0.3 3. changing assessment, changing instruction; ella burton  (Page 5/6)

Creating performance assessments helps students demonstrate their learning and supports the application of that learning to “real-life” situations. Additionally, asking students to reflect on and think about their learning can bring meaning to the content of courses. The following prompts provide examples of ways to promote student reflection.

Framing a learning activity

The changing landscape of leadership preparation requires higher-education programs to engage in complex and often contentious conversations. For many problems this means altering long-standing norms that ignored divisions and avoided substantive discussions of challenging issues.

An expectation for accountability is pointing students to apply their learning in “real-life” settings.

Step 1 – define learning

One of the most critical initial steps at repositioning the teaching and learning process is to agree upon a definition of learning. Although there are many ways of defining learning, the focus is on the person doing the learning. This is a significant shift to a focus on student outcomes (learning) rather than program inputs (faculty, texts, courses). Boyd and others suggest that learning is the act or process by which behavioral change, knowledge, skills and attitudes are acquired (1980, pp. 100-101).

Step 2 – develop a conceptual framework

Clarity about mission, beliefs, purpose and goals, the knowledge base, performance expectations and performance assessments are essential preconditions to the work on syllabi, curriculum, teaching and learning and assessment. Conceptualizing a researched-based way for faculty to address teaching and learning creates a framework for engaging in action research, analyzing and understanding data about teaching and learning and creation of a data –driven system that improves as a result of the data collected.

In an attempt to assure success in all areas, it is necessary to explore ways that university professors continue to strengthen and enhance their teaching effectiveness. Involving faculty in continuous review processes necessary for capstone courses in the concentration area of the program is one solution. In the updating process, attention is given to real life experiences as a part of the activities and learning experience. Faculty are using higher levels of technology to push the envelope on learning through pod casts, video streaming, online chats, and common assessments following course completion. Putting systems in place for assessing and measuring student learning is the best indicator of the commitment to accountability. The development of a set of common assessments will serve as the catalyst for the professoriate to change the way students experience teaching and learning. Instruction must address the challenge of authentic assessment. Instruction must match expected outcomes and be brought together through a variety of instructional strategies that are intentional, purposeful and deliberate. This is an invitation to abandon what we think we know about teaching and learning and develop a vision for where we are going with program needs as they relate to student learning and acquiring leadership knowledge, skill and disposition.