clear objectives and sound assessments: determining student achievement

1. clear objectives and sound assessments: determining student achievement Adjunct Faculty Retreat February 2, 2013 Gail Niklason, Ed.D. Louise R. Moulding, Ph.D.

2. Objectives • Do • Describe student actions – what do you want students to know or be able to do? • Contain a verb that accurately represents student action • Specify content • Do not • describe what you are going to do, produce, or present

3. Samples • Students who successfully complete this course should learn the following: • Conceptual understandings of physics in the areas of electricity, magnetism, optics, and modern physics. • Students will acquire… • Knowledge regarding the influence of the family, culture, school and other social systems on the growth and development of the child.

4. More samples • Describe appropriate emergency procedures in a variety of exercise settings. • Find, access, use and cite library and internet information. • Demonstrate an understanding of current theories of second-language acquisition research.

5. Taxonomy of Objectives • Remember • memorizing; • recognizing; • recalling identification and • recall of information • Who, what, when, where, how ...? • Describe • Understand (Comprehend) • interpreting; • translating from one medium to another; • describing in one's own words; • organization and selection of facts and ideas • Retell...

6. Taxonomy of Objectives • Apply • problem solving; • applying information to produce some result; • use of facts, rules and principles • How is...an example of...? • How is...related to...? • Why is...significant?

7. Taxonomy of Objectives • Analyze • subdividing something to show how it is put together; • finding the underlying structure of a communication; • identifying motives; • separation of a whole into component parts • Classify...according to... • Outline/diagram... • How does...compare/contrast with...? • What evidence can you list for...?

8. Taxonomy of Objectives • Evaluate • making value decisions about issues; • resolving controversies or differences of opinion; • development of opinions, judgments or decisions • Do you agree...? Why? • What is the most important...? • How would you decide about...? • What criteria would you use to assess...? • Create • creating a unique, original product that may be in verbal form or may be a physical object; • combination of ideas to form a new whole • What would you predict/infer from...? • How would you create/design a new...? • What might happen if you combined...? • What solutions would you suggest for...?

9. Objective table for revised taxonomy

10. Alignment of Objectives to Assessment • Bloom’s taxonomy and its revision by Anderson & Krathwohl provide guidance to the type of assessment items used by objective. • Simple objectives are best assessed with selected response. • Complex objectives, those requiring analysis of concepts, are best assessed with constructed response or products/projects.

11. Aligning Objective Type with Assessment Type

13. Purpose of Assessment • Formative • Formative informs • Provides information to both the teacher and the student about progress toward objectives • Summative • Content is expected to be mastered • Results are for decision-making about student achievement

14. Type of Assessment • Norm Referenced • Student performance is compared to others • Purpose is to rank and sort students • Someone will get an A and someone will fail • Criterion Referenced • Student performance is compared to criteria • Purpose is to determine if student is proficient • Everyone could get an A or everyone could fail