Chapter 1
Innovative Uses of Assessments for Teaching and Research Downloaded by 110.36.37.194 on November 8, 2015 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): December 3, 2014 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2014-1182.ch001
Lisa K. Kendhammer1 and Kristen L. Murphy*,2 1Department
of Chemistry, University of Georgia, 140 Cedar Street, Athens, Georgia 30602 2Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 3210 N. Cramer Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201 *E-mail:
[email protected].
Instruction and assessment are so common to teaching and learning that for many readers this may be second nature. There are certainly many kinds of instruction and assessment available to instructors, and these are chosen based on many factors. Where instruction may be more commonly discussed, assessments may be more guarded. Some may view assessments as any resource into understanding more about student learning, while others may view assessments in a narrower sense of hourly exams or final, summative exams. While these tests certainly do qualify as assessments and may have the necessity for being kept guarded (as some reuse tests or some use standardized tests), there are also other kinds of assessments that provide rich information about the efficacy of the instruction. Further, the results of assessments can be used to make decisions, such as course grades, and commonly may be associated with fulfilling that need. However, assessments can provide information to instructors and researchers about many other factors including students’ prior knowledge, conceptual understanding, longitudinal progression of knowledge, and misconceptions. Finally, classroom assessments are valuable tools to reflect locally on instruction and globally to consider student content knowledge when reflected on the longitudinal performance of students and the implications for the program.
© 2014 American Chemical Society In Innovative Uses of Assessments for Teaching and Research; Kendhammer, et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2014.
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Introduction What do students know? How do their prior knowledge and experiences shape this? What are their motivations for learning or their confidence in learning? How do we find this out? As instructors and researchers, these questions may be fundamental, but the manner in which these are answered is diverse and exciting. One method by which to answer these questions involves the use of assessments. Assessment may be viewed narrowly by some as course tests that are summative and formal. These classroom assessment techniques are important as they are used to judge what students know in terms of content knowledge and can contribute to the decisions of course grades. However, these assessments can be formative as they provide feedback to students about what they know and what they do not. Beyond this, content tests can be used to examine prior knowledge of students, and the feedback to instructors can guide future instruction and target the needs of the students. Other types of classroom assessments could include informal assessments for formative feedback to students, assessments specifically examining for student misconceptions, assessments built to examine aspects of the affective domain including self-efficacy or motivation, and assessments examining students’ metacognition. These assessments can take many forms, from forced-response tests (multiple-choice tests) to open-ended questionnaires or even student interviews. Where classroom assessment can provide implications for classroom instruction, programmatic assessment can provide implications for the collection of courses that constitute a program. Therefore, programmatic assessment may build on the same classroom assessment techniques, but these techniques are now considered in the context of the program. This could be considered for a single student or a cohort of students longitudinally, for a single course over an extended period of time, or commonly a collection of courses that build a program. Regardless, many different assessments can be used to reflect on the efficacy of a program, extending beyond summative final exams.
What Information Assessments Can Provide Logically, we expect to learn what students do or do not know about specific content areas from typical course assessments. We learn this through what students can or cannot do correctly on a test. This information can be valuable when assigning grades and providing more specific feedback to students about areas of strength or weakness. However, this can inform instructors when considering methods of instruction used for those specific content areas. Perhaps, the method of instruction was altered or more resources were provided: how did this affect the students’ content knowledge? Content tests may provide some information about this. Thinking beyond standard content tests, considering other, innovative assessments, we may enjoy a richer picture of what students know or understand by investigating prior knowledge, misconceptions, motivations, or self-concept. This can inform us as instructors so we can provide a better instructional 2 In Innovative Uses of Assessments for Teaching and Research; Kendhammer, et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2014.
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environment that can target areas of weakness. This can also inform us as researchers on different areas such as investigating how students learn and how prior experiences or perceptions affect learning. A word of caution about drawing conclusions based on information provided from assessments. The words “valid” and “reliable” are used commonly to describe assessment results and many researchers are careful in their conclusions based on limitations associated with establishing validity and reliability (1). As with any assessment or instrument, we must carefully consider what we are measuring and how we measure it. Validity checks should be considered routinely, particularly when developing new assessments (2). Innovation in developing and using assessments should not be hampered by adding validity and reliability checks, but rather strengthened because of this.
Purpose of This Book The purpose of this book is to provide a small collection of innovative ways that assessments have been used for classroom or programmatic assessment or for research investigations. This is by no means comprehensive, but rather a means to encourage innovation in other classrooms or in investigating other research. Therefore, this selection offers samples of assessments that have been developed or adapted, new assessment methods or techniques, new methods of providing feedback, or comparisons of methods for establishing test fairness. We hope this provides a spark or idea for innovative uses of assessment in other areas of teaching or research.
How To Use This Book There is no prescribed method for using this book. If an instructor or researcher has similar goals as described, then it is reasonable that the same or similar assessment may be used in the manner described. Even when using the same or similar population, one would expect that instructors or researchers would incorporate validity checks (2) in order to establish trust in the results and corresponding judgments made based on the assessments. It is also possible that instructors or researchers will consider the different types and uses of assessments presented and adapt these for different populations or testing environments or conditions. This new research would then add to the innovation initially presented here to further our collective knowledge of what students know. Finally, we also could expect that an instructor or researcher considering the work presented here could be invigorated to investigate new assessment pathways that would lead to new and innovative assessments for research and teaching. The book is organized into four general sections as shown in Table 1. The first section describes the processes by which assessments are constructed and used. The second section focuses on what is learned from assessments in an informal environment, including the use of practice exams and feedback provided to help students reflect on their own learning. Formal classroom assessments and the decisions associated with different assessments and techniques comprises 3 In Innovative Uses of Assessments for Teaching and Research; Kendhammer, et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2014.
the third section. The final section focuses on assessment goals and innovative investigations of student learning with descriptions of new assessments and new online tools for measuring student understanding.
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Table 1. Organization of the Chapters Section I
Chapters 2, 3, and 4
The Process By Which Assessments Are Developed And Evaluated And How This Can Facilitate Research
Section Ii
Chapters 5 and 6
Informal Classroom Assessments – Helping Students Reflect On Their Learning
Section Iii
Chapters 7 and 8
Formal Classroom Assessments – Gauging Student Learning
Section Iv
Chapters 9, 10, and 11
Assessment Goals And Innovative Methods For Investigating Student Learning
We hope that in whatever form you find this work useful, you are encouraged to investigate student learning that pushes us all to think about answering important questions such as, “What do my students know?”
References 1.
2.
Barbera, J., VandenPlas, J. R. All Assessment Materials Are Not Created Equal: The Myths about Instrument Development, Validity, and Reliability. In Investigating Classroom Myths through Research on Teaching and Learning; Bunce, D. M., VandenPlas, J. R., Eds.; ACS Symposium Series 1074; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2011; pp. 177−194. Arjoon, J. A.; Xu, X. Y.; Lewis, J. E. Understanding the State of the Art for Measurement in Chemistry Education Research: Examining the Psychometric Evidence. J. Chem. Educ. 2013, 90, 536–545.
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