comps reading - The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture

Written by Lorrie A Shepard, this article is about classroom assessment, the kind of assessment that can be integrated with instruction and be used to enhance learning.From historical perspectives Shepard first elaborated the transformation and relationship between curriculum, psychology, and measurement. Shepard finally summarized briefly some specific assessment strategies to make assessment more informative and more insightfully tied to learning steps. All the strategies serve a social, motivational purpose as well as a cognitive, informaitonal one.

For assessment itself, the transformation of assessment practices cannot be accomplished in separate tests and measurement courses, but rather should be a central concern in teaching methods courses. Assessment practices should change to be consistent with and support social constructivist pedagogy.

Regarding the historical perspectives, it can be divided into three phases:

1. curriculum: social efficiency vs. reformed vision
2. learning theory: Hereditarian (behaviorist, associationist) vs. cognitive & constructivist
3. measurement: scientific vs. classroom

Objective test is the realm of scientific measurement, and its dominance in classroom practices has not only affected more than the form of subject-matter knowledge, but also shaped beliefs about the nature of evidence and principles of fairness.

Classroom measurement is associated with "social-constructivist" conceptual framework, borrowing from cognitive, constructivist, and sociocultural theories. Within such framework, learning is viewed as an active process of mental construction and sense making, and both development and learning are primarily social processes. School learning, under such framework, should be authentic and connected to the world outside of school, not only to make learning more interesting and more motivating to students, but also to develop the ability to use knowledge in real-world settings.

In terms of the form and content of assessments, they should match challenging subject matter standards and serve to instantiate what it means to know and learn in each of the discipline. Good assessment tasks are interchangeable with good instructional tasks. However, under intense political pressure, test scores are likely to go up without a corresponding improvement in student learning, and external accountability testing leads to the de-skilling and de-profressionalization of teaching. These issues should be addressed.

Finally, with regards to assessment strategies, none of the 7 strategies listed below by themselves will be effective if they are not part of a more fundamental shift in classroom practices and expectations about learning. These strategies are:

1. dynamic, on-going assessment: ZPD, Activity Theory
2. assessment of of prior knowledge
3. the use of feedback: Lepper, Drake and O'Donnell-Johnson (1997) found that the most effective tutors do not routinely correct student errors directly; instead, they ignore errors when they are inconsequential to the solution process and forestall errors that the student has made previously by offering hints or asking leading questions
4. teaching for transfer: true understanding is flexible, connected, and generalizable.
5. explicit criteria
6. student self-assessment: serve cognitive purpose, increase students' responsibility (ownership) for their own learning, and make the relationship between teachers and students more collaborative
7. evaluation of teaching