Learning and Assessment: Written assignment part 2

I am going to reflect on various aspects covered in this session and discuss how I will use them in my teaching practice. I will explain why we assess and the potential barriers to effective assessment. I will evaluate the different types of assessment and consider the different roles they have in our educational contexts. I will work collaboratively in researching and creating an effective assessment, with clear success criteria that takes into account different starting points and addresses multiple intelligences.

Three rules to spark learning

The three rules that encourage learning include curiosity, trial and error and reflection. These three rules were taken from Ramsey Musallam who produced a video discussing these on TED. He specifically emphasises the importance of rule number one which is curiousity in which he states the importance of students asking questions on the topic of discussion and that it is important to that as an educator to cultivate curiosity in perplexing and confusing students into thinking about a proposed scenario relevant to the topic and get them questioning as to why certain things happen this way in order to 'spark their imagination' and encourage passion to the subject as Albert Einstein quotes, 'I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious'. However not all students are as curious as others. Rule number two is trial and error. A particular good example to demonstrate the use of trial and error in science would be to gather a range of partcicular equipment and place them onto tables that have been specifically allocated to groups and get the students on each table to solve the proposed problem using the equipment given through a process of trial and error. These could be differentiated scenarios with different equipment based on student capability. An important part of trial and error is building student resilience as referenced by the quote by Samuel Beckett (1989) 'Ever tried, ever failed, no matter. Try again, fail again, fail better'. However, some students are better at this than others which relates to the fight or flight principle. Those who fight are resilient and will try to overcome their failure by improving. There are others which present an obstacle in that they fear failure and don't necessarily know how to be resilient and its therefore teaching students to be resilient. The third rule would be reflection in which students reflect on areas that they are not so confident on based on class content discussion or assessment feedback in order to improve on next time whether it be in class discussion or assessment. Again I would say some students are better at reflecting and being self critical on their work more than others.  There is an evident link to Claxton's four R's within these three rules in building resilient learners as discussed in rule number two. Resourcefulness and reflective news would be evident in rule number three and reciprocity would be evident in all three rules.

Why we assess

It's important that we don't fall into the trap of  putting too much of the weighting on assessment as a measure of student progress. As some students may have made more progress than others, so what we assess and how we assess is very important. This is evident in that David Boud states 'Students can, with difficulty, escape from the effects of poor teaching, they cannot (by definition if they want to graduate) escape the effects of poor assessment. So it is important that we as an educational system know what to assess and how to assess correctly.

From the Ken Robinson video, 'Changing Education Paradigms', he states that assessment procedures in schools are wrong, this is important to acknowledge as stated by Derek Rowntree 'if we wish to discover the truth about an educational system, we must look to its assessment procedures' and 'assessment is important because students cannot avoid it.' All students must complete a set of exam papers for subjects in which they are given a grade, however, not all agree that this is the correct way to assess students progress. Some students are academic and some are more suited to work based apprenticeships. Students are judged and put into tiers. Some agree that this is stifling creativity in students and producing factory batch students based on how well they know the curriculum.

So why do we assess? There are many reasons. We assess to match learning experiences to the learner's needs i.e. in the form of questionnaires to ensure that we are assessing students based on what they have been taught, to seek to measure progress i.e how well they are performing using grades, to generate effective feedback to learners so that the student can reflect and improve, to enable relative and absolute judgements, to build in a competitive dimension into the learning environment for students which can improve motivation for some students, to measure competencies across a wide range of skills-sets, to rank student performance and to discover the future potential of the learner.

However,  there are difficulties with assessment, such as, assessment without purpose, so for example within schools is a academic calendar of assessment dates when assessments must be completed and recorded on the school system, However, the assessment date may fall on a date in which you as a teacher have not completed the teaching for and so when the student comes to complete the paper they have not been taught all the relevant material so it becomes an informative assessment. Sometimes the assessment objectives in lesson are unclear so students are not sure on what they will be assessed on in the exam. In schools students sometimes have too many assessments which can actually encroach on their learning within lessons and the learning becomes very staggered because teaching has to stop in order for an assessment to be performed and then the student needs to reflect on their feedback. Some students are assessed with methods that are inappropriate and unreliable for example linking to Ken Robinsons video in that some students are not academic and are more 'hands on skills based' for work in the trade industry so by academically assessing them is inappropriate and produces an unreliable picture of the potential of that student and peer assessment can prove unreliable as the student doesn't really understand what the student has written in response to the question. The form of assessment does not always assess all the multiple intelligences of an individual. Sometimes assessment can be demotivating for less successful students which can lead to problems with engagement and attendance to lessons which can lead to unhealthy forms of competition within the learning environment.  As Long (2000) states, 'assessment is.....a major part of the educational process, and without it, teaching would be a rather unfocused activity. The fact remains, however, that a great deal of testing is implemented with limited justification'. So are we assessing too much??

Types of Assessment

There are many different methods we use to assess students, these can be diagnostic, formative and summative. But as stated previously there are difficulties with these are they can sometimes be inappropriate and unreliable.

Diagnostic assessments are used to diagnose the level of learning that has been achieved by students i.e entry level tests/learning style assessments. Generally used at the start of the academic year to determine what level of teaching or support may be required. These can be used at the end of a lecture of series of lectures for example plenaries to see if students have understood the lesson. However, in order for this type of assessment to be an effective student learning tool there needs to be an element of feedback.

Formative assessments are given throughout the course and provide feedback to students to help them improve their performance. The feedback can be from the teacher, their peers or external agents. There are pros and cons to peer assessment. The pros being that peer assessment can benefit students in their understanding and in using the assessment criteria, however, not all peers understand the mark scheme and correlate it correctly to what the student has written based on their lack of knowledge and comprehension of the question. Hattie (2003) tabulated the most effective influence to student learning was feedback.

Summative assessments may or may not include feedback. The main difference between this form of assessment compared to the others is that grades are awarded. The grade will indicate performance against the standards set for the assessment task. This form of assessment can be given throughout the academic year or at the end of a course or module.

So what can we assess?? The areas we assess are knowledge, which deals with factual information , skills which deals with 'how' we do things and understanding which is the ability to use information. However, not all assessments have an equal proportion of these areas. Fleming and Chambers (1963) found that nearly 80% of all questions in school tests dealt only with factual information. The reasoning for this was that 'the ease of using simple knowledge-based assessments, since tests which incorporate children's use of skills and understanding tend to be too time consuming to design and implement (Long, 2000). An area that is missing that should be assessed is aptitude which assesses the potential for future attainment i.e. How are you clever? Not how clever are you?. However, aptitude is difficult to teach and difficult to give feedback on.

If I was an Ofsted inspector I would expect a schools approach to outstanding assessment to be outstanding in teaching and learning in terms of assessment meeting all student needs and incorporating all levels of assessment, outstanding management and leadership in terms of setting the assessments and setting intervention and support for underperforming students and outstanding behavioural outcomes in that all students are making progress and are engaged in lessons. In terms of approach to a school that requires improvement assessment methodologies in terms of teaching and learning and assessment feedback are lacking, poor leadership and management in terms of organising assessments and intervention and support for underperforming student, and poor behavioural outcomes i.e poor attendance and lack of engagement within lessons.

References

Attfied., R . National College for School Leadership. Improving the quality of teaching. Thinkpiece Improving the quality of teaching Level 2. Pg 8.

Taylor., M. Learning and Assessment. Presentation notes. Date 27 February 2017.

Learning and Assessment: Written Assignment Part 1.

Surface and Deep Learning

Surface learning is termed ‘fast thinking’ and deep learning is termed ‘slow thinking’. With surface learning it generally associated with a reaction to an immediate problem in which the student uses association to try and solve the problem, however, without deeper understanding this method of learning can be open to mistakes and the student may not understand the proposed concept correctly. Whereas with deep learning the student takes time to solve the problem and comprehend what the question is asking them about. With deep learning students try to make sense of abstract meaning and relate it to the real world. They have a much more deeper understanding of the concept. Whereas with surface learning its more of a quantitative increase in knowledge where the learning os acquiring knowledge, it ‘knowing a lot’ but not necessarily understanding it and being able to relate it to the real world. Surface learning is more about memorising facts, skills and methods and being able to use them when necessary. I do think with the time constraints and the content of the course that lessons are fast paced and sometimes I feel that the students do not have the chance in lesson to pursue deep learning. However, outside the class they can but students need to develop their self-discipline in order to do this.

Learning Theorists-which of these resonate with your own practice?

I believe that may role as the educator is to structure the content of the learning activities within the lesson as the view of the learning process that I tend to mainly focus on in class is that of the cognitivist where the learning is an internal mental process focussing on cognitive development, intelligence and learning how to learn. The theorists Koffka, Kohler, Lewin, Piaget, Ausubel, Bruner and Gagne proposed that learning requires cognitive structuring in which students must be able to learn new material in order to understand the concepts and with A level Biology there is a high content level in which the students must be able to learn and apply so students therefore develop a capacity and skills to learn better. They are older students so the behavioural learning process is not needed to be developed as much in the class as they are students who want to be there and are there to learn, however, that is not to say that behaviour is not an issue in the class. As the educator I have had to arrange the environment within the classroom to elicit the desired response to the topic we are discussing for example a seating plan, working is specific allocated groups etc in order to prevent disruptive behaviour. The humanist approach has also needed to be employed in order to motivate students in what they can aspire to be in terms of career. Social and situational learning has also been utilized in class as students can learn a lot from other members of the class through conversation and participation in class activities and questioning as well as from outside speakers from the community coming into class to discuss careers and topics studied.  Sutton Trust data (2011) states that a student taught by an effective teacher gains 40% more in their learning than a child who is taught by a poor teacher with insufficient skills. Developing good practice with regards to teaching and learning is available in the Ofsted framework (2011) and Lorin Anderson’s modified version of Bloom’s Taxonomy, however Claxton warns of flow diagrams and checklists as “a very good place to start thinking about learning-but they are an awful place to stop”.

Fight vs Flight-why is this relevant to our classrooms?

All students are different, they have different personalities, capabilities, intelligences, learning styles, social and economic backgrounds and when given an activity to do, some students react to it better than others. For some students it may not be clear what it is that they need to do. They can then go into the ‘fight or flight’ mode in which they start to become overwhelmed, feel pressured and start to panic which results in them avoiding the activity, copying off someone who does or being disruptive. This is important as a teacher in that I need to be able to understand all my students abilities and be able to produce differentiated resources in order for my students to progress.

Gardner-Multiple intelligences

From conducting the Multiple Intelligences Test based on Howard Gardner’s MI model which states that you are happiest and most successful when you learn, develop and work in ways that make best use of your natural intelligences. This acts as an indicator to help you to focus on the sort of learning and work that will be most fulfilling and rewarding to you. I tended to score highest in musical and intrapersonal intelligence types. These indicate my natural strengths and potential (my natural intelligences). From the description for intelligence type ‘Musical’ it states that I have a musical ability, awareness and appreciation and use of sound; recognition of tonal and rhythmic patterns and understands the relationship between sound and feeling. Typical roles that I would excel in include becoming a musician or acoustic engineer and a plethora of others. Related tasks I would perform well at include performing a musical piece, playing a musical instrument or coaching someone to play a musical instrument. My preferred learning style is though rhythm. This intelligence type could originate from the fact that I have a deep passion for music and have been since a young age because I have come from a musical background which has always inspired me. My second intelligence type was that of ‘Intrapersonal’. The intelligence description that accompanies this is that of self-awareness and the ability to understand oneself and one’s own relationships to others and the world. Related activities would be to consider and decide one’s own aims and personal changes required to achieve them. I would say I prefer to do a lot of self-reflection and self-discovery in order to become a better person and to succeed to the best potential that I can. This tool could be employed in class to students for them to find out what career that would be best able to excel at based on their natural intelligence types.  There are various methods that students can use that utilize their learning styles which also encourage creativity, these include: ImageSmart, BodySmart, LogicSmart, NatureSmart, SoundSmart, WordSmart, PeopleSmart and SelfSmart. For example, SoundSmart requires the student to make up a song about the information, thinking of background sounds that they associate with the learning, match the concepts with appropriate background music, imagine different rhythms or beats for the information and experiment with different ways of speaking to explain the information (loud, soft, fast and slow).

Claxton-the 4Rs-how we get students to learn

Professor Guy Claxton (1947-) is a British cognitive scientist and education theorist who has conducted influential work on the learning skills of children and young people. Claxton is renowned for his work on the ‘Building Learning Power’ project. Claxton believes that too much emphasis has been put onto importance of literacy and numeracy and schools have neglected the more general learning skills. Claxton suggests that the four R’s are involved when the brain is exercised and are important in the learning process. These include resilience (never giving up), resourcefulness (learning in a variety of ways), reflectiveness (being able to review one’s own learning) and reciprocity (being able to work alone and with others). I believe that these are important in learning successfully and effectively. Claxton has also identified eight ‘building blocks of learning power’ which teachers are encouraged to use in their work in order for students to learn best. They include curiosity (to develop a healthy scepticism), exploration (to look for solutions to problems), courage (when taking risks in learning), experimentation (trial and error to find appropriate answers), imagination (find creative breakthroughs), discipline (rigorous framework for learning), sociability (sharing ideas with others and listening to their views) and thoughtfulness (time and space for more creative learning). Claxton has also carried out work on ‘slow ways of knowing’. This very much reflects deep learning as opposed to surface learning. In Claxton’s publication, ‘Hare Brain Tortoise Mind’, he suggests that modern day thinking is fast and unreflective ‘hare brain’ and at the expense of slow more reflective ways of thinking ‘tortoise mind’ this can affect deeper understanding and perception. A further area of Claxton’s work involved looking at creativity and how it can be supported in the classroom. Claxton has suggested eight ‘I’s to creativity, they include immersion (being knowledgeable about the area to be developed), inquisitiveness (being curious and accepting there are no easy answers), investigation (knowing what to do when you get stuck), interaction (sharing relevant ideas with others), imagination (to find creative breakthroughs), intuition (what your gut feeling tells you), intellect (recognising that creativity requires careful thought and determination) and imitation (acknowledging the need to teachers to model creativity). I do believe that there is a massive emphasis on numeracy and literacy in class and this has stifled the ability of students to be creative and its trying to encourage students to become creative in lessons. Students are encouraged to use different methods of learning in class, students I have found generally prefer the teacher to stand at the front of the class and for students to take notes. However, I have tried to get away from this as there are other ways in which students can learn relating to the four R’s proposed by Claxton. Resilience in that students have had to get themselves back up again after poor performance in assessment, reflectiveness in that students are to assess their weaknesses and strengths in assessments to improve, resourcefulness in that students have to use a range of methods to acquire their knowledge be it online, textbooks, practice papers and reciprocity in that students should converse with others to seek out the knowledge that they need.

(1672 words)

References

Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/BERA-Ethical-Guidelines-2011.pdf (Date seen 2/12/17)

A Chapman and V Chislett MSc 2005, based on Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Model. From www.businessballs.com

Guy Claxton. http://www.guyclaxton.com/ (Date seen 16/2/17)

Robin Attfield. National College for School Leadership. Schools and Academies. Improving the quality of teaching Level 2.