In my recent e- travels I stumbled upon a wonderful synopsis of Authentic Assessment done collaboratively by the University of Alberta and the University of Lethbridge. It’s wonderful to see even our scholarly institutions beginning to work together to get the most out their research. It is a very well laid out document that breaks down the key findings of a series of research books, articles and AISI projects. As I went through them, I couldn’t help but feel that most teachers in my experience are really well on their way to changing the way they look at learning and the purpose of assessment. We see that teachers are not simply blowing the dust off the test that they used for the last 7 years and recycling it, but rather are using a variety of different forms to ensure that they not only provide multiple paths for students to show their learning but also are using assessment in a formative way to guide their teaching. The article is realistic in its’ approach as well. It recognizes the weaknesses of authentic assessment and recognizes the value of traditional assessment as one of the tools to measure student performance. The most important principal – assessment is fair, that is it is valid and reliable.
The article goes on to give some wonderful suggestions for teachers in regards to creating a full assessment portfolio. Using traditional forms of assessment to measure the breadth of knowledge and using authentic assessment to measure depth of knowledge is a wonderful place to begin. It’s a nice breakdown and one worth the read.
Click here https://sharepoint.ecsrd.ca/learningcommunities/PLC/default.aspx and open the Literature Synopsis.
Keep Learning,
Dave
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