Using assessment results to inform teaching practice and promote lasting learning

Abstract

While some may view systematic strategies to assess student learning as merely chores to satisfy quality assurance agencies and other external stakeholders, for faculty who want to foster lasting learning assessment is an indispensable tool that informs teaching practice and thereby promotes lasting learning. Suskie (2004c) frames this relationship by characterizing assessment as part of a continual four-step teaching-learning-assessment cycle. The first step of this cycle is articulating expected learning outcomes. The teaching-learning-process is like taking a trip-one cannot plot out the route (curriculum and pedagogies) without knowing the destination (what students are to learn). Identifying expected student learning outcomes is thus the first step in the process. The more clearly the expected outcomes are articulated (i.e., articulating that one plans to visit San Francisco rather than simply the western United States), the easier it is to assess whether the outcome has been achieved (i.e., whether the destination has been reached). The second step of the teaching-learning-assessment cycle is providing sufficient learning opportunities, through curricula and pedagogies, for students to achieve expected outcomes. Students will not learn how to make an effective oral presentation, for example, if they are not given sufficient opportunities to learn about the characteristics of effective oral presentations, to practice delivering oral presentations, and to receive constructive feedback on them. The third step of the teaching-learning-assessment cycle is assessing how well students have achieved expected learning outcomes. If expected learning outcomes are clearly articulated and if students are given sufficient opportunity to achieve those outcomes, often this step is not particularly difficult-students' learning opportunities become assessment opportunities as well. Assignments in which students prepare and deliver oral presentations, for example, are not just opportunities for them to hone their oral presentation skills but also opportunities for faculty to assess how effectively students have developed those skills. The final step of the teaching-learning-assessment cycle is using results to inform teaching-learning practice and thereby promote lasting learning. As Dochy has noted in Chapter 6, assessments can be viewed as tools to enhance the instructional process. Indeed, the best assessments have what Dochy, along with Linn and Dunbar (1991) and Messick (1989, 1994), have called consequential validity and whatMoran andMalott (2004) have called pedagogical validity-assessment results are used as the basis for appropriate action and, specifically, to help "achieve the instructional objectives" (Moran & Malott, 2004, p. 137). This chapter explores this conception of assessment as a means of promoting lasting learning through the consideration of three topics. First, teaching practices that have been shown through research to promote deep, lasting learning are reviewed. Next, some key underlying principles for using assessment results to inform teaching practices are discussed. Finally, practical suggestions for using assessment results to inform teaching practice and promote lasting learning are offered and explained through examples drawn from three very different kinds of assessment tools: rubrics (rating scales or scoring guides), multiple choice tests, and qualitative assessments such as reflective writing.