Running head: ASSESSING OUTCOMES SELF-REFLECTION 1

Assessing Outcomes Self-Reflection

Minette Tomas

University of Alberta
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Completing this assignment was an incredibly valuable learning experience for me. I

have learned the process and importance of creating criteria, then creating a rubric with those

criteria as well as coming up with formative and summative assessments aligned with the rubric.

First of all, I did not realize how much time this process takes and the amount of thinking that

you have to do to complete it. It made me realize how I have been doing it wrong prior to taking

this assessment course which I am very grateful to have. Having said all that, I would like to

reflect upon these questions: Why is it essential to establish criteria based on learner outcomes?

Explain the importance of developing a shared understanding of the criteria for evaluation with

the students. Articulate the importance of intentionally determining how evidence of learning

will be gathered. Describe why it is important for you to provide opportunities for students to

reflect on their learning and use feedback to move their learning forward.

To answer the first question, first, I have to define criteria. Criteria are “statements

beginning with strong action verbs that identify the learning to be achieved, based on Alberta

Programs of Study” (Bennett & Mulgrew, p. 3, 2015). Right away, just by defining criteria, I

learned that I have to assess students based on the learning outcomes from the Program of

Studies. As always, educators are required to teach what is in the curriculum, not some other

things that are not in the Program of Studies. Thus, it is important to establish criteria based on

learner outcomes because our role as educators is to “ensure that we are measuring what we are

supposed to be measuring, i.e., student performance against the outcomes from prescribed

programs of study” (Bennett & Mulgrew, p. 6, 2015). In addition, criteria are “explicitly derived

from learner outcomes and provide a shorthand way of describing what students are expected to

demonstrate” (Benett & Mulgrew, p. 3, 2015). In short, we have to look at the curriculum and

check what students need to demonstrate. From there, we can create criteria based on learner
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outcomes and then we can create our assessment strategies based on the criteria that we just

created which will help us with our instruction as well. This is very helpful because if you

already know what you are assessing, then you can base your instruction from criteria and then

decide how your students will show their evidence of learning. Through the lens of assessment,

we use criteria to “assist teachers in designing assessments that will yield a valid and reliable

evidence and, at the same time, support student learning” (Benett & Mulgrew, p. 5, 2015).

Lastly, when we establish criteria based the learner outcomes by looking at the verbs, criteria

“inform the depth of instruction for which we can plan . . . the rigor of assessment needed to

measure learning . . . informing differentiation” (Fox, 2018).

The second question is related to rubrics. Explain the importance of developing a shared

understanding of the criteria for evaluation with the students. According to Bennett and

Mulgrew, a rubric is a tool used to evaluate performance and it consists of criteria, fixed

measurement scales, and detailed description of student performance at varying levels of quality

(2013). Developing a shared understanding of the criteria for evaluation either by sharing and

going over the rubric with the students or sharing an exemplar of the assignment is very

important. This is because it ensures similar expectations between students and teachers which

can also positively affect student motivation and their learning because they know how they will

be scored or assessed. According to The Principles for Fair Student Assessment Practices for

Education in Canada, “informing students prior to the use of assessment method about scoring

procedures to be followed should help ensure similar expectations are held by both students and

their teachers” (1993, p. 8). When students know the criteria that they are being assessed from,

they have a better understanding of what they should do and make goals as they try to achieve a

specific level i.e. excellent, proficient, satisfactory etc. This is affirmed by McTighe and
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O’Connor when they stated, “When students know the criteria in advance of their performance,

they have clear goals for their work” (2005, p. 13). McTighe and O’Connor also mention that

criteria provide a clear description of the quality of performance and that students do not need to

guess what is most important or how their work will be judged (2005). Furthermore, “When

students have the opportunity to work with exemplars and rubrics, they gain a deeper

understanding of the learning goals and are better able to achieve them” (Alberta Assessment

Consortium, 2018).

Articulate the importance of intentionally determining how evidence of learning will be

gathered. This brings me back to assessment. When we are intentionally thinking about how we

want to gather evidence of learning, we are undergoing the process of creating criteria and then

the rubric building process. When we have a rubric, we can look at the criteria that we made and

from there we can think of how we can formatively assess students in order for us to provide

them with feedback that they can use to improve. It is like the process of Understanding by

Design or UBD. Backwards Design is to “know where you are going (a clear understanding of

your destination) and then plan to get there” (Fox, 2018). I believe that one of the most important

processes that teachers should do is to plan. You know what to do and know what steps to take in

order accomplish your goal. With UBD, we start with our intended learner outcomes, create

criteria, build a rubric, and then plan our lesson activities (Fox, 2018). If we are not intentionally

thinking about this process, then we might risk not assessing the right things and waste our and

our students' time and energy. Our assessments need to be valid in that the "methods used should

be developed or chosen so that inferences drawn about the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and

behaviors possessed by each student are valid and not open to misinterpretation" (The Principles

for Fair Student Assessment Practices for Education in Canada, 1993, p. 5). Finally, when we are
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planning how to gather evidence of learning, we are thinking of who the learners are. We ask

ourselves, “What strengths do they exhibit? What learning needs do they have? What choices

will be provided for them to demonstrate their learning?” (Alberta Assessment Consortium,

2015). This enables to be constantly thinking about our students and the learning that will be

happening as we are planning.

Describe why it is important for you to provide opportunities for students to reflect on

their learning and use feedback to move their learning forward. This question makes me think of

formative assessment and scaffolding. Formative assessment is a “process focused on obtaining

and using information to enhance learning” (Bennett et al., 2016, p. 12). The information

gathered helps teachers to plan their instruction as well as provide feedback to students that they

can use to improve their own work (Bennett et al., 2016). Since feedback is a product of

formative assessment, and the goal of formative assessment is to enhance student learning, then

it makes sense that we provide opportunities for students to reflect on the feedback that they

receive from us and use the feedback to improve their learning. This leads me to the process of

scaffolding, which is a “process that whereby teachers differentiate to help all students meet

grade level expectations . . . an action that teachers take when they observe students at work and

conclude that students don’t understand” (Fox, 2018). It is only fair that we provide students

opportunities to reflect and use feedback to improve because why would we waste time in

formatively assessing students and scaffold to differentiate our instruction if we do not want their

learning to move forward. If we truly want our students to learn, then we should give them these

opportunities to reflect. After all, it is “a natural part of learning process” (Fox, 2018). We use

feedback to learn from them, not to forget and do nothing about them. As William states in his
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article, “If our students learned what we taught, we would never need to assess” (William, 2013,

p. 15).

In conclusion, reflecting on the previous questions gave me a better understanding of the

process assessment: unpacking an outcome to its criteria, building rubrics and planning for

assessment before instruction begins. When I first learned about this order, it made me think of

my past experience in practicum and how I have been greatly mistaken. One of the first things

that I did to plan my teaching was to look at the learner outcomes and then look for resources to

help me teach those outcomes, which I just found out that looking for resources first is

something you should not do. Planning for assessment strategies prior to looking for resources

makes absolutely more sense because it saves time and effort as the assessment becomes your

lesson. I also appreciate how we were taught how to cluster student learner outcomes into big

ideas or big rocks. I cannot imagine unpacking each outcome into criteria and building rubrics

from them. Overall, it has been a significant learning experience working on this assignment.

Creating a rubric with my group by creating criteria from an outcome, coming up with how to

formatively assess the criteria and a summative assessment at the end was one of the most

valuable assignments that I have ever completed.

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References

Alberta Assessment Consortium. (2017). AAC KEY VISUAL: ASSESSING STUDENT

LEARNING IN THE CLASSROOM. Retrieved from https://aac.ab.ca/wp-

content/uploads/2018/01/AAC-Key-VisualAUG2017.pdf

Alberta Assessment Consortium. (2018). Criteria: Be sure you are measuring the right things.

Retrieved from https://aac.ab.ca/learn/criteria/

Bennett, S. & Mulgrew, A. (2010). Scaffolding for student success. Edmonton, AB: Alberta

Assessment Consortium.

Bennett, S. & Mulgrew, A. (2013). Building better rubrics. Edmonton, AB: Alberta Assessment

Consortium.

Bennett, S. & Mulgrew, A. (2015). Creating credible criteria. Edmonton, AB: Alberta

Assessment Consortium.

Bennett, S., Lore, P., & Mulgrew, A. (2016). What matters most about assessment. (n.p.):

Alberta Assessment Consortium.

Fox, C. (2018). Assessing outcomes [Google Slides]. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com

/presentation/d/1O8YWQkNAXnpr4zA44Vr_JyHY4RK8KEc_xSfX0CrkV94/edit#slide

=id.g1c14dbeafe_0_489

Fox, C. (2018). Assessing outcomes building rubrics and formative assessment [Google Slides].

Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Zl344WXIYN1Bz_3cxN5

bQKiG3R8oS0U-I60aWWAXnLw/edit#slide=id.p

McTighe, J. & O’Connor, K. (2005). Seven practices for effective learning. Educational

Leadership, 63(3), 10-17. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-

leadership/nov05/vol63/num03/Seven-Practices-for-Effective-Learning.aspx
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Principles for fair student assessment practices for education in Canada. (1993). Retrieved from

https://www.wcdsb.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/36/2017/03/fairstudent.pdf

William, D. (2013). Assessment: The bridge between teaching and learning. Voices from the

Middle, 21(2), 15-20. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Reso

urces/Journals/VM/0212-dec2013/VM0212Assessment.pdf