I just got home from the last Assessment course and the celebratory dinner that followed. I got a lot out of this course, and I’m excited about the next one, Developmental Psychology, which starts in June.
My most recent journal entry is based on notes I made while reading Grant Wiggins‘ articles on assessment. Wiggins’ model of assessment is PBA – performance based assessment. Although this entry is late, I decided last week that I would rather suffer the late penalty than write something sub-par; my intention, once upon a time, was to compare the two Wiggins articles with the now-infamous Ramsden, Chapter 10. I’ll start, though, with my responses to the ‘Thinking ahead to assessments’ handout:
Exemplary task
According to Wiggins, a true test asks students to perform an exemplary task, that is, a task that reflects real-life situations. In Wiggins’ model of performance-based assessments (PBA), students are asked to deal with typical challenges they may face in a real-world workplace, as opposed to an artificial, academically-constructed scenario. An exemplary task, therefore, is one that one might encounter outside the academy.
Obviously, there are limits in the application of the PBA model in an MEQ (Ministry of Education, Quebec) regulated classroom. My students are required to write an essay which meets specific criteria, regardless of the fact that very few of them will find ‘essay-writing’ in their job descriptions in the future. However, essay-writing is a skill they will very likely need at the university level, so if we can expand Wiggins’ real world to include future academic endeavors, essays can be exemplary tasks. More to the point, however, I can easily incorporate shorter writing assignments that better fit the PBA mold, such as cover letters or e-mail correspondence, or adapt real-life situations to writing assignments, such as movie reviews or written response to feedback.
Human judgment and dialogue
In the real world (let’s assume no semantic debate about this, and simply take it as read that ‘real world’ refers to a student’s post-academic life), a professional in a typical workplace scenario can ask questions, clarify instructions, receive feedback, and use personal judgment to analyse a problem, and devise and implement a solution. In Wiggins’ PBA model, then, students should have the same opportunities and responsibilities.
One hopes that the typical classroom already allows students to ask questions to clarify instructions; Wiggins’ model, however, presumably offers this opportunity regardless of the assessment scenario (i.e., in-class writing, final exam, take-home, and so on). I would argue that not only should students be encouraged to model real-world behaviour in terms of dialogue, but also, that they be allowed access to texts, notes, and scrap paper for all writing assignments as well. After all, if I were to visit my doctor and ask her to diagnose a problem, I would be perfectly happy to watch her consult a medical text; furthermore, I would expect her to consult her notes from my previous visits. I would also expect her to ask me certain questions to better define my problem.
In their article Beyond the Red Pen: Clarifying Our Role in the Response Process, Bardine, Bardine and Deegan propose a comment conference. I believe that this strategy reflects Wiggins’ idea of human dialogue, and I intend to implement it in my courses. On the first assignment, students will be given feedback; I will then meet with each student individually to discuss my comments, make sure the student understands the symbols and how to address errors or weaknesses, point out strong points, and help the student design a personalized checklist for revision and future assignments, including the student’s ‘Big 3’ (i.e., the three most prevalent errors that the student can work to overcome). This is obviously a time-intensive process, and I will not repeat it during the semester. However, I will implement a feedback loop, and have students respond to feedback on at least one other written assignment.
Teach to the test
As Wiggins’ points out, the test sets the standards and directs student learning; if the test is “good,” then we should teach to the test. “The” test for Cegep students in my discipline is the English Exit Exam. Currently, I use a version of the EEE marking grid for all essays in all my courses. I also remind students of the course objectives, and try to make it clear how particular readings or assignments contribute to the fulfillment of those objectives. I do plan to make some changes, though; after reading the Vanier IPESA, I think I need to make preparing for the Exit Exam specifically part of my 102/103 courses. So I’ll make one of the course essays a practice EEE.
Genuine intellectual challenge
Wiggins believes that true tests reflect institutional values and standards, communicate information, and reveal strengths and weaknesses. As we’ve said so many times before, the assessment drives the learning. We can employ all the instructional strategies we’ve learned, but we ignore the assessment at our peril. Students study for the test, not the teacher! So, if we use a true test, à la Wiggins, and teach to that test, not only will our assessments meet the above criteria, but so too will our teaching.
Series of tests
One of the key points in Wiggins’ model of assessment is that assessment be on-going; this too reflects the idea that testing should model the real world. To go back to my doctor example: a general practitioner does not have a major case to diagnose and cure once a year; s/he has a series of common ailments to recognize and treat on a daily basis. To genuinely test students, then, we need to present a series of tests over a period of time, rather than the one big scary final exam. Final exams, if they are the only assessment, do not reflect the reality of post-academic life.
Furthermore, the series of tests, part of Wiggins’ PBA model, commingle nicely with the idea of scaffolding. For instance: I can start a 101 class with short writing assignments that include lots of in-class workshopping, peer work, outlining, step-by-step submissions with feedback, and so on. I can then gradually remove the scaffolding over a series of assessments over the 15 weeks of the course, until the students are at the final stage, at which they are capable of producing the MEQ 750-word essay.
Thoughtful understanding
The Performance-Based Assessment model asks students to display thoughtful understanding, measured by the students’ ability to understand and solve a new problem, perhaps using a novel approach. This concept of Wiggins reminded me of our mutual friend Bloom and his taxonomic concept of synthesis. In both cases, what we’re saying is that as teachers, we need to help students develop the habits of mind (as Wiggins calls them) that enable them to address a new problem using the tools and strategies they’ve learned with us. In fact, the English Exit Exam (and various other comprehensive assessments) is the kind of assessment scenario in which we’re measuring this thoughtful understanding: after three English courses, can our students read a new text and write a thoughtful essay about it?
Multiple varied tests
Variations on the PBA theme: if I can drag out my exemplary doctor again, the idea here is that in that series of common ailments encountered daily, there are different patients with different symptoms from different diseases. So true testing would reflect this variety, rather than testing a med student’s ability to diagnose an ear infection over and over again.
Presumably, in the college English class, this means that the series of assessments should not be simply essay-grammar test-essay-grammar test. As I said earlier, I can incorporate some shorter assessments such as CVs and correspondence, which would add variety as well as give students more opportunities to practice, get feedback, and identify their ‘Big 3.’
Problem of old conceptions
To a certain extent, this idea echoes Piaget’s notion of schema; Wiggins argues that misconceptions can arise when students try (naturally) to understand new information according to old concepts. When I read this, I immediately thought of all the times I’ve taught a new concept, only to hear “but Miss, my high school English teacher told us something different.” According to Wiggins, the big problem with old conceptions is not the conceptions, but the old methods of assessment, which don’t catch the misconceptions.
Despite my ardent affection for Mr. Wiggins, I can’t help but feel that in this particular area, he may be making a mountain of a molehill. Yes, those old concepts exist, and yes, may misdirect learning of a new concept temporarily while the student attempts to incorporate the new into the old. But if we look at the issue in terms of the Piaget model, the key word is ‘temporarily,’ not ‘misdirect.’ For example, if a toddler sees a hyena and says “doggie,” s/he’s made a mistake based on the schema – this is a four-legged animal with a snout and a tail, and it’s more doglike than catlike, therefore it’s a “doggie.” But then Mummy or Daddy or Teacher says “hyena,” and a new concept is added to the schema, and a new criterion added to the list of concept-makers.
Isn’t this exactly where the role of the teacher is essential? Through our teaching – and our assessments – we can help students incorporate the new into the old, perhaps using the old, and the differences in the new, to better teach the new. And, if we follow Wiggins through the next phase, he argues that assessment itself should be constructivist, and help students build more learning.
Criteria for success
Wiggins’ appeal for authentic testing culminates with his model of authentic criteria. As he points out, traditional models of testing present artificial problems, thus answers must be judged against artificial criteria. The examples that he uses to illustrate the PBA model of assessment are coaches of athletes and musicians: no matter how novice or seasoned, on the field or on the stage, the coaches’ players must perform, and will be judged by the audience on their performance, not their preconceived standard of ability based on age or experience.
At first glance, this idea seems potentially disastrous – but what Wiggins is calling for is transparency, deep learning, performance of real-world tasks, and everything else of which his PBA model is comprised. PBAs demand that the student not only learns the subject, but also internalizes the criteria; it’s as important for the performer to know what the audience expects as it is for the performer to know the script.
Habits of mind
What Wiggins’ Performance Based Assessment model comes down to is this phrase, ‘habits of mind.’ As teachers, especially as teachers with a respect for deeper learning and a desire to produce life-long learners, we should strive to instil in our students a way of thinking, not just fill them with a bunch of facts that they can regurgitate on a multiple-choice test and then forget. In our medical scenario, this means that the student does not circle answer B, ‘earache,’ in response to a question that lists three symptoms and provides four choices. Instead, the student learns to ask the right questions to gather the required information from a patient in order to make a diagnosis and prescribe a treatment. In my class, it means that students learn critical thinking skills, using literature as a means to the end. I don’t expect to turn out 100+ literature students each semester, but I do hope to help 100+ students hone their reading and writing skills, not to mention their analytical eye.
Earlier this term, we talked about the immeasurable ‘aesthetic appreciation’ objective in the MEQ description of college English courses. Perhaps if we think of this aesthetic appreciation in the Wiggins model, we can better understand how (and if) we can assess it. After all, as I find myself telling students at least once every semester, you don’t have to love everything you read, but you do have to be able to explain your reaction.
I think my appreciation of Wiggins comes from my new philosophy of the teacher as the provider of tools and instructions. In the PBA model, we can use assessment not to trip our students up (as Ramsden’s description of the mystique of assessment seems to do), but rather to shape learning, both in terms of our instructional strategies and our students’ learning strategies.