Well, that is the question we have all been asking ourselves now isn't it??? Go ahead, nod emphatically....You can be honest!
In this chapter, Linda Suskie offers us two reasons to assess student learning: One, we are assessing student learning so that we can improve our teaching, our programs, our planning... and two, we are assessing student learning so that we are accountable to state and government agencies, to our students and because it helps us to validate our programs and their effectiveness. The chapter goes on to give many and various examples of these two reasons, but I think you get the pictures.
I can see us thinking about this in terms of improving student retention, improving quality of teaching, improving our professional development offerings by assessing student learning. For example, we improve student retention by employing more self-directed learning in the classroom -- actively involving the students in their own learning -- assessing that learning formatively and immediately adjusting our instruction as necessary (reviewing material again, offering the material to be learned using another method, etc) to ensure that students have learned the material. Our students get immediate feedback on their work, take a larger part in/responsibility for their own learning and therefore are more engaged in their courses. Thus, they are retained in our courses, we have all improved our quality of teaching and have learned something ourselves through persevering through the "assessment learning curve."
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Sabrina has started a great list of reasons why we want to assess to improve. For me, improvement is the primary reason for assessment! So if we think along with Suskie, we want to identify our assessment audience -- if we assess to improve, who would we want to report our results to primarily? What decisions would the results inform? Suskie offers that under the 'Learning Paradigm' assessment is used to improve curricula and pedagogies to bring about greater learning in our students.
ReplyDeleteSuskie offers some important ideas that we might want to consider as we attempt to locate the value of assessment at PAC --
1. Assessment helps students learn more effectively
2. Assessment activities bring faculty and staff together to discuss important issues.
3. Assessment activities help faculty and staff see how courses link together.
4. Assessment results provide feedback.
5. Assessment brings neglected issues to the forefront.
6. Assessment helps faculty and staff make better decisions and use limited resources more wisely
Suskie recommends that we plan assessments that yield detailed information on both strengths and weaknesses.
Suskie provides a great list of questions that assessment results might inform on pages 65 and 66 that may help us locate the value of assessment here at PAC!