Assessment: Inquiry's Boogeyman

When something is difficult or outside of our comfort zone, we sometimes look for a reason not to do it. A barrier, an excuse or boogeyman. These barriers are real but sometimes they are self-imposed or misinterpreted and we perpetuate them to save us from having to change. Student inquiry is no different.

Our assessment practices can sometimes stifle innovation and keep us from embracing student inquiry. When people talk about the reasons why student inquiry won't work, they often point the finger at assessment. They don't have a problem with the self-directed learning or inquiry, their difficulty is with how they assess it. 

Applying traditional assessment techniques to student inquiry can be difficult, if not counterproductive. Assessment with static criteria and an emphasis on final answers and finished products doesn't support the learner who is involved in inquiry based learning. A balanced approach of triangulated assessment which focuses on feedback based on observations and conversations better supports the learner through the inquiry process. We get more of what we value and celebrate. A student focused on the final product or grade is less likely to take chances or create something new. 

So, how do we help students, teachers and parents to see that the assessment data collected from observations and conversations is more valuable to students when given during the learning process as feedback rather than at the end as a grade?

Assessing through Experience and Conversation

Education has continued to roll on for centuries. A machine that goes with little overall  change. During our first meeting of #scdsbTTOG, there now may be some light. I am an artist and a teacher, but am I critically reflective within these roles?  Cole & Knowles’s (2000) idea of becoming a teacher or educator is being rooted in the personal. According to Mezirow (1990) to understand and create meaning we must make sense of an experience. It is through personal conversations that true meanings and understanding can occur. It is during a process of deconstruction of experiences and learning that I am, along with my students, able to interpret the true meaning. Can these conversations occur through numerical assessment?? Hmmm....  

References:

Cole, A.L. & Knowles, G.J. (2000). Teaching as autobiographical inquiry. Researching  Teaching: Exploring teacher development through reflective inquiry. (14–24). Toronto: Allyn and Bacon.

Mezirow, J. (1990). How critical reflection triggers transformative learning.  Fostering critical reflection in adulthood: a guide to transforformative and emancipatory learning. (1-20). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.