{"id":5117,"date":"2015-07-21T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/?p=5117"},"modified":"2015-07-19T10:07:57","modified_gmt":"2015-07-19T16:07:57","slug":"assessment-as-for-and-of-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2015\/07\/21\/assessment-as-for-and-of-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Assessment, AS, FOR, and OF Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.education.vic.gov.au\/school\/teachers\/support\/pages\/advice.aspx\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.education.vic.gov.au\/PublishingImages\/school\/teachers\/support\/forofas.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"264\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image Credit: Victoria (Australia) Department of Education and Training<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning.<\/p>\n<p>I came across this while working on my <a href=\"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/MagicBullet\/doku.php?id=book:book-toc\" target=\"_blank\">book<\/a>. This\u00a0approach has become part of the teaching\u00a0ideology throughout much of Canada (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wncp.ca\/media\/40539\/rethink.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">2006 for most of western Canada<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edu.gov.on.ca\/eng\/policyfunding\/growSuccess.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">2010 for Ontario<\/a>, and I&#8217;m not sure about the rest of Canada).<\/p>\n<p>I had not heard of this (not being a classroom teacher) and so had to look it up.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the skinny:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>AS: This one is formative and is intended to be used to help students learn.<\/li>\n<li>OF: This is the usual &#8211; summative assessment designed primarily to produce a grade or mark.<\/li>\n<li>FOR: This is\u00a0diagnostic assessment to inform teaching.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Very catchy.<\/p>\n<p>While I think the idea is a really good one, I have to wonder if this sort of thing is another one of those labeling exercises invented by a bunch of academics and education ministries that ends up restricting what we do rather than enriching and informing it. I think if I had to identify my assessments\u00a0explicitly in those terms during the design of my courses, my assessments would end up being\u00a0less organic than they are now.<\/p>\n<p>When I think about it though, most of the assessment I do now would be classified in the &#8220;for&#8221; and &#8220;as&#8221; categories. My approach these days is to design things for the students. If they learn what I need them to learn, I win (and so do they). I find that the &#8220;of&#8221; part is a side-effect of the other two, and the easiest of the three to design.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m always interested in learning more about how to teach and assess, but I&#8217;ve been teaching a very long time and I&#8217;ve seen a lot of ideas come and go. I have a pretty good idea of what I am comfortable with &#8211; even a really good idea will fall flat if it&#8217;s not the right fit for the person implementing it. It&#8217;s one reason why I don&#8217;t use narratives in my <a href=\"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2015\/07\/13\/8-part-series-on-gamification-as-a-post-industrial-paradigm-of-instruction-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\">gamified courses<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Since I have the luxury of designing my courses more or less how I choose, I mostly use what I learn to tweak things rather than adopting some new (or re-imagined, or contrived) doctrine. Can you tell I&#8217;m a little cynical? On the other hand, what I&#8217;m going now is the result of probably 20 years of experimentation and revision. My 1st 15 or so years of teaching don&#8217;t really count &#8211; there are exceptions of course, but I think many start off teaching pretty much the way they were taught, <a href=\"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2012\/08\/20\/on-jazz-teaching-and-lesson-sequencing\/\" target=\"_blank\">and it&#8217;s not until they have some miles under their wheels that they begin to be able to experiment<\/a>. In my case I had to get to a pretty deep comfort level with the material itself before I could play around with it. I&#8217;ve taught computer science most of my career, and it&#8217;s rare to get a class where the instructor is the expert on everything. There are always a few kids who know more about something I&#8217;m teaching than me. If I&#8217;m not really solid on the material then it&#8217;s hard to keep their respect.<\/p>\n<p>So, assessment AS, OF, and FOR is a great idea, just so long as it doesn&#8217;t become yet another formality imposed on teachers by administrations.<\/p>\n<div class='wp_likes' id='wp_likes_post-5117'><a class='like' href=\"javascript:wp_likes.like(5117);\" title='' ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-likes\/images\/like.png\" alt='' border='0'\/><\/a><span class='text'>Be the first to like.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class='like' ><a href=\"javascript:wp_likes.like(5117);\">Like<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='unlike' ><a href=\"javascript:wp_likes.unlike(5117);\">Unlike<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>The primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning. I came across this while working on my book. This\u00a0approach has become part of the teaching\u00a0ideology throughout much of Canada (2006 for most of western Canada, 2010 for &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2015\/07\/21\/assessment-as-for-and-of-learning\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,9,352,369,24],"tags":[388,144,126,15,393],"class_list":["post-5117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-educational-technology","category-gamification-2","category-higher-education","category-teaching-learning","tag-academia","tag-assessment","tag-gamification","tag-higher-education","tag-teaching-learning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Hsb6-1kx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7168,"url":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2018\/12\/10\/is-it-what-straight-a-students-get-wrong-or-is-it-what-we-get-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":5117,"position":0},"title":"IS it What Straight-A Students Get Wrong, or is it what WE get wrong?","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"December 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not the students' fault. Not making marks random, and reducing the risks of failure are what gives students more room to really think. We owe them that. We need to get rid of compartmentalized grading entirely, and quit blaming the students for responding appropriately to an unreasonable assessment system.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Academia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Academia","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/academia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7697,"url":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2024\/01\/19\/this-time-for-sure-2-2-2-2-2-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5117,"position":1},"title":"How Can Gamification be used to enhance PD and Training?","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"January 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This brief segment is from an interview that was recorded for the The Game-Based Learning Virtual Summit, held on Nov. 1-3, 2023 hosted by Dr. Patrick Felicia I was asked:\u00a0In what ways can games, gamification and simulations be utilized to enhance professional development and training in education, and what challenges\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Academia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Academia","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/academia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7685,"url":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2024\/01\/15\/this-time-for-sure-2-2-2-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5117,"position":2},"title":"Things I&#8217;ve Learned over 40+ years of Teaching","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"January 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This brief segment is from an interview that was recorded for the The Game-Based Learning Virtual Summit, held on Nov. 1-3, 2023 hosted by Dr. Patrick Felicia I was asked:\u00a0If you could give one piece of advice or share one key lesson you've learned throughout your career, what would it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Academia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Academia","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/academia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7699,"url":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2024\/01\/22\/this-time-for-sure-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5117,"position":3},"title":"Tackling Real-World Problems in Education Using Gamification (a.k.a. Gameful Learning)","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"January 22, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This brief segment is from an interview that was recorded for the The Game-Based Learning Virtual Summit, held on Nov. 1-3, 2023 hosted by Dr. Patrick Felicia I was asked:\u00a0How can games, gamification and simulations be designed to tackle complex, real-world challenges and encourage problem-solving skills among learners, both in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Academia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Academia","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/academia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7701,"url":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2024\/01\/26\/this-time-for-sure-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5117,"position":4},"title":"Accessibility and Inclusivity in Education Using Gamification (a.k.a. Gameful Learning)","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"January 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This brief segment is from an interview that was recorded for the The Game-Based Learning Virtual Summit, held on Nov. 1-3, 2023 hosted by Dr. Patrick Felicia I was asked:\u00a0What strategies can be employed to ensure that games, gamification, and simulation approaches are accessible to a diverse range of learners\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Academia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Academia","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/academia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7703,"url":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2024\/01\/29\/this-time-for-sure-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5117,"position":5},"title":"Looking Ahead at Gamification of Education (a.k.a. Gameful Learning)","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"January 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This brief segment is from an interview that was recorded for the The Game-Based Learning Virtual Summit, held on Nov. 1-3, 2023 hosted by Dr. Patrick Felicia I was asked:\u00a0Looking ahead, what innovations and trends do you anticipate in the intersection of games, gamification, and simulations? How can these developments\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Academia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Academia","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/academia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5117"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5141,"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117\/revisions\/5141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}