At the pre-conference I
attended the session by Jennifer Sparrow about assessment data. Now
assessment data is not necessarily up there with the iPad mini in terms of
news-worthiness, but I had a pressing question about using assessment data in
the e-portfolios that we created at GIS last year.
You will see from my own
sample e-portfolio (and it is only sample, do bear that in mind) that at GIS we
are attempting to encapsulate a series of learner skills, what used to be
traditionally called 'soft skills' but are now seen as very important to the
schooling of all of our students in a lifelong learning sense. In
particular I am working in Asia, where the norm with school still tends to be
to learn by rote and to see 'soft skills' as something that is very much a
lower priority than achieving the highest possible grades in the easiest
possible way.
There is a whole debate
about the nature of learning there, but my angle - having created the
e-portolios to a large fanfare in the school - is...what comes next? It
is all very well building an online tool to allow you to showcase work, but do
we need to assess this in a formal way? Do we need rubrics and some form
of grading system that allows me to say that Johnny is more creative than
Sarah? Should I be the one judging that? Should it be peer
assessed?
Can/should we be applying
such formalised assessment procedures to the sorts of skills that can be a
little ephemeral and difficult to categorize?
Anyway Jennifer pointed
me towards Alverno
College in Milwaukee, which has a well-established signpost of what
they call 'abilities for today and tomorrow'. These abilities consist of:
•
communication
•
analysis
•
problem solving
•
valuing
•
social
interaction
•
developing a
global perspective
•
effective citizenship
•
aesthetic
engagement
The one that leaps out at
me here is aesthetic engagement - integrating the intuitive dimensions of
participation in the arts with broader social, cultural and theoretical
frameworks. Alverno is asking the students to demonstrate and master the
ability to engage with the arts and draw (ha!) meaning and value from artistic
expression. More details here on their webpage.
Jennifer also pointed me
towards a couple of links including MAP and the Descartes Continuum - and you have to admire a
continuum with the monicker Descartes. Sample
screen shot on this page.
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