Outcomes and
Assessment:
Making Sense
of What we are Teaching
By
Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano
Friday,
October 3, 2014
Twitter:
@jonacuso
Post
150
When dealing with outcomes and
assessment in teaching, it is important to consider various aspects to make
student learning meaningful, deep, and applicable to their future working
environment. For this reason it is a good idea to take into account the time
available to achieve learning goals. Likewise, the time required by students to
learn must also be considered. Similarly, the instructor had better estimate
the time required by a learner to demonstrate what they have been learning in
one’s class.
Bearing in mind “the time available,”
“the time required by students to learn,” and “the estimated time for learners
to demonstrate their recently-acquired knowledge,” now let us take a look at a
learning task that was given to drama students at Universidad Latina (San José,
Costa Rica) and how a measurable outcome was developed. To start with, as part
of the introductory part to classical Greek theater, learners were provided
with a Prezi presentation and an explanation
on how ancient Greek drama evolved from the Dionysian rites into a
sophisticated staging of tragedies and comedies. Secondly, a learning research
task was designed and developed to trigger student understanding on how
classical Greek dramatists encoded themes and topics into their plays. Finally,
students were told what the learning objective for this writing task was all
about, so they could produce a quality essay:
At the end of this segment of the course on
classical Greek theater and after reading Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, drama
students will write a short research essay identifying the play’s main themes.
This learning task took place between
September 15 and 29 (2014), being the 29 the due date to provide formative and
summative feedback to students. And when asked what kind of technique was used
for assessing the outcome that can be summarized as follows:
1) An online research project was
created for learners aligned with learning objective and the course outcomes.
2) In class they were instructed what
to do to guarantee that pupils will get into deep learning. Each step of the
assignment was explained to avoid misunderstandings.
3) An essay rubric was also given to
students so they could guide themselves while developing their writing and
critical thinking.
4) They were given back their online
assignments with formative and summative feedback which reflected the critical
thinking or deep learning projected by students into their writings.
Always bear in mind
|
Timing
|
Time available to achieve
learning goals
|
Consider
the time you have allotted in the course outline to achieve goals
|
Time required by students
to learn
|
|
Time for learners to
demonstrate their recently-acquired knowledge
|
Example:
My Drama Class at Universidad Latina:
Always bear in mind
|
Timing
|
Time available to achieve
learning goals
|
2 weeks – two sessions
|
Time required by students
to learn
|
2 weeks – a presentation
and a research paper
|
Time for learners to
demonstrate their recently-acquired knowledge
|
2 weeks – summative assessment
|
The combination of measurable learning
outcomes, along with the right assessment strategy can indeed produce some
great deep learning in the students. Learning is just not the possibility to
retrieve information that one has stored in one’s brain, but the chance of
using it in real world situations, either as college students or as teaching
professionals. Allowing students to demonstrate that they are able to use the
information provided to them via F2F or online teaching is a way to measure how
much they have learned and acquired new knowledge they can manipulate
independently when needed.
Pronunciation
Development
|
|
Reading Skills
Development
|
|
Curated Topics
Online
|
|
Royal
Child Academy of Mactan Inc. (2014, June 27). Assessment of Learning Outcomes.
Retrieved on October 3, 2014 from the Slide Share webpage at http://www.slideshare.net/royalchildacademylapulapu/assessment-of-learning-outcomes?related=1
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