LLCU 424 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Motivation, Content Validity
1 Nov 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chapter 6 - Alternative Assessments
● Alternatives in assessments…
○ Require students to perform, create, produce, or do something
○ Use real-world contexts or simulations
○ Make them nonintrusive by extending them into day-to-day classroom activities
○ Allow students to be assessed on what they normally do in class every day
○ Use tasks that represent meaningful instructional activities
○ Focus on processes as well as products
○ Tap into higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills
○ Provide info on both strengths and weaknesses of students
○ Make them multiculturally sensitive
○ Ensure that people not machines, do the scoring, using human judgment
○ Encourage open disclosure of standards and rating criteria
○ Call on teachers to perform new instructional and assessment roles
● Dilemme of maximizing both practicality and washback
○ Large scale standardized tests - tend to be one-shot performance that are timed,
multiple-choice, decontextualized, norm-referenced, and that foster extrinsic
motivation
○ Most alternative tasks:
■ Open-ended in their time orientation and format
■ Contextualized to a curriculum
■ Referenced to the criteria (objectives) of that curriculum
■ Likely to build intrinsic motivation
○ Formal, standardized tests are almost by definition highly practical, reliable
instruments offering little washback or authenticity
○ By contrast, alternatives such as portfolios, conferencing with students, and
observation over time, require considerable time and effort making them less
practical and because their assessment is more subjective, they are also less
reliable
○ However, alternative techniques also offer markedly greater washback, are
superior formative measures, and, because of their authenticity, usually carry
greater content validity which cannot be said of formal standardized tests
● Performance-based assessment
Document Summary
Require students to perform, create, produce, or do something. Make them nonintrusive by extending them into day-to-day classroom activities. Allow students to be assessed on what they normally do in class every day. Use tasks that represent meaningful instructional activities. Focus on processes as well as products. Tap into higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills. Provide info on both strengths and weaknesses of students. Ensure that people not machines, do the scoring, using human judgment. Encourage open disclosure of standards and rating criteria. Call on teachers to perform new instructional and assessment roles. Dilemme of maximizing both practicality and washback. Large scale standardized tests - tend to be one-shot performance that are timed, multiple-choice, decontextualized, norm-referenced, and that foster extrinsic motivation. Open-ended in their time orientation and format. Referenced to the criteria (objectives) of that curriculum. Formal, standardized tests are almost by definition highly practical, reliable instruments offering little washback or authenticity.
