Alternative Assessments for Students | Origin: ED136
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Assessment Alternatives for Instructors --> Alternative Assessments for Students
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I need to remember that Fink's Taxonomy is an expanded version of Bloom's with two other domains added.
Good examples of authentic assessment include potfolios, oral interviews, demonstration and observation.
It was interesting to reflect upon the many different authentic assessments that already take place in the courses that I teach.
While Bloom's taxonomy is more of a hierarchical model, I like that Fink's taxonomy is more holistic in nature and provides student's with the opportunity to reflect on their feelings and emotional intelligence which hones in on the art of nursing.
I like the Fink's taxonomy that includes the student being asked to learn about self through the learning experience. This is very applicable to nursing in that we are always asking students to examine and reflect on personal bias and how this might inadvertently affect the care they provide.
There are two types of taxonomies: Bloom's and Fink's. Both are beneficial when organizing activities and assessments. The Bloom's taxonomy is divided into three categories: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. The cognitive verbs might include knowledge-based verbs. Affective and psychomotor verbs include application and problem-solving demonstrations.
Fink's taxonomy includes six parts: the foundational knowledge will help the students to remember the essential elements. This is low level learning. Application includes the demonstration of skills, such as managing projects and developing creative methods of remembering how to apply the concepts. Learning to learn is self-directed learning to learn more about a particular concept. The caring part of learning includes a self-reflection to discover feelings and values. Human Dimension section will consist of learning about the interaction between self and others. The final section of Fink's taxonomy is integration. This is where the student can demonstrate the connection of their ideas with people.
I had a conversation with a colleague recently where we talked about our students just "checking boxes," rather than actually learning. We have summative assessment at the end of the course but I'm thinking that at the end I also need to provide other ways for them to communicate what they learned especially if they score lower (or just slightly higher) on their post-test. The test is not necessarily a good indication of learning because they may have (and many do) learning disabilities or testing anxiety. I'm considering adding some verbal testing when I meet with the student to give them alternative ways to demonstrate learning. For instance, "What did you learn that will be most useful to you going forward?" "Tell me more about that."
Providing students with a rubric prior to beginning a project or task allows the student to know what is expected of them.
Nice addition of Fink's taxonomy
Assessment are very important however you will need to follow up with providing more instruction evaluation if needed. Then assess the student again.
This is my first exposure to Fink's taxonomy, and I really resonate with the additional "Human Dimension, Caring, and Learning How To Learn" functions. These are the meat of what I try to get at in my courses, and it's cool to see that someone has incorporated into an "official" taxonomy!
This module clearly outlined the importance and impact of a well-constructed grading rubric. This module reiterated that rubrics are great assessment tools and help provide students with clear and transparent expectations and feedback regarding their work, ensuring consistency and objectivity from the instructor. Using a rubric for students to self-evaluate allows them to take ownership of their learning, evaluate areas for improvement, and recognize successes. Rubrics are also great for helping students set goals for their coursework and implement steps to achieve or exceed those goals.
After reviewing this section, I have learned a lot about Fink's Taxonomy. This will be very useful when it comes time to assess the students.
I have learned that developing rubric will really help students what areas a student is great at and where a student needs to improve on.
Alternative Assessments prepare students better for real life situations
I like the idea of the rubric for grading and setting the standard for testing. It sets clear expectations for the students and then there is no guessing at the end of the authentic test.
I have learned how important rubrics are and how they can help students ability to reach the goal.
After reviewing this module, I reflected on my current assessment activity for some senior leaders. I realized that I should provide a rubric to assist them in crafting their communication strategy. They are very knowledgable, but very busy...by providing them with a framework to assess their own strategies I can reduce their time spent developing the strategy and provide them criteria for their own self-assessment.
I found the discussion on the various taxonomies to be interesting.
