Unfortunately we didn’t get to 100,
and a lot of ideas were kind of the same.
It got me thinking about a couple of issues:
- What do we mean by assessment? I think the ideas generated indicated that we are kind of trapped in an HCT mindset where all assessment has to count towards the student grade. It doesn’t of course but within HCT the perceived reality seems to be that if it doesn’t count towards the final grade, students won’t do it. Having left HCT I am now in an environment where that is not the case. Externally set exams or assignments are how the grade is determined but there is a lot of other “assessment” that goes on - both formal and informal such as discussions, peer review, self assessment of achievement of learning outcomes
- Who is assessment for? There are many possible answers to this. The institution, teachers, students, society at large.
- What is assessment for? What does it actually tell us that is meaningful? It seems to me that college has 2 main functions. The traditional university environment as a place where people actually seek out new knowledge but also as a kind of greenhouse where students develop supposedly real world skills in a protected and speeded up environment. But in reality what is it that our students can do in the real world. And more importantly what will they do ? And how do we assess that? We are all working on this qualification and hopefully we will get it. What does attainment of the qualification mean -not only in terms of what I can do but also and more importantly in terms of what I will do? I always felt the UK driving test is a pretty good assessment of driving competence. But every day I see UK qualified drivers driving badly. Once we have got the qualification, every day many of us drive in a way which, if we had done it on the day of the test, would have meant we failed. The same probably applies to many qualifications – even teaching. Many professions have a process of continual assessment – such as airline pilots. They have to do a simulation of a flight every 6 months. If they don’t pass, they can’t fly a plane. Should other professions such as teaching be similar?
Hi Andrew,
ReplyDeleteI liked what you said about testing performance versus everyday performance. I think you are absolutely spot on in terms of the different realities of a standard. Once we have this qualification, we will have if forever. There is no one who will come take it away from us if we have a day of substandard teaching.
But how would things change if we were continually assessed in real life? Your airline pilot example is a good one because airline pilots land the plane (almost always successfully) every day. But I suspect that there is a complicated system in place to support them, even if they do have a lousy day and just can't personally get it together. Do teachers have the same sort of support system? Any support system? What form does it take?
Dean
Thanks for the response Dean. I guess I suppose the point I was trying to get towards is that a professional qualification very often signifies not just a level of knowledge but also a certain procedural way to do things. For example there are Standard Operating Procedures in many types of professions (pilots being one). We don't seem to be anywhere near that with education and we don't really educate our students in that way either - so they will perform functions to a certain standard in a certain way. As a vocational type of institution (do theys till exist?) maybe we should
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