analogy still further, most “tool boxes” contain a diverse selection of tools, each of which are selected and used for various purposes. Appropriate tool selection and use is a function of the knowledge and skill of the “tool user.” Much the same is true of authentic assessment. The toolbox is full of tools; but we must first think carefully about the various contexts and purposes for which they are used. Connecting, Reflecting, and Feedback There are three important aspects or concepts that should accompany any type of authentic assessment: connecting, reflecting, and feedback.

Connecting

Across the nation, considerable attention is being directed toward the reform of testing and assessment. Much of this thrust is designed to extend assessment beyond testing, with its emphasis on facts and fragments of information, to authentic methods of assessment. A key feature of many of these authentic strategies is that students are required to connect facts, concepts, and principles together in unique ways to solve problems or produce products. Cognitive research has challenged the belief that learning and learning transfer occur simply by accumulating and storing bits of information (Reeves, 2000, 101). Contemporary learning theory holds that learners gain understanding as they draw on and extend previously learned knowledge, construct new knowledge, and develop their own cognitive maps (connecting diagrams) interconnecting facts, concepts, and principles. Research indicates that information learned and assessed as a linear set of facts fails to yield the kinds of in-depth understanding needed to function in our modern society. Bailey (1998) describes a number of different types of evidence collected through assessment. One of the most important of these is “coherence of knowledge.” Glaser goes on to observe that beginners' knowledge is spotty and superficial, but as learning progresses, understanding becomes integrated and structured.

Thus assessment should tap the connectedness of concepts and the student's ability to access interrelated ...