Saturday, January 17, 2015

Scoreboards and Applause: Another Role for Assessment



Assessment, as Gloria keeps reminding us, has multiple functions.  On one level it is needed to prove to ourselves and others that our students are accomplishing the goals we set for them.  On another though, as L. Dee Fink discusses in Chapter 3 of Creating Significant Learning Experiences, Revised and Updated: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses, assessment has psychological functions. As Fink puts it, students need both a scoreboard and applause.
One example of the applause side really stood out for me.  A music professor described how he uses “tribute letters” to help students focus on the skills that they already bring, rather than just explaining the skills that need to be developed. The student and the professor together write a letter, which the professor then sends, to a teacher or mentor whom the student identifies as having been instrumental in the student’s development.  Fink explains,
In addition to creating extremely good public relations between the university and the public at large, this simple device had an unusual impact on both the students and the teacher.  For the teacher, it shifted his focus from "what is not good in this student's playing that needs to be improved" to "what is good that be commended?"  This in turn resulted in a much more positive general relationship with the student. For the students, it developed a more positive view of themselves.  The more positive tone of the interaction with the professor led them to think things such as "I have a good base of learning, and from that, I can continue to build toward an even better level of performance."  This in turn created an appreciation of the people who had contributed to their own learning and - as a result of the proceeding - a more positive attitude toward continued learning.  

I wonder what effect it would have –on Lincoln’s PR and on our students' confidence—if we were to try some version of that assignment. I often have students write about a mentor but never thought of then sending out a letter of thanks to that person.  It’s something to consider.  Can you see it fitting into your coursework?

7 comments:

  1. I think it is a good psychological and PR tool to use; but if we "needed to prove to ourselves and others that our students are accomplishing the goals we set for them," I hope there is a simpler and more effective method of doing that.

    While I see it fitting into my coursework and I agree that students need both a scoreboard and applause, I wonder whether it is the professor's job to do everything related to the multiple assessment functions. It would be nice if the students take on such tasks by themselves and, maybe, professors can suggest them to their students; but I would not want to add this to my workload, unless it is an experiment in psychology directly tied to a class I am teaching:

    "The student and the professor together write a letter, which the professor then sends, to a teacher or mentor whom the student identifies as having been instrumental in the student’s development."

    Safro Kwame

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    1. Yes, I agree that taking the extra step of actually sending out the letter is more work. One of my questions when I read Fink's article was whether the assignment would work without that step. I just tried it out with one of my writing classes. I asked the students to think about the assignment they had just written for me, think of the skills they used to complete that assignment, and then write a letter (we did this as an in-class essay) to a previous writing teacher thanking that person for having helped the student develop these important skills. When I return it, I'm planning to ask the students if they think it would have more impact as a letter that actually was going to be sent. It will be interesting to see what they think.

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    2. Interesting! I think (or predict) your students will think it would have more impact as a letter that actually was going to be sent. I wonder why the limitation to a previous writing teacher: "write a letter to a previous writing teacher thanking that person for having helped the student develop these important skills." I assume you are afraid that without that restriction many of the letters will be written to you or you are afraid of receiving (a lot of) "Dear Teacher" letters! That fear, if real, says something about the project; doesn't it?

      Safro Kwame

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    3. Actually, one of my students did write a "dear teacher" letter thanking me for my help so far, but the others all chose someone earlier in their education. I'll be discussing the essay with them this evening, so it will be interesting to see what they thought about it.

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  2. This past week I have been toying with a related idea. While it doesn't involve identifying mentors or writing letters (yet), it does recognize and celebrate each student's unique strength: I'm, for the first time, teaching Environmental Science, which is a course that is required for Env Sci majors, but non-science majors can also take the course to partially fulfill the Gen Ed science requirement. The class of 30 is a pretty good mix of students that are Env Sci majors, non-majors chose to take the course because they are interested in the environment and non-majors that are just taking the course because it fit their schedule - or their advisor told them to. To get (and keep) everybody engaged I've been trying to find ways to make the course fun. A survey during the first day of class clearly indicated that students want to become better recyclers and they wish for Lincoln to participate more fully in recycling. Recycling came up again yesterday when we did a reflective exercise about what we have learned this week. Incidentally, I know that Lincoln is working on the full implementation of the campus recycling program so I may have an opportunity to engage the class in a service learning project that is absolutely relevant for both the class and the campus! I think I will take some MLK day time to come up with a survey that identifies everybody's major, known strengths/passions, "hobbies"(including organizations) and areas that each student want to develop, to find out if we have a good team to create some kind of add campaign, pamphlet, orientation tool or performance about recycling that we can bring to the larger Lincoln community.

    If we manage to pull this off, I could, at the end of the class, ask the students to think of somebody in their life that helped them develop whatever skill they used in this project. Who knows, maybe we will even end up writing the suggested letters!

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  3. What a good idea, Anna! It combines the strengths of service learning and reflective learning. (And MLK is a good day to spend coming up with a service-related assignment even if it is officially a holiday from teaching :) I'll be eager to hear what you come up with and how it plays out. Even if you don't actually add in the letter writing you might have some interesting class time discussing who the people were that influenced the students to develop the skills and the passions they report on your survey--parents? teachers? community leaders? friends?

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  4. I know not all learning can be fun. Yet, I like to think of ways to make learning fun. I am thinking a contest! Offer a gift certificate to the bookstore or something similar as a prize. The students would write an essay or develop a graphic on how one person, an alumni, faculty or staff member has influenced their academic life. Or, a poster session would be fun especially during Open House to encourage students to attend Lincoln.

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