I listened to the session by Gardner Campbell titled, “Asking Bigger Questions About Assessments.” I enjoyed Mr. Campbell’s presentation quite a lot. Mr. Campbell begins the session by stating, “Everything I need to know about assessment I learned from Shakespeare.”
A Midsummer Nights Dream asks, “How do you know when something is real or when we are dreaming?” and “Am I an ass?” Am I in the middle of a dream where everything looks one way to me, but differently to everyone else?” What if we make a fool of ourselves?
Hamlet is wondering who is guilty, who is innocent, whom may I trust, whom do I not trust?
Othello is the great assessment king demanding occular proof. He wants to see something that will proves his wife’s involvement with another. He acquires this proof, only to find that it’s not true.
King Leer begs the questions which of you love me more? Who loves me most? Using quantitative reasoning which do not work out very well in the end.
The question of proving it ……. that is the real question in assessment!!!!!!! As teachers we are wanting to prove it, prove that something we are doing as teachers is improving the knowledge and learning of our students. This is a question about our most fundamental questions of reality. Who are we as teachers? Who are our students as learners?
Proving it has been around for many, many years. The ancient Romans asked students to prove it publically, orally, usually in a chapel with the community and all professors involved in the process. There were social dimensions involved, relected a community. It as a test of credibility.
Due to time contraints, it is virtually impossible to have oral assessment in schools today. Moving to written assessment was not beneficial. It institutionalizes the process of proving it. It is very nerve-wracking and divorced from the community as a whole, but it is what we take for granted as the only method of “proving it.”
What do we do? “Scientific” educational assessment demands a control group. Our teaching changes from one period to the next and from one group of kids to the next. If we use Smart Boards in one class shouldn’t we use them with all classes? Tests of Metrics (SAT, ACT, LSAT, GRE, etc.) drives the curriculum in many situations.
IDEAS: Mr. Campbell offers several significantly thought-provoking ideas about assessment. He believes that assessment be a part of an open educational community in which experiences should be shared and showcased. Assessment should emerge from students and instructors. It should emerge from play and metaphor and involve witnessing. Witnessing being defined as when we prove it, how can we testify to it? There are many things we demonstrate that we can not measure. He advocates the web 2.0 tools as a forum for showcasing and sharing what we know and how we know it.
His final thoughts related back to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The quote at the end of the play states, “Our little lives are rounded but a sleep.” K-12 is such a short time in our lives to be a part of formal educational settings. We, as teachers, have a short time to be here, a short time to make a difference. It’s the time we spend together that should matter the most. What matters when we “prove it” is that we have a witness to the difference we have made. A door has opened, an horizon has been seen. We must share ourselves.
Mr. Campbell is so right in his reflections. As a math teacher, I have a hard time with alternative assessments. Math is so process driven and skill oriented. It is so black and white. I am happy to open myself up to alternative, web 2.0 tools and methods of “sharing.”
