Using Assessment to Promote Student Engagement

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Using Assessment to Promote Student Engagement

• Or, How to Promote Student Learning Despite Their
  Best Efforts to Undermine It

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My Motivations (in rough order of priority)

• Students learn as much as possible
• Students are able to transfer knowledge
  (especially pre-teachers)
• Students are able to articulate what theyve
  learned
• Students appreciate the course
• Students enjoy the course

I maintain balance between work (teaching,
research, service), family and self
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Possible Student Motivations

• Best grade possible with minimum amount of work
• Maintain comfort level
• Learn something worthwhile
• Learn history
• Expand horizons
• Be entertained

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Possible Student Obstacles to Learning

• Inadequate basic reading, writing and thinking
  skills
• Inadequate historical/analytical reading, writing
  and thinking skills
• Inadequate motivation for the course/college
• Unavoidable time constraints
• Avoidable time constraints/time management

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Maximizing Student Learning and Instructor
Teaching Efficiency

• Invest students in the learning process by
  uncovering it
• Make them responsible for part of the learning
  process and accountable for their progress
• Redesign the course based on past evidence and
  applied learning theory

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Evidence from Past Courses

• Students came with different levels of reading,
  writing and thinking skills
• Most students did not use proven learning methods
  (critical note taking, etc.)
• Many students did not know how to maximize use of
  instructor comments
• Instructor comments were not always clear to
  students
• Students were not demonstrating clear patterns of
  improvement, especially B students.

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Basics of US Politics and Culture to/from 1865

• Problem-based course with (semi) coverage
• Classes divided between problem-based lectures,
  cooperative small-group learning and large group
• Permanent groups with group member assessment at
  midterm and end of course
• Use of historical thinking skills (continuity and
  change, chronology, historical context, etc.
• Assessed assignments based on analytical thinking

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Partial Course Schedule
Books Wheeler and Becker, Discovering the
American Past v. 1 (Sixth Edition) Henretta et
al, America v. 1 (Fifth Edition)   Schedule Januar
y 8 (Tuesday) Course Introduction What Is
History? And Why Study It?   January 10
(Thursday) The Conquerors Tale Cultural
Misunderstandings as a Causal Agent Discovering
the American Past, Ch. 1 Optional America, Ch.
1   January 15 The Antinomian Threat Why Did
Puritan Elders Fear of Anne Hutchinson? America,
Ch. 2, pp. 47-59 (The Chesapeake Experience,
Puritan New England)(Optional pp. 38-47,
Imperial Conflicts and Rival Colonial
Models) Discovering the American Past, Ch.
2   January 17 Changing Sides, Changing Minds
The Captivity of Mary Rowlandson America, Ch. 2,
pp. 59-65 (The Eastern Indians' New World, pp.
59-65) Bedford/St. Martins Critical Thinking Web
Module, Community and Conflicts Captivity
Narratives and Cross-Border Conflict http//bedfor
dstmartins.com/historymodules/CTM/typindex.htm   J
anuary 22 Making Choices The Hope and Fear of
Slave Rebellions America, Ch. 3, pp. 76-96 (The
Imperial Slave Economy, The New Politics of
Empire, 1713-1750) Optional America, Ch. 3, pp.
69-76 (The Politics of Empire,
1660-1713)   Bedford/St. Martins Critical
Thinking Web Module, The Stono
Rebellion   January 24 Community Cohesion and
Environmental, Cultural, Social and Economic
Causes America, Ch. 4, pp. 99-111 (Freehold
Society in New England, The Middle Atlantic
Toward a New Society)   January 29 Exam 1
Due/Discussion of Exam 1 (Bring all reading
material to class)
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Redesigned Course Elements

• Mandatory preparation forms given soft
  assessment using learning trajectory for grade
• Scaffolding used in introducing historical
  thinking skills, writing assignments, and
  learning process
• Formative assessment using rubrics and embedded
  comments

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Scaffolding the Learning Process

• Short introductory lecture/explanation at the end
  of the previous class
• Students complete preparation form
• Instructor provides short (30 minute)
  introductory lecture framing problem, connecting
  secondary source material to primary sources
• Small groups meet to compare responses, move
  toward larger patters
• Whole class meets to engage each groups
  findings, move forward to final conclusions
• Group secretaries post group notes to Blackboard

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Preparation Forms and Historical Problem

• Must be completed by class time, copy for class
  and posted to Blackboard
• Assessed three times 2nd or 3rd form, midterm
  and at end of course (low stakes)
• Quality and quantity part of Participation grade
  (including impressions of group members)
• Each form introduces new historical concepts,
  more complex problems

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Historical Thinking Skills Criteria

• Basic Historical context/historicity, cause and
  effect, motivation, cultural diversity and
  similarity
• Next Level Chronology, continuity and change,
  compare and contrast
• Advanced Historical agency, historical
  evaluation, historical judgment

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Scaffolding Writing Assignments

• Simple application (Blooms) Question (single
  set of documents)
• Compare/contrast analysis question (two sets of
  documents)
• Compare/contrast with historical evaluation and
  judgment (evaluation) question

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Scaffolding Exams
1. Explain how the Aztecs and Conquistadors
religious beliefs affected their interactions
with each other, especially the way these beliefs
related to their mutual (mis)understandings.
Historical thinking skills cultural diversity
and similarity, motivation, cause and effect,
historicity.
2. At the time of the Boston Massacre, Patriots
often used the mob to force political change.
The writers of the U.S. Constitution and the many
state constitutions made a conscious effort to
restrain such tactics and instead direct the
energy of citizens toward legal political
involvement. Compare and contrast how Patriot
activists used crowd actions during the Boston
Massacre and other events before the war, and how
politicians related to citizens during the
Philadelphia election of 1794 (cause and effect,
chronology), including the issue of the Whiskey
Rebellion (motivation, historical agency).
Explain what had changed and what had stayed
(continuty and change) the same about political
activity during these two periods.
3. Compare and contrast the extent to which
African American slaves and the mill girls of
Lowell were able to assert historical agency
within the context of their highly controlled
lives. What were the constraints each group
faced, and how and why did they negotiate,
challenge or accept these constraints
(motivation, cause and effect)? Evaluate the
costs and benefits of the strategies, and
conclude by providing a lesson you can draw from
your findings that can be applied to our own
times (historical judgment). (Other historical
concepts historicity, cultural diversity and
similarity.)
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Formative Assessment

• Scoring rubric with criteria
• Students able to track progress
• Embedded comments (Word comment feature)/end
  comments tracked as well
• Change in focus on skills according to
  stregths/weaknesses revealed in scoring.

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Effectiveness of Redesign

• Old Course
• Benchmark assessment (prep form) 3.26/6
• Final prep form assessment 4.25/6
• Missed prep forms 18
• Final exam 3.15/4.0
• New Course
• Benchmark assessment (prep form) 3.01/6
• Final prep form assessment 4.79/6
• Missed prep forms 7
• Final exam 3.32/4.0