Peer Assessment for Development of Preservice Teachers

Peer assessment holds tremendous potential to positively impact the development of preservice teachers. The purpose of this chapter is to describe our findings on the impact of different forms of peer observation and feedback on preservice teachers’ skills in analyzing classroom teaching and their perceptions of their experience with peer assessment. In addition to reporting our findings, we draw from the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning literature to present peer assessment as a medium to overcome structured isolation that is present in the practice of teaching. According to our study, peer observation and feedback is beneficial to preservice teachers’ learning. However, to maximize its effectiveness, a culture of peer assessment should be established in teacher education programs.

Assessing the Composition Program on Our Own Terms

As Jacqueline Jones Royster articulated at the 2006 Conference on College Composition and Communication, English departments are already assessing themselves and should resist suggestions by the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education that a standardized method of assessing students and programs in higher education is needed. In the fall of 2006, the University of Louisville was due to be reviewed by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The First-Year Composition program chose to conduct an internal assessment in the fall of 2004. This chapter details the Composition program assessment conducted at the University of Louisville and includes a comprehensive analysis of its rationale, theoretical foundations, methodologies, and results. This chapter also articulates the difficulties of such a large-scale assessment as well as the uniquely local challenges faced during the process.

Creativity Assessment in Higher Education

This chapter discusses creativity assessment as a means for evaluating skills required in higher education. Creativity is assessed in the context of the creative person, process, product and press or environment. Creativity is also measured differently in various domains, which we illustrate using divergent thinking tests. A historical view of creativity assessment is addressed with a substantive approach to understanding the construct of creativity, its measurement and evaluation, and the broader implications for use in higher education settings. The authors provide a comprehensive overview of the different ways creativity is assessed and hope to inform researchers concerned about finding ways to better individualize instruction and to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs.

New Collaborations for Writing Program Assessment

This chapter argues that as primary stakeholders in writing program assessment, students and instructors need to be included proactively in assessment research. However, little research has been done to determine how to accomplish this methodologically even though assessment affects pedagogical practices, student populations, and public opinion about what constitutes good writing. Instead of traditional quantitative, psychometric research, the author argues assessment practitioners need to utilize local opportunities to discover native needs. He presents a program assessment project as an example of assessment research that focuses on local, contingent populations. Focus groups of students and teachers were used to create a dialogic conversation between stakeholders, and the results were used to design a new course in an existing developmental program—one that consciously and methodologically responded to both students’ and instructors’ needs.

Assessing Creativity Using the Consensual Assessment Technique

The Consensual Assessment Technique is a powerful tool used by creativity researchers in which panels of expert judges are asked to rate the creativity of creative products such as stories, collages, poems, and other artifacts. Experts in the domain in question serve as judges; thus, for a study of creativity using stories and poems, a panel of writers and/or teachers of creative writing might judge the creativity of the stories, and a separate panel of poets and/or poetry critics might judge the creativity of the poems. The Consensual Assessment Technique is based on the idea that the best measure of the creativity of a work of art, a theory, a research proposal, or any other artifact is the combined assessment of experts in that field. Unlike other measures of creativity, such as divergent-thinking tests, the Consensual Assessment Technique is not based on any particular theory of creativity, which means that its validity (which has been well established empirically) is not dependent upon the validity of any particular theory of creativity. This chapter explains the Consensual Assessment Technique, discusses how it has been used in research, and explores ways it might be employed in assessment in higher education.

Assessing Outcomes in a Technical Communication Capstone

Outcomes-based assessment provides data for programs to demonstrate student learning as a result of their enrollment in the program and to assess courses and curriculum. This chapter reports on the process used to develop an outcomes assessment initiative for the Multimedia Writing and Technical Communication Program at Arizona State University. The authors discuss details on the development of outcomes, the mapping of outcomes to the curriculum, the use of electronic portfolios to assess student writing using Phase 2 scoring procedures, and how results from the first three semesters of implementation are being used to evaluate and improve the program’s curriculum.

Multi-Tier Design Assessment in the Development of Complex Organizational Systems

This chapter describes a model for evaluating complex organizations or systems. The design assessment model the authors propose is a response to current notions of assessment. There are assumptions we make about learning and the functioning of complex systems such as academic programs that do not match assumptions that are inherent in traditional forms of assessment. The authors use a case study of Purdue University’s strategic planning process to provide the context for describing how design assessment takes place in a higher education setting. Based on interviews and observations, we identify areas problematic for some notions of assessment and distinguish several implications based on these findings. The design assessment model may be useful when assessing complex educational organizations or programs, such as when (a) educational entities at the university level need to assess new programs or curriculum materials; or (b) curriculum developers need to assess new software or tools for instruction.

Engaging Faculty as a Strategic Choice in Assessment

This chapter introduces methods that can be used to engage faculty in the assessment process, working within a shared governance structure in institutions of higher education. It begins by identifying assumptions about including faculty in the assessment process, placing special emphasis on social capital and networking theories often used in communication and sociological research. The chapter then proceeds to identify six methods that might be used to engage faculty strategically in the assessment process, and then used three case studies to help explain these methods. The author hopes that an understanding of these assumptions and methods will empower assessment professionals wishing to develop and sustain assessment on their own campuses, and will lead to further discussion about how to include faculty in the assessment process.

A Neglected Necessity in Liberal Arts Assessment

This chapter describes how the trend favoring assessment initiatives of a system-wide scope such as program review and collegiate learning assessment (CLA) tends to overlook the specific, highly concrete learning experiences of individual students in the liberal arts. These individual cases offer a rich source of data for assessment. The insights that can be derived from a rigorous analysis of such individual experience can tell educators much about learning outcomes, teaching quality, and curricular effectiveness. It is in this regard that this chapter argues for the student as the unit of analysis in assessment initiatives.

A Case Study of Instructional Delivery Formats

This chapter uses a case study to exemplify one approach to assessment of three instructional delivery formats: (a) online, (b) distance, satellite campuses, and (c) traditional onground format. Student competencies on learning outcomes in a basic interpersonal communication college course were analyzed on a core assessment project—a course assignment portfolio—using a department-approved assessment rubric. Scoring of 95 assessments suggested that significantly more students reached competency levels in the traditional format than in the distance and online formats. A high percentage of students in all three formats failed synthesis, conceptual, values, and critical literacy competencies. This assessment effort provides an example of how faculty can employ assessment as part of a continuous improvement cycle.