Assessing Student Performances
On going assessment of student performance in the classroom/studio is an essential aspect of effective instruction in the visual arts. Assessment includes all of the methods used to evaluate the extent to which students are achieving the intended learning outcomes of planned instruction. The intended learning outcome that an instructor plans and implements should determine the specific assessment design. A comprehensive visual arts curriculum should include paper and pencil testing, as well as alternative assessment strategies and techniques, such as performance based assessment and portfolio assessment. Implementing alternative assessment provides a measure of student performance with skills difficult to assess with traditional methods of assessment. Alternative assessments monitor skills taught which are relevant in today's workplace such as how to think critically, solve problems analytically, work cooperatively, and communicate effectively. Alternative assessment encourages students to advance beyond the one right answer mentality, to challenge students to explore the possibilities inherent in open-ended, complex problems, and to articulate their own inferences through self-reflection.
Benefits to Alternative Assessment
- Allows diverse learning styles and multiple intelligences.
- Allows a student to expand on topics and demonstrate applied concepts and techniques.
- Empowers a student to take responsibility for their learning.
- Enables students to better understand their grades.
- Actively involves students in assessing their performance.
- Clarifies and justifies assessment to parents, students, and administrators.
- Focuses on students' application of knowledge.
- Raises teacher expectations and standards of performance.
- Assists the teacher in modifying and adjusting instruction.