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Office of Teaching
Effectiveness & Faculty Development |
Phone (303)556-4915 |
Teaching to Elicit Higher Levels of Thinking
(III - Self-assessment)
In recent issues, we have suggested two ways to
promote high-level thinking: (1) give
students a framework such as Bloom's taxonomy or the Perry model (given in past
newsletters at this web site) and (2) employ rubrics that disclose the
characteristics of high level thinking that you will use to mark graded work or
assignments. Both the framework and the rubrics are needed. Only if we inform students of what we are trying to do are we likely to
succeed in getting the results we want. This issue adds a third way: structure
formal capstone exercises that require self- assessment for each major lesson
or assignment.
Part of constructing meaningful educational
experiences surely involves "getting in students' way"
by directing them to topics that they would not otherwise choose to study on
their own and by using creative learning structures that students would not
discover by themselves. Yet, no matter how effectively we teach or what
pedagogies we employ, the only place that student learning occurs is in the
brain of the student. This means that another essential facet of meaningful educational experiences
involves our getting out of students' way. At some point, we
need to structure some personal experience that guarantees introspective
self-assessment through an experience that allows students to process learning by
reflecting upon what they have learned, how they learned and how learning
applies to them. Self-assessment can best be thought of as the capstone of any
good lesson—an exercise that takes place after the content has been learned
well enough to pass an exam or solve a complex problem.
Processing can certainly take place in the classroom.
Good cooperative and collaborative lessons or well-designed problem-based
exercises do this, but such processing is not enough. What is needed is some
formal assignment that allows the student to get away from class, from
orchestrated pedagogies and discussions, and to simply think, reflect and
generate a product about what has been learned and what it means. Probably no
institution does this better than Alverno College, a private school in
Wisconsin. Over about thirty years, the faculty there perfected an approach
that thoroughly incorporates self-assessment across the curriculum. The Alverno
model of self-assessment consists of a framework that addresses: (1)
observing oneself in action, (2) interpreting/analyzing one's own
performance, (3) judging one's own performance and (4) planning
for further development and growth. Each of these four components is evaluated
based on a rubric that describes reasoning expected at three stages (beginning,
intermediate and advanced) with criteria that together form an analog that is
very close to the Perry model. The Alverno folks did not copy Perry's
ideas--but they arrived at the same general schema as did Perry. This is
expected based upon what we presented in NN v9 n4--namely that
serious investigators who study levels of thinking and how to develop these in
students seem to arrive at common conclusions.
All self-assessments are done in writing and often through use of a self-assessment journal maintained by each student. Each major lesson may have a self-assessment assignment through which the student is guided by a series of prompts. The prompts are based upon the learning outcomes expected, the rubrics used for assessment of learning, and even the pedagogical design of a lesson. For instance, in a lesson that involved student groups' creating a product to reveal understanding of a discipline as a profession, the following prompts were include
1. Describe your group's understanding and the product produced.
2. In what ways were you pleased or displeased with the product.
3.Be specific and describe your personal contributions to the product's development.
4. Describe the interactions within your group and how feelings or emotions may have contributed to or hindered a "breakthrough" moment.
5. Identify specific goals for improvement that you will try to achieve in a similar future project.
Such efforts generate huge gains!
Have we
got a deal for you in February?! Turn page to see this year's workshop on
self-assessment and high level thinking! Also see the book discussion group
announcement.
Workshop on Higher Level Thinking and Self-Assessment
Friday February 15, 2002 8:30 A.M. - 3:30 P.M.
Executive Tower Inn
(just across
14th St. from The Denver Center for the Performing Arts)
Our annual Teaching Effectiveness workshop
in 2002 involves assessment and teaching for higher-level thinking. The
workshop site will again be at the Executive Tower with breakfast and lunch
supplied. Attendants will receive a copy of Self Assessment at Alverno College
(G. Loacker, ed., 162 p.) Alverno is a national leader in assessment as well as
high quality education, and they produced one of the most highly rated
workshops of all at the AAHE assessment conference held in Denver this past
July. Our instructors will be a team from Alverno College: Drs. Rebecca (Becky) Burton (Biology), Linda
Ehley (computer studies), and Daniel Leister (religious studies).
I would like to supply
UCD Faculty registrants with a copy of the book before the 2002 Spring
Semester, so register early and get a book before break! To do so please
contact
enuhfer@carbon.cudenver.edu. The final date will be confirmed
before this semester ends, and you will be notified of that date and a more
detailed description of the workshop.
CU-Denver
Teaching Effectiveness Book Discussion Group for Spring
Making the Most of
College: Students Speak their Minds
Richard J. Light's book received Harvard University Press's
annual prize for an outstanding publication about education and society. The
book is based upon interviews with students and is replete with practical ideas
based on what works from the viewpoint of students. Faculty here who have used
student management teams already know the value of talking to one's own
students about the process of teaching, learning and education. Light has
organized the presentations into chapters that focus on effective teaching,
advising, use of diversity, and development of a true learning community. Books
will be distributed to registrants in December and the discussion will take
place in Spring semester at a to-be-announced date and location. To register contact enuhfer@carbon.cudenver.edu. (This discussion group is
separate from and in addition to the CLAS book discussion groups that are
also sponsored by Office of
Teaching Effectiveness. )