Criteria and Validity

As teachers, our main goal is to make students learn. A teching learning process is nothing without assessment, it means that we need to get evidence along the process of how the students are performing, at the end of this, an evaluation should be given in order to have results of the level of understanding that students have of the contents. But at the moment of an evaluation, how can we determine the specific points that we want our students to succeed in, therefore to make a judgement of the performance in each one of these? This is what is called criteria. Then, since we need to know in what level of understanding our students are, it is necessary an instrument for measuring this and tell how proficient students are in each one of the evaluated points; this instrument is called rubric. In chapter 8, Wiggins invites us, as teachers, to find out the importance of criteria and rubrics, and also the role that validity has to play within these two concepts.

Why do teachers need criteria for? We already agreed on the idea that in order to make an evaluative instrument valid, we have to select what we want our students to be proficient in from the contents they learned. This is what criteria are about, to categorise the main points that are important for students to succeed in. Since teachers want quality in students’ tasks, good criteria should not focus on superficial and quantity aspects (Wiggins, p 173). Depth in content, good writing style, backed up and “right through” information are issues that they should consider in order to find out the understanding of every student. However, do teachers know what to include as criteria? This is the role that rubrics play; these also distinguish the quality of performance by the score given. Teachers tend to evaluate through analytic rubrics (Wiggins, p173) which divides the performance into different categories which tell how proficient the student is in each one of them by the given score.

Depending on the effectiveness of the criteria and the rubric, we can tell about how valid the evaluative instrument, it means that validity also determines the criteria to be considered -for example- to make a paper valid, the teacher will not foccus on what font, format, or how many drawings the student used to illustrate the paper, but in other kinds of parameters. Besides from the processes of assessment and evaluation we can get enough and propper evidence based on the kind of task the student had to fulfill. Nonetheless, there is another issue to be considered, which are the conditions in which the test was taken and the consequences that they can leave (Wiggins, p 188) For example, a boy can be given a test the same day he told that his mother had an accident, obviously his performance in the test is really bad due to the emotional stress that he is suffering from that day, however, if the test was taken in totally normal conditions, the performance, would be much better and the results as well.

As future teachers, we should consider all these factors in order not to waste an evaluative process. The criteria have to meet the level of understanding that the student will be able to reach. We have to be very careful on what students will be able to learn and understand from the contents studdied, therefore to make important decisions about the continuity of the course.

Thoughts on: Gaining Clarity on Our Goals

The main objective for teachers is to make students learn, however, there are many goals involved in that process. Since in the first chapter of Understanding by Design its authors, Wiggins and Mc Tighe, invited us to reflect and deal with issues such as understanding and knowledge, now, chapter 3 “Gaining Clarity on our Goals”, invites us, as future teachers, to respond to Essential Questions in order to plan the learning process and make it more meaningful with fundamental elements such as Established Goals, Understandings, Knowledge and Skills. It is extremely necessary for any teacher to set the main objectives and communicate the students what they are going to learn. This is the only way to avoid, as the authors state, the twin sins: aimless coverage of content and isolated activities which may be hardly engaged with the goals that learners have in mind.

One of the main points is that students have to be active participants in their own learning process and how it will be. Since they are not the ones who plan this, teachers have to be aware that the five components are the key for their cognitive development. Teachers as well as students should be aware of the importance of them and how they are going to be carried out, so that the learning outcomes can be fulfilled by the end of the period. Learning outcomes are part of what is called long term objectives, which let the teachers to have a perpective or an overview of how this process is going to finish in terms of expected results, but at the same time (within these), many short term aims may exist, so we can have all together. This is where the Essential Questions take place. These are not expected to be answered, but the idea of them is to develop in students skills like: discussion, reflection, problem solving, research and debate.
For instance, if a teacher is teaching 8th graders about food, will it be meaningful for them to learn about isolated vocabulary items? The answer is maybe, but only for the time they are acquiring those, however, they would be really menaingful for them by the time they are able to discuss about a healthy life, and illnesses such as overweightness and anorexia. Therefore, if students are able to apply those concepts in a discussion, then we are talking about Understanding. As the authours point out: “Understandings are the constructivist results of attemps by the student to make senseof the work and lessons, using inquiri, performance and reflection” (Wiggins and Mc Tighe)

In order to continue with the idea of involving students in the way their study plan should be like, I will bring the point of Unpacking standards, which means to analyse in detail and make it easier for learners to understand it, so that they can get the “big ideas and core tasks contained within”(Wiggins and Mc Tighe). For all students, these standarts are usually a confusing, complex and abstract idea. If this whole abjective was separated into more clear and down-to-earth passages for students, in order to make the aims closer to their everyday life, it would be easier and more motivating for them because they are going to have claer in mind what they are going to learn. So, from them an on, verbs such as; compare, name, analyse, interpret, identify, etc; will start appearing, which mey represent different objectives. This is what Unpacking standards mean, so they are able to find the big ides and the core tasks. Another reason why Unpacking standard is so useful, is that since teachers are always running out of time to get all the set objectives done, this would let them to determine which ones deserve more to be taught than others, which are more important than others, that will certainly mean meaningful learning. As the authors say: “Teachers can never cover all of the facts and skills on a given topic, given time restrictions and content overload. However, they can focus on a smaller set of big ideas and core tasks in the discipline by framing work around essential questions and appropriate performance assessment”(Wiggins and Mc Tighe).

To finish, I insist on the idea to make students acquire their study plan from the beginning, by all means. They know better than us (as teachers) what they want to be taught and in what way. Teachers are not authorities anymore. There should be communication and dialogue between both parts. What it is important, is that the teacher must have the class objectives as well as the expected outcomes are well set, and are based on the learner’s reality.