Learning About Thinking, and Thinking About Learning, with Knowledge
Surveys
Tuesday, February 27, 11:45-1:15 in Buntrock 142
Karl Wirth, Associate Professor of Geology, Macalester College
(co-sponsor: IIT)
Karl Wirth and his colleagues use "knowledge surveys" via Moodle to
assess both student preparation for, and progress throughout, their
courses. Karl will talk about the results he and others have had with
this method of tracking student learning. Here is a brief description
as background:
Traditional classroom assessment tools (e.g., quizzes and exams) generally cover only a narrow range of course content, and may not be well suited for assessing higher-level understanding and skills. There is an real need for new tools that: (1) can be used to provide formative assessments of student understanding; (2) provide more comprehensive assessment of student learning; (3) can be readily employed by students to monitor their own learning and to develop skills of self-assessment; (4) can be used by faculty to understand the effects of curricular changes and innovations; and (5) can be used by faculty and administrators to evaluate curricula and programs. Knowledge surveys, first introduced by Nuhfer (1993), provide a reliable alternative for assessing student learning, and for evaluating courses and programs.
Knowledge surveys consist of a large number of items that cover the full breadth of learning objectives in a course. The questions are worded to cover different levels of understanding (e.g., Bloom levels). When completing the knowledge surveys, students do not provide solutions to the questions. Instead, they indicate their ability to provide answers to the survey items; responses are not graded. Student responses to a knowledge survey administered at the beginning of a course provide information on student background and preparation. During the course, the survey serves as a reading and study guide. Students complete portions of the knowledge survey just prior to taking written examinations to assess their understanding. Knowledge survey results from the end of a course provide a measure of final student learning gains. In our courses, student responses to items included on surveys and exams are correlated, as are survey results and final course grades.Evaluation of knowledge survey responses yields a wealth of both formative and summative information. The instructor can use survey results to monitor student mastery of course content, and to evaluate the effectiveness of methods employed in the classroom. Student self-assessment skills can be inferred by comparison of responses from several knowledge surveys and exams. Multi-year survey results can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of different methods employed in the classroom. Knowledge surveys completed by exiting seniors can be used to evaluate curricula and programs.
