Thanks for your comments and suggestions. I like the way you reordered the formula, that is a better structure.

For my thinking, and I guess I was not clear, acting on the feedback is part of the purpose of feedback. I will be more specific on that. This is one of the areas of assessment (in its current mode) that is frustrating. In real life (in many circumstances) we learn from our mistakes, we use feedback to improve and modify. making mistakes is an accepted part of learning.

I went to my favourite source of quotes to find this quote by Thomas Edison. – http://www.wikiquotes.org

“I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

And I also found this one, which was the quote of the day. It was strangely appropriate

“Error is a hardy plant; it flourisheth in every soil;
In the heart of the wise and good, alike with the wicked and foolish;
For there is no error so crooked, but it hath in it some lines of truth;
Nor is any poison so deadly, that it serveth not some wholesome use. ~ Martin Farquhar Tupper ~”

In many assessments, this is not an option. Feedback is given after the fact and as a result of that beyond use as a tool to improve the learning process for that task.

The formula you have provided is of interest to me but I would slightly rearrange it. For me it would look more like this:

Rich Real World Tasks + HOT + Collaboration (+ a few others…) = 21st Century Learning

Transparent Schema + Self & Peer Assessment + Timely Appropriate Feedback + Reflection = 21st Century Assessment

21st Century Learning + 21st Century Assessment =

The 21st Century Assessment as described above, with the added reflection and self assessment, is your basic AFL outline. It still does not include the action component, or the ability for students to act on the feedback from peers or teachers, to improve on their learning.

An interesting topic and I look forward to reading more comments and seeing further drafts of your thoughts.

You may be interested in this discussion about portfolios replacing standardised tests: http://tinyurl.com/6s29z3

It has a number of similar points that you and others have made.

Thank you for your comments, I appreciate them.
I agree with regrading the assessments focusing both outcome and process. Its a very good point. A colleague of mine (a drama teacher) used to say the journey is everything, but that is not completely correct as you have pointed out.
I also agree that assessment must be relevant, I completely agree

Thanks again

A

The statement above is how I would re-word your statement from above. If we are engaging our students in Real-World tasks, I think it is important that there be some Real-World assessment as well. I believe the students want that with their Real World work. It also helps students understand that the outcome of a task is important. Where I think our current outcome assessments fail us most is that the tasks we are asking them to accomplish are irrelevant, non-real world tasks. The assessments challenge is that their is no real purpose for the task anyway so why would the student care about what the outcome is. I guess my thought is that assessing the outcome becomes more relevant and valuable when it is combined with Real World, relevant tasks.

That said, we have to do a better job of identifying ways to assess the process along the way. If I had to pick, I would also say that process is the most important of the two things to assess (process or outcome). For me the main reason for this is I can generally take a process and apply it to other projects, tasks, etc. Assessing the process for students is so valuable because it is ultimately the process that provides the portable knowledge students can take and apply to new problems and situations. Unfortunately, many if not most pre-service education programs and professional development focus in large part on ways to assess the outcome and are less robust on how to assess the process that the student(s) used to get there.