Could a student perform well on the test without understanding?
This question posed by Wiggins made me reflect on the countless occasions I have designed or have answered tests which do not show real understanding. The so-called objective tests in which students choose the best alternative or answer true or false cannot demonstrate by any means the successful students’ understanding in any subject.
Why then we insist on this type of evaluation when we teach history, reading or writing in English as a first or second language? Quite simply because we do not have the time to put into a practice a complex evaluation system which involves the gathering of several samples so as to get a clear idea of students’ performance. To make things worse, we focus more attention on the design of activities and assessment that are interesting and engaging for students, all of which to the detriment of real and reliable samples of understanding.
Rubrics in this respect can help us a lot. They are certainly the best assessment method to evaluate oral or written production. Holistic rubrics can be used when an overall impression is required. They yield the same score for product or performance. The products are judged differently in an analytic rubric. Traits can be scored distinctively. Wiggins recommends the use of the analytic rubric renders better quality of feedback.
In sum, whether we choose the holistic or analytic rubric, we need to opt for a rubric; otherwise, we will never have a chance to see real understanding in students. It can be hard work, but it is worth the effort in the long run.
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Hi Roberto,
ResponderEliminarUnderstanding.....yes, how can we really know if our students really understand.
You say that rubrics are the solution....hmmmm.
I think there must be other methods for assessing different from rubrics that can show us understanding, otherwise all the assessing I've made until now is completely wrong since I'm just getting acquanted with rubrics.
Unfortunately I was never taught on how, or where or why to use them, were you?
Anyway...let's start using them, thy can be of great help.
Thanks
Vicky
Of course it is worth the effort, despite all the constraints and things we are to face in our daily teaching. One important thing you refer to is that rubrics can be of help to assess understanding; however, there are plenty of methods to assess students,other than rubrics, and I do not think rubrics are the 'magical cure for our pedagogical sickness'. Indeed rubrics can be helpful when we want to assess either product, performance or both. Nevertheless, I was never trained on how to designing nor how to use them, and that is one of the challenges I have to face now.
ResponderEliminarYou are right Roberto.
ResponderEliminarTime is a key issue in this profession. Unfortunately, in our system the amount of obstacles such us number of students per classes, hours in classrooms clearly make our task more and more difficult. We know how effective rubrics can be when assessing our students not only for us but also for them, the problem is that design those tools takes a long time just what we do not have. Moreover, it demands team work, another thing that is difficult to find in our works. But as let’s take into account that this needed effort is at first demanding but then it is a matter of checking and correcting to improve the assessment tools. We should try then to contribute to this teaching – learning process.
rubrics can be an excellent way of evaluation, but the problem with rubrics is that they are time consuming, you need time to prepare the perfect rubric to assess what you want to assess. It is easier and fastest to make a multiple choice or true/false test. But at the end the important thing is to evaluate knowledge and understanding so it does not matter the form, what matters is the final
ResponderEliminarIt's certain that we do not have the time to build up complex evaluation systems, but although the rubrics are time consuming instruments they are useful and neccesary but not the final solution.
ResponderEliminarThe assessment instrument will depend on the task we desgigned and the outcome we expect from our students BEFORE we designed the task.