Authentic Assessment

Here, we look into assessing or measuring learning from those experiences. Educators and designers use formative assessments to provide learners with information, guidance, and feedback during the learning experience. Summative assessments generally take place after covering larger amounts of content, often in the form of mid-term or final exams or research papers, to provide grades or levels of accomplishment.

Authentic assessments are usually task- or performance-based activities and showcase many skills a learner has gained throughout a unit or course. They require higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills as they mimic real-world scenarios; thus, they are more engaging and meaningful for learners of all ages.

Examples of authentic assessments include portfolios, lab experiments, simulations, and performances that are typically evaluated using rubrics designed to include course standards and objectives.

Learning Approach Models

Authentic assessments can be large and include multifaceted projects. Creating student-centered learning can be complex. While those multifaceted projects can't fit into a specific theory, Learning Approach Models bundle ideas about learning into a shape that can be adopted across various cases.

I developed an example of a learning scenario to be taught with one of the models that could be applied to the authentic assessment.

Learning Approach Model:

Project-Based Learning

(starting with Experiential Learning)

The learning scenario consists of 3 stages over one school year.

Experiential Learning (hands-on in the fall term)
Project-Based Learning (in class in the winter term)
Project-Based Learning (hands-on in the spring term)

School Garden Market is a farmer's market run by high school students, opening at a public PK-12 school in the urban area every Thursday after school for 2.5 hours in fall and spring. Customers are parents, students, teachers, and visitors. The market is the hands-on learning stage of the Food Justice unit of the environmental science class. The main purpose of the market is to raise awareness of the current food system in the U.S. and to promote healthy food habits among the school community.

Authentic Assessment Question List

The alignment of authenticity and student-centered approach in the learning scenario is assessed throughout the three stages. The question list is compiled from resources from the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) and the Instructional Design and Technology MicroMasters Program at the University of Maryland Global Campus on the edX® platform (USMx LDT100x).

Is it realistic? Does it mimic a real-world scenario?
Does it require higher-order thinking? Problem-solving?
Does it provide a more engaging, meaningful, and worthwhile experience for students?
Does it require judgement and innovation?
Does it ask the student to “do” the subject? Is it task- or performance-based activities?
Does it draw the student’s ability to use a repertoire of knowledge and skills in coordination to complete complex tasks?
Does it provide multiple perspectives or roles?
Are the knowledge and learned skills iterative in a different context?
Does it allow appropriate opportunities to rehearse, practice, consult resources, and get feedback on and refine performances and products?
Are students able to justify their answers?
Does it showcase many skills a learner has gained throughout a unit or course?
Is the authentic assessment designed to improve future performance with some degree of subjectiveness?

(Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning; USMx LDT100x)

1. Experiential Learning in the fall term

At the beginning of the school year in September, initially, two teachers prepare logistics and harvests both from the school garden and local farms. Five to ten high school students from the environmental science class sign up to volunteer on Thursdays in the fall term. At first, students are motivated because they can earn community service hours that the school takes seriously as the graduation requirement [external motivation] (Yarborough & Fedesco, 2020). Prior to the opening, students visit the school garden to have a brief introduction to local and seasonal foods through a hands-on approach. They observe how the vegetables and fruits grow, smell, and taste by using their senses.

Students learn how to operate a farmer's market by doing (Bates, n.d.)before learning the context during the Food Justice unit in the environmental science classroom. During this period, the co-supervising teachers guide and provide scaffolding for students (Lumen Learning, n.d.) and pass down tasks and skills over 10 markets in the fall. Gradually the involvement of teachers becomes less. Students are at the center of their own learning that requires collaboration (CLTL, n.d.): volunteering with friends, where peer learning naturally can take place.

Throughout the markets, students can develop many iterative skills (CLTL, n.d.) such as:

Marketing - Setting up tables, writing price tags, displaying vegetables and fruits in a way attractive to customers, and handling samples with food safety measures.
Customer service – explaining what the vegetable is, where they are from, and recommending how to use/cook.
Cooking - Students can bring any number of leftover vegetables back home free of charge [extrinsic motivation] (Yarborough & Fedesco, 2020) so that their family can cook meals with fresh ingredients. Students taste the family dishes and bring back the recipe idea to the next market.
Finance – Quickly calculating total prices without depending on a calculator, handling cash and card payments, and tracking income and expenses.
Management – Experienced volunteer teaching skills to new volunteers.
Self-reflection – Students gain multiple perspectives (CLTL, n.d.) and try different self-nominated roles such as market manager, registerer, customer specialist, and assistant. They learn their natural skillset by trying different positions.

Formative assessment takes place with students facilitated by teachers (Beard, 2021) at the end of the market in the fall. At this point, two main open-ended questions are:

What went well this fall season? [gathering feedback] (Miller, 2017)
Which part needs improvement for the next spring season? [refine performance] (CLTL, n.d.)

Students identify areas of improvement and record the ideas that naturally took place and were proven effective [student-centered] (UMUC, 2017).

Live personal shopper program - communication between personal shoppers and market assistants by sharing orders on a live shared document.
Playing music to make the market atmosphere more vibrant.
Fun activities, such as a pumpkin weight guess contest.

Photo by Shelley Pauls on Unsplash

2. Project-Based Learning in the winter term

During the winter term, students are introduced to the topics around the Food Justice Movement. Food justice recognizes the food system as "a racial project and problematizes the influence of race and class on the production, distribution, and consumption of food" (Alkon & Agyeman, 2011). They choose a focus area for their research including food dessert in the city, land accessibility, food sovereignty, food policies, and environmental concerns on consuming imported foods that might be not so obvious but when students start to investigate, they notice they are surrounded by causes of the issues every day (CITL, n.d.). Students form questions that mirror their real-life problems to address (Wilbert, 2013; USMx LDT100x) in their research, for example:

What food choices do we have in the school neighborhood when the closest store is only Seven-Eleven and CVS?
Why do some of the city neighborhoods have ample access to fresh foods and others do not?
What is food mileage and how does it affect our environment?

Teachers don’t assume students pick up research skills on their own but guide students on how to think to solve problems through evaluating evidence, analyzing arguments, and generating hypotheses (Genareo & Lyons, 2015; UMUC, 2017). Teachers navigate students who share similar interests to form focus groups and limit the research scope (Miller, 2017). The research process is multifaceted and complex (CITL, n.d.) to interview experts, conduct field trips, analyze and evaluate the data and organize them into the students-led workshops as a cumulative presentation (Wilbert, 2013; USMx LDT100x).

Their research is tied to academic standards and summative assessment takes place during the classroom unit (Miller, 2020). Shareware technology and open-source tools allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of learning (Genareo & Lyons, 2015; UMUC, 2017). They present their findings at a showcase event called the Food Justice Youth Summit before spring break in April.

3. Project-Based Learning in the spring term

As the warm spring weather kicks in, the School Garden Market reopens in May and June. The students’ motivation to participate market becomes intrinsic (Yarborough & Fedesco, 2020) as they just covered the topics in the classroom.

While operational skills that they learned last fall make it possible to run the market smoothly, now students have artifacts that they created for the Food Justice Youth Summit workshop. In the Edutopia article, Wilbert addresses that the gold standard for authentic assessment is "when students begin to develop their plans for holding themselves accountable and measuring the success of their endeavors" (Wilbert, 2013).

At the market table, students advocate their research topics in the form of short slideshows on tablets and visual posters. Students rise to the occasion when they feel their work has real value outside of an academic exam (Wilbert, 2013). They invite customers to engage in learning about the importance of choosing local foods and the power of conscious consumption behind the simple act of purchasing seasonal vegetables and fruits.

Wilbert explains that authentic assessments analyze student learning in a manner that is consistent with how the disciplines function outside of an academic environment (2020). Students' learning can be assessed using a rubric that covers target objectives during the final reflection (USMx LDT100x).

By participating in the School Garden Market, although students aren’t graded for the 3rd stage of Project-Based Learning, they gain valuable skills and insights into being mindful of their eating habits. In a collective view, students not only have an impact on their health but also their learned actions potentially evolve into systematic social change for future generations.

Connections to the learning theories

The learning scenario connects to the learning theories below.

Behaviorism: Teachers/customers encourage students' healthy eating habits [positive reinforcement], which increases students’ readiness to take responsibility for their own health.

Constructivism: From feedback and reflection, students gain the ideas for improvement, such as a personal shopper program, adding music, and incorporating fun activities. These are additional elements realized from students' voices.

Cognitivism: Learning is repeated through a process of inputs, managed in short-term memory, and coded for long-term recall. For example, learning from 30 to 40 different kinds of names and characters of vegetables, fruits, and herbs takes place over weeks of volunteering at the market. The knowledge about local and seasonal foods gained through experience is directly applicable to their food justice curriculum in the environmental science classroom.

Connectivism: Project-Based Learning creates collaboration among peers, often their communication and research, and presentation utilize technology. The platform of a live personal shopper program is improvised by students in order to reduce the communication gap between personal shoppers and market assistants by synchronously sharing orders.

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References

Alkon, A. H., & Agyeman, J. (Eds.). (2011). Cultivating food justice: Race, class, and sustainability. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262516327

Bates, W.A. (n.d.). Teaching in a Digital Age. BC Campus Open Ed. https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/4-4-models-for-teaching-by-doing/

Beard, E. (2021, July 20). What is formative assessment? NWEA. https://www.nwea.org/blog/2021/what-is-formative-assessment/

Carnegie Mellon University. (n.d.). What is the difference between formative and summative assessment? Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html

Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Authentic Assessments. The Indiana University of Bloomington. https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/assessing-student-learning/authentic-assessment/

Genareo, R. V., & Lyons, R. (2015. November 30). Problem-based learning: Six steps to design, implement, and assess. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/course-design-ideas/problem-based-learning-six-steps-to-design-implement-and-assess/

Lumen Learning. (n.d.). Project-based learning. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/educationx92x1/chapter/project-based-learning/

Miller, A. (2017, November 3). Getting started with project-based learning (Hint: Don’t go crazy). Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/project-based-learning-getting-started-basics-andrew-miller

Miller, A. (2020, April 28). Summative assessment in distance learning. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/summative-assessment-distance-learning

The Glossary of Education Reform. (2013, August 29). Summative assessment. The Great School Partnership. https://www.edglossary.org/summative-assessment

USMx LDT100x. (n.d.). W6.1 Learning Guide: Assessment in Instructional Design and Technology: Learning Theories. The Instructional Design and Technology MicroMasters Program at the University of Maryland Global Campus on the edX®. Document posted in the online classroom.

UMUC LDT 100x. (2017, May 10). Authentic assessment. [Video] YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-_yX7GbuTY&t=143s

UMUC LDT 100x. (2017, May 10). Student-centered learning. [Video] YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rUNqVSQQ3E

UMUC LDT 100x. (2017, May 11). Experimental learning. [Video] YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rUNqVSQQ3E

UMUC LDT 100x. (2017, May 10). Project-based learning. [Video] YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CRbSR-vrH0

Wilbert, M. (2013, April 19). Authentic assessment in action. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/summative-assessment-distance-learning

Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Formative and Summative Assessments. https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Formative-Summative-Assessments

Yarborough, C. B., & Fedesco, H.N. (2020). Motivating students. Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching and Learning. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/motivating-students

Photo credits

Themers, N. (n.d.). [photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/r5JC40D0tKE

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