Knowing what they know - Assessing students in constructivist classrooms

When I do workshops about constructivist teaching methods, the most frequent comment I hear is “Yes, but how do I give marks in this situation?” I’m not going to debate the value of marking in this article, but I am going to try to share some of the assessment approaches that people are using at various levels of education.

Creating Meaning
Constructivist learning environments actively engage students in understanding course content at a deeper level than memorizing facts. On a larger scale, it is assumed that constructivist environments encourage students to socially and critically develop personal knowledge about their world. Some of the better-known early theorists are Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky and Jerome Bruner.

Process vs. Progress

I know several thousand things that won’t work - Thomas Edison

Constructivists believe in the importance of the journey. Learning to work as a team member, learning to think creatively and critically, learning to problem solve are as important as learning that 2X2=4.

Some of the methods of assessing the journey include:

Portfolio of work

• Albion College Digital Portfolio Project
  
• Apprenticeship Portfolios


• BC Graduation Portfolio


• Portfolio Assessment in Mathematics Education


• What Teachers Learn from Student Self-Assessment

Team tasks

• Making Group Work Count


• Group Projects and Group Grading


• Peer Assessments and Peer Evaluation


• Integrating Peer Assessment

Project based learning

• Think Tank


• Evaluating Student Projects


• Assessing Projects

Problem based learning stages

• Student Assessment in Problem Based Learning


• Research and Problem-based Learning in Undergraduate Courses


• The Big Six

Participation marks

• Assessing discussion forum participation

Webquests

• WebQuest.org


• WebQuest examples (Middle School)

Journals, Blogs, Wikis

• Evaluating Student Assignments


• Getting more out of journal clubs (University)

Some of the methods of assessing whether the student has reached the destination include:

Higher order exam questions

• Five Basic Types of Questions


• Analysing Question Stems


• Generating Question Stems


• Integrating Question Stems


• Questioning Questions


• How to Write a 4 Star Response (Middle Years)


• Classroom Assessment Techniques ( more formative)

Extended matching questions (currently used in Medicine)

• What are Extended Matching Sets Questions? (University)


• High School Example


• Extended Matching Questions (University)

Case studies

• Assessing Case Based Instruction

Solve Problems

• The Art of Complex Problem Solving


• Problem Solving Skills


• The Big Six Game

Create Graphic or Visual organizer (Pattern making skills)

• Writing Fun (K-12)


• The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them


• Graphic Organizers that Support Specific Thinking Skills


• Variety of Graphic Organizers

Marking Strategies
Expectations and feedback must become explicit and visible in order to:

• Guide student effort


• Guide student learning


• Guide changes to your teaching


• Guide objective marking

Checklists
Project Based Learning Checklists K-12

Rubrics
For a more comprehensive look at rubrics, click on the rubrics link under My Del.icio.us which includes a large number of links such as 4Teachers Family of Tools .

Please share other examples by using the comments function.