How to Think Like an Assessor and Its Application to Instructional Design
Understanding is achieved through reasoning and being malleable. However, when a student is unable to go beyond routine actions and considerations, he or she lacks reasoning. Flexible performance brings comprehension and should, therefore, be encouraged among learners.
What It Means to Think Like an Assessor
In Thinking Like an Assessor, Wiggins and McTigh argue that most of the teachers do not reason like assessors since they contemplate as tutors. For instance, most instructors unconsciously and smoothly go to the third stage of backward design, which consists of assignments, the design of the lessons, and events without the knowledge of the products and performances they need to assess. McTighe and Wiggins (2005) urge tutors to ask themselves the following questions for them to reason like assessors: what can be used to show that learners have achieved the expected results? What tasks would trigger students to check instructions carefully? Lastly, what should an assessor look at to determine whether learners have comprehended material? The particular traits in students’ performances, responses, and products should be examined to know the level of cognizance achieved, the kind of evidence needed to reach goals and apprehension, as well as their skills and knowledge.
How Thinking like An Assessor Applies to Instructional Design
In short, the authors suggest the use of exemplars. Teachers should be keen to grasp students’ judgment and not just consider the correctness of the answers that they provide. Reasoning like an evaluator is contextualized and reasonable. Moreover, the reasoning acts as a basis for which adults are evaluated in their work environments, as well as individual and public lives.
Conclusion
One should reason and instruct like an evaluator. Thinking like an evaluator mostly emphasizes the backward design and teaching, which leads to an understanding of the things thought. Teachers are therefore urged to think like assessors. Thinking like assessors also ensures that the message being conveyed is fully received.
References
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design, Expanded 2nd Edition. Retrieved January 28, 2019