The article, “Three Key Questions on Measuring Learning,” written by Jay McTighe discussed educational strategies that can significantly enhance the creation of assessments to gauge students' different types of learning and comprehension. McTighe offers the idea that “any consideration of educational measurement must begin with the desired outcomes to be measured.” I completely agree with this statement because I have used this strategy as a teacher already when lesson planning. I tend to always start with the specific scientific objective that I want students to know and understand by the end of the lesson. I find this approach easier to use as an educator because every activity during the lesson is geared towards engaging the students so the knowledge of the lesson objective is embedded in their brains by the end of class. At the end of the period, all students should be able to use scientific explanation to dictate the lesson’s big idea. McTighe points out four educational goals that educators should keep in mind when designing lessons. These goals include knowledge goals, basic skills attainment goals, understanding/comprehension goals, and long-term transfer goals.
Knowledge goals, by definition, “specify what students should know” by the end of the lesson. Some examples of knowledge goals for a lesson include imparting to students scientific facts, concepts, and vocabulary terminology. These are standard goals of most lessons and are generally assessed through the use of tests, quizzes, and in-class teacher questioning. Students are tasked in each lesson to acquire certain basic skills. Basic skills attainment goals “state what students should be able to do.” Teachers can assess student attainment of these basic skills by using direct observation of student work or by requiring students to create an end product that can only be created using this newly acquired skill. McTighe also noted that “skill performances can be best tracked along a continuum of proficiency levels from novice to expert.” Understanding goals, by definition, refers to how students comprehend and understand the lesson’s big ideas, which can be abstract or concrete in nature. Examples of understanding goals can come in the form of having students understand scientific principles, concepts, current issues/events, themes or processes. Educators can assess if their lesson’s understanding goals were met if students can “provide explanations, justify conclusions, and support answers with evidence.” Students need to be able to do more than just answer a question, but also possess the ability to defend their reasoning using scientific explanation. Long-term transfer goals “refer to students’ capacity to apply what they have learned to a new situation or different context.” Transfer goals detail what we actually want students to be able to do with the information we are imparting to them in our lessons; the processes that we want them to be able to perform. Transfer goals are process oriented and transdisciplinary “encompassing complex skills like critical thinking and collaboration, or developmental habits of mind such as persistence and self-regulation.”
Incorporating all four of these goals into my lesson planning will have my students gain the big ideas that I want to impart during each of my lessons. My goals for my students are to be able to achieve all four of these goals when attaining scientific skills on the proficient to mastery levels. Should this occur then they will be garnering the 21st century skills needed to be successful in the world as well as possess the confidence needed to pursue STEM careers.
How should we assess concepts that matter?
Ultimately, what we as educators choose to place importance upon teaches our students what we think they should value. Thus author, Jay McTighe, makes a valid point in stating that “greater attention must be given to gathering evidence of authentic student work through performance tasks and projects.” While he points out that traditional methods of assessment are still valuable to the education process, educators need to make sure that students are able to make meaning out of what they are learning and it transfers value to their future endeavors beyond school.
In the article, “Put Understanding First,” written by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, we learn that when designing high school curriculum we should keep two long-term goals for student learning in mind. Students need to leave each lesson, each course, each high school having garnering the abilities to “make meaning” out of what they learned and they fully understand the lessons that are being transferred to them. “Learning for understanding requires that curriculum and instruction addresses three different but interrelated academic goals: helping students to (1) acquire important information and skills, (2) make meaning of the content, and (3) effectively transfer their learning to new situations both within school and beyond it.” These academic goals help educators obtain the central mission of schooling, which is having students learn their lessons for their own understanding. Authors Wiggins and McTighe offer three instructional approaches to accomplish these academic goals: direct instruction, facilitation, and coaching. Direct instruction strategies include lecturing, presenting multimedia presentations, demonstrations, guided practice, and feedback. Facilitation strategies seek to guide learners in processing lessons that explore complex problems such as using analogies, graphic organizers, simulations, problem-based learning, socratic seminars, reciprocal teaching, and student self-assessment. Lastly, coaching strategies include: conferencing, encouraging student self-assessment and reflection, and providing specific commentary, feedback, and corrections in the context of authentic application.
How might assessments serve learning?
Author, Jay McTighe, in the article, “Three Questions on Measuring Learning,” discussed assessment practices that enhances student learning. As previously mentioined, learning goals should be explicitly known prior to building the lesson plan. Thus, if the learning goals are known in the beginning then educators can design assessments that specifically test for their big ideas/objectives. Rubrics or other evaluative tools are generated and their criteria are presented fully at the beginning of the lesson. McTighe offers several suggestions to aid in assessment creation. These suggestions are as follows:
- set assessment tasks in realistic contexts that require application of the skills taught
- make assessments challenging, yet attainable
- generate assessments that are open, which mean they contain a single correct answer or a single way of accomplishing the intended task assignment
- at the end of the assignment, students are tasked to produce tangible products and/or performances to show evidence of their learning
- make sure their is an audience that can learn from the assessment other than the teacher
- offer students multiple ways to demonstrate their learning and/or how they go about answering the assignment task/prompt/process
- make sure students have opportunities to work in collaboration of others
- teachers should operate more like a coach to students offering detailed feedback at multiple points along the process
- students should be provided with feedback then allowed opportunities to practice, redo, or refine their work
- students are also encouraged to perform self-assessments of their work, reflect on their learning, and set future goals that is based on their assessment results
In these ways, students take control of their own learning and hold themselves responsible for their own work. I also feel that ifr students really engage in self-assessment then they will find that it ultimately strengthens their work ethic, which a good one is needed to lead a successful future career.
In what ways can we make feedback meaningful and effective?
In the final article of this week’s reading, “Seven Keys to Effective Feedback” by Grant Wiggins, we learn that feedback should not be advice. Instead, feedback should provide students with information on how they are progressing toward a specific goal and how they can alter their behavior in order to achieve that goal. “Helpful feedback is goal-referenced, tangible and transparent, actionable, user-friendly (specific and personalized), timely, ongoing, and consistent.” If educators can incorporate all seven of these elements in the feedback they offer students then their students will receive actionable, meaningful, and effective feedback that they can use to alter their work performance in order to enhance their learning and understanding.
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