Criteria and Validity
The pursuit of developing a higher education has asked teachers for a systematic and thoughtful student learning assessment. This kind of assessment is based on judgment guided by criteria which highlight the most revealing and important aspects of a work. Appropriate criteria must clarify a set of independent variables in the performance that affect our judgment of quality. The criteria specify the conditions that any performance must meet to be successful. Unfortunately, most teachers frequently rely on criteria that are easy to see so they do not develop understanding in students. What is correct and what is wrong are formulas which are possible to apply but not effective because they do not foster critical thinking.
Summative assessment is the most difficult task because it implies subjectivity. As teachers, we pay too much attention to correctness because it makes assessment easier and seemingly objective. However, doing so hindering students to make judgments and finally understanding is not achieved. Validity appears as another problem when we are referring to subjectivity mainly because our beliefs interfere with the objectiveness of our evaluation.
It is also a problem to decide what criteria performance should be judged and discriminated. One of the most important things is to remember that if our aim is to evaluate understanding and proficiency, criteria have to be derived from the desired results of stage 1.
Rubrics become an appropriate way of assessing performance depending on how they are used. According to the authors, there are two kinds of rubrics: the holistic and the analytic. In order to help parents and students to understand their performance in tests, the most recommended rubric is the analytic one because it shows you the information in detail. My question is: Is that information valid?
To sum up, assessing is an issue which is not easy to resolve. Validity plays a very important role if the assessment aims at understanding. Nevertheless, most of teachers believe that validity sometimes seems like a maze because it is difficult to find a way out to accomplish it.
Hi Paloma!
ReplyDeleteThe metaphor of the maze was the part I liked most in your post. Yes, I agree with you, doing the right thing can sometimes become a maze.
I think that the only way to see the lightis to star by establishing the right goals.Once they are clear everything starts to untie smoothly.
After our goals are set, we have to think on how to reach them and then on how to check if our studnts got the essence of what we are doing.Here is when rubrics can be of precious help.Because of their nature, they don't give us a right or wrong result, but a level in which we can place our sudents in terms of their understanding.That makes the difference.
But to make the most of rubrics a change in the way we conceive assessment is needed too.
There aren't good and bad students any longer, but students that for different reasons are placed in different levels of the understanding continuum.
Thanks!
Vicky
Hi Paloma!
ReplyDeleteIt is true that when we consider assessment, we try to find the easiest way to do it in order to save time when giving tests and when marking them in order to present everything on time and fulfill the requirements and deadlines established by the authorities wherever we work. Unfortunately, as you said, through this formula we are just encouraging the students to fulfill forms and follow procedures, but we are not encouraging “critical thinking”, which should be the aim of any teacher of any subject. All the time we complain about the students’ performance and their poor critical thinking ability. But if we do not foster that ability in our students when assessing or whenever the moment during the teaching/learning process, what we do expect. Therefore, we have so many tasks to carry out presented through all the chapters we have read so far. But it is time to start and do our job more efficiently.
Best
Angie
Dear Paloma:
ReplyDeleteas you mention, assessment based on clear criteria is the answer to our problems. But although it sounds good we all know that it is a huge and difficult task. Teachers need to be absolutely conscious of the process we are leading our students and therefore criteria will be our ally. Otherwise it can become our headache. Don't you think?
Huges,
Scarlette
Indeed, and unfortunately, the majority of teachers of EFL, I dare saying, tend to get stuck into the realm of 'correctness', for it is always easier to design an objective test, which is easier to correct and which is supposedly valid, reliable and apparently objective. However, as Wiggins and Mc Tighe put forward, rubrics can be helpful when assessing not only performance but assessing students' understanding. As a matter of fact, it is not easy to try new assessment ways because it is always easier to remain silent, staring at the way-in to the huge maze of assessing rather than getting into trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel; for getting the precious light we are after, it is strictly necessary to give one step ahead from correctness going beyond what is apparently safe,stable and give our best to cross this big hazardous entanglement of assessing.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it is not enough to rely on common sense, sensitivity or even pedagogical intuition.
Dear Paloma,
ReplyDeleteWhen assessment is only concentrated in the product and not in the process as it occurs with summative assessment, it is purposeless. However, when formative assessment is used with clear objectives, we can measure the students' progress and we can have a closer follow up to what we expect our children to do.
Holistic rubrics can provide a general pictures; yet analytic are the ones which tell thoroughly what to work on and set specific goals to carry on learning improvements.
As you said the most advisable way of assessing is using rubrics, because they allow us to collect evidences from the different variables which are involved in the understanding process along with the interpretations of them, in order to perceive the weaknesses and strengths in the students’ learning. The idea is to perceive what are the flaws and virtues that the system shows and work on them trying to improve learning day after day.
ReplyDeleteI think looking for right criteria may not be difficult to find if we learnt to share our own problems among other teachers. It is well known we are mistrustful with our peers. Many reasons may be given; yes, it's true it's complex to find engaging activities that fill the purpose. Yes, it's true we don't share because we spend lot of time looking for activities, so it would be unfair giving them to others who may not appreciate what you do... Nevertheless, if we stopped thinking in such a selfish way, we would be able to ask for help when in trouble. By this I mean, if we need criteria to find, well, we could ask for help. If we need to check the validity of some rubric, well, we could ask for help. For sure we will find somebody, a more experienced teacher lending a hand to show us our own mistakes when making rubrics... If we just applied Vigotsky's theories for a while, everything would be different.
ReplyDeleteBye dear!