Following Chem workshop 2

Wow! This was a brilliant workshop & it's been a real pain having to wait until now to get to write about it :(

Let's see...where to start. Assessment, I think! What a lively discussion we all had, but I am still undecided about what I will take from Uni as a whole in regard to assessment. The unit we covered last semester really appealed to my statistically focused background, in that rubrics, clear criteria, inter-rater and intra-rater reliability checks etc etc all provide a dependable framework from which we can fairly and consistently report on each students' skills. The volume and variety of assessment is also important, to ensure a diverse enough range of data to be able to make correct inferences on student learning. This is all clearly really important, but I do hear the comment that students don't actually receive the feedback they need from this type of reporting on assessment. Are they going to improve when they receive a result of 69% or a circle on a rubric? Not likely. I found it personally dissatisfying as a student too. In reality, teachers do much thinking about what they read of a student's work - this also needs to be reported and from the student's perspective, it is what allows them to improve. So, this is the multiple-focus of assessment - one is to reliably allow the teacher (then parents and other stakeholders) to concisely identify whether a student is reaching expected learning goals for that year level (lots of words is just too difficult to monitor), and the other is to provide information to the student about where they went well, and where they can improve/further their skills. The mark is important though - it is a quick indicator for the student to see if they're on track. For eg - if a student gets 90% on an assignment along with a whole bunch of comments suggesting where they can improve, the student will understand those comments are based on a more individualised learning plan, but that they are tracking very well with regard to year level expectations. I see them both as being important - the highest achievers are often very self-critical and I can imagine self-efficacy being undermined if they aren't made aware that they are "performing" well. Perhaps Deb's idea of the mark being handed out after comments have been read and discussed is a key here....unfortunately I can appreciate both sides to the assessment debate so this may end up being my middle ground. It was a very interesting and worthwhile discussion though & I am very glad we all had it - it's challenged my ideas just a bit (lot!).

The creative writing task was hilarious, and I can easily see it's value in determining student understanding. What a brilliant idea, and I am hoping to see an opportunity to use something similar to this on practicum :-) In terms of assessment, I see VELS as providing a really clear framework for marking this type of thing - it's interdisciplinary in that language and science domains should both be assessed. As the science teacher, I am going to be focussed on the student understanding of key science concepts, and think it should be marked accordingly. I could also provide a different mark for the language component, or better still, involve the English teacher and allow that person to use the task as part of their overall assessment of the student. As Oosterhof pointed out - items that are unrelated to instructional objectives should be excluded from grades (p222) and I really think that marking a student down for language troubles (for whatever reason) in a science class is unfair as it's assessing something unrelated to what we are intending to teach. If a student struggles in English, they need extra help, not marking down in every subject for it. There is another angle to this type of task - how do you assess from it? In theory, we're supposed to have criteria set up front, and correct the work accordingly. If it was formative assessment, would this really be necessary in a formal sense? A broad rubric identifying the key ideas expected to be demonstrated, with a HML assessment might be adequate....I need to see when I try it myself. Does the absence of comment on a particular scientific idea indicate lack of understanding, or creative omission because it doesn't fit with the storyline - could be either & therefore the task would be of limited value summatively (or even formatively). Hmmm....

I liked Deb's idea about interviewing technique - one to remember! Write the comments in pencil so parents can't look over the table and read what you've written. Also, identify ahead of time which parents are teachers, and which ones are on school council. Good political advice there!!

Next topic - movies in chemistry education. Actually, turning off the sound or video (not both lol!) was such a good idea! I have personally zoned out on many a DVD in classes - a moment to relax and not think too hard, so I can't imagine it's all that different for other students. The pedagogical ideas that we're encountering are so brilliant - I just don't think there will be enough time to learn them all before we're teachers ourselves, at which time I worry that we won't have a source of new tricks. Maybe I'll be lucky & get a helpful mentor in year 1.

List of good movies noted in class for chem and science ed - Contact, The Dish, I am legend (start off on cancer), Happy Feet (about Antarctica), Mad Max, Harry Potter (Biol & Chem - good descriptions of animals eg scrute, how might we create that spell), James Bond (Die another day has a disappearing car - physics), Indiana Jones (How have we changed our science?), Outbreak (biol), The Matrix, LOTR, Mythbusters (what is a valid test?), No reservations (chef).

Reminder to self - borrow the VisChem DVD from Deb (if she doesn't mind!) as I really loved the representation & want to see all that's on it...

Science Learning Hub website - http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/ is a really good website that Deb mentioned! If anyone reads this who hasn't checked it out yet, then go take a look!

On to the project - we're in the midst of trying to muddle ours in a Wiki format, which is kind've interesting & it will be fun to see what the other people in my group think of it. I like it so far, but will really jump in later tonight, once I put some real content up myself.

Anyway, enough blogging for now. See you next instalment!

M