Summer Graduate Teaching Scholars

Preparing to Teach 4:

Assessment

May 20 and 22

1 sgts.ucsd.edu

Course Design

sgts.ucsd.edu 2

What should

students

learn?

What are

students

learning?

What instructional

approaches

help students

learn?

Carl Wieman

Science Education Initiative

cwsei.ubc.ca

Vocabulary check: assessment

is that which gives a final

judgment of evaluation of

proficiency, such as grades or

scores.

(How Learning Works, p. 139)

explicitly communicates to students

about some specific aspects of

their performance relative to

specific target criteria, and …

provides information that helps

students progress toward meeting

those criteria…[It] informs

students’ subsequent learning.

(How Learning Works, p. 139)

sgts.ucsd.edu 3

summative assessment formative assessment

Grading Scheme

What grading scheme are you thinking about for

your course? How many marks for each?

midterm exam(s)

peer instruction quizzes / participation

homework every week

day

final exam / project / essay

final presentation ( see poster session!)

other?

sgts.ucsd.edu 4

Grading mindset

Which of these best describes your approach to points / marks / grades?

A) students earn points for work completed

B) I give students points for work they complete

C) students start at 100 and loose points

D) I grade on a curve

E) other

sgts.ucsd.edu 5

Warm-up: Multiple-choice

Write a multiple-choice question for one of

the learning outcomes you’ve drafted.

sgts.ucsd.edu 6

clarity Students waste no effort trying to figure out what’s

being asked.

context Is this topic currently being covered in class?

learning

outcome

Does the question make students do the right things

to demonstrate they grasp the concept?

distractors What do the “wrong” answers tell you about students’

thinking?

difficulty Is the question too easy? too hard?

stimulates

thoughtful

discussion

Will the question engage the students and spark

thoughtful discussions? Are there openings for you to

continue the discussion?

Feedback and Practice

that Enhance Learning Goal-directed practice coupled with

targeted feedback are critical to learning.

Goals can direct the nature of focused practice, provide the

basis for evaluating observed performance, and shape the

targeted feedback that guides students’ future efforts.

(How Learning Works, p. 127)

Targeted feedback gives students prioritized information

about how their performance does or does not meet the

criteria so they can understand how to improve their future

performance.

(How Learning Works, p. 141)

sgts.ucsd.edu 7

Assessment Strategies…

sgts.ucsd.edu 8

addressing the need for goal-directed practice

addressing the need for targeted feedback

Look over the How Learning

Works hand-out, thinking

about what you’ve

experienced or what you

want to do in your course.

sgts.ucsd.edu 9

sgts.ucsd.edu 10

sgts.ucsd.edu

Robert Talbert

tinyurl.com/RobertTalbertRubric

Mathematics Poster and Presentation Rubric

11

Rubrics

support growth mindsets

shows the path to improvement

goal-directed

Goals can direct the nature of focused practice, provide

the basis for evaluating observed performance, and

shape the targeted feedback that guides students’

future efforts.

targeted feedback

Targeted feedback gives students prioritized

information about how their performance does or

does not meet the criteria so they can understand

how to improve their future performance.

sgts.ucsd.edu 12

sgts.ucsd.edu 13

Short-answer question

sgts.ucsd.edu 14

Write an assessment question for your course based on

the learning outcome(s) you’ve drafted.

It doesn’t have to be a summative, exam question.

make a rubric to grade it AND provide feedback to students

be creative

Student presentations

gives each student an opportunity to show their knowledge

presentations take a lot of time

Instead, consider Poster Day

students prepare poster in groups of 3

all present simultaneously on Poster Day in public space – make it an event!

one person gives elevator speech while others evaluate peers’ posters using rubric (cycle thru partners). You and colleagues evaluate each poster, too, using rubric

requires ongoing scaffolding & support

See Talbert, R. Getting students involved with linear algebra through poster projects. Retrieved May 9, 2013, from http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2013/04/25/getting-students-involved-with-linear-algebra-through-poster-projects/

sgts.ucsd.edu 15

Next week

Teaching-as-research projects

sgts.ucsd.edu 16