Hi Farley,

As I am working with active methods, evaluation must meet the learning outcomes they promote. I usually make teams and each member has a responsibility.  I apply formative and shared assessment. Personal follow-up interviews with each team and members, rubrics to assess the final project/s and rubris each member fills up assessing their own involvement and work and their peers.

The methods I apply are: simulation and gaming, task-based learning, flipped classroom.

hope it helps,

Laura

Conference Paper Scenario Design in EFL Teacher Training

Article Qualitative Research on Simulation and Collaborative Learning

I also apply formative and peer assessmen besides  essays and exams. The strategies and methods I use are based on team-working and active and experiential learning: debates, forums, simulation and gaming, problem-based learning, etc. Depending on the purpose of the tasks, my students have been able to assess their participation and critical thinking and those of their peers by means of rubrics that they designed.

Hope it helps,

Ma. Angeles

Farely,

Vibeke also has this question on the Q & A section of this site. I think the answer I submitted for his consideration would meet the parameters of your question as well:

The implicit assumption to your question about measuring learning is that the outcome of learning is predetermined and agreed upon. Is this the case? Have you identified and formulated what you have agreed will be assessed? The definitions of learning are many. Which one(s) are you using? It is important to remember that the assessment model drives learning behaviors not vice versa. Therefore if you do not have an assessment tool then the implicit assumption to your question is that you do not have a definition of learning that you are using for your research. Is this correct? I will be happy to answer more and give references if you let me know how your study is designed and what definitions you are using for dependent and independent variables.

The work you are doing is valuable to students.

Kind regards and best of wishes.

Janet Hanson

It would depend on what stage you carry out your assessment. A major assumption is that assessment is summative and used to assign qualification and status. The reality for us as teachers is that we need to be assessing for learning rather than merely carrying out assessment of learning. A subtle difference here. One is carried out at a point when we assume that learning is complete, if that is possible, and the other, as learning progresses. With constructivism or any other approach that draws from the humanist tradition in learning, the central factor must be the achievement of the learning outcomes. This means that assessment can occur at any stage in the learning process and can employ any method. Discussions, debates, demonstrations etc can tell us the extent to which our learners have achieved the set outcomes. So, there are no specifics in terms of assessment strategies, but there us a clear goal: achieving the set outcomes or objectives of learning

I agree with you Gordon,

the process of learning can be viewed to determine if the student is engaged and developing a reconstruction or construction of new meaning within his own hierarchal processes. The concern is whether the learning is effective and appropriate. When the student is motivated and uses personal agency to engage the new information with appropriate scaffolding and resources, such as mental maps, hierarchal modelling, etc. then the learning can be viewed as it occurs and if the student is developing correct networks and assumptions.

Janet

In education, for example, we are developing through innovation and research, a system of indicators. this issue for the qualitative evaluation is shown in these two articles, attached

También está trabajando en dos tesis doctorales centradas en práctica de la evaluación de expertos en lo académico curricular sostenibilidad. Y otro, de forma análoga a expertos académicos en materia de sostenibilidad, centrándose en su metodología de enseñanza.

(Publicaciones de Pilar Azcárate et al)

http://rodin.uca.es/xmlui/bitstream...-478-Cardenoso_et_al.pdf?sequence=7

http://rodin.uca.es/xmlui/bitstream...-617-Cardenoso_et_al.pdf?sequence=6

My "new" question is: Why is Objectivism used in Blended Learning, instead of Constructivist approaches? And: "Is Teaching an Art?"

I mean, do we all forgot teachers, and concentrate to learners (students)?

Good question, Ljubomir! Concerning constructivism, I believe teachers are mediators of learning; they are facilitators who provide stimuli to the students; and the teachers (mediators / facilitators / stimulators) learn together with the new knowledge constructed with the students. In such a view, students and teachers are learners! Regards, Farley S Nobre

Yes, that is an important point: both teachers and learners should be learning. For the former, it is one of the cornerstones of reflective practice

Farley,

You asked, Why is Objectivism used in Blended Learning, instead of Constructivist approaches? And: "Is Teaching an Art?" I mean, do we all forgot teachers, and concentrate to learners (students)?

I will offer my humble response to all three questions by referring you to the process of developing schools as learning organizations (LO) through communities of practice (CoP). Developing CoP requires shifting the bureaucratic model to a collaborative model focused on student outcomes. Therefore the focus is turned from evaluating what teachers do to observing what students do as a result of the teaching process and within a specific organizational culture.

Next, there are barriers to developing OL, though OL is desirable because it has been shown to result in improved student outcomes.  The lack of ability, motivation, and opportunity to transfer implicit knowledge creation between units within the organization, retain it, and apply it as student outcomes have been shown to be barriers to OL (Bartsch, Ebers & Maurer, 2012).

Creating CoP in schools has been shown to be key in developing OL and building capacity.  Administrators have influence on organizational culture and can provide resources to structure the organization in ways that promote "the daily habit of working together" (Fullan, 2005, p. 69).  When individuals build intra-organizational ties it increases capacity to overcome the obstacles to Organizational Learning (Bartsch, Ebers, Maurer, 2012).

Finally, the constructivist approach has through newer research been developed further to a cognitive sociocultural approach (Vygotsky, 1962) and includes co-construction of new knowledge between the individual and social group. This occurs in OL when the new knowledge is retained in the organization. Therefore to accomplish this requires the daily opportunity to work together and produce reciprocal projections in the organizational environment. The result is the development of the organization's identity/memory and feedback to the individuals within the organization on how to behave.

In sum, Objectivism can be used as part of teaching strategies in a Blended Learning Environment if shown to successfully produce observable student outcomes of new knowledge construction that is meaningful.  Meaningful learning transfers to new situations and therefore results in the outcomes defined under Constructivist approaches that consider learner agency as key.

Whether teaching is viewed as an Art or Science is dependent upon the observer and is therefore a valid perspective to the individual. Further, I do not think the research suggests we forget about teachers, though in creating learning organizations the focus shifts from observing teachers to observing and measuring student outcomes.

Therefore, teacher behavior is less relevant than the outcomes observed by students in response to teacher behavior. The key is to develop opportunities for teachers to work together, share their practices, including expert advise and support, develop shared values, norms, vision, and goals that match the collective mind and result in student meaningful learning.

Your questions are key to the new research and approaches to educational leadership, organizational learning, and psychosocial elements included in assessment models for the development of meaningful learning in schools.

Well done Farley,

Janet

Oops, I redirect my previous post to Ljubomir rather than Farley. My regrets for any inconvenience.

Janet

Janet: These question were asked by me. Never mine. But what about Constructionism (learning theory) instead Objectivism?

Ljubomir,

What is your particular purpose in wanting to compare these two learning theories? How do you intend to apply the information?

Janet

Thank you Janet! Great answers / explanations! I believe UNESCO brings many contributions to these fields: 

UNESCO. “Shaping the Future We Want - UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005 – 2014: Final Report”, (Paris: United Nations, 2014), http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002301/230171e.pdf

Regards, Farley