From the perspective of Georgetown’s identity as a student-centered research university, Dr. Barbara Walvoord spoke at the opening plenary lunch addressing the three levels of assessment needed to align faculty, student and University expectations for student learning. This plenary talk drew on specific examples of faculty and departments looking at their courses and curricula with a researcher’s eye. The presentation suggested questions that faculty and departments should ask about assessment of student learning, and ways that grading and classroom work can be used sensibly for the improvement of teaching and learning within departments and across the institution.

Welcome and Introduction

Randy Bass, Executive Director of CNDLS, opened the lunch plenary speaking about the breadth of the institute offerings as a holistic approach to thinking about what it could mean to improve learning at Georgetown.

"Tying it all together"

Barbara Walvoord, Professor Emerita at the University of Notre Dame and the opening lunch plenary speaker, spoke about tying teaching, learning, and assessment together in order to help faculty find ways to “do it differently” next time so that they are less busy, less harried, and more satisfied with their teaching.

Walvoord’s Definition of Assessment

“Its about looking at what we do in a sensible way, and using that information to improve what we do.”

We used to use assessment as a word with a small “a”. Now it has a capitol “A” because we’re being asked to do it by those who are concerned that higher education does not pay enough attention to what students actually learn.  Walvoord speaks to her work in bringing assessment “back home” to what all of us have been doing all along and want to do better about teaching and learning.

A Chemistry Teacher “Noticed”

Walvoord tells a story about a chemistry professor who noticed that, in his opinion, too many students were struggling in his large General Chemistry course (Details from the example in Walvoord’s handout can be found here). He asked, why is this happening? After gathering additional data, and consulting the literature, he decided that these students were not doing well under a large, lecture-based system and what these students needed was more emphasis on problem-solving and more direct feedback on their own homework on a daily basis. Through these two changes in his pedagogy, and with a few extra TAs, he was able to significantly improve the performance of the lowest quartile of the class.

In sum, this professor did the following things:  he noticed, he asked why this was happening, he put himself in the shoes of the students, he began to inquire and gather evidence, he consulted the literature, he acted, and he followed up to see what results occurred.

Looking at Evidence of Student Learning

This is the story of a successful political science department at a research university that was very resistant to top down assessment efforts (Details from the example in Walvoord’s handout can be found here). However, this department found a way to engage in assessment in a form that was meaningful to them, took very little time, placed almost no burden on faculty, and helped them improve their undergraduate curriculum.  All it took was dedicating a two-hour faculty meeting to discussing strengths and weaknesses of senior level work, and identifying one thing to act upon. Within that 2-hour meeting, the department agreed that students were entering their senior level research projects without the ability to properly construct a question for inquiry in the discipline. In response, they changed some courses in the beginning of the major to emphasize this skill, and now they will wait and see whether these changes had an effect.

A Capstone Teacher Devises Explicit Criteria

This is the story of a biology faculty member who was not satisfied with the research abilities of students in a biology capstone course (Details from the example in Walvoord’s handout can be found here). She developed a rubric and a scale for evaluating student research capabilities that enabled her to observe and then improve critical dimensions of student research skills.  The set of numbers yielded by the rubric served as a specific profile of where each student was strong and weak. Taken together, she could see the particular areas of difficulty for her students and she could work to improve those areas.

Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

In all three of these stories, somebody noticed, somebody cared, somebody inquired, and there was communication among the levels (faculty, departments and university) involved in making changes for the benefit of student learning. According to Walvoord, “that is the theme that ties together teaching, learning, technology and course design and all the other things that you all are talking about today. Assessment is not a stranger to us. It is part of what we do all the time. And rightly conceived it becomes a driving force for us to do what we want to do with our teaching and student learning.”

Q&A – Mike Nelson, CCT Program

How do I avoid giving students a rubric that constrains them and that tells them exactly what I want? How do I encourage them to experiment and try different things and avoid telling them exactly what they need to do to get an A?

Walvoord responds by bringing people’s attention to p. 11 in her handout. In the second row, complexity and originality are detailed in the rubric. Say to students, “you have to act like a curious mind at work”, that will be an A.

Q&A – Betsi Stephens, School of Foreign Service

How can I assess my students’ performance who are working out in the schools in DC? I am not there most of the time.

There may be people out in the community who can help you evaluate the students. You could also rely on student self-reports, but you must guide these reports. For example, student portfolios or journals can be used as long as faculty identify key indicators that can help you evaluate types of student thinking in their writing.

Assessment of student learning continues to be a conversation at CNDLS and across the university.  If you or your department are interested in being part of the discussion, or would like someone from CNDLS to visit a departmental meeting to talk about assessment of student learning, please contact CNDLS at cndls@georgetown.edu.

Resources