Michelle Riconscente, PhD EWA | Bursting the Bubbles: Reassessing - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Michelle Riconscente, PhD

• EWA | Bursting the Bubbles: Reassessing Assessment

Stanford University November 18, 2014

Some Context: What is GlassLab?

GlassLab creates and enables commercial quality, high-impact digital learning games for young people, with a focus on underserved, at-risk youth, in and out

• f the classroom.

We bring together leaders in commercial games and experts in learning and assessment.

Supported by

• What is assessment?

§ Reasoning from the particular things students say, do or make… § to inferences about their knowledge, skills and abilities.

• In other words:
• We do this all the time in everyday life!

Assessment for Dessert

Stuff ¡we ¡ can ¡see ¡ Stuff ¡we ¡can’t ¡see, ¡but ¡ actually ¡care ¡about ¡

Inference ¡

Borrowing from Toulmin’s framework from law cases, where lots of evidence is brought to bear on some claim, and uncertainty must be taken into consideration.

• Claim
• Data
• Warrant
• Alternative Explanation

C ¡

unless A ¡ therefore

Toulmin (1958)

D ¡

since

W

Evidentiary Reasoning 
 and Legal Arguments

Evidence ¡

Competency ¡ Inferences ¡ Task ¡ ¡ Situations ¡

Assessment as Argument

D ¡ C ¡

Competency inferences – what qualities will be assessed? Evidence – what evidence will be gathered to inform inferences about competency? Task – what situations would produce that evidence? Line of reasoning that links them together Purpose – why are we assessing students, what’s the goal?

§ Why do we implement assessment?

§ Improve teaching and learning § Verify teaching and learning

§ To accomplish these goals, what information do we need à what systems do we need? § If we were to create this system today, would it look like what we have now? § Importance of formative assessment

Assessment for Dessert (Seconds!)

Not enough time to use the formative assessment results to modify instruction Not enough time to administer formative assessments Curriculum doesn't provide materials/resources for formative assessment Fishman, Riconscente, Snider, Tsai, & Plass, 2014

So… Why Games?

9 out of 10 kids ages 2-17 play video games Avg 8th grader spends 5-6 hours/week on homework

• Avg 8th grade boy spends

23 hours/week playing games

• Avg 8th grade girl spends

12 hours/week playing games Teachers using digital games in class

• Increase student engagement
• Support complex learning
• Opportunities for rich formative assessment

So… Why Games?

• Games foster and elicit

complex, higher order thinking

• Digital games produce

incredibly rich evidence, with small grain size for targeted insights.

• Games offer opportunities to

apply higher order skills in complex situations, while maintaining engagement.

So… Why Games?

Evidence ¡

Competency ¡ Inferences ¡ Task ¡ ¡ Situations ¡

Some Examples from GlassLab Games

• Commercial quality
• Learning analytics
• Aligned to standards

Super cool secret games coming soon!

New Models for Assessment:
 Making Learning Visible!

• More Assessment Dessert!

– Targeting higher order thinking – Very different kind of assessment

• To think about:

– What kinds of your knowledge, skills or abilities is this experience drawing on? – What kind of thinking is it eliciting? – How do you think your decisions might provide evidence of your knowledge?

• We’ll debrief together after you’ve had a chance

to try them out…

More New Approaches to Assessment ¡

• What did you think?
• Questions?

Debriefing ¡

Michelle Riconscente, PhD michelle@glasslabgames.org

• EWA | Bursting the Bubbles: Reassessing Assessment

Stanford University November 18, 2014