Assessment

1. Assessment

2. Serious MI theory consideration is predicated on fair means of assessing each multiple intelligence •  The present day school assessment is based on mindless instruments that do not signal what learning is • Education should be geared toward fostering understanding

3. Extreme cases of assessment • Standardized testing – decontextualized but efficient and rapid • Apprenticeship – in the naturally occurring context – where the novice spends time observing an expert and then takes several years of supervised training

4. School assessment • Apprenticeship is not applicable • Standardized testing is however excessive • Gardner advocates what he describes as contextualized learning • He envisions a form of education and assessment that have firm rooting in enlightened education goals

5. Binet and the Testing Society • Large set of items • Intelligence tests • Great appeal to the Binet methods • Virtual mania for producing tests for every possible social purpose • Measuring of ability or potential performance • Premium is placed on efficiency, brevity and readily administered

6. Uniform view of schooling • This view of schooling is consistent with the cult of testing • Homogenized education • Students study same subject matter • Frequent formal tests to assess progress in school • National normed instruments are highly valued • Value on subjects that lend themselves to efficient assessment

7. Standardized testing • Inborn human abilities • Linear curve of learning • Hierarchy of disciplines • Assessing of potential and achievements in decontextualized conditions

8. Multiple intelligence • Alternative view as contrasted to behavioristic views • Piaget’s - cognitive development • Importance of human cognition especially in symbol manipulation • Evidence of multiplicity of intelligences • Assessment should be designed not to mask the differences but allow students to show their strengths

9. Creativity measurement • Use cognitive processes efficiently and with flexibility • Full engagement and passionate about something • Exhibit a need to do something new • Strong sense of purpose and ultimate goals • Reflective about activities, use of time, and quality of their products • Fostering creative people should be the ultimate goal for education - Gardner

10. Nuanced view of assessment: • Sensitive to the developmental stages of the candidates • Recognizes different intelligences • Recognizes diverse cognitive and stylistic profiles • Possesses understanding of creative individuals in various domains • Recognize contexts

11. Assessment not testing • Assessment is part of the natural learning environment • Occurs almost without being conscious • Assessment is part of the landscape • Teachers and students are always assessing • Since assessment closely resembles “actual working conditions” • Easy to devise intelligence fair instruments

12. Good assessment instrument • Occurs in the context • students are working on problems, projects, or products • They elicit students’ full repertoire of skills • Goal of assessment is to provide feedback • Feedback points strengths and weaknesses

13. Processfolios will: • Enable assessments to occur naturally • Be cultivated in long-term projects • Encourage individual-centered approach • Differentiate mode of assessment by helping the individual’s natural and acquired strength to be made` manifest • Narrow the gap between activities in school and in society – career oriented environment