This post brings my series on Service-Learning to a close and has to do with course evaluations. To assess faculty on evaluating / assessing a Service-Learning course, the American Association for Higher Education Assessment Forum (1992) developed the following Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning. Service-Learning courses do, of course, have certain unique characteristics that must be taken into account. The most important consideration in evaluating a Service-Learning course is that all parties in the project must be assessed or evaluated including the students, community partner, and faculty involved in the project. As such, the following should be assessed or evaluated:
§ To what extent did the students achieve the learning objectives?
§ To what extent were service goals met?
§ How successful was the project for each student?
§ How successful was the project for the class as a whole?
§ How successful was the project for the community agency / organization?
§ How beneficial was the project to the service recipients?
§ How well did the course satisfy the instructor’s expectations / goals?
Techniques for course assessment / evaluation
Some of the assessment techniques include:
§ Small Group Instructional Diagnostic (SGID)
§ One Minute Papers
§ Informal Early Feedback (IEF)
§ Consultation with experienced members of your, or the nearest, faculty developement office
§ Checklist of student behaviors
§ Informal audit by another faculty member experienced in SL
§ Consultation with one of the SL Faculty Fellows
§ Standard Purdue course evaluation via school forms or PICES
§ Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) whereby formalized research is conducted and ultimately made public concerning the effectiveness of the SL component of the course.
§ Benchmarking the course against those that constitute best practices in SL which are those that have been recognized or rewarded for exemplary use of the pedagogy, such as Purdue’s EPICS program.
I hope this series on Service-Learning has been helpful. For additional references on Service-Learning please visit the following:
Learning Goals and Objectives references found at:
http://students.berkeley.edu/calcorps/slcourse.html
http://www.ncsu.edu/fctl/Initiatives/Service-Learning/facultytraining/slobjectives/
http://www.adprima.com/verbs.htm
http://www.uvcs.uvic.ca/desweb/RES/OBJECT.HTM
http://www.fiu.edu/~time4chg/Library/goals.html
http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_4.htm
Student Reflection references found at:
http://www.humboldt.edu/~slee/html/faculty.shtml#reflect
http://www.nyc.gov.sg/sl/sl_elements.html
http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/jsl/fall96/0104.html
Assessment / Evaluation of Student Learning references found at:
http://www.northern.edu/ASLP/authentic.html
Assessing / Evaluating the Success of SL in Your Course
Assessment Forum. (1992). Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning. Washington, DC: American Association of Higher Education.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Assessment / Evaluation of Student Learning in Service-Learning
Having already established the learning goals and objectives for the SL component of the course it is now time to develop appropriate ways in which to evaluate or assess student performance grade. Although traditional means may be used to evaluate the student’s performance on the learning objectives tied to the SL project, a more appropriate technique to use is Performance Based Assessment (PBA). In PBA, the student completes or demonstrates the same behavior that the assessor desires to measure. For example, if the behavior to be measured is writing, the student writes. Integrating students learning assessments and Service-Learning helps the students to:
§ See the connection between service activities and essential academic learning.
§ Understand the learning expectations before, during and after the service projects.
§ Achieve higher and/or non-cognitive levels of performance (e.g., affective).
§ More effectively assess themselves, peers and teachers.
§ Promotes and enhances student self-assessment abilities.
It helps educators to:
§ Provide greater academic value for service activities.
§ Focus curriculum and instructional design decisions toward quality student performance criteria.
§ Establish a pre-determined framework for assessing student learning before, during and after instruction.
It enables parents and community to:
§ More meaningfully assess individual student's abilities.
When assessing via PBA, the student completes or demonstrates the desired behavior in a real-life context in order to satisfy the learning objectives. For example, if students are taking a course on warehouse management, an authentic assessment could first consist of having them design and implement an accounting system for the local food bank to keep track of the foods brought in and dispensed to the poor, and so forth. The instructor and students could develop a set of criteria to ensure that the accounting system was one that was needed by the food bank. The food bank staff could also report back as to the quality of the new system once they have used it for a time to strengthen the authenticity of the project completed by the students.
So when assessing students via PBA (authentic assessment), be sure that the assessment:
§ Is task oriented
§ Is observable
§ Requires higher order thinking
§ Based on real-world tasks
§ Adequately covers the content taught
§ Needs interdisciplinary skills
§ Is meaningful to students
§ Is appropriate for all students
Tomorrow I will present the means by which to evaluate a SL course. If, at any time I am unclear or need more information, do not hesitate to e-mail me at mlalopa@fooded.org.
§ See the connection between service activities and essential academic learning.
§ Understand the learning expectations before, during and after the service projects.
§ Achieve higher and/or non-cognitive levels of performance (e.g., affective).
§ More effectively assess themselves, peers and teachers.
§ Promotes and enhances student self-assessment abilities.
It helps educators to:
§ Provide greater academic value for service activities.
§ Focus curriculum and instructional design decisions toward quality student performance criteria.
§ Establish a pre-determined framework for assessing student learning before, during and after instruction.
It enables parents and community to:
§ More meaningfully assess individual student's abilities.
When assessing via PBA, the student completes or demonstrates the desired behavior in a real-life context in order to satisfy the learning objectives. For example, if students are taking a course on warehouse management, an authentic assessment could first consist of having them design and implement an accounting system for the local food bank to keep track of the foods brought in and dispensed to the poor, and so forth. The instructor and students could develop a set of criteria to ensure that the accounting system was one that was needed by the food bank. The food bank staff could also report back as to the quality of the new system once they have used it for a time to strengthen the authenticity of the project completed by the students.
So when assessing students via PBA (authentic assessment), be sure that the assessment:
§ Is task oriented
§ Is observable
§ Requires higher order thinking
§ Based on real-world tasks
§ Adequately covers the content taught
§ Needs interdisciplinary skills
§ Is meaningful to students
§ Is appropriate for all students
Tomorrow I will present the means by which to evaluate a SL course. If, at any time I am unclear or need more information, do not hesitate to e-mail me at mlalopa@fooded.org.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Two Related Myths About Costs and Faculty in Higher Ed
I will continue the series on Service-Learning in a couple of days. Given the intense focus on today's financial crisis that is forcing everyone, everywhere to make their case to remain gainfully employed I thought I would share an e-mail I was sent from Gary Rhoades, General Secretary, of the American Association of University Professors. Although education is a part of the economy that as a whole seems to be adding jobs as people seek to retool themselves to land the jobs that will come available as we climb out of this recession, it is still important for teachers in higher education to remember their value by debunking two myths.
Myth 1: Tuition increases are driven by increases in faculty costs.
Myth 2: Faculty are the labor cost in higher education.
In debunking these widely held myths we must clarify three basic points:
1) You can’t blame faculty salaries for increases in tuition and costs. Faculty salary increases have been well below increases in tuition and well below increases in senior administrators’ salaries, which have increased disproportionately. Adjusted for inflation, tuition increases between 1989 and 2005 averaged about 6 percent a year; between 2002 and 2006, tuition at public universities increased by over 29 percent. From 1999–2000 to 2007–08, the yearly increase in overall average faculty salary ranged from 2.1 to 3.8 percent; adjusted for inflation, faculty salaries either decreased or increased less than 1 percent in six of those years (see table A in the 2007–08 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession). Between 1995–96 and 2005–06, presidential salaries increased by 35 percent, adjusted for inflation, compared to 5 percent for average faculty salaries (figure 3, 2006-07 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession from 2005-06 to 2007-08, the two-year increase in senior administrators’ salaries outpaced both inflation and the increase in average salary for full professors (figures 1 and 2, 2007–08 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession).
2) You can’t blame increases in faculty numbers for increased tuition and costs. Full-time tenure-track faculty numbers have increased at a far slower rate than have numbers of other professionals and administrators.Between 1976 and 2005, full-time tenure-track positions in the United States increased by only 17 percent, compared to a 281 percent increase in nonfaculty professionals and a 101 percent increase in administrators (see figure 3 in the 2007–08 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession).
3) Spending on instruction has declined in all sectors of higher education, while spending on administrative costs has increased. Between 1995 and 2006, overall spending increased, but the share of instruction was down in all sectors (for example, in public master’s institutions it was down from 53.9 to 50.8 percent; in private master’s institutions it was down from 45.0 to 43.0 percent). The share of student services increased (from 9.9 to 10.9 percent in public master’s institutions and from 13.9 to 15.6 percent in private master’s institutions), as did that of administration and other support (from 36.2 to 38.2 percent and from 41.1 to 41.4 percent, respectively). (See figure 8, Trends in College Spending.)
Hope this helps in case someone with a budget axe looks your way.
Myth 1: Tuition increases are driven by increases in faculty costs.
Myth 2: Faculty are the labor cost in higher education.
In debunking these widely held myths we must clarify three basic points:
1) You can’t blame faculty salaries for increases in tuition and costs. Faculty salary increases have been well below increases in tuition and well below increases in senior administrators’ salaries, which have increased disproportionately. Adjusted for inflation, tuition increases between 1989 and 2005 averaged about 6 percent a year; between 2002 and 2006, tuition at public universities increased by over 29 percent. From 1999–2000 to 2007–08, the yearly increase in overall average faculty salary ranged from 2.1 to 3.8 percent; adjusted for inflation, faculty salaries either decreased or increased less than 1 percent in six of those years (see table A in the 2007–08 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession). Between 1995–96 and 2005–06, presidential salaries increased by 35 percent, adjusted for inflation, compared to 5 percent for average faculty salaries (figure 3, 2006-07 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession from 2005-06 to 2007-08, the two-year increase in senior administrators’ salaries outpaced both inflation and the increase in average salary for full professors (figures 1 and 2, 2007–08 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession).
2) You can’t blame increases in faculty numbers for increased tuition and costs. Full-time tenure-track faculty numbers have increased at a far slower rate than have numbers of other professionals and administrators.Between 1976 and 2005, full-time tenure-track positions in the United States increased by only 17 percent, compared to a 281 percent increase in nonfaculty professionals and a 101 percent increase in administrators (see figure 3 in the 2007–08 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession).
3) Spending on instruction has declined in all sectors of higher education, while spending on administrative costs has increased. Between 1995 and 2006, overall spending increased, but the share of instruction was down in all sectors (for example, in public master’s institutions it was down from 53.9 to 50.8 percent; in private master’s institutions it was down from 45.0 to 43.0 percent). The share of student services increased (from 9.9 to 10.9 percent in public master’s institutions and from 13.9 to 15.6 percent in private master’s institutions), as did that of administration and other support (from 36.2 to 38.2 percent and from 41.1 to 41.4 percent, respectively). (See figure 8, Trends in College Spending.)
Hope this helps in case someone with a budget axe looks your way.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Student Refection Question Tips and Samples
As I indicated in the last post, student reflection is a key element of SL. It can take place at the beginning to have students begin to reflect on what is to be learned from the service. It can be done in the middle to reflect on the project to that point. It can be done at the end. Some even advocate doing it continuously throughout the course of the semester. The choice is up to you to do what you feel is best for your students as long as you regularly monitor the students’ feelings and opinions about the SL project.
Just keep in mind that the objective of reflection is to draw out and reinforce student learning. It should require students to use critical thinking skills to learn from their service experience. It can also help students to analyze core concepts of your course, evaluate their service experiences and form opinions in the context of the curricula or learning objectives. Keep these tips in mind when structuring reflection activities:
§ Be clear about goals and expectations regarding reflection.
§ Get students to write in journals while performing the service to be able to collect their thoughts at the end when self-reflecting.
§ Give the students specific questions to answer at occasional or strategic points during the semester.
§ Build a team to ensure safe space for youth to do group reflection.
§ Find time to allow everyone to share and verbalize their feelings even if its takes time.
§ Allow ample time for reflection, even a few extra seconds can help most people to organize their thoughts. Having students write first, then share, helps those less-inclined to join in the discussion.
§ The best reflection is not necessarily always planned reflection, be flexible and prepared to capitalize on "teachable moments."
§ Directly relate reflection to service being done.
§ Reflection should occur continuously.
A series of questions that can be used to select when constructing reflection questions for your students includes some of the following that were developed by Marcy H. Schnitzer, Placement Coordinator, at The Service-Learning Center at Virginia Tech.
1. What have you been doing as part of your service?
2. Does what you are or have been doing meet your expectations about your service
experience? If so, how?
3. What are or have been the most satisfying parts of your service experience?
4. What are or have been the most difficult parts of your service experience?
5. What are or have you been learning? Why is your service needed?
6. How is your service relevant to the readings and discussions in class?
7. What have you learned or what are you learning from your service experience?
8. Do you feel that service makes a difference? If so, how?
9. Now what? What should others do about it? What are you going to do about it?
10. How will this service experience be valuable to you in the future?
11. If you were trying to get more student or community involvement in your project, how would you present the project to them? What would you say to them to make them want to get involved?
12. If you could provide a future service-learning student with one piece of advice, what would it be?
I hope that the post dedicated to student reflection to those teaching with SL or thinking about it. In the next series of posts dedicated to SL I will give insights on student assessment.
Just keep in mind that the objective of reflection is to draw out and reinforce student learning. It should require students to use critical thinking skills to learn from their service experience. It can also help students to analyze core concepts of your course, evaluate their service experiences and form opinions in the context of the curricula or learning objectives. Keep these tips in mind when structuring reflection activities:
§ Be clear about goals and expectations regarding reflection.
§ Get students to write in journals while performing the service to be able to collect their thoughts at the end when self-reflecting.
§ Give the students specific questions to answer at occasional or strategic points during the semester.
§ Build a team to ensure safe space for youth to do group reflection.
§ Find time to allow everyone to share and verbalize their feelings even if its takes time.
§ Allow ample time for reflection, even a few extra seconds can help most people to organize their thoughts. Having students write first, then share, helps those less-inclined to join in the discussion.
§ The best reflection is not necessarily always planned reflection, be flexible and prepared to capitalize on "teachable moments."
§ Directly relate reflection to service being done.
§ Reflection should occur continuously.
A series of questions that can be used to select when constructing reflection questions for your students includes some of the following that were developed by Marcy H. Schnitzer, Placement Coordinator, at The Service-Learning Center at Virginia Tech.
1. What have you been doing as part of your service?
2. Does what you are or have been doing meet your expectations about your service
experience? If so, how?
3. What are or have been the most satisfying parts of your service experience?
4. What are or have been the most difficult parts of your service experience?
5. What are or have you been learning? Why is your service needed?
6. How is your service relevant to the readings and discussions in class?
7. What have you learned or what are you learning from your service experience?
8. Do you feel that service makes a difference? If so, how?
9. Now what? What should others do about it? What are you going to do about it?
10. How will this service experience be valuable to you in the future?
11. If you were trying to get more student or community involvement in your project, how would you present the project to them? What would you say to them to make them want to get involved?
12. If you could provide a future service-learning student with one piece of advice, what would it be?
I hope that the post dedicated to student reflection to those teaching with SL or thinking about it. In the next series of posts dedicated to SL I will give insights on student assessment.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Student Reflection: Key to Service-Learning
I think the one thing that truly distinguishes SL from other pedagogies is the student reflection component. There is no point in teaching via SL if the student experiences are not captured as part of the learning to determine whether or not it was in sync with the learning goals and objectives of the course. In effect, the reflection component of an SL class is the point at which everyone learns if the project was both educational and rewarding for the students and the community partner -- which is the point of teaching with this pedagogy.
In a very general sense, student reflection on the SL project can occur through speaking, writing, activities, and/or the use of multimedia & performing arts. (http://www.humboldt.edu/~slee/html/faculty.shtml#reflect)
Speaking examples include class discussions, small group discussions, oral reports and presentations, testimony before policy-making bodies, teaching material to younger students, public speaking, or one-on-one meetings.
Writing examples include essays, research papers, journals and learning logs, guides for future volunteers and participants, self-evaluations, or published articles.
Activities examples include planning future projects, simulation and role playing games, recognition and celebration, recruiting peers, or training other students.
Multimedia & Performing Arts examples include scrap books, web pages; paintings, drawings, and collages; music, theater, and dance presentations; or photo, slide, and video essays.
In Monday's post I will share some tips to consider when structuring reflection activities as well as provide a series of sample questions that can be used to help you construct reflection questions for your students.
In a very general sense, student reflection on the SL project can occur through speaking, writing, activities, and/or the use of multimedia & performing arts. (http://www.humboldt.edu/~slee/html/faculty.shtml#reflect)
Speaking examples include class discussions, small group discussions, oral reports and presentations, testimony before policy-making bodies, teaching material to younger students, public speaking, or one-on-one meetings.
Writing examples include essays, research papers, journals and learning logs, guides for future volunteers and participants, self-evaluations, or published articles.
Activities examples include planning future projects, simulation and role playing games, recognition and celebration, recruiting peers, or training other students.
Multimedia & Performing Arts examples include scrap books, web pages; paintings, drawings, and collages; music, theater, and dance presentations; or photo, slide, and video essays.
In Monday's post I will share some tips to consider when structuring reflection activities as well as provide a series of sample questions that can be used to help you construct reflection questions for your students.
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