Reclaiming Personalized Learning by Paul Emerich France

Author:Paul Emerich France [France, Paul Emerich]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2020-02-08T20:29:24.451544+00:00

Triangulating Humanized Assessment

It’s tempting, at first, to pit humanized personalization against the very notion of assessment. The former feels vulnerable and messy, while the latter feels cold and impersonal. But it’s important to remember that tensions such as these are valuable. They help us see the nuances in education and use them to our benefit.

The negative connotation that accompanies assessment and data is born from years and years of misusing assessment. In actuality, teachers have always used assessment and data to better understand their students; all human beings use assessment and data to understand one another. We are constantly evaluating the behaviors of others, exchanging feedback, and receiving advice on how to grow.

When we humanize assessment, we look for the story. And we cannot tell this story with a one-dimensional view. Too many schools emphasize only standardized assessment data, and while these data can be helpful, they need to be contextualized by other data. Triangulating our data contextualizes standardized assessment data and puts the children in the center of our intentions for assessment, in an effort to get to know them better and help them tell their stories. Triangulation also helps us embrace the tensions that exist between individualism and collectivism—between subjectivity and objectivity.

To triangulate effectively, I recommend thinking of the following three assessment types as the three vertices of your assessment triangle: standardized assessments, standards-based assessments, and anecdotal assessments. All three can help us gain an understanding of both the individual and the collective; likewise, by using all three in partnership, we allow ourselves to leverage the objective benefits of statistically valid and reliable assessments, meanwhile creating space for the subjectivity of humanity (see Figure 8.3).

Figure 8.3: Triangulating Humanized Assessment © Paul Emerich France, 2018 www.paulemerich.com, Twitter: @paul_emerich

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