Assessment with confidence!
Attended a great training event today: “Maximising Confidence in Assessment Decision-making”, down at TAFE Kingswood campus, which started with a presentation by Berwyn Clayton from Canberra Institute of Technology on “Building confidence by minimising risk in assessment.”
The most practical tips to come out of the day for me were:
- We can’t sample everything when assessing a competency (or group of competencies), therefore
- We need to determine what is critical - often the best way to determine this is to visualise what competence looks like.
Of course these aren’t new ideas, but helpful reminders nonetheless (I think i’ve started falling into the trap of trying to “check-off” everything.) It was also helpful to think about how learners can gather their own evidence, even how learners can determine how they will demonstrate their competence themselves - this would be great to put into practise (it’d make a great problem solving activity in class too !).
One question I didn’t get to ask was whether Berwyn saw competency-based assessment as something that is here to stay for the long haul, or whether something else was on the horizon…
Maria T Said,
July 1, 2005 @ 3:16 pm
Michael
I too found the discussion provocative.
Berwyn raised a number of issues for me in my present role in educational development.
Does everyone need to do the same assessment in order to ensure consistency?
How do teachers ensure fairness when providng a number of assessment opportunties for students?
Should all teaching sections have the same policy on re-sits or submission of further evidence ?
and on technical currency
should not all teachers dmosntrate technical currency in ther area of expertise? If they cannot demsotnrate currency acorss all the qualifcation?
Michael Said,
July 2, 2005 @ 2:43 pm
Maria wrote:
I reckon the first question is easier to answer if you restate it as: “Does everyone need to demonstrate the same competencies?” - which we’d feel comfortable answering “yes”, even though the way students demonstrate their competency may differ. This way it’s the competency(ies) itself that ensures consistency, not the assessment.
But the second question is a little more difficult for me: at one level, it’s simple - if a student demonstrates competency then it’s fair to say they are competent irrespective of how it’s demonstrated. But if the competency is graded I reckon it’s going to be much more difficult for the assessor to demonstrate “fairness” without giving everyone concrete credit and distinction criteria… (i.e. giving the same assessment).
I wish I was at the workshop on grade competencies the week before… Any ideas?
Berwyn C Said,
July 12, 2005 @ 10:06 am
I am one of the old fashioned people that believes competency is a line in the sand. You are either ‘competent’ or ‘not yet competent’. Therefore I consider that it is inappropriate to talk about grading competency. When we are grading, we are actually assessing something other than competency - like learner creativity, flair, innovation, initiative, problem-solving and the like. Whatever the approach, clear criteria need to be developed and shared with learners. It is then their choice to work towards a particular benchmark.
Michael Said,
July 12, 2005 @ 12:38 pm
Totally agree about “graded competency” not making sense…, and also that where grades are assigned, developing clear criteria for any grades of which learners are well aware is incredibly important.
Regarding your comment about grades assessing something other than competency Berwyn, are you meaning that training & assessment would be better if it was competency based without any grades, or that grades should be used in addition to CBA for motivational reasons (such as the attributes you mentioned)? (or do you have another idea for assessment in the future?
)
BTW: I’m hoping you don’t have any further travelling stories to tell from your trip home!?
Liz Agars Said,
July 20, 2005 @ 11:14 am
I’ve just come back from WA where there is a raging debate about Outcomes based reporting and assessment in schools. This means giving students grades according to levels of competence in a range of activities. Governments always like numbers! The press has taken it up too and there is a good chance that the government will have to do a turn around on this type of assessment and reporting due to public pressure. Teachers say it is overwhelmingly tiresome and employers and parents can’t understand it.
Not CBT but I thought it was an interesting related issue.
Michael Said,
July 20, 2005 @ 12:09 pm
Wow, that sounds really interesting Liz! If you have any links to good articles about this, let me know! (All I could find is a report Focusing on Outcomes from 2000!)
Berwyn C Said,
July 21, 2005 @ 11:24 am
Michael, I do believe grading should be part of our competency-based system, but not directly attached to competency. There is great debate nationally about how to do it and various approaches have been trialled in Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria. Significant work has been undertaken by Shelley Gillis and others at the University of Melbourne developing specific grading criteria for a range of work tasks. The grading criteria are developed by subject matter experts and represent clear descriptions of specific performance at various levels. While it is initially complex to implement, it may well be the best way to go in the future. The only decision will be to determine what should be graded and what should not.
Colin Said,
July 25, 2005 @ 8:39 am
This may be a simple view but life cant always be hard.
I feel that grading should be added were requested after someone has been deemed to be competent. Most employers would like to know just how well some one can perform the skill.
” Are they just competent, good, or do they excell at this task? ”
This would make any grading much more relevent to the people who want it.
As one of the other delegates suggested during the conference he uses the set of competencies to establish competence and then there is extra work to show a level there of if desired.
Regards to all Colin
Michael Said,
July 27, 2005 @ 10:47 am
Thanks for explaining your idea Berwyn… I’m going to try to find out more about how grading can be used without being attached to the competency.
Colin, often a simple view is the best one! Just trying to flesh-out what you’re thinking: are you meaning that ‘competence’ is one level (say cutting a piece of metal with 0.5mm accuracy in 1 minute), but that we could also use grades to show that a participant is not only competent, but goes beyond the specified level of competency (say if it only took them 25secs to cut the piece of metal accurately)?
One thing I’ve learned from this conversation: whatever is graded needs to be clearly specified to the stakeholders of the grade (participants, employees etc.).
Colin Said,
August 3, 2005 @ 7:52 am
Yes Michael this would be an example.