RWL Assignment 5 (05/06/2014)
C21 Skills Assessment
|
The world around us is constantly changing by blurring the boundaries between countries. To be successful today, we should enhance new skills to help us thinking, acting, and living in a new environment (Greenstein, 2013). Currently, it is not enough to be competent only in our field of expertise, we should also possess exceptional communication, collaboration, critical thinking skills, and be creative (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2007b). In the classrooms and workplaces we communicate more and more with people all over the world; so we should be the effective team members who respect diversity and are able to share, assemble and analyze information jointly (ATC21S, 2012). Information is doubling every 12 months, so without strong critical thinking skills we are not able to make the right decisions as we may get lost in such flow. To make the world hear us, we should be able to express ourselves in writing, speaking, and presenting (Greenstein, 2013). Finally, to make a difference in our own life and the world around, we should be able to look at things from the creative perspective both with and without technology.
A new way of life requires changes in the educational system. New programs are being developed to help students grow and be responsible citizens. For example, ATC21S (2012) argues the importance of Collaborative Problem Solving assignments to |
practice social skills and cognitive skills at the same time. The program supports human to human interaction over the Internet. I find amazing that, for instance, students from Singapore can solve issues with students from Melbourne. Such kinds of assignments engage students and certainly develop trust, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving skills. However, I believe that students can lose the ability to think individually/independently with such an emphasis on collaborative learning. In the future they might always look for other people’s support to make a choice or decision. I suppose such approach would help learners to be effective in work settings, but would it work in their personal lives with the same success? There are still many situations where only you have to decide or take the risk. I think ATC21S is a powerful learning tool; however, we shouldn’t underestimate the importance of students’ individual work.
The shift from passive learners to active participants requires new standards of assessments. Scholars argue that to assess 21st century skills, “We need our assessment systems to value them, and that means having them in the grade book” (Miller, 2013). I question, if we really need to assess 21st century skills especially the ones that refer to social interactions? A lot of educators are not happy with the test system but I think that assessment is a part of this system. So why do we need to assess new competence in an old way?
The shift from passive learners to active participants requires new standards of assessments. Scholars argue that to assess 21st century skills, “We need our assessment systems to value them, and that means having them in the grade book” (Miller, 2013). I question, if we really need to assess 21st century skills especially the ones that refer to social interactions? A lot of educators are not happy with the test system but I think that assessment is a part of this system. So why do we need to assess new competence in an old way?
21st Century Assessments
Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2007b |
Adapted from A Partnership for 21st Century Skills e-paper
http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/21st_century_skills_assessment.pdf |
21st Century Assessments
Really new?
|
Currently, programs as ATC21S (2012) make the teachers assessment work easier as computer tracks students’ activities and show how much time and effort they needed to complete the task. Based on this report teachers can grade students. I think it is a great tool for busy teachers. I also really like the idea of The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) as it involves questions based on realistic situation to solve which students need to use their critical-thinking, analytic-reasoning, problem-solving, and written-communication skills (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2007). The results will indicate how confident and proficient student in applying this skills in real-life.
Rubrics are suggested as another way to grade students. They possess the characteristics of effective assessments such as visible thinking, structure, performance-based, capacity building etc developed by Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2007a). Personally, I do not favor the rubrics assessment as I believe that they focus mainly on technical part of the assignment. I believe that such kind of assessment sets limits to creativity as instead of creating something unique students would always try to fit their ideas into the assessment framework. It is very difficult to develop valid and reliable rubrics. Sometimes it is not clear what is meant by “the problem is precisely discussed”. What precisely is 5-6 sentences or it means something else.
I also think that it is even not ethically appropriate to grade some of the skills. An example of that may be the rubrics to assess the Understanding and Interacting with Others: Controversy and Conflict Resolution developed by Marzano Research Laboratory (2014). For instance, if a student, “Applies the strategy in unusual situations, addresses aspects of controversy and conflict not covered in class, or both” he will get 4.0 score but if he, “Can describe the basic characteristics of controversy and conflict, can recognize or recall examples of controversy and conflict, can describe basic strategies for controversy and conflict”, his score will be only 2.0. Who will benefit from this information? Is it so important at what extend the student cannot resolve the conflict? As I mentioned before, some life skills (leadership, collaboration & interaction, flexibility etc) should not be assessed, as it is all about if a student can or cannot do or act appropriately; if he cannot teacher should do as much as possible to help him with that.
It does not matter what way of assessment the teacher will choose, it must always be fair, valid, reliable, and give every student the chance to perform the best he can (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2007a). The most important, it always should provide students with the room for imagination and discovery, and support individuality.
Rubrics are suggested as another way to grade students. They possess the characteristics of effective assessments such as visible thinking, structure, performance-based, capacity building etc developed by Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2007a). Personally, I do not favor the rubrics assessment as I believe that they focus mainly on technical part of the assignment. I believe that such kind of assessment sets limits to creativity as instead of creating something unique students would always try to fit their ideas into the assessment framework. It is very difficult to develop valid and reliable rubrics. Sometimes it is not clear what is meant by “the problem is precisely discussed”. What precisely is 5-6 sentences or it means something else.
I also think that it is even not ethically appropriate to grade some of the skills. An example of that may be the rubrics to assess the Understanding and Interacting with Others: Controversy and Conflict Resolution developed by Marzano Research Laboratory (2014). For instance, if a student, “Applies the strategy in unusual situations, addresses aspects of controversy and conflict not covered in class, or both” he will get 4.0 score but if he, “Can describe the basic characteristics of controversy and conflict, can recognize or recall examples of controversy and conflict, can describe basic strategies for controversy and conflict”, his score will be only 2.0. Who will benefit from this information? Is it so important at what extend the student cannot resolve the conflict? As I mentioned before, some life skills (leadership, collaboration & interaction, flexibility etc) should not be assessed, as it is all about if a student can or cannot do or act appropriately; if he cannot teacher should do as much as possible to help him with that.
It does not matter what way of assessment the teacher will choose, it must always be fair, valid, reliable, and give every student the chance to perform the best he can (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2007a). The most important, it always should provide students with the room for imagination and discovery, and support individuality.
Sources:
Andrew K. Miller, A. K. (2013, January 14). Let's Truly Assess 21st Century Skills! [Web blog]. Retrieved June 4, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-k-miller/technology-literacy_b_2465113.html
ATC21S (2012, February 7). Collaborative Problem Solving long version. Retrieved June 4, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13smp1qfmR4
Marzano Research Laboratory (2012). Understanding and interacting with others: Controversy and conflict resolution. Retrieved June 4, 2014, from http://www.marzanoresearch.com/media/documents/reproducibles/teaching_assessing/understandingandinteractingwithotherscontroversyandconflictresolution.pdf
Laura Greenspan (2013). Assessing 21st Century Skills with Laura Greenstein [Video file]. Retrieved June 4, 2014, from http://vimeo.com/49994416
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2007a). 21st Century skills assessment. Tucson, AZ: Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Retrieved June 4, 2014, from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/21st_century_skills_assessment.pdf
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2007b). Assessment of 21st century skills. Tucson, AZ: Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Retrieved June 4, 2014, from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/Assessment092806.pdf
ATC21S (2012, February 7). Collaborative Problem Solving long version. Retrieved June 4, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13smp1qfmR4
Marzano Research Laboratory (2012). Understanding and interacting with others: Controversy and conflict resolution. Retrieved June 4, 2014, from http://www.marzanoresearch.com/media/documents/reproducibles/teaching_assessing/understandingandinteractingwithotherscontroversyandconflictresolution.pdf
Laura Greenspan (2013). Assessing 21st Century Skills with Laura Greenstein [Video file]. Retrieved June 4, 2014, from http://vimeo.com/49994416
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2007a). 21st Century skills assessment. Tucson, AZ: Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Retrieved June 4, 2014, from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/21st_century_skills_assessment.pdf
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2007b). Assessment of 21st century skills. Tucson, AZ: Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Retrieved June 4, 2014, from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/Assessment092806.pdf