Democracy and Assessment

Please watch watch the video below to begin using this site.

How can we use Freire's concept of praxis to inform our assessment practice in 2020?

"The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them."

--Paulo Freire

COVID-19 as an Opportunity for Praxis

Can democratic community positively impact a formative learning environment?

John Dewey - My Pedagogic Creed (Excerpt)

"I believe that this conception has due regard for both the individualistic and socialistic ideals. It is duly individual because it recognizes the formation of a certain character as the only genuine basis of right living. It is socialistic because it recognizes that this right character is not to be formed by merely individual precept, example, or exhortation, but rather by the influence of a certain form of institutional or community life upon the individual, and that the social organism through the school, as its organ, may determine ethical results."

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Please select one of the optional exercises below as a "mini-project" to be submitted by unit's end.

Big Questions

  1. What are you assessing? Standards, competencies or content? What forms of assessment work best for each?

  2. Why are you assessing? What is the purpose of the assessment?

  3. Think of your current situation (COVID remote learning in 2020), and the situation your students are in. In this context, what purpose do assessments serve?

  4. What is the difference between assessment and grades/grading?

  5. "A rose by any other name..." --What is the practical difference between formative and summative assessments?

  6. What is the relative importance of formative and summative assessments?

  7. How can we enculturate students to thrive in a formative-only environment?

  8. What do you think: does civics play a role in this discussion? Can more democratic schools challenge the need for an accountability paradigm?

Optional Exercises

  1. Read Dewey's My Pedagogic Creed (Chinese Version), then write your own pedagogic creed. Publish it as a screencast, video, vlog or blog.

  2. Choose 1-3 of the big questions on the left to respond to. Publish your responses as a screencast, vlog or podcast.

  3. Extrapolating from the quote at the topc of the page, do some independent research and indentify three major benefits to moving beyond what Freire called the "banking" (teacher-led) model of education. Do you agree with him? Pair up with a partner and record a discussion on the matter. Publish it as a vlog or podcast.

  4. Returning to the notion of "non-stupid optimism"--What are the challenges that face teachers who desire to embed more democratic and civic principles into their assessment practices? Publish your response as a screencast, video, vlog or blog.

  5. Similar question on a more praxis, classroom level: --What are the challenges that face teachers who desire to explore with more constructivist and formative assessment policies? Publish your response as a screencast, video, vlog or blog.