Formative Assessments and Me

Now that I'm digging deeper into this course, I'm left wondering if I really use formative assessments...well, at all!?  I guess in one sense I do; that is, by stringing together a line of different tests and assignments within a single course.  But each of these assessments is like a snapshot in time...the materials I go over post-evaluation are related in the context of the course profile, but typically not consistently reinforced thereafter.  For example, once I've talked about Pasteurization in beer, its effects and how it's perceived in the marketplace, then tested students on it...we don't really go over it again.  Maybe a word here and there, but not in the form of a regular review.

Mind you, I'm not sure I have a truly summative test either...at least not regularly.  I don't like final exams because I'm tired of the simple chug and gag reflex of cramming and regurgitation that students seem so apt to practice...either because of workload or failure to demonstrate due diligence in their preparations. So each of the tests and assignments I use are kind of somewhat formative and somewhat summative...is this the proverbial Biog Deal?  I'm not sure.

I can see the value of incorporating a distinctly formative evaluation.  And I'm no longer concerned about whether they should be accorded a mark, although I've noted that students are MUCH more transactional than me in this area...if it isn't worth something in the form of a mark, then the resistance or basic disinterest spikes appreciably.  But that said, why wouldn't I want to see how their progress is truly going?  It's easier in practical things, or so it seems....we can see how they progress from not having a clue in the brewery to becoming quite adept at the use of most of the technology in there. We show, we ask them to copy/demonstrate, we correct, they get it!  Simple, right?  But I'm left wondering if it's a harder task in writin', readin' and rithmetic?

With respect to the reading, writing and arithmetic, I do use some mild forms of formative assessment...grammar, referencing, spelling; basic stuff really...they all inflict a mild bloodlet of sorts when I catch errors.  And one would presume that they would see that which I want and they would react accordingly.  Not so, at least as often as I might like unfortunately but it's still worth a go.  Perhaps a real issue here is that I'm not being imaginative enough in terms of the kinds of dilemmas or issues I should be posing...I'd wager that I'm certainly not devious enough to camouflage them sufficiently either so that students can't perceive them as a test of sorts.  But try I will...I guess I'm so used to spending 80% of my time on 20% of the students whom generate or have problems (Pareto's Principle), that it affecting my judgement in this matter...do what's right for the majority whom will make the effort and worry less about that other 20%.

ISS redux

Egads!  I'm now into the second course ISS5002 with the intent of getting 'em all under my belt this year.  Madness perhaps, but achievable.  Seems to me that what must be done, must be done, and like everything else, we all muster sufficient courage, discipline and whatever else it takes to finish off the beast as it were.  Given that this too is an elective of sorts, one might think me quite mad given the chaos and rampant 'overwhelmedness' that stalks my life, or it is my career?  I'm not sure, the two are inseparable and perhaps I am simply merely built that way (simple that is...)...50's codger if you like.

This first post is past due, so I'd better haul it.  There are a number of questions that each seek an answer:

• What purpose does evaluation/assessment play in your courses?
• How do you think your students view your assessment techniques?
• Do they seem to value them, or is it just a hoop to jump through to get a final mark?
• What do you do with the information you gain from student assessments?  Do you use it to change anything in your course organization or delivery?

Firstly, evaluation is a metric that I use to determine the level of knowledge attainment in my courses. This all might seem a bit droll given our readings thus far, but my stock in trade with these evaluations isn't just to have students regurgitate the facts.  I'd like to think that the questions I ask are nearly always demanding in the sense that they can't just be answered with facts...they require some thinking, some thought, some assembling of data that brings together a diverse set of features, ideas and assumptions into one cogent answer...well mostly.  Do you know how boring it is to read the same darn answer? This happens when you put a student into automatic...read n'regurgitate is how I see it, so even if I need to see something unique, that works!

Secondly, students have been bred in the bone to write a test, get a mark, pass (or fail) a course. Works for me. To some extent, I've done the agonize bit over whether my test are fair or representative of the information we've covered both in and outside of class and whether I get a flippin' normal marks distribution.  I've used stats to get a Bell curve in my marks and I felt awful for it...maybe I DO have a bi-modal distribution in the class!?  Clearly, we all get this part...me test, you write test, I spend hours marking and hopefully we're all content at the end.


Thirdly. we all get a view, along the line...datum points that indicate just how yer doin', eh? Is anyone fooled by the fact that these marks, as we currently use them, are any particularly good indicator of how well someone will do in a given arena of work?  In a career?  In a life? I think not.  I see them in part as candy...relished for a while until you move on to the next challenge.  And I think students see this too.

How do my students see my assessment techniques?  They're really, really long and involved!  I no longer really 'do' T/F or multiple choice...it's all essay baby...all 10-15 of them in a 2 hour beast. Their reflections give me succour in a sense...I have either done my job or have not.  Assemble, craft, create..not regurgitate.  And when they get a good mark, it's because they earned it through hard work.  That's at least what I hope.  I test them monthly, give them assignments monthly and they typically have weekly 'obligations' as I call them. There is a PILE of information and learning that we go through...they have 16 months to cram it all in, have it make sense and get out there and apply it in a career of their choosing. It should be demanding!

There's those darn hoops again.  Depends.  Some students love learning...anything.  Some love specific areas...others must be thinking that 'we' should work to just get them the heck outta there as soon as you can, man...(methinks some of them do wish it was a block course that would terminate, mercifully, in 3 weeks...ingrates!)  When their work is done well, as it so often is by quite a few of them, I love to look at it.  I love to read it.  I am gleeful that they have achieved so much and demonstrated a level of competence that, I must confess, sometimes exceeds my own state of knowledge.  This is art, this is learning, this is a gift...to me.  And then there are the others, the hoop jumpers...disappointing, base, forgetful.

I change my courses as if I am a terminal fidget.  It's me really.  But what drives me, at least in part to change anything and everything, is feedback.  Questions I craft with the greatest of care often fail and don't elicit the information I'm really seeking.  Good questions give me the gusto to go and create variants on a theme.  But change is perpetual and frequently sitting alongside as I view the latest testament to my assessment crafting prowess.

Olds Dog Can Learn New Tricks

So, we're at the back end of this first course on teaching, or rather improving one's teaching style and there's some expectation that we take what we're doing in class this week and reflect upon it in the context of what we've learned.  Upon reflection, the biggest benefit to me this week was utilizing BOPPPS in at least some of lectures, or rather as a framework or wellspring from which to build my lectures that day.  It is surprising how much more fulfilling it can be...for me for sure, and one would hope for at least a portion of my tender charges in the classroom...there's a certain more orderliness that I now rely upon, perhaps weirdly, in both a pre- and a post-delivery manner.  Things also seem a little less manic but as with change in anything, and as the saying goes,'Rome wasn't built in a day,' expectations also need to be built realistically too.

Why do I say this?  An example.  I am manic, my delivery is often manic; fast-paced and active would be the minimum I would suggest as descriptors for what I thought was the former me-in-the-classroom.  Until today...one single issue pinpointed that I ain't there yet, may never be, but at least if recognition is part of the solution, then at least I'm part way there.  The example?  The proverbial rhetorical question.  In other words, we often ask the question, quite typically already knowing the answer, but in my case, there's never much of a pause between Q&A...as in ever. In my hurry to get things done, to cross off the coverage of item on the list, to NOT let it gets in the way of progress and perhaps, I just don't listen.  I think I do, but I suspect that I also sometimes don't.

Half way through a difficult topic today, I realized that the gap, the space, the void, the silent hesitation between Q&A was quite simply non-existent.  I know that this is a problem, my colleagues brought this up specifically in my demo teaching moment in this course, yet here I was back to my old tricks again.  You know what I did?  I adjusted.  Didn't take much, just some realization  that I'd lapsed.  And the strangest thing?  The students noticed immediately when the gap became self-evident.  I'd like to think that more students gave answers or participated because of the lapse, but what I did notice was that they paid more attention.  One student, from her reaction, I swear thought I was going to get angry or say something to try and motivate folks...of course I wasn't and didn't, but that void, that 'hole' caught them off-guard and at least had them paying much more attention to what I was saying...it's really as easy as counting...One thousand and one, one thousand and two.  A pause.  Magic.

FLIF ...or how I survived my demo

Well, we're nearly done....for some reason, the timing of this mini-course that I thought was just perfect for a low business period was completely out of whack.  Crazy busy is how I would describe my working and personal life over these past 3 weeks.  And this made me think about the quality of my attempts in the classroom...a lot.  I think I'm capable of crafting good enough, perhaps even periodically outstanding product for the classroom, but my attempts are frequently confounded by the multitudinous obligations that careen around my existence on a seemingly daily basis.  I don'y plan it t be this way, it just, well, happens.  And it affects my teaching and the products I generate, just as it affected what I did for my demo last week. And what happens if I can't find the time to go over before I do it again?!  Do we have enough time to do the job we're supposed to be doing?  It appears so on paper but I'm less inclined to agree, even tacitly.  Is it the pedagogy that we don't know or the time we don't have?

On to FLIF and how my presentation went.  Sage advice from our Andrea here on this one...here I am thinking I can shove bucketloads of information into the observers...I guess I'm like a value shopper in this sense....give 'em lots, so what if they gag on it!?  I timed my presentation and it came in just about right...only possible when I cut it in half.  BOPPPS worked for me for sure and I have to include it in everything I do from heron in...you know, with all of that time I have as mentioned above.  But do it I must.

'F' or how did I feel?  More bothered than normal because I don't want to look bad in front of colleagues whom do the same thing as me every day.  But it went better than I thought it would and I could see how pace and feedback works very well when I'm paying real attention.  Methinks that I sometimes focus too much on what the information is as opposed to the rate of delivery and whether they're getting it.  I suppose I would classify myself as 'impatient'...it's true!  Me!  My almost complete inability to wait more than a millisecond after asking a question was all too self-evident...my pace isn't everyone else's, which in some ways is a total bummer, but it's okay too.

'L' or did I like what I did.  Yes, I love karate and I felt glorious and free whilst demonstrating it and having others get it.  Competence in others is truly gratifying...it's their achievement, but I still get a buzz.  The negatives came up in the form of wishing I'd done something just a little differently...repeating the move(s) and allowing people time to practice setting.  Perhaps my nervousness simply got the better of me and I felt time was a-wasting?  You see, I commit to Total Quality Management (LEAN) but my practise shows I have a long way to go before I give the goods that optimize client satisfaction.

'I' or improve....in retrospect, I could write a book about a 10 minute demo, but I won't.  Pace - too fast; repetition - not sufficient; ppt! - wish I had one like my two colleagues!  And so on and so forth...

'F' or feedback.  Holy awkward!  You want to be positive, you want to be constructive, you want to be honest.  And I was, to the extent that I felt comfortable.  I figure that if I'd known everyone a bit more thoroughly and for a longer period of time, it would have been easier.  As it was, I'm the geezer teacher whilst my colleagues as relative newbies put forward a solid effort.  Made me think of asking students to deliver a seminar when they don't have anywhere near the experience I have.  Construct and commit get better.  The feedback given to me was very spot on...you generally have a pretty good idea where you muffed it up...nothing surprising except perhaps that they all picked it up!  Blimey!  It's that obvious?  So clearly I need to adjust and adjust I have.

Work:life balance,...just how elusive is it?

Week 2 and there's more than a little irony associated with my being asked to comment about work:life balance. There is a moral, I believe, to be learned by the end of this long effort.  Of all of the issues that I've struggled with my entire teaching career, this is amongst the biggest...maybe THE biggest.  Me, my character, is to a very large extent defined by what I am able to achieve/do/complete/whatever at work.  I'm a 50's kind of fella; of that, there can be no doubt. Workplace loyalty, being perpetually present and available, long hours, doing management's bidding (...not without question though. Of note, I have been on strike twice in my life and held a long and varied assortment of union and association positions..perhaps that's why I'm so popular..?!)...anyway, you've probably got a good idea about the workaholic that I am and you'd likely be right.

That said, not having a good work:life balance in the past has cost me...big. And it's even difficult for me to manage even today.  I judge myself to be successful, very successful.  Two undergraduate degrees, a graduate degree, 2 apprenticeships, and as of late, a diploma (in brewing) so I could continue to be useful in my current position.  After 30+ years in horticulture and agriculture, I switch gears and build a brewery, introduce a brewing program into the college, coordinate it and try and teach in a field that was for all intents and purposes, completely foreign to me. Brutal but incredibly exciting and 'accomplishing' and achieving new success doesn't begin to describe it. And we are successful, but not without a huge cost.

But, on the other side of the coin is my family. Six kids, second wife...missed out on a lot with my first 3 kids (daughters) due to full-time work plus a highly successful business,.. now trying to make up for past mistakes with my 3 younger sons...Scouts, karate, pond hockey, a loving, beautiful wife, building a life here in Alberta (still feels new despite 11 years being here) plus our past life and home in Quebec which we still own and retreat to each summer, for a while at least. Then juggling finances...you all know what I'm talking about and finally, developing a heart issue partly through some vile and evil bug that tried to take me down plus major painful, disfiguring just-plain-negative issues at work during the past two years.  A stint in  hospital, medication, being told I would croak if I didn't listen...it's all true.  So, as I survey all before me, what have I wrought and learned?  I remember a former student, Sue, a long time ago it now seems commenting that, 'Peter, you live to work, while I choose to work to live,' as I was giving her the gears for failing to submit 'something' on-time.  Methinks it must be somewhere in-between.  Just like nature: nurture, right?

Speak up..don't accept it, but before opening your mouth, make sure that you're being reasonable and be held reasonably accountable.  Learn to accept that you simply cannot be all things to all people, I suspect, not even part of the time...for me, my competitiveness and need to achieve/change/succeed needs to be balanced against other more important things. Be of service but recall that you get but one life.  My busy life, daytime and night-time, isn't going to change soon, so there's some measure of acceptance that I simply have to go with.  What have I realized as I take this course...the scheduling is off...I'm a coordinator with 4 courses (2 brand, spanking new ones) this semester, working in a not yet two-year old program that still needs lots of tweaking.  I'll carry on but my failure to appreciate just how rigorous my job is means that I won't get as much out of this short course as I wanted...but, maybe that's okay?  The content is always going to be available for me for future reflection, so I refuse to sweat it.  Fortunately, this course also a distraction, something new and different, so I find, despite my time limitations and all else, it satisfies a different need of mine.  Good. My overly optimistic timetable for study and submission of requirements is now by the wayside...change has come and I'm fine with it.  I figure that if I don't fret about that which may have been impossible to begin with, then I'll find a way.  By now, it turns out that I have more than a vague notion of what work:life balance is...so, I'll do what I can do and that shall have to suffice...not to the point of failure, but there are always costs, opportunity costs, associated with every choice that you make.  Just be prepared to live with and accept them...it's the choices you make that are most important.  I'll set a new and improved timetable for myself too, but it's not etched in stone...do what you can while you can.  Increase your resilience if it's not already there...just like toughening up your skin so that you can stand up and play to the madding crowd, your stamina will just have to ramp up.  Or, you'll determine that the job is not for you.  This isn't about the money, your early years will likely, if you're keeping count, have you making less than minimum wage.  Sorry, but very likely true.  It really is about being satisfied. If you aren't satisfied a good part of the time, then by extension, your work:life balance that we're all attempting to strive for just won't exist.  It is indeed a yardstick.

Thinking back about a Teacher.

...my first task....come up with a teaching example from the past that got etched into my mind as an example of good practice.  This should be pretty easy, right?  I mean, I'm surrounded by people whom teach a good part of every day and whom presumably honed their teaching skill through any number of first class terrors, multiple mind-numbing deliveries of Power Points, trying to master a subject and look very erudite, sometimes the night before teaching students that same information. Then there are Lord knows how many not-so eagerly anticipated course evaluations...and the myriad of puzzled faces on students whom just ain't getting it. We're a proficient bunch, we is!

Maybe this isn't so easy? But I have my favourites; that is, a couple of teachers across my educational career who just managed to do a fine job of helping us all get it each and every day.  I think especially of Dr. E.C. Lougheed or 'Sam' as he insisted we call him..I see him now, all those years ago at the U of Goo (University of Guelph for those sheltered souls...), teaching us about the finer points of Post-harvest Handling and Storage of Fruits and Vegetables.  Riveting. No, really, food preservation is just as important as growing the stuff.  I mean, what's the point of growing it if you can't keep it, even for a little while? But I digress. What I remember about Sam was that he was engaged...freakishly, almost excessively, feverishly in a way, but engaged he was. His calling, his love for what he was expert in, truly expert in, simply made you feel privileged for witnessing him in his element.  You knew you were getting something special when he was in 'mode.' The depth of his understanding, his tolerance for the vast majority of students some only vaguely with any notion, sitting there rapt. He was typically and characteristically unfettered. And he enabled each student by making sure that every student could find a way in, as it were.  No Power Points, I don't even recall any slides or plastic overheads, just Sam talking, engaging and making sure that we all felt a part of the class that day. No real or at least discernible pressure either...just this jolly, easy-to-laugh Konrad Lorenz type figure, the quintessential university professor.  And everyone has something to say in his class...no pressure, no problem.

Makes me smile as I recall him all these years later.  Yet my best, my favourite, memories of him as a teacher, an educator aren't confined to the classroom.  You see, Sam was accessible. Imagine, a teacher whom had the time, found the time to answer no end of what I'm sure upon reflection must have been some fairly imbecile questions. Every question merited his attention. And every question answered in a manner that left me with a yearning for more.  Damn that infernal, stupid upside down pyramid of knowledge!...learning leaves you realizing how much you really don't know or understand.  I hate that!

Thank-you Sam for that gift and every perspective ... plus each and every jolly moment because that's what it and they were.  Gifts. Indeed, his example is likely the example I aspire to follow most today...passion, availability, inclusive, humour, ever-learning, always striving to disseminate that knowledge that'll get someone, somewhere...still working on the patience bit but it's coming!  I said, it's coming!  All aspects that are laudable, but all non-confining enough to allow each person to be an individual because that's okay.  That's it.  Before each class, I should think of Sam..how would he do it?