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Addendum
Assessment includes lots of familiar tools,
perhaps with some unpleasant associations:
Quizzes
Tests
Essays
But generally, unpleasant associations are linked
to values placed on performance (e.g. grades).
Aside from fear of failing, doing assessment
activities is not usually unpleasant in itself. From
an educational standpoint, there is a HUGE
benefit because these active, inquiry-based
activities promote metacognition.
•
What do I know and
what do I not know?
Assessment also helps teachers and facilitators
evaluate sessions and workshops to know what
is working and what is not working.
Discussion –
Metacognition
Why is it important to promote a learner’s
metacognition?
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When I was a graduate student, I
spent a semester redesigning a few
undergraduate biology lab activities.
With the teaching team, we conducted
surveys of a class before we changed
the activities and then with a second
class that had the new activities.
Unfortunately, our changes didn’t
make a difference in how many
students learned the desired concept.
So we edited the activity each
semester until we began to see the
improvements that we desired.
(Eva Stricker)
How Will We Know that They Learn it?
Assessment
Glossary
Metacognition
awareness of or insight into one’s own ways
of thinking.