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TIPS for Teachers-
Assessing
Project-Based Learning
Because instruction and learning is different in problem based settings than traditional instruction, problem based learning provides a challenges for many instructors at student evaluation.
Rather than focusing on facts, problem based learning often encourages active learning and growth towards self-directed learning:
- allowing students to define their own learning tasks (relevance and ownership of the problem);
- facilitating group learning, research and communication skills;
- ensuring knowledge of a specified subject domain;
- and transferring knowledge to novel situations.
Using only traditional tests are incompatible because they focus on factual knowledge and isolated skills (Ritchie, 1996).
Embedded assessments provide teachers with a sense of students' thinking at various points in the sequence of the problem.
They also prompt students to address relationships among important events and learning during the problem experience.
Such ongoing assessments may take a variety of forms to fit the learner and the problem experience. Based on assessment results, coaches may redirect the problem through instructional events or work with particular students to aid their understanding of the whole and parts of the problem (Torp & Sage, 1998).
Embedded
Assessment
This kind of ongoing assessment for learning places students within a dynamic framework of assessment events that are driven by four factors:
- Expectation. Students know that the products of their learning-such as journals, logs, letters, diagrams, predictions, position papers, presentations, progress reports, and problem statements-are substantiated with evidence and reflect benchmarks of good thinking (Perkins, 1992).
- Performance. Student performances or products, whether written or oral, representational or dramatic, place them in the problem's center as knowledge producers. These products must be thought-demanding(Perkins, 1993, p.7).
- Feedback. To progress, students must test their understanding against the thinking of others and evaluate the feedback. These others include peers, teachers, experts, parents, and community members. Feedback also makes learning a process characterized by rethinking, refining, restating, representing, renovating, and reconstructing.
- Integration and Elaboration. New understanding from further investigation, from the products of peers, from feedback, and from thought and reflection needs to be integrated into a holistic understanding and then stretched to see how it connects to the bigger picture and has meaning for students' lives. Assessment then becomes a series of ongoing learning events fueling the learning process, rather than endpoints signaling closure (Simmons, 1994).
Multiple Types of Assessment in PBL
With multiple purposes for problem-based learning, it is important to consider a variety of types of assessment opportunities.
Traditional written examinations can be conducted either as closed-book or open-book examinations. Questions should be designed to ensure transference of skills to similar problems or subject domains (Ritchie, 1996).
Much of the learning that goes on during problem based learning is more than just a compilation of facts. As such, written examinations may not be an adequate measure of student growth. Requiring students to generate concept maps, in which they depict their knowledge through the creation of identified nodes and links, may present another option to determine their cognitive growth (Ritchie, 1996).
Because life outside the classroom usually requires working with others, peer assessment is a viable option to measure student growth. Providing students with an evaluation rubric often helps guide the peer evaluation process. This process also emphasizes the cooperative nature of the PBL environment (Ritchie, 1996).
An important element of problem based learning is to help students identify gaps in their knowledge base in order for more meaningful learning to result. Self-assessment allows students to think more carefully about what they know, what they do not know, and what they need to know to accomplish certain tasks (Ritchie, 1996).
The goal of assessment in problem-based learning is for students to understand the goals of the lesson and eventually be able to assess their own work. This type of self-assessment and the formative assessment allows the teacher to get feedback from which he can modify his instruction. Formative assessment is a must for problem- and project-based learning. Students must be given opportunities to participate reflective self-assessment and given a chance to make revisions based on the assessment (Torp & Sage, 1998).
The tutor must stimulate the self-monitoring process by asking questions
such as "Is there something more you need to know at this point?"
and "Are you certain of what you are saying or do you feel as though
this is something you ought to review?"(Williams,
1992)
The feedback provided by tutors should encourage the students to explore different ideas. It is important that facilitators not dominate the group--they should facilitate learning and exploration. Assessment should include comments about the individual's interaction with her group and her cognitive growth (Ritchie, 1996).
Because so much of work life revolves around presenting ideas and results to peers, oral presentation in problem-based learning provides students an opportunity to practice their communication skills. Presenting findings to their group, the class, or even a real-life audience can help strengthen these skills (Ritchie, 1996).
Written communication is another skill important for students. Requiring written reports allows students to practice this form of communication (Ritchie, 1996).
The teacher is responsible for observing students and obtaining evaluative data about their strengths and areas that need improvement. Occasionally, the teacher should as students to summarize--individually, or in writing--the connection between a particular hypothesis and the available data without looking at the board. Students should also be evaluated with respect to their problem-solving skills, communication, and interaction with members of the group (Williams, 1992).
Performance assessment is focused on students’ ability to apply knowledge in ill-defined, ambiguous contexts that demand judgment (Wiggins, 1993).
- Performance-based: Involving a performance or demonstration, usually for a real audience and useful purpose;
- Generative: Performance assessments have meaning for learner, producing information, a product, or a service;
- Seamless & Ongoing: Performance assessment is part of instruction and vice versa; students learn during assessment;
- Equitable: Performance assessments are culturally fair.
Linn, Baker, and Dunbar (1991) list the following key attributes for performance assessment:
- focuses on complex learning;
- engages higher order thinking and problem-solving skills;
- stimulates a wide range of active responses;
- involves challenging tasks that require multiple steps;
- requires significant commitments in terms of student time and effort.
It is important that students know what they’ll be expected to do in long-range, and complex projects. Rubrics that describe quality expectations also help challenge students to do their best.
Educators using instructional rubrics assess process, performance, and progress by delineating the various categories associated with assessment tasks and learning activities, the different levels of performance, and the indicators describing each level and then rating student performance that show their learning (Whittaker, Salend, & Duhaney, 2001).
Instructional rubrics can benefit students by helping them do the following:
- Understand the qualities associated with a specific task or assignment.
- Develop their critical-thinking skills.
- Self-assess their work.
Also, rubrics can help teachers:
- Clarify and communicate their expectations.
- Link assessment and instruction.
- Establish standards of excellence.
- Evaluate and grade their students' work.
Guidelines for Using Rubrics (Whittaker, Salend, & Duhaney, 2001)
- Discuss with others how performance is assessed.
- Examine sample assignments to identify exemplary features.
- Make sure the rubric is understandable, feasible, fair, unbiased, credible, and individualized.
- Teach and encourage students to use the rubricEvaluate students’ assignments using the rubric.
- Evaluate and revise the rubric.
Additional
Resource Information
- Creating Rubrics-Tools You Can Use: Education World's collection of links to rubric sites with information about each.
- PBL Checklists : Online interactive forms to create and print out your own rubrics.
- Teacher Tools: Rubrics: A variety of information including background information about rubrics, rubrics you can generate, and ready-made rubrics you can use.
Becoming
a Coach
|Asking
Good Questions | Using
Journals in Project-Based Lessons
Assessing Project-Based Learning|
Making
& Mnaging Long Range Projects |
Using
Interactive Tools
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