Incorporating assessment technologies in teacher education: Spreadsheets, learning response systems, and learning management systems
Abstract: Assessment literacy has historically been “overlooked” in teacher preparation (Popham, 2011) yet the technologies of assessment have never been more robust and ubiquitous. Data-intensive technologies still elude most teacher education candidates yet they are quite teachable if taught early in the program and practiced often. This presentation will address a curricular model used in assessment courses in a large teacher education program. The model’s goal is to build overall assessment literacy (see inTASC 6) in preparation for the candidate’s clinical experiences (see CAEP requirements and edTPA). The candidates spend 3-5 weeks developing an assessment-informed instructional unit. The model starts with UbD (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005), adds the LAMP structure from Schoenfeldt, Powell and Marchant (2005) and significant emphasis on the use of spreadsheets for data management, planning, and analysis using a “data dashboard” metaphor. Candidates analyse mock (and, later, real) data at the individual and aggregate levels. The candidates are taught how to incorporate data from learner response tools in their dashboard. Finally, they are taught how to model their unit in a true LMS (Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, etc.). This presentation will not address the design of assessments, but rather the assessment technologies and the ways they are taught in the course. The model has been in use for over five years and refined in collaboration with in-service teachers.