Information Literacy Assessment 2007 version

LIB 601 Libraries and Learning Fall 2009
Assessment of information literacy learning

What is assessment?
Definition
Assessment is the process of identifying, gathering and interpreting information about students’ learning. The central purpose of assessment is to provide information on student achievement and progress and set the direction for ongoing teaching and learning.
Assessment provides information for those involved in the teaching and learning process to compare what is known and can be demonstrated against standards.

Assessment OF learning

What is assessment OFlearning?
Assessment of learning involves working with the range of available evidence that enables staff and the wider assessment community to check on pupils’ progress and using this information in a number of ways.

Assessment AS learning
What is assessment ASlearning?
Assessment as learning is about reflecting on evidence of learning. This is part of the cycle of assessment where pupils and staff set learning goals, share learning intentions and success criteria, and evaluate their learning through dialogue and self and peer assessment.

Assessment FOR learning
What is assessment FORlearning?
Assessment for learning focuses on the gap between where learners are in their learning, and where they need to be – the desired goal. This can be achieved through processes such as sharing criteria with learners, effective questioning and feedback.

Why assess learning?
To find out if they get what we’ve tried to teach them
To find out if we taught them well enough
To find ways of improving our teaching

Forms of assessment
Assessment takes many forms in schools and classrooms:
Formal and informal observation and discussion with students
Formal assessment tasks
Formative monitoring and adjustment of teaching
Summative assessment at key points
Comparing evidence of achievement with other students
Comparing evidence of achievement against syllabus standards

The fundamentals of effective assessment
The British National Union of Students presents its principles:

More principles of effective assessment

Is Assessment in an LMC effective?
Practice does not fit theory:
Theoretically, the level of involvement in planning, teaching, and assessment should be no less than a partnership with other educators. However, the current practice of the instructional (including assessment) and curriculum roles in many school library media centers does not reflect the present theoretical and epistemological expectations of assessment in school librarianship articulated in professional literature and national guidelines . . .
Thinking beyond the Disjunctive Opposition of Information Literacy Assessment in Theory and Practice

What’s the problem?
Impediments:
Lack of time
Role perception conflict
Lack of teacher interest in cooperation
Too many students to serve
Thinking beyond the Disjunctive Opposition of Information Literacy Assessment in Theory and Practice
Others?

What is Authentic Assessment?
Definitions
A form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills -- Jon Mueller
“. . . Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively. The tasks are either replicas of or analogous to the kinds of problems faced by adult citizens and consumers or professionals in the field.” -- Grant Wiggins -- (Wiggins, 1993, p. 229).

What Roles Can Library MediaCenter Staff Play in AssessmentDevelopment?

Work with classroom teachers to develop learning goals and standards
Develop resources and assessment tasks for classroom teachers
Design your own assessments

The Co-Role of the LMS
Expanding the assignment and creating a learning environment that allows authentic learning activities to become possible
Facilitat[ing] the activity with the teacher so that many learning environments can be made available to students
Provid[ing] input and evidence in the evaluation of the students[’] ability to process information into meaningful communication
Authentic Assessment by Daniel Callison

Types of authentic assessment
Observations:
checklists of desired behaviors, rubrics that identify criteria for successful performance and describe different levels of performance, and rating scales that place levels of performance along a continuum.
From Working Smarter: Being Strategic About Assessment and Accountability by Violet H. Harada, based on Ann Davies, Making Classroom Assessment Work

Products:
checklists that list criteria for proficiency, rubrics that describe various levels of proficiency, and graphic organizers that organize and synthesize students’ work.

Conversations:
formal and informal conferences, logs to record thoughts and feelings about the content and process, and notes and letters to self-assess and seek feedback.

Creating rubrics
Ultimately, a good rubric is a promise to the learner that the elements outlined in the rubric are the valued, and therefore gradable, elements.
When developing a rubric, I encourage my graduate students to think about the areas in which they would like the student to develop proficiencies and then articulate how they will know that the student has developed these proficiencies.
Building Rubrics into Powerful Learning Assessment Tools

Authentic Assessment?
School Librarianship Exam
Time: 3hrs
Explain how you would amuse 478 small, wet children for 57 minutes on a rainy lunchtime . . .
Your principal has instructed you to improve library usage rates amongst the maths classes within the next 2 weeks.
Create a poster that explains how senior students can have fun in the library.
An irate parent confronts you with a complaint regarding a lost book, and pulls a knife on you.