Is Learning Observable?
Why is evaluation important and how should we evaluate?
Learning must be observable or teaching would be impossible.
Indeed one of the best indicators that a student has learned something is her subsequent ability to teach it. As some of us have articulated here in this blog, this principle is a part of why we are teachers in the first place: because a teacher is a professional learner (and learning brings us joy)!
In class we discussed some of the ways learning can be observed: student engagement and attentiveness during the lesson; participation in class and group discussion of the material being taught; successful performance of a task or completion of an assignment that requires knowledge and ability taught in the lesson; direct report of the material learned given to the teacher one-on-one; etc. etc.
I think this is a good list, but reflecting more carefully we see that all of these measures are different from the exact phenomenon of learning. In none of these cases is the learning itself being observed, but rather we can only observe a demonstration or evidence of learning (or even probable evidence of learning might be more accurate).
As educators, what can we deduce from this insight that we cannot directly observe learning?
Two things at least: first we have to be very careful to make our best-educated guesses about learning, and second we must use the most valid evidence possible. To further complicate things the diversity of learning styles among students must be taken into consideration. For example, the appearance of inattention (a student looking away, fidgeting with something during a lesson) would generally indicate a lack of learning. However we must really know the needs of each individual child; a boy with autism may learn far better while appearing inattentive than if he is forced to sit still and stare at the instructor.
Likewise we may administer a finely tuned instrument of summative assessment only to discover that our best student has sabotaged herself with performance anxiety, and failed to demonstrate any learning! Obviously then, learning is best observed- assessed that is- through a variety of diverse methods over a long stretch of time.
Yet even after these efforts we cannot assume to know positively that something has been learned or not learned by the student we are observing.
On to Evaluation then:
Why should we evaluate students?
This is a critical question to ask, because of all the things we do as teachers it is most likely our evaluations that will generate the greatest fear and anxiety in the students we teach. While much information can be acquired without discomfort, I do believe the deepest lessons of life cannot be learned without some measure of struggle and yes even suffering.
Thankfully these life lessons are not among the PLOs!
But for the lesser lessons within our purview evaluation is necessarily part of the learning process, and this will be uncomfortable at times. Growing comes with pains. Unless we get out the measuring tape from time to time we will never know how much upward progress little Joey has made. If we don’t know what he has already learned we don’t know what needs to be taught. Formative assessment at least, is essential.
As educators I believe it is our duty to make this evaluation as painless as possible. Who has made it through school without some sort of emotional duress at the hands of teachers’ unfair, unkind evaluations? Part of me wishes evaluation could be done away with entirely! But even this would not solve the problem. Human beings suffer from an overwhelming impulse to compare ourselves with others. Students quickly discover others in the classroom are learning faster or outperforming them. They don’t need our evaluations to become wounded by these crude self-evaluations.
What can we do then?
All the while we should help students to find their worth in the beauty of their own being and not in their performances, much less their relative ranking among peers.
We can do our best to put evaluations into their proper context. Their only purpose is to serve the learning process by reinforcing students’ growth and revealing territory not yet covered sufficiently (still open to the adventure of learning). Evaluations can be de-emphasized in the class. They can be flexible and individually tailored as much as possible. Evaluations can be explained and discussed along with the results, and open to be repeated if the student wishes. It is even possible to invite the whole class to discuss evaluation criteria and methods beforehand that seem fair and valid to them.
For myself personally, I will always sacrifice evaluation if it seems to become a threat to a student’s self-worth. If little Jared in grade one is overwhelmed by the task of writing, I wont insist that he write. In such a scenario I would give him total freedom to forget about writing and do what he loves to do instead. During this period of time I simply will not be able to evaluate Jared’s progress using written assignments. I refuse to buckle under pressure as a teacher to ‘prove’ that Jared is making progress. Applying more pressure will only serve to wound him. A child is more than his ability to write in grade one at the level of his peers. Jared will write one day but not because he’s forced to do so. He will write because he is nurtured to find value in it (even if only as a means to a desired end at first). He will write under such emotionally safe circumstances or he will not write at all in my classroom. So he will not be administered evaluative tools (assignments or tests) that only serve to hurt him. He simply wont have to do that sort of work for as long as it takes. I will never let evaluation become an end in itself.
These are some thoughts;
-Mark Northey
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