Thinking about assessment:
as • sess (ses’) v.t.
[late ME < ML L
assess (us) ptp. of
assidere (ad + sedere)]
to sit down beside
Alverno College developed an assessment approach with 8 ways to assess student learning
Ability
Outcome
Describes what a student will be able to do with what she knows in personal, professional, and/or academic contexts as a result of a set of learning experiences.
Performance
Demonstration of abilities in action in the kind of integrated situation in which students would use them in their life beyond campus
Criteria
Specific indicators of ability/knowledge as seen in performance.
Criteria provide a picture of ability/knowledge in action:
allowing an instructor/assessor to make judgments
helping a beginning learner imagine a successful performance
incorporating qualitative dimensions of performance
Feedback
Tells a student how well she is doing from a perspective outside herself
Like a mirror, provides a student with matter for both reflection and growth
Raises questions that enable a student to critique and further develop her abilities and ideas
Can assist a student to separate her performance from her judgment of self
Externality
Achievement of distance from classroom learning experiences by various degrees
Self Assessment
The ability of a student to observe, analyze, and judge her performance on the basis of criteria and determine how she can improve it
http://depts.alverno.edu/saal/terms.html
I so appreciate the grounding assessment in its root: to sit down beside. I’d like that to be my assessment mantra. “Hi, I’m the assessment coordinator. May I sit down beside you?”
I like:
Demonstration of abilities in action in an integrated situation
Helping a beginning learner imagine a successful performance
Providing a student with matter for both reflection and growth
Re-imagining assessment!
Thank you for sharing this, Valerie.