Abstract
Traditional assessment tends to be a one-size-fits-all approach to student learning that does not consider individual students nor the underlying systems of power and oppression in higher education. This chapter argues for equity-centered assessment as learner-centered assessment which eschews Western ways of knowing and not only focuses on individual learners but is also a tool for advancing equity. The authors compare and contrast traditional assessment with learner-centered assessment and describe benefits, characteristics, and strategies for implementing equity-centered assessment.
TopLearning-Centered Teaching
Any discussion of learner-centered assessment must be rooted in learning-centered teaching. Many college graduates can recall a class in which an instructor was at the front of a large lecture hall talking, often with detailed slides, to students in their seats—some attentively taking notes, some slouching in their uncomfortable theater-style seats uninterested, and some blissfully napping. This is what Barr and Tagg (1995) termed the instruction paradigm of college learning that centered on all-knowing faculty dispensing knowledge to passive student learners.
In 1987, Chickering and Gamson argued for learning-centered teaching in a piece titled Seven Principles in Undergraduate Education. The national conversation regarding learning-centered teaching was jumpstarted in 1995 with Barr and Tagg’s “A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education” in which they argued that a learner-centered teaching approach could ensure institutional success during a time of uncertainty. They stated, “Today it is virtually impossible for them (colleges and universities) to respond effectively to the challenge of stable or declining budgets while meeting the increasing demand for post-secondary education from increasingly diverse students” (p. 13). Sound familiar? That quotation is as true today as it was over 25 years ago. For Barr and Tagg, both institutional success and improved student learning would result from a shift to a learning paradigm.
Rooted in the cognitive science of learning, researchers argued that students learn better when they are actively involved in their own learning (Bar & Tagg, 1995; Doyle, 2011; Piksaldo, 2016; Suskie, 2015; Weimer, 2013). In addition, active, collaborative, and engaged learning facilitate student learning outcomes (Barkley et al., 2005; Bransford, 2000). These active and engaging teaching strategies are effective because they are constructivist in nature, empowering students to create their own knowledge through interpreting information, solving problems, and making connections (Piksaldo, 2016; Smart, et al., 2012).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Learning-Centered Teaching: Holistic learning that includes social, emotional, and intellectual components and utilizes active learning strategies.
Way of Knowing: Values, beliefs, and assumptions regarding how reality is understood and how knowledge is created.
Equity-Centered Assessment: The use of assessment to address systemic barriers to educational outcomes for all students.
Learning-Centered Assessment: Assessment that focuses on the effectiveness and improvement of the learning process.
Learner-Centered Assessment: A constructivist approach to assessment that focuses on students AND their learning in the assessment process and examines what they learn inside and outside the classroom.
Assessment: The gathering, analysis, and use of data to demonstrate program effectiveness and individual student learning achievement as well as improve practice.
Equity: Ensuring that all students have similar educational outcomes.