70529 Formative Assessment and eLearning
Submitted by Ted on Tue, 2007/05/29 - 2:00pm.
Educators have known for decades that with formative assessments as the child learns results in a payoff of deeper and quicker learning. Three years ago a goal of the Arizona Governor’s Council on Innovation and Technology education subcommittee was formative assessmenti integrated with teacher professional development.
A commentary in the current Education Week addresses Assessment in the Age of Innovation. 21st century learning requires integrating and using knowledge, not just acquisition of facts. PISA scores Europe and Asia ahead of the US on problem solving in math and science. What is needed is assessments for learning (formative) rather than solely of learning (summative).
Our 5th graders’ time is biased 5:1 toward basic drill and practice. Britain has a national curriculum with wide range of skill assessments within a virtual city. We have No Child Left Behind. But fortunately we do have the national Partnership for 21st Century Skills www.21stcenturyskills.org/ (click on the 30 minute video) lead by Ken Kay of Tucson that defines what our students should be learning. The commentary authors described the use of hand held computers that allow the teachers assessment of not only the math knowledge but the strategies they used to solve the math problems.
One more demonstration that individualized real-time formative assessment is practical for a teacher with a classroom of students. Looks like a job for eLearningi!
