Assessment and the Internet

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Assessment and the Internet

• Internet and Education
• Week 11

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Need for change!

• Changes in skills and knowledge needed for
  success
• Changes in our understanding of how students
  learn
• Relationship between assessment and instruction
  changing our learning goals

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What is the answer to effective and meaningful
assessment?
What gets assessed is what gets taught (Bond,
L.A.)
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Assessment reform

• Setting more appropriate targets for students
• Encourages curriculum reform
• Improves instruction and instructional methods
• Requires staff development

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Changes in teaching and learning

• Shifts in teacher attitudes and behaviour
• teacher- centred to student - centred
• individual tasks to collaborative work
• structured to exploratory
• competitive to cooperative activities
• classroom to whole world

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How does this impact on assessment?
What is taught and what is learned is usually
determined by what is measured. Assessment
determines what students learn.
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Assessment expectation

• State expectations
• School expectations
• Parent expectations
• Teacher expectations
• Student expectations

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Purposes of traditional Assessment

• Traditional assessment has tended
  characteristically to
• decontextualize the learning
• focus on reproductive learning outcomes
• make the evaluation process artificial and
  stressful
• ( Jonassen, 1996)

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The integration of Internet

• Fosters
• constructive learning
• critical thinking
• creative thinking
• reflective thinking
• development of problem solving skills
• collaboration

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Evaluation of learning outcomes

• Constructivist environments encourage
• negotiation between learners and teachers
• the provision of authentic tasks
• the representation of multiple perspectives and
  criteria

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Authentic Assessment

• Students involved in setting goals
• Measures both content and process
• Measures meaningful and instructional activities
• Uses higher level thinking and problem solving
  skills
• Contextualised in real-world situations
• Generally requires more time

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Types of assessment

• Performance assessment
• students ability to perform task and apply
  knowledge
• Writing tests
• measures language skills, content knowledge and
  thinking skills

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More types

• Portfolios
• describe achievements, progress and effort
• Culminating exhibitions
• address challenges of interdisciplinary analysis

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Assessment during collaboration

• The completion of many tasks involve
  collaboration.
• Assessment should therefore replicate the
  learning situation

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Assessment of knowledge construction

• Traditionally students performance usually
  compared with a standard
• Assessment should rather provide feedback
• Self assessment

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Criteria for evaluation

• Originality
• Complexity
• Coherence
• Inference
• Predictability
• Contextual relevance
• Repertoire of knowledge

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Assessing critical and higher order thinking
skills is difficult, but is it not more relevant
to todays societal demands?
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References

• Bond, L.A.(1995)Critical Issues Rethinking
  Assessment and its Role in Supporting Educational
  Reform Accessed, online 25/5/9 URL
  http//www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/ass
  ments/as700.htm
• Classroom assessment and Testing, Education 173
  Online Online, accessed 25/5/99 URL
  http//www.gse.uci.edu/ed173online/notes/173unit10
  .html

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References (2)

• Dietel, R.J. Herman,J.L. Knuth, R.A. (1991)
  What does research say about assessment?
  Accessed, online 25/5/99 URL
  http//www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/stw_esys/4assess.h
  tm
• Jonassen, D.H. (1996) Computers in the Classroom
  Mindtools for critical thinking, Prentice Hall,
  New Jersey.