Accurately measuring our students’ learning requires us to know what we expect students to be able to do and to be sure that the assessment is measuring exactly that. This is important because we want to ensure our assessments are valid and reliable. Our teaching will be more focused as well. To accomplish this, we must use Backward Design when planning lessons, courses, or programs. According to Lesson 1 of Rio Salado’s “Assessing Learners Online” course (2011), the steps of Backward Design are:
Step 1: Choose the content
Step 2: Learning Outcomes
Step 3: Performance Objectives
Step 4: Assessment
Step 5: Activities/Materials
Backwards design forces us to first look at what we want the students to learn before we start planning activities or assessment. We determine this through a series of steps. First we decide what content to teach (i.e. is it a math lesson covering the order of operations or is it a science lesson to teach the scientific method). We should consult content standards, grade-level expectations/curriculum, and even students’ interests.
Then, we must write learning outcomes. These are general statements of what students should be able to do at the end of a lesson, course, or program. They are similar to goals and they are broader statements of capability. From those outcomes, we must narrow our focus and write specific performance objectives which include an actual, observable verb that describes what students will actually be able to do to demonstrate their learning. This is a very key part of the process. According to Oosterhof, Conrad, & Ely (2008), the verbs chosen must be observable and they must be able to demonstrate that the particular type of knowledge we are teaching has been learned. The types of knowledge include declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge and problem solving knowledge. It is important to determine if a lesson teaches declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, or problem solving knowledge because the objective must be written using a verb that is capable of showing that students have acquired that type of knowledge. For example, if we want math students to know that operations within parenthesis should always be computed first (declarative knowledge), we must write an objective that asks students to state that knowledge. However, if we want students to apply the rule (procedural knowledge), then we must be sure our objective asks students to do something that shows us they know how to apply the rule such as solve a problem using order of operations rules. Otherwise, we may be asking students to demonstrate something other than what our objectives require of them-which, of course, means our assessment results are invalid.
Next, we can design assessments. Using the solid performance objectives we have written, we can create assessments that will accurately measure what they are supposed to measure. In other words, they will be valid. Finally, we can plan activities, lessons, and select materials to be used. Since, at this stage, we know what we are looking for in students who have learned what we want them to, we can begin to plan learning activities and lessons and choosing materials. Our lessons will be better designed due to this process.
This method forces teachers to determine what they must observe in students who have met the objectives before they begin to teach instead of teaching first and then trying to come up with an assessment. In other words, teachers know what to look for to determine who has learned the material. It ensures that learning outcomes and performance objectives are based on standards and grade-level curriculum, as well as substantiating the validity of the assessment(s).
References
Oosterhof, A., Conrad, R., Ely, D. (2008). Assessing Learners Online. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Rio Salado (2011). ELN 122-Evaluation Online Learning- Lesson 1: Measuring Knowledge Online. Retrieved from Rio Salado website: https://www.riolearn.org/content/ELN/ELN122/ELN122_INTER_0000_v1/lessons/lesson01.shtml.
No comments:
Post a Comment