Abstract:

As teacher researchers, we began with this question: Does our assessment spark joy or cause stress? The purpose of this paper is to explore ways educators can design and use assessment practices that lighten the burden on learners by creating opportunities to demonstrate their learning in ways that are personally meaningful and enjoyable.

Some of these practices involve the following: adopting a model that allows multiple ways of knowing and multiple ways of showing what you know; providing choice amongst diverse means of demonstrating learning appropriate to the ages, interests, and individual identities of the learners; fostering creativity in how learning can be expressed through outlets such as storytelling, poetry, visual arts, drama, building, and designing; using the environment to inform assessment by asking where is the learner most comfortable and least inhibited? (Outdoors? At a quiet learning centre? Collaborating in a small group?); and finally, documenting learning in action: recording (audio, video, photography, journal notes) by both the educator and the learner.

The authors describe sample practices we have engaged in, one involving adult learners in a teacher education program, and one involving elementary school learners (ages 8-10). The case of adult learners describes andragogy, Malcolm Knowles’s (1984, 1990) self-directed adult learning model. During an online course, the culminating assignment consisted of a “personal learning contract” whereby learners individually decided what they would like to learn (their objective), explained how they would learn it, and produced a product to demonstrate their learning. As the instructor I met with each student online to discuss their plan and made suggestions regarding resources and research sources. The results were as varied as the individuals involved, ranging from a photo essay of outdoor education activities in a rural school, an inquiry learning plan based on self-curated children’s literature in a Kindergarten classroom, and a professional YouTube presentation on how to make your classroom library optimally multicultural. Some presented their projects online during our final week, and others chose to submit digital creations. In every case, the joy the learners took in designing and completing their creations was palpable.

The second sample describes young learners in an elementary classroom. Making thinking visible for learners aged 8-10 is about allowing them to show what they know in diverse ways. We keep a learning journal in which students can choose how to demonstrate their learning growth. After a learning cycle on a topic determined by the students, we reflect on our learning growth in the journal using the reflection “At first I thought/ Now I think”. There is no prescribed way of showing their learning. Student journals leverage their individual strengths. Assessable responses range from idea webs, drawings, or other artistic representations, a google slide with photos, finding a quote online or in a book related to the topic, creating a discussion question for their peers, writing a paragraph or creating a sequence or story board, or creating an iMovie. The possibilities are as endless as the joy students experience when they are made visible through diverse assessment practices.

Keywords:

Student-centred assessment, multiple ways of knowing, creative assessment practices, andragogy.