I am starting to get to the bottom of what sorts of ways I could shift my course and implement something that may have a transformative impact. I had a read of this blog by Will Richardson (Mindshift) called For students, the importance of doing work that matters. What got me intrigued was the idea that assessment shouldn't be a means to an end. We want students to be engaged in what they are doing and have a purpose or a reason for doing it.
I thought about myself as a learner when I read this and it made me think about the assessment that I truly got a lot out of whilst studying my Masters. One such assessment was creating a 4hr workshop for any group of learners, that taught them something specific about students on the spectrum. It had to be informed by theory also. I learnt more about the concepts in the course than I ever had by doing this assessment. I worked tirelessly to complete it and I think this was because I actually had to deliver the workshop. I did deliver it, to my son's educators at his daycare. I remember having such a sense of accomplishment from doing this activity, as it was real, I could use it, I was helping others and I intrinsically had an interest in this topic because my son has ASD, so I was educating his educators about something to do with him!
My question remains now, how do I change the assessment in my course to do the same thing? I thought it was authentic, but now that I have a think about it, I don't believe this to be true. I am asking them to research a health topic of their choice, find three reliable sources of evidence to inform them about that topic or problem, talk about what the topic or problem is, who it is affecting, what health professionals are involved and what is currently being done about the problem. What I need to do is find an assessment item that is about a real world problem related to health and still relates to the task at hand which is preparing my students for future study....
I will keep investigating....
I thought about myself as a learner when I read this and it made me think about the assessment that I truly got a lot out of whilst studying my Masters. One such assessment was creating a 4hr workshop for any group of learners, that taught them something specific about students on the spectrum. It had to be informed by theory also. I learnt more about the concepts in the course than I ever had by doing this assessment. I worked tirelessly to complete it and I think this was because I actually had to deliver the workshop. I did deliver it, to my son's educators at his daycare. I remember having such a sense of accomplishment from doing this activity, as it was real, I could use it, I was helping others and I intrinsically had an interest in this topic because my son has ASD, so I was educating his educators about something to do with him!
My question remains now, how do I change the assessment in my course to do the same thing? I thought it was authentic, but now that I have a think about it, I don't believe this to be true. I am asking them to research a health topic of their choice, find three reliable sources of evidence to inform them about that topic or problem, talk about what the topic or problem is, who it is affecting, what health professionals are involved and what is currently being done about the problem. What I need to do is find an assessment item that is about a real world problem related to health and still relates to the task at hand which is preparing my students for future study....
I will keep investigating....