The Need for 21st Century Assessments

Throughout my academic career I have been exposed to a variety of teaching strategies. After taking courses such as EDUC 4P19 I can now infer and reflect on my previous experiences and understand the reasoning for different assignments and tasks that I deemed as irrelevant at the time. The reasoning for my naïve initial conclusion was due to my lack of knowledge of different types of assessment required in the curriculum. The assignments such as peer evaluations and editing each others work, which I figured were monotonous tasks for easy marks turned out to be crucial parts of understanding which strategies through the course worked best for me. The three types of assessment are essential part of a teachers’ evaluation of the student and help them grow as a lifetime learner.  These three types of assessment are known as assessment of Learning (AoL), Assessment for Learning (AfL), and Assessment as Learning (AaL).

The dominant type of assessment I have seen throughout my academic career is AoL. This type of assessment is used to gauge a students knowledge on a specific topic or subject of study. I sincerely believe that this is most suitable way overall to assess knowledge in many courses such as math. However, I believe math courses within the elementary and high school curriculum should use other assessment strategies more frequently such as AaL. This type of assessment focuses on metacognitive development and incorporates tasks such as reflections or peer evaluations. I believe this would be a more helpful way of developing knowledge for math students because they can recognize which strategies they found most useful during lessons. Another positive result of AaL is students are exposed to peers strategies of forming knowledge and can create a collaborative learning environment. However I do not believe that only AaL alone is a suitable way to gauge students’ final math marks.

Another type of assessment that could be utilized more in math classes is AfL. Assessment for learning involves the process of teacher providing feedback to students on their work as well as adjusting their lesson to meet the students needs to learn. An appropriate yearly task that should be implemented into elementary and secondary school math curriculums is a diagnostic assessment. The inclusion of a diagnostic assessment would allow for the teacher to gather an understanding of the range of knowledge levels and learning needs in the classroom. From this point on, the teacher can construct their lesson based on the students’ preexisting knowledge. This can be a much more problematic approach to classroom assessment for some teachers as it requires them to get to know their students and manipulate their lessons to suit the necessary learning needs.

In the twenty-first century it will require graduates to have much more then memorization skills to obtain a sustainable career. There must be different types of assessment used in classrooms to prepare students for different scenarios in the workplace. AoL is the traditional way for teaching to designate a concrete grade to each student. However there must be more ways implemented to guide students to form knowledge. AaL should be used more in courses such as math and science in order to provide students with a more student directed learning approach. Whereas AfL is an efficient way to show students how they are progressing as the course. AfL, such as describing detailed, meaningful feedback on an essay is an appropriate way for a teacher to privately convey a message to their students on how to grow in their field of study. The following short video is another example that demonstrates the need for twenty-first century assessment styles. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lBhMSaFNhY)If students are to truly grow as learners they must have a long-term exposure to the different learning strategies they find most useful. A much richer curriculum can be achieved by straying away from the traditional AoL and incorporating more meaningful assessments.

Integrating Marginalized Perspectives into the Curriculum

During my initial lessons about the integrated curriculum I began to think of how difficult it must be to incorporate various disciplines into a single allotted time slot.  As a future teacher, my own initial concerns with the integrated curriculum were that I might not have competent knowledge of the curriculum involving more than one or two subjects. Drake et al. (2014) provide detailed descriptions on how to effectively and efficiently incorporate an integrated curriculum into the modern classroom. However many current teachers are still facing issues stepping outside the boundaries of their ordinary classroom lessons and routines.

            A qualitative study proposed by Scott (2013) interviewed five grade 10 high school teachers in Calgary regarding their ability to incorporate various perspectives into subjects like history and economics. The various perspectives specifically apply to French and Indigenous viewpoints on issues around globalization such as the expansion of mining in Canada during the industrial revolution (Scott, 2013). The study concluded that all five of the teachers faced serious problems finding the time to incorporate French and Indigenous Studies into issues of globalization. Furthermore the teachers had issues relating these perspectives to the topics of discussion and lastly they felt uncomfortable due to their own incompetent knowledge of Indigenous and French cultures leading the avoidance of the topic (Scott, 2013). Although it is a small sample, the results from this study clearly demonstrate that teachers in Calgary are having difficulties implementing a more integrated curriculum that helps students learn material through various perspectives. 

            There are many justifications and fingers that can be pointed for why these five teachers and many more across Canada are facing barriers creating an integrated curriculum. Scott proposes that they should do a literature review of relevant local issues that involves various perspectives. I believe however that the onus is still on not just the teachers but the board of education to find ways to create a less segregated, mind-numbing schedule that involves switching from math to science, English, etc. The integrated curriculum avoids this problem. First of all, the five teachers interviewed by Scott should have created a Know Do Be Umbrella as demonstrated by Drake et al. (2014) in order to outline their lesson material, assessment tasks and learning goals for the class. I will provide my own brief example of how I believe the lesson plan could have been formulated. Firstly the teachers should have outlined the ‘Know” section, which in this case requires students to have knowledge of various socio-economic issues around globalization and cause and effect relationships or marginalized citizens. Secondly is the “Do” section. The teachers should have their students perform group research and hold class or group discussions. Lastly is the “Be”, in which students are to be ethical members of a community who acknowledge and respond to marginality in their community. There must also be “big Ideas” incorporated into the “Know Do Be” lesson plan such as Citizenship and Communication (Drake et al. 2014).

Canada is not the only country focused on creating a more inclusive integrated curriculum. The following video is a short demonstration of why Indigenous studies and perspectives have been integrated into the Australian Curriculum. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2PwPlYA4w0)Hopefully in the near future Canadian curriculums will begin to implement similar strategies towards an integrated curriculum.

                                                            

                                    References

Drake, S. M., Kolohon, W., & Reid, J. L. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment:Engaging Students in 21st-Century Learner. Oxford University Press.

Scott, D. (2013). Teaching Aboriginal Perspectives: An Investigation into Teacher Practices amidst Curriculum Change. Canadian Social Studies, 46(1), 31-43.