Assessment as if Teaching Mattered

1
Assessment as if Teaching Mattered

• Nicholas Hunt-Bull, Philosophy and Politics
• Helen M. Packey, English and Writing Program
• Southern New Hampshire University

June 2, 2006 NEFDC Colloquium
2
A Drama in 5 Acts

• Introducing ourselves
• We had a big a mountain to climb

3
Act One

• Our Task Introducing assessment to a School of
  Liberal Arts

4
Reality Bites

• Legal Principle Dont ask a witness a question
  you dont already know the answer to
• We asked What do you think of when you hear
  assessment?

• Bureaucracy
• Nausea
• Stupid
• Ridiculous
• Barf

5
Act Two

• Our coercive power was zero
• So all we had was personal influence and argument

6
Multiple Choice Test

• Assessment is
• An educational fad
• A scam by the administration
• Both of the above ?

Even armed with Helens Law, this is hard to
overcome
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Inside/Outside

• Assessment may be essentially external or
  essentially internal
• External Education, Business, ESL
• Internal Liberal Arts a.k.a. Arts and Sciences

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Act Three

• Three Training sessions Faculty Teas with tea
  and cookies
• Thinking about your syllabus
• Thinking about your assignments
• If you are grading, you are doing assessment

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Act Four

• Lets show you what the first of these was like
• You are now a SNHU faculty member

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Act Five

• Closing Day Meeting
• We expected a hostile audience

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What Next?

• Very few came to our training sessions, but they
  hate us less
• Faculty must act on assessment or have it done to
  them
• Charge to the Chairs