1. 1 Issues of Assessment and Aligning Goals and Assessment.  Aligning goals and assessment.  Forms and purposes of assessment.

2. 2 At the end of this session… You will have:  Specified up to six learning outcomes for one of your classes.  Set out assessment tasks associated with those learning outcomes.  Know six reasons for assessment.  Be acquainted with characteristics of good assessment practices.  Be able to distinguish between formative and summative assessment; norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessment.  Forms and purposes of assessment

3. 3  Overall objective of teaching is to ….? help students learn.

4. 4 Three important learning issues to consider in course planning.  Goals What do you want students to learn?  Assessment 1.How will students learn what you intend them to learn? 2.How will you, students, and others know that students have learned? (and hence your objective as a teacher has been met)

5. 5 Aligning goals and assessment tasks – a task for you.  What learning outcomes have you specified for your class? That is, what specific skills and knowledge do you want your students to develop?

6. 6 J.W. Harrington UW 2001 ‘Geography of International Trade’ Be able to:  argue in favor of liberalized trade, to argue its pitfalls, and to explain who benefits and whose interests are harmed.  define "globalization" and be able to critique the various ways in which the word is used.  identify current, and to propose alternative, institutional arrangements toward international economic integration.  read arguments about trade policy, understanding the major instruments and organizations of trade policy.

7. 7 Lucy Jarosz UW 2003 ‘World Hunger and Resource Development’ Be able to:  make a good argument, expressed in effective written expression.  analyze a national economy, and carry out sector analysis.  critique concepts of development/ agrarian development & reform.  identify and assess efficacy of local solutions to global food problems.  explain ways in which food consumption is politically determined and socially constructed.

8. 8 Geography for the New Undergraduate (GNU), Liverpool Hope University. At the end of this course you will be able to:  interpret and compare data presented in a variety of formats; identify trends and comment upon these;  critically evaluate data and other material;  critically discuss issues arising from the study of information;  develop an effective argument in order to present your ideas; and  reflect upon your contribution to the discussion and evolve strategies to develop this ability.

9. 9 GLOOP.  You might think seriously about looking at the University of Washington’s Geography Learning Objectives and Outcomes Project (GLOOP) at:  http://nalu.geog.washington.edu/gloop/examplesp age.html http://nalu.geog.washington.edu/gloop/examplesp age.html  This site includes links to several courses with full and carefully considered learning objectives.

10. 10 Aligning goals and assessment tasks.  What learning outcomes have you specified for your class? What specific skills and knowledge do you want students to develop?  Try setting out no more than six outcomes for your class, beginning with the phrase: “At the end of this course students will be able to: ….”

11. 11 What kind of assessment?  Now, for each outcome, think about how will you know that students have achieved the learning outcomes you have specified?  To do this, specify the kinds of exercises or tests you plan to use that will allow students to practise and to demonstrate to you their skills/knowledge.

12. 12 Some examples of assessment task.  Exam.  Essay.  Practical work.  Laboratory report.  Field report.  Poster presentation.  Flyer production.  Media release.  Article review.  Group work.  Log book.  Map production.  Role play.  Spoken presentation….. See Angelo & Cross (1993) for a wide variety of others.

13. 13 Question.  What are the purposes of assessment – other than ‘measuring’ learning?

14. 14 Why assess?  Capture student attention and effort.  Generate appropriate learning activity.  Provide feedback to students.  Develop in students ability to monitor own learning standards.  Allocate marks.  Ensure accountability (to show outsiders that standards are satisfactory). Gibbs (1999)

15. 15 Types of assessment.  Formative assessment - teachers feed information back to students in ways that enable the student to learn better. May carry a grade.  Summative assessment - attempt to summarize student learning at some point in time, say the end of a course. May be formative in context of overall program.  Both should align with intended outcomes and with teaching content.

16. 16  Norm-referenced assessment.  Criterion-referenced assessment.  Increasingly ‘combined’.

17. 17 Norm-referenced assessment.  ‘Grading the curve’.  Set proportion of students receive set grades.  Work assessed relative to other students in class.

18. 18 Criterion-referenced assessment.  Direct link between extent to which specified criteria fulfilled and result achieved.  All students can pass or fail…  Does have some problems (see Hay 1995).

19. 19 Another Question.  What are the characteristics of good assessment?

20. 20 Assessment should be …  Timely so that students can use it for subsequent learning and work to be submitted.  Prompt so that students can recall what they did and thought at the time.  Supportive of learning so students have clear indications of how to improve their performance.  Focused on achievement, not effort. The work should be assessed, not the student  Specific to the learning outcomes.  Fostering of independence leading students to being capable of assessing their own work  Efficient for staff to do.

21. 21 What kind of assessment? Now revisit the course you are planning:  What forms of assessment will best allow as many of these ends to be achieved as possible?

22. 22 Useful references.  Angelo, T.A. & Cross, K.P. 1993, Classroom Assessment Techniques. A Handbook for College Teachers, 2 nd edn, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.  Flinders University 2003, Teaching for Learning Website, Available: http://www.flinders.edu.au/teach/ (13 May 2004).http://www.flinders.edu.au/teach/  Hay, I. 2002, Communicating in Geography and the Environmental Sciences, 2 nd edn, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.  Kearns, R.A. 2003, ‘Understanding assessment criteria’, in N.J. Clifford & G. Valentine (eds), Key Methods in Geography, Sage, London, pp. 533-549.  Nightingale, P., Te Wiata, I. et al. (eds), 1996 Assessing Learning in Universities, Professional Development Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney. Work/GFDA/assessment IH/ih 13 May 2004