Recently I was asked as part of a course to fill out a reflective practise journal, as part of an assessment. As I filled out the journal I began to notice a pattern emerging. Every time the journal asked me to write what i would do differently next time or what didn't work I wrote "nothing" Why would I write anything differently I'm being assessed. I also notice I spent more time on some parts and less on others. Some of you will have already gathered where I'm going with this.
So why are so many academics in adult education so against reflective practise in assessment:
Reflective practise being part of assessment is fatally flawed. Both serve a purpose in learning but when combined each counteracts the other. By having a student or learner reflect on a subject, principle or whatever they have learnt. That learner will reflect on what they not only did well but on what they did not do well. They will identify their strengths and weaknesses, they will seek improvement, and they will establish what is worthwhile and what is not.
When a learner is assessed however they will generally put their best foot forward, they will try to show all their strengths and hide their weaknesses. And in doing so will hopefully achieve the standard required to be awarded the qualification.
By combining assessment with reflection we don’t achieve the aims of reflection a learner is not going to show us their weaknesses especially if we are measuring them against a standard in order to award them qualifications. Why would they want to tell an assessor “I can’t do that but I’ll keep trying” or “these are my weaknesses” or “I can’t do this”? Any assessor could not then in good conscience award a qualification based on such a statement.
We should use reflection in our teaching as it is a powerful tool. Just look at the experiential teaching models. A learner can gain more from being able to identify their strengths and grow those while at the same time recognising their weaknesses and self improving or where necessary seek assistance from their tutors, peers or anywhere they find answers.
Not only that they will reflect on whatever they see as being important to them and this may not be the desired learning outcome being assessed. One of the adult educations primary differences to other education is the fact that an adult will want to know how this going to help me perform my job/role better. What is in it for me? If a particular part of the reflective practice standards being assessed are not of value to that learner they will give it little to no real reflection, and the process will be flawed.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
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3 comments:
By combining assessment with reflection we don’t achieve the aims of reflection a learner is not going to show us their weaknesses especially if we are measuring them against a standard in order to award them qualifications.
Here are a couple of thoughts:
(1) It is important to distinguish formative and summative assessment. Formative assessment -- assessment made as part of the learning process to support incremental improvement -- works well as part of a reflective practicum. On the other hand, as you point out, summative assessment -- assessment made to measure the final effectiveness of a service in meeting its goals and objectives -- cannot be made in the midst of a reflective practicum for the reasons you mention, as well as others.
(2) This problem is not limited to reflective practice but affects all learner-centered methods.
(3) Summative assessment is still possible but only at the end of the program.
Laurence Miller
Assistant Professor - Adjunct at New York University
Psychologist - Learning Disabilities at Private Practice (Self-employed)
Reflective practice can be and should be a part of the assessment process. Musicians use reflective practice as a form of assessment all the time as they learn and perfect a piece of music. The trick to understanding how reflective practices are used as a form of assessment is to frame the discussion around the idea that the expectation is to have differing opinions.
Authentic reflective assessment cannot be an arbitrary or thrown in at the end of the training. If it is, it will yield the results Laurence and Carl describe. In order for reflective assessment to yield usable results, the whole training paradigm must switch from Poke and Puke (I poke information down your throat and you puke back the expected answers) to Serve and Savor (I serve you information and ask you to savor the flavors and react and emote) This type of presentation requires that the facilitator be able to elicit responses to the information being presented all throughout the presentation cycle. Also throughout is the requirement to be accepting in both positive and negative responses as well as allowing participants to be "stuck" and try to work through that reaction via discussion and interaction that promotes introspective thought.
I have to point out at this point that when done wrong the attempt to set up a training in this style comes across as "cheesy" and "ooey gooey" When done correctly, this style of presentation is very energy consuming for the participants and will require time to "reload". Authentic reflective assessment is an area of special interest for me as I even wrote and won a Teachamerica grant on performance based assessment in music when I was teaching actively. I'd love to hear more thoughts on the subject.
David White
Managing Director at New Source Systems
Director, Sales and Marketing at AccelPak, Inc
Each professional develops his or her own theory based on both theorists that he or she has read (such as Knowles) and personal experience. These evolve, I think, out of the day-to-day practice of developing programs and services, not out of a explicit attempt to integrate theories.
I admire Knowles because of his humanistic emphasis on respecting learners -- but as a thinker, he seems to me superficial. His distinction between adult learners and other learners is problematic because it takes a person's age too seriously. A more important distinction, I think, is between intentional learners and incidental learners (Bereiter and Scardamalia). Note that many children are intentional learners (learners who learn deliberately to achieve personally meaningful goals) and many adults are incidental learners (people who learn because the human brain cannot help but learn, regardless of whether or not it is happening on purpose).
Also a lot of effective learning management is knowing what to do when a learner is having trouble. Knowles has little to offer with this problem.
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