Two sides of the same coin: authentic assessment

Community College Enterprise, The, Fall 2006 by Berg, Steven L

Berg: If a department were to start that process today, what can it do to make sure that it gets good objectives?

Mueller: There is not one easy path. First of all, throw out what you have been doing to this point. Don't think about your text book and what else you use. Sit down and have a conversation with your colleagues and ask what you want students to come away with. What is really going to best serve students in terms of what is supposed to follow: getting into graduate school, engaging in work, being a good citizen, whatever you think the goals are you are trying to serve? Sit down and brainstorm what you really value; what you think is most important. Then you can start looking at other documents.

Berg: What about looking at objectives from other colleges?

Mueller: I would not go to other departments' lists or some national list, but have internal conversation about what is most important. Too often, lists of objectives get written by asking "What are the key concepts in our discipline and let's just write those down?" Or, "What have other people said?" without significant reflection on what you value. Then, I would say, seek some information about what a good outcome or standard or objective looks like so that when you start to turn your vision into words you are writing them clearly in an observable, measurable way. You do not want to write incomprehensible objectives, but clear, simple, straightforward objectives that really capture what you value. That is when you need to turn to an outside source on how best to do that. Also, the last thing I would say is "Keep it simple." Pick out the objectives that are most essential. Don't make long, long lists and write out everything that you teach.

Berg: When my colleagues in the history department were doing this last year, some argued for a geography component and I don't know anything about geography. Although I am open to learning new things and new techniques, I could see this as threatening. It's hard to admit that you don't know something. So how can we be sensitive to peoples' fears?

Mueller: Well, again, there just has to be honest conversation. Before you start saying "you must do this," you need the honest conversation about what students need to know. The conversation then comes around to, "I have to admit that the students really need to know geography before they finish the course" and you read some consensus around that. Then it will be easier for faculty to say, "I don't really know geography that much" or "I'm not really incorporating geography in my courses that much" but I just heard and participated in this discussion and it makes sense and we all bought into it. So, what can we do to make it work? Let's make it meaningful and manageable. The meaningful part is that we decided it is important for students to know geography. Now let's make it manageable. "I'm not really doing much with geography right now. How can I start small with that?" You shouldn't just dive right in and cram a lot of geography into everything you do. You need to start small.