This document discusses assessment in education. It defines formative and summative assessment, with formative assessment providing feedback to students to help them improve, while summative assessment makes final evaluations. It emphasizes that goal-directed practice coupled with timely and targeted feedback are critical for learning. Rubrics can introduce goal-directed practice by aligning learning outcomes, activities, and assessments and providing students a path for improvement through feedback. The document recommends planning courses by synchronizing these elements of learning outcomes, instructional approaches, and assessment.

1. What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
on target by hans_s on flickr CC-BY-ND

2. slides and resources: ctd.ucsd.edu/programs/fall-2013-weekly-workshops/
CTD WEEKLY WORKSHOPS:
ASSESSMENT
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
@polarisdotca
ctd.ucsd.edu
#ctducsd
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
12:00 – 12:50 pm Center Hall, Room 316

3. We know How People Learn
…and what it means for teaching [1]:
1. Teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting understanding that their students bring with
them. Classrooms must be learner centered.
2. Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth,
providing many examples in which the same concept
is at work and providing a firm foundation of
factual knowledge.
3. The teaching of metacognitive (“thinking about
thinking”) skills should be integrated into the
curriculum in a variety of subject areas.
3
Assessment

4. Scholarly approach to teaching:
learning
outcomes
(Nov 27)
What should
students
learn?
What are
students
learning?
What instructional
approaches
help students
learn?
Carl Wieman
Science Education Initiative
cwsei.ubc.ca
4
Assessment

5. Learning outcomes…
 clarify to the students and to the instructors the
what it means to “understand” each concept
 are statements that complete the sentence, “By this
end of this lesson/unit/course, you will be able to…”
 begins with an action verb, typically chosen by the
cognitive Bloom’s Level of the outcome (remember,
comprehend, apply, analyze, evaluate, create)
[Intro Astronomy] deduce from patterns in the properties of
the planets, moons, asteroids and other bodies that the Solar
System had single formation event.
5
Assessment

6. Scholarly approach to teaching:
learning
outcomes
(Nov 27)
What should
students
learn?
What are
students
learning?
What instructional
approaches
help students
learn?
Carl Wieman
Science Education Initiative
cwsei.ubc.ca
6
Assessment
assessment
(Dec 4)
alt to lecture
(Oct 30)
peer instruction,
(Nov 13)

7. Vocabulary check: assessment
summative assessment
formative assessment
is that which gives a final
judgment of evaluation of
proficiency, such as grades or
scores.
explicitly communicates to
students about some specific
aspects of their performance
relative to specific target
criteria, and … provides
information that helps students
progress toward meeting those
criteria…[It] informs students’
subsequent learning.
(How Learning Works, p. 139)
(How Learning Works, p. 139)
7
Assessment

8. Feedback and Practice that
Enhance Learning [2]
Solution: Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted
feedback are critical to learning.
Excellent Shot by Varsity Life on flickr CC
8
Assessment
Music by Piulet on flickr CC

9. Feedback and Practice that
Enhance Learning [2]
Solution: Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted
feedback are critical to learning.
[G]oals can direct the nature of focused practice, provide
the basis for evaluating observed performance, and shape
the targeted feedback that guides students’ future efforts.
[p. 127]
[T]argeted feedback gives students prioritized information
about how their performance does or does not meet the
criteria so they can understand how to improve their future
performance.
[p. 141]
9
Assessment

10. Feedback and Practice that
Enhance Learning [2]
Solution: Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted
feedback are critical to learning.
 practice is goal-directed
 productive practice
 timely feedback
 feedback at appropriate level
10
Assessment

11. Aside: exploring these characteristics
 analogy
Students come to the classroom with preconceptions
about how the world works…Teachers must draw out
and work with the preexisting understandings that their
students bring with them.
(How People Learn [1])
 contrasting cases
Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth,
providing many examples in which the same concept is
at work and providing a firm foundation of factual
knowledge
(How People Learn [1])
11
Assessment

12. Scenarios
Find the person with the same
colored sheet as you. Fill out
the sheet together.
feedback at feedback not at
appropriate level appropriate level
productive practice unproductive practice
practice is goal-directed practice not goal-directed
timely feedback untimely feedback
12
Assessment

13. teaching and learning
sport/hobby
Feedback at Appropriate Level
Feedback not at Appropriate Level

14. teaching and learning
sport/hobby
Productive Practice
Unproductive Practice

15. teaching and learning
sport/hobby
Practice Goal-directed
Practice not Goal-directed

16. teaching and learning
sport/hobby
Timely Feedback
Untimely Feedback

17. What kind of assessment introduces and supports
goal-directed, productive practice while giving
timely feedback at an appropriate level?
17
Assessment

18. 18
Assessment

19. Poster and Presentation Grading Rubric
CTD Weekly Workshops: Assessment
ctd.ucsd.edu/programs/fall-2013-weekly-workshops/
Robert Talbert
tinyurl.com/RobertTalbertRubric

20. Rubrics…
 goal-directed
[G]oals can direct the nature of focused practice,
provide the basis for evaluating observed
performance, and shape the targeted feedback that
guides students’ future efforts.
 targeted feedback
[T]argeted feedback gives students prioritized
information about how their performance does or
does not meet the criteria so they can understand
how to improve their future performance.
20
Assessment

21. Rubrics…
 need to be given BEFORE and BUILT INTO assignment
 outline what it takes to improve: path to improvement
 offer an appropriate level of challenge (defined by
the learning outcomes)
 support growth mindsets (see Dweck [3])
 give students opportunities to practice being
metacognitive
21
Assessment

22. Take Away:
Plan your course
by synchronizing and
aligning your learning
outcomes, activities and
assessments.
22
Assessment
What should
students
learn?
What are
students
learning?
What instructional
approaches
help students
learn?

23. References
1.
2.
Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M.C., & Norman, M.K.
(2010). How Learning Works. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.
3.
23
National Research Council (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind,
Experience, and School: Expanded Edition. J.D. Bransford, A.L Brown & R.R.
Cocking (Eds.),Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Dweck, C.S. (2007). The Secret to Raising Smart Kids. Scientific American,
18, 6, 36-43.
Assessment