‘Effective assessment provides opportunities for learners to demonstrate what they know and what they can do with what they know.’ (Queensland DET website, 2010, p.14) In considering authentic assessment as a means to ensure student success, it is worth considering the term assessment itself and also the many key terms that sometimes accompany it. The Queensland Department of Education document Years 1 – 10 Curriculum Framework for Education Queensland Schools suggests that… ‘Assessment is the purposeful, systematic and ongoing collection of information as evidence for use in making judgements about student learning.’ (Queensland Department of Education, 2001, p13). As such, it maintains that the purpose of assessment is to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their learning and teachers with the evidence of this learning. Also, it allows teachers to make judgements of this learning and, at the same time, provides the facility to inform all relevant stakeholders in the students’ learning of the student's success. From here, assessment can be categorised into two specific areas – formative and summative. Formative assessment is referred to in the Queensland DET Guidelines for assessing student achievement and moderating teacher judgments as being ‘for’ learning and summative ‘of’learning. It further explains formative assessment by citing OECD paper Formative Assessment, Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms, stating it as being “…the frequent, interactive assessments of student progress and understanding to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately” (OECD, 2005, p.21). The DET guidelines describe summative assessment as being assessment that contributes directly to recorded results, occurs at specific times and culminates in evidence that summarises a student’s learning up to a particular point in time (Queensland DET website, 2010). In considering what authentic assessment is, Mueller (2010) asserts that authentic assessment is student –centred and real-life, involving task performance, and offering direct evidence of achievement - as opposed to traditional assessment which is teacher-centred and contrived, involving selected responses, and offering the stakeholders indirect evidence of achievement. Mueller further elaborates the importance of authentic assessment by stating ‘(it is not enough that students)...know the content of disciplines when they graduate... (they must also be able to)...apply what they have learned in authentic situations.’ (Mueller, 2010, p2). From these definitions of formative, summative and authentic assessment, and as suggested by YU (2010), formative assessment is the ideal framework through which authentic assessment should be integrated into the classroom. According to Wiggins (2010), ‘Students reveal their understanding most effectively when they are provided with complex, authentic opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess.’ In order to achieve assessment in these authentic terms, it is worth considering the concept of backward design. By employing the backward design method, Wiggins would have designers ask questions like: ‘What would count as evidence of such achievement?’ ‘What does it look like to meet these goals?’ and ‘What, then, are the implied performances that should make up the assessment, toward which all teaching and learning should point?’ (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p.17). It is only upon answering these questions that logical and appropriate learning experience sequences can be designed thereby allowing students to meet the required standards. Further, when designing curriculum, teachers should try answering the ‘why’ and 'so what’ questions that are often on the minds of their students. If they can successfully answer these questions, authentic assessment is made possible (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). In practical terms, ‘backward design’ is broken into 3 stages (Team based learning website, 2010), the first being ‘Identifying desired learning outcomes.’ This is where the LM identifies and visualises a clear end goal for the learners. In this stage the LM would ask, and answer, such questions as ‘What enduring understandings are desired?’, ‘What should students know, understand, and be able to do?’ and ‘What is worth understanding?’ (Backwards design 101 website, 2010) The second stage of backward design is ‘Identifying how one will know if the students know’ (Team based learning website, 2010). Here, the LM determines how the learners will demonstrate their knowledge, focussing on the assessment process before creating the learning experiences. The third stage is ‘Planning learning experiences and instruction’ (Team based learning website, 2010). In this stage the LM creates the learning experiences for the learners, with each experience informed by the standards set in the first 2 stages.Wiggins likens the concept of backward design in education to the same concept in travel, where, ‘if you don’t know where you are going, any road will lead you there’ (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p14). Meaning, without a clear vision of the end result, the assessment process lays itself open to losing its way.
In considering authentic assessment as a means to ensure student success, it is worth considering the term assessment itself and also the many key terms that sometimes accompany it.
The Queensland Department of Education document Years 1 – 10 Curriculum Framework for Education Queensland Schools suggests that… ‘Assessment is the purposeful, systematic and ongoing collection of information as evidence for use in making judgements about student learning.’ (Queensland Department of Education, 2001, p13). As such, it maintains that the purpose of assessment is to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their learning and teachers with the evidence of this learning. Also, it allows teachers to make judgements of this learning and, at the same time, provides the facility to inform all relevant stakeholders in the students’ learning of the student's success. From here, assessment can be categorised into two specific areas – formative and summative. Formative assessment is referred to in the Queensland DET Guidelines for assessing student achievement and moderating teacher judgments as being ‘for’ learning and summative ‘of’ learning. It further explains formative assessment by citing OECD paper Formative Assessment, Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms, stating it as being “…the frequent, interactive assessments of student progress and understanding to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately” (OECD, 2005, p.21). The DET guidelines describe summative assessment as being assessment that contributes directly to recorded results, occurs at specific times and culminates in evidence that summarises a student’s learning up to a particular point in time (Queensland DET website, 2010).
In considering what authentic assessment is, Mueller (2010) asserts that authentic assessment is student –centred and real-life, involving task performance, and offering direct evidence of achievement - as opposed to traditional assessment which is teacher-centred and contrived, involving selected responses, and offering the stakeholders indirect evidence of achievement. Mueller further elaborates the importance of authentic assessment by stating ‘(it is not enough that students)...know the content of disciplines when they graduate... (they must also be able to)...apply what they have learned in authentic situations.’ (Mueller, 2010, p2).
From these definitions of formative, summative and authentic assessment, and as suggested by YU (2010), formative assessment is the ideal framework through which authentic assessment should be integrated into the classroom.
According to Wiggins (2010), ‘Students reveal their understanding most effectively when they are provided with complex, authentic opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess.’ In order to achieve assessment in these authentic terms, it is worth considering the concept of backward design.
By employing the backward design method, Wiggins would have designers ask questions like: ‘What would count as evidence of such achievement?’ ‘What does it look like to meet these goals?’ and ‘What, then, are the implied performances that should make up the assessment, toward which all teaching and learning should point?’ (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p.17). It is only upon answering these questions that logical and appropriate learning experience sequences can be designed thereby allowing students to meet the required standards. Further, when designing curriculum, teachers should try answering the ‘why’ and 'so what’ questions that are often on the minds of their students. If they can successfully answer these questions, authentic assessment is made possible (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005).
In practical terms, ‘backward design’ is broken into 3 stages (Team based learning website, 2010), the first being ‘Identifying desired learning outcomes.’ This is where the LM identifies and visualises a clear end goal for the learners. In this stage the LM would ask, and answer, such questions as ‘What enduring understandings are desired?’, ‘What should students know, understand, and be able to do?’ and ‘What is worth understanding?’ (Backwards design 101 website, 2010)
The second stage of backward design is ‘Identifying how one will know if the students know’ (Team based learning website, 2010). Here, the LM determines how the learners will demonstrate their knowledge, focussing on the assessment process before creating the learning experiences.
The third stage is ‘Planning learning experiences and instruction’ (Team based learning website, 2010). In this stage the LM creates the learning experiences for the learners, with each experience informed by the standards set in the first 2 stages.Wiggins likens the concept of backward design in education to the same concept in travel, where, ‘if you don’t know where you are going, any road will lead you there’ (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p14). Meaning, without a clear vision of the end result, the assessment process lays itself open to losing its way.