The document discusses assessment, grading, motivation, and instruction. It presents research showing that extrinsic rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation for learning. Grades and levels often tell students more about success and failure than how to improve. Formative assessment done with students, not to them, can help students grow in their learning. The core competencies of thinking, communication and social/personal skills should be addressed across subjects and grades. Teachers should involve students in assessment to help them become self-evaluating.

1. Assessment, Grading,
Motivation and
Instruction
Disrupting commonly
held assumptions…
Presented by:
Jonathan Vervaet
@jonathanvervaet
September 18, 2014 - SFU

2. “Stories matter. Many stories
matter.”
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

3. “If students have not been told
where they are going, it is
unlikely that they will arrive.”
– Shirley Clark

4. Learning Intentions
“I can find evidence of current
assessment research
in my practice.”

5. Learning Intentions
“I can identify ways to use
assessment to inform my
instructional decisions .”

6. Learning Intentions
“I can become curious about
something in the research I
want to inquire further into.”

7. “Assessment is the beginning and the end
of my teaching. It defines my culture, my
relationships, my learning community, my
values, and my beliefs about teaching and
learning.” - Matt Rosati

9. The habit of critical
reflection is crucial
for teacher’s
survival.
- Stephen
Brookfield

12. How the worlds best schools come out on top.
1.Get the right people to become teachers.
2.Develop them to be effective.*
3.Ensure the system is able to deliver the best
possible instruction for every child.
* Coaching classroom practice.
• Move teacher training to the classroom.
• Strong School Leaders
• Teachers learn from each other –
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)

13. How the worlds best schools come out on top.
Individual Teachers
•Aware of areas to grow in their practice
•Gain understanding of best practice that is
research based (meta-analysis)
•Are motivated to improve
•Have high expectations
•Shared purpose

14. Reflection: How
is seeing
ourselves as
learners
important for
us as teachers?

15. Instructional Design
The Science of Learning

16. Instructional Design
90% of what we know about the brain we have
learned in approximately the last 2 years

17. Instructional Design
The same will be true 10 years from now

18. Motivation 2.0
True or False:
Rewarding an
activity will get you
more of it. Punishing
an activity will get
you less of it.

19. Harlow (1949)
Radical finding, there was a third drive.
The performance of the task provided
intrinsic reward.
The monkeys solved the problem simply
because they found it gratifying to solve
the puzzle.

20. Harlow (1949)
2
Rewarded the monkey with raisons.
“Introduction of food in the present experiment
served to disrupt performance, a phenomena not
reported in the literature.”
The monkeys made more errors and
solved the puzzles less frequently.

21. Deci (1969) – Carnegie Melon
Soma Block
Experiment

22. Deci (1969)
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
Group A No
reward
Cash
Reward
No
reward
Group B No
reward
No
reward
No
reward

23. Deci (1969) – Carnegie Melon
“When money is used as an extrinsic reward for
some activity, the subjects lose intrinsic interest for
the activity.” Rewards give you a short term boost,
but the effect wears off and can reduce long term
Soma Block
Experiment
motivation.

24. Commissioned
vs.
Non-
Commissioned
Art

26. Rewards transform
interesting tasks
into drudgery.

27. Offering an award
signals that the
task is undesirable.

28. Focus on Short Term vs.
Long Term Benefits

29. When goals are imposed and
incentivized…
Focus is narrowed on
achieving only that goal.

30. and…
Here’s the kicker…

31. It leads to unethical
behaviour in an attempt to
reach the goal.
aka..

32. Cheating…

33. When rewards do work…
With routine and
mechanical tasks.

34. You can’t undermine
intrinsic motivation in
boring tasks.

36. Carol Dweck (2006)
Fixed vs. Growth Mindset.
Fixed – Believe they have to work with
whatever intelligence they have because it
can’t be increased.
They resist novel challenges if they can’t
succeed immediately.
They’d rather not try than be perceived as
dumb.

37. Carol Dweck (2006)
Fixed vs. Growth Mindset.
Growth – Believe intelligence can be built
through life.
See working harder as a way to improve.
They persist and try a wide variety of solutions
when given novel tasks.

38. Carol Dweck (2006)

39. Csikzentmihalyi (1990)
Flow Theory – The
exhilarating moments when
we feel in control, full of
purpose, and in the zone.

40. Csikzentmihalyi (1990)
Skill Level
Challenge
Level

41. Daniel Pink (2009)
Autonomy –over task, time, team, and
technique.
Mastery – Becoming better at
something that matters.
Purpose

42. G.O.S.S.I.P. Strategy
Go out and
selectively
search for
important
points.

43. Strategy:
Mining for Gold

44. A/B Partner – Mining for Gold
A – says what the most important
idea was from the reading.
B – asks “Why is that important?”
A – answers and explains.
B – again, asks “Why is that
important?”
Do this until A can synthesize
thought to a single word or phrase;
Repeat for partner B.

45. Marks or levels tell students more
about their success or failure than
about how to make
progress in their
learning.
“Is this for marks?”

46. Constantly weighing the pig
won’t make it fatter...
The Benefits of Formative Assessment

47. Assessment
is done
with, and
not to,
students to
help them
grow in
their
learning.

48. The Latin root word for assessment is
"assidere" which means to sit beside.

49. The Trouble with Marks

50. The research shows
very clearly that three
things tend to happen
when students are
encouraged
to focus on
getting
good grades.

51. The first is
that they become less
excited about
the learning
itself.

52. The second is that
they tend to
become less
likely to
think deeply.

53. The third thing that happens
is when you get kids focused
on grades they pick the
easiest possible task
when given
a choice.

54. — not because
they’re lazy,
because
they’re
rational.

55. Marks or levels tell students more
about their success or failure than
about how to make
progress in their
learning.
“Is this for marks?”

56. If you are going to put a mark on a
piece of work, you are
wasting your time
writing descriptive
feedback comments.
“Is this for marks?”

57. Core Competencies
The Ministry has defined three
core competencies at the
centre of the curriculum and
assessment redesign:

58. Core Competencies
Thinking competency
Communication competency
Social and Personal competency

59. Core Competencies
Table Talk:
How might these competencies
be addressed in different
subject areas at different grade
levels?

60. Principles for Classroom
Assessment
Students should be part
of the assessment
process and involved in
setting criteria, setting
their own learning goals
and designing
demonstrations.
)

61. "We must constantly remind
ourselves that the ultimate
purpose of evaluation is to
have students become self
evaluating. If students
graduate from our schools
still dependent upon others
to tell them when they are
adequate, good, or
excellent, then we’ve
missed the whole point of
what education is about.”
- Costa and Kallick (1992)

62. The Paradigm Shift
• Learning vs. Teaching
• Outcomes / Standards vs. Tasks
• Quality vs. Quantity
• If students learn vs. When students learn
• Confidence vs. Anxiety
• Practice vs. One Chance
• Improvement vs. Coverage
Tom Schimmer

64. Teaching is not rocket science. It is, in
fact, far more complex and demanding
work than rocket science.
- Richard Elmore (Professor of Education Leadership at Harvard
Graduate School of Education)

65. “Mistakes are not mistakes; they are
calibrations for the mind.”
- Jane A. Kearns

66. Relationships are all there is. Everything in
the universe only exists because it is in
relationship to everything else. Nothing
exists in isolation. We have to stop
pretending we are individuals who can go it
alone.
- M. Wheatley

67. “I’m still learning.”
- Michelangelo, Age 87

68. Contact Information
Jonathan Vervaet
Email: jonathanvervaet@gmail.com
or
Twitter: @jonathanvervaet