Inadvertent Outcomes (Part Two)
Let’s consider another example of our practices that might not achieve what we think they are achieving.
We teachers all want our students to be successful. A simple understanding of that success is that we want them to make good progress; we want them to become increasingly responsible; we want them to be people of good character hopefully as disciples of Christ.
One aspect of measuring “success” is our assessment processes.
My first question would be – Do we talk about “grading” or do we talk about “assessment”?
Grading implies bench-mark judgements; sometimes these adjudications do need to be made. Now and then it is good and healthy for teachers and students to know their attainment. But grading is not the major purpose of assessment.
Assessment has a very different meaning.
“The word ‘assess’ comes from the Latin verb ‘assidere’ meaning ‘to sit with’. In assessment one is supposed to sit with the learner. This implies it is something we do with and for students and not to students” (Green, 1998)
Assessment is relational and has growth as its purpose. It is not a distant judgment but a relational encouragement.
This is probably not the place for an extensive discussion about the purposes of assessment and the practices we tend to use.
I simply want to raise one issue that, I think, betrays our Biblical Christian thinking. That is the “0” mark for late submissions. This is a common “policy” in many schools.
Here’s my problem: assessment is designed to encourage the growth and development of a person’s competence; lateness can be an issue of poor responsibility or organisation. They are not the same issue. Using an assessment policy that decreases an assessment of competence because of an issue of poor compliance habits, can turn our assessment practice into a punishment tool. It actually does little to achieve our goals of 1. Encouraging progress and 2. Enhancing responsibility. It potentially confuses the two issues.
I would suggest that, because they are two issues, they maybe need two treatments.
Blessings
Brian
Reference:
Green, J. M. (1998, February). Constructing the way forward for all students. A speech delivered at “Innovations for Effective Schools” OECD/New Zealand