References

Cizek, G. J., Andrade, H. L., & Bennett, R. E. (2019). Formative Assessment: History, Definition, and Progress. In Handbook of Formative Assessment in the Disciplines. Routledge.

Growth Mindset & Feedback

This implication is about growth mindset and feedback practices (Lewis et al., 2023). When we talk about growth mindset, we should think about the type of feedback that should be given to support the students. In fact, people believe there is positive and negative feedback and depending on the choices we make they will affect our growth. But feedback is supposed to be always positive. The idea of negative feedback is related to the experience of the person who receives it. 

When we talk about assessment, error correction, and mistakes, some people are traumatized with these topics because they remember several situations they needed to face related to the perspective of feedback like error correction as a bad thing. Lewis at al. (2023) mention the importance  of assessment for building a growth mindset. It interesting their focus on error correction as a positve way to help the students. Lewis at al. (2023) complement that  "Students with a growth mindset view errors and obstacles as opportunities for growth and welcome challenges and the opportunity to learn from their mistakes" (p. 2).

When we think about our students the assessment is a type of feedback. I do not think teachers create assessments to make the students feel bad. Unfortunately, I have heard some educators showing a type of excitement about the quantity of students that fail in their specific courses, but I do not think it is a good measure of success for an educator. The assessment should be part of the learning experience.  

We are supposed to instruct the students, but also learn with them. Students can give us feedback about the way we teach the topics we cover; this feedback should be seen as positive; it reflects the individual experience of each student we have.  

As teachers our feedback should help our students to grow. Teaching and learning are ongoing processes that require constant practice of feedback from both sides to keep everyone on track. When we tell our students what they need to improve is not to make them feel bad, but to help with their growth mindset. 

References

Lewis, H. M., Schneiter, K., & Tait, D. L. (2023). Using Assessments to Promote Growth Mindset in College Algebra. College Teaching, 0(0), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2023.2257832

Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning (SRL)

This implication is about Self-regulated learning – SLR and Metacognition. Chen & Bonner (2020) highlights the importance of SLR, and classroom assessment (CA) and they presented a framework called CA:SLR. According to them, this new framework can be used to build an understanding about the co-regulation of learning. 

Chen & Bonner (2020) also suggest that CA:SLR can also be used to understand the interaction between assessment and learning with teachers and students in the process of teaching and learning. This connection can also support the idea of thinking about thinking to help students to become more independent participants of the process. 

Thinking about metacognition and CA:SLR helped to understand the role of teachers and students, and how they can keep this strong connection to a more self-reflexive perspective about the process of monitoring, plan, evaluate, assess. Learning is important, but reflecting on it, i how it has evolved is a key path for building this awareness and critical thinking. 

Asking questions and looking for the answers is a strong skill to be developed in the context of teaching and learning and for self-assessment. The teacher reflects on his role of teaching by asking questions, the students reflect on their role of learning by asking questions. In fact, both are learning and building a strong partnership to make this experience more meaningful.  

References 

Peggy P. Chen & Sarah M. Bonner (2020) A framework for classroom assessment, learning, and self-regulation,Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 27:4, 373-393, DOI: 10.1080/0969594X.2019.1619515 

Differentiated and more Inclusive Classroom Assessment and Resources 

During this week, I had the opportunity to attend a remarkably interesting presentation about the article written by McCarthy et al. (2023) “Administration and results of a State Alternate Assessment Based on Alternate Academic Standards in Science for Students Who Are Blind and Have Low Vision”. One relevant piece of information from the reading is how we should think about visual impairments as a spectrum. There are different visual impairments. As educators we still need to learn about them, a present impact for the students due to this lack of training for the teachers is the little use of the material. It is available but supports only part of the group who needs it. 

  During the class we could see different mediums that could be used for visual impairments that opened my eyes to see that even when we talk about building an inclusive environment, we still need to reflect about the diverse types of options available. One piece of data that caught my attention from the article was the fact that even with resources in some schools available for all students, some educators do not use them. Sometimes because they do know how to use it, or because they feel it is too much work to start using this type of material. 

  Moon et al. (2020), "Using Differentiated Classroom Assessment to Enhance Student Learning" is another reading we had the opportunity to discuss during the week. It presents some important aspects about how to use assess students. One of the takeaways from this reading are the five research-supported pillars. 1 - Growth mindset, 2 - New knowledge, 3 - Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), 4 - Learning progressions, 5 - social classroom environment, and how they together may provide a more authentic instruction and assessment in the classroom. The authors highlight the importance of the teacher, the students, the content, and the environment to enhance the process of teaching and learning. Instruction and assessment, as the authors pointed, should contribute to the role growth of the students. The entire process is complex, and it changes according to specific factors. So, we can infer from the reading that this lack of respect for the students and process might affect education as a whole thing, and it might impact the future of our society. 

References 

Moon, T.R., Brighton, C.M., & Tomlinson, C.A. (2020). Using Differentiated Classroom Assessment to Enhance Student Learning (1st ed.). Routledge.

McCarthy, T., Schles, R. A., & Moore, D. W. (2023). Administration and Results of a State Alternate Assessment Based on Alternate Academic Standards in Science for Students Who Are Blind and Have Low Vision. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 117(1), 50–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145482X221149746

Assessment bias and fairness

When we think about assessment, we should consider bias as a natural part of the process of teaching and learning. However, as educators, we need to find ways to avoid the negative aspects they bring to our students. Education is subjective because teachers bring their own bias without any scientific evidence, some teachers do not realize they have bias. Sometimes these biases are implicit what makes the reflection about how they affect the students much more difficult. According to Taylor & Nolen (2022) "Assessment bias occurs when students of equal ability from different demographic groups have unequal likelihood of doing well on a particular item, task, test, or other assignment due to features within the assessment tool or assessment processes." (p. 22).  

  One example we gave when we were discussing bias is how in a multicultural context some students might be affected by them. For example, "How many states are there in America?", this question may be simple for any American student to give the answer, but it brings bias. Students from other contexts would think about the answer to this question in a different context. America is used as the name of the country (United States of America), but it is also the name of the continent that is divided in South America, North American and Central America. Students from the USA would just answer this question saying 50 states, but, other students would think about it, or ask the teacher to clarify if the question is about the USA. This time the student spends figuring out an answer is a stressful factor that might affect his development in the test. 

  This example looks simply, but other aspects are much more complicated. Taylor & Nolen (2022) and other scholars have highlighted that boys perform better in multiple-choice items while girls prefer open response items. We are not talking about not using the existing tests but changing them to include everyone. If a test is easier for one group and more difficult for another group, it should not be validated. A lack of reflection about the assessment would cause more inequality and specific groups would always have more disadvantages when taking the standardized tests. Students should have a global perspective about what they are learning, teachers and policy makers should include a global perspective on the process of teaching and learning and support all students to have the same opportunities. 

References 

Taylor, C. S., & Nolen, S. B. (2022). Culturally and socially responsible assessment: Theory, research, and practice. Teachers College Press.

Grading Practices & Assessment data-driven instruction

Teachers grade students for different reasons. When appropriately used, assessments can be useful for students, teachers and to society in general. It is important to use different assessments to build data and decide about what could be the best approach to help the students (Mandinach et al., 2012; Sondergeld, 2015). According to Sondergeld et al. (2015), we should have a pre-assessment or diagnostic assessment to understand the weakness and strengths of the students, then we could use this information to plan the following lessons and instruct the students the best we can.

Assessment to be authentic and meaningful needs to be connected to the student's needs and reality. One of the approaches we have discussed in our classes that brings aspects of formative assessment is the article “Online Project Based Learning – PBL and formative assessment” by Chanpet et al. (2020). Chanpet et al. (2020) mention this approach can be applied in person and online classrooms.The authors suggest that when applied in online classrooms, it shows satisfactory results. In-person and online classes are supposed to help the students to achieve their needs, this article brings the perspective that online PBL as a useful approach.

When students are engaged and motivated to learn, they build good relationships with their teachers. The assessment and the instruction needs to be connected to show the way students can create new paths and decide what and how to do. They complement data showing how technology can help teachers to connect better to students when applying online PBL. Chanpet et al. (2020) mentioned that “The challenge for the instructor who is assessing and scaffolding PBL is to be able to monitor, review, scaffold and assess the conversation that is at the heart of PBL.” (p. 686).  

References 

Mandinach, E. B. (2012). A perfect time for data use: Using data-driven decision making to inform practice. Educational Psychologist, 47(2), 71-85.

Sondergeld, T. A., Koskey, K. L., Stone, G. E., & Peters-Burton, E. E. (2015). Data-driven STEM assessment. In STEM Road Map (pp. 165-188). Routledge. 

Curry, K. A., Mwavita, M., Holter, A., & Harris, E. (2016). Getting Assessment Right at the Classroom Level: Using Formative Assessment for Decision Making. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 28(1), 89–104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-015-9226-5