deliberative asssessment with e-portfolios
DESCRIPTION
A presentation given at the Association of American Colleges and Universities Annual Meeting, January 20, 2010 in Washington, DC.TRANSCRIPT
Deliberative Assessment with E-Portfolios
Darren Cambridge
Association of American Colleges and Universities Annual Meeting January 20, 2010, Washington, DC
Tensions in Portfolio Use
Purpose Accountability
Improvement
Epistemology Objectivist Intuitionist
Locus of Control
Institutional Individual
Metaphor Test Story
Framework Outcomes Abilities
Rubrics
Liberal Education for America’s Promise (LEAP)• Knowledge of Human Cultures
and the Physical and Natural World– Through study in the sciences
and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, histories, languages, and the arts
• Intellectual and Practical Skills– Inquiry and analysis– Critical and creative thinking– Written and oral
communication– Quantitative literacy– Information literacy– Teamwork and problem solving
• Personal and Social Responsibility– Civic knowledge and
engagement—local and global
– Intercultural knowledge and competence
– Ethical reasoning and action– Foundations and skills for
lifelong learning
• Integrative Learning– Synthesis and advanced
accomplishment across general and specialized studies
VALUE Intercultural Rubric
Reflection as an End of Its Own
• Dewey: Rigorous analytical thinking• Schön et. al.: Key to professional practice• Keegan: Essential to challenges of adult life• Boud: United cognitive and affective • Mezirow et. al.: Understanding and
challenging domination
• Clear learning outcomes • Opportunities for
students to achieve them
• Assessment of that achievement
• Use of the results for improvement
• Useful • Cost-effective• Reasonably accurate and truthful
– Multiple– Direct
• Planned, organized, systematized and sustained• Kinds of direct evidence
– Portfolios of student work – Student reflections on their values, attitudes, and beliefs, if
developing those are intended outcomes of the course or program
Virginia Tech
Sometimes they align …
Deliberative Assessment
• Assessment as a means for participation in collective decision making
• Deliberative democracy – Decision making – Legitimation
Principles of Deliberation
• Publicity– Deliberative system which informs and holds accountable
• Inclusiveness– All impacted by decisions can participate
• Reasonableness– Economy of moral objections– Respect for reasonable disagreement
• Provisionality – Openess to changing positions and decisions
Scholarship as Deliberative System
• Publicity– Deliberative system which informs and holds accountable
• Inclusiveness– All impacted by decisions can participate
• Reasonableness– Economy of moral objections– Respect for reasonable disagreement
• Provisionality – Openess to changing positions and decisions
A New Role for Competencies
• Standardized: Matching performance to a pre-defined set of outcomes
• Deliberative: Capture standards all stakeholders value as enacted in practice and examining alignment of both student and programmatic performance
Competencies in Organizational Learning
• Standardized: Articulating expectations to students• Deliberative: Means for mutually accountable connection
between individual and organizational learning • Boundary objects: “Boundary objects are objects that are
both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites” (Leigh Star 1989)
Deliberative Assessment
• Standardized: Objectivist/utilitarian• Expressive: Subjectivist/intuitionist
(Gray 2002)
• Deliberative assessment – Learning complex and situated – Judgment based in embodied expertise– Students as “authoritative informants about their own
learning” (Yancey 1998) – Institutional values and outcomes the result of
deliberation based these sources of expertise
Deliberative Assessment
• Student are privileged informants about their own learning
• Evidence of learning needs to come from multiple contexts, and the relationships between them need to be articulated
• Assessment should be a deliberative process that makes programs more responsive to all stakeholders
Liberal Education for America’s Promise (LEAP)• Knowledge of Human Cultures
and the Physical and Natural World– Through study in the sciences
and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, histories, languages, and the arts
• Intellectual and Practical Skills– Inquiry and analysis– Critical and creative thinking– Written and oral
communication– Quantitative literacy– Information literacy– Teamwork and problem solving
• Personal and Social Responsibility– Civic knowledge and
engagement—local and global
– Intercultural knowledge and competence
– Ethical reasoning and action– Foundations and skills for
lifelong learning
• Integrative Learning– Synthesis and advanced
accomplishment across general and specialized studies
Ineffable Essentially Contested
• Ineffable outcomes: Things we all think are important but don’t think we can measure– E.g., ethics, leadership, social responsibility
• Essentially contested concept (Gallie, 1956)
– No single shared definition– Common tradition or exemplar– More optimal development because of
contestation
Ineffable Essentially Contested
• Ineffable outcomes: Things we all think are important but don’t think we can measure– E.g., ethics, leadership, social responsibility
• Essentially contested concept (Gallie, 1956)
– More optimal development because of contestation
Eportfolios for Contested Outcomes
• Makes multiple understands of outcomes visible
• Requires reasoning to be articulated• Grounds understanding in evidence and
experience• Puts multiple positions into conversation
Eportfolios for Contested Outcomes
• Measurable learning outcome: Ability to articulate a reasoned stance based on evidence
• Makes multiple understandings of outcomes visible
• Requires reasoning to be articulated• Grounds understanding in evidence and
experience• Puts multiple positions into conversation
NCC Competencies
• Communication• Critical Thinking• Strategic Problem Solving• Valuing• Group Interaction
• Global Understanding• Effective Citizenship• Aesthetic Awareness• Information Technology
NCC Graduation Portfolio• No predefined standard for what constitutes satisfactory
performance in each competency• Students exposed to (and assessed with) many models and
standards through coursework and experiential learning • Students redefine each competency, beginning with “official
definition”– Synthesizing multiple perspectives – Integrating evidence from own experience – Taking ownership and planning for the future
Three curricula
Kathleen Yancey, Teaching Literature as Reflective Practice
Academics as Test of Self
• We intended for curricular content to be an central source of evidence and ideas and strategies, but it didn’t show up this way
• Class work functioned as– A demonstration of character virtues– An experience – A goal putting aspiration towards those virtues in
action
Complicating Evidence
• Link between evidence and reflection distinguishes eportfolios and other digital means for– supporting reflective learning– Managing information about knowledge, skills, abilities and
experiences
• “Evidence” is the documents included in a portfolio on which the author reflects
• Use of evidence in practice is more complex than the eportfolio literature often acknowledges
Evidence in Reflection
• Research at Alverno College suggests that, as students become more skilled at reflection, they– Draw on analysis of their own experiences rather
than appealing to external authorities– Reference a wider range of activities and artifacts
• Research deals only with the content of the reflections, not the evidence itself
Types of Evidence
• Types of evidence in science portfolios (Collins, 1992): – Artifacts– Attestations– Reproductions
• Mixes analytically distinct dimensions, such as characteristics of evidence and purpose
Project Background
• Portfolio contexts: Integrative approach to learning with specific attention to classroom-based, experiential, and co-curricular learning
• NCC and portfolio-based assessment• Intentional collaboration with University Life • Small data sets over two cohorts (spring ’07; spring ’08);
additional cohort beginning in fall ’08• Member of cohort 3 of the Inter/National Coalition for
Electronic Portfolio Research (I/NCEPR)
I/NCEPR
• Institutional research teams examining the impact of electronic portfolio practice on learning
• 50 institutions in five cohorts • Third cohort focuses on student affairs -academic affairs
collaboration• US, Canada, England, Scotland, Netherlands • Book to be published by Stylus in November• More information on website: ncepr.org.
An Emergent Typology of Use of Evidence in ePortfolios
• Characteristics of item used as evidence– Agency– Media
• Purpose of incorporating evidence– Rhetorical Function– Object
• Characteristics of associated learning activities– Sponsorship– Participation
Matches and Mismatches
• Reflective description of evidence • Content of evidence • Local – site of specific evidence use • Global – the whole portfolio • Match and mismatches yield more
sophisticated understanding and resources for supporting portfolio authors
An Example: Richard Zepp’s ePortfolio
Electronic Portfolios 2.0: Emergent Findings and Shared Questions
Collection of 24 chapters detailing research from cohorts I, II, and III of the Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research
Published by Stylus, March 2009