as well as measure learning. Critical elements include identifying and communicating learning goals to students, specifying the criteria or evidence that will be used to determine whether the students have met the goals, and providing students with rich, timely, individually relevant feedback that provides opportunities for intervention and adjustment before it is too late (pp. 12–13). We have a similar definition of assessment in our book titled Learning Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers (Barkley & Major, 2016); we view learning assessment as a seamless approach to teaching, learning, and assessment. As we see it, when done well, students should not be able to distinguish whether they are being taught or assessed.
Authentic Assessment
An additional element stressed by Wiggins and others is authentic assessment, an approach to assessment that developed out of the concern that conventional assessment instruments tend to focus on the more superficial and easily tested aspects of knowledge and do not replicate the kinds of challenges that adults face in the workplace, civic affairs, or in their personal lives. Authentic assessment aims to be realistic, which means the task(s) reproduce the ways and the contexts in which a person's knowledge and abilities are “tested” in real-world situations. This typically involves the student “doing” the subject. Instead of reciting, restating, or replicating through demonstration what he or she was taught or what is already known, the student has to carry out the kind of exploration and work that constitutes “doing” the discipline.
Second, authentic assessment requires judgment, innovation, and efficient and effective use of a repertoire of knowledge and skills to negotiate a complex task or solve complex problems. In other words, rather than consisting of isolated elements of performance, authentic assessment requires students to integrate multiple elements. Third, authentic assessment focuses on being formative, allowing appropriate opportunities to rehearse, practice, consult resources, and get feedback on and refine performances and products (Wiggins, 1998, pp. 23–24). What constitutes an “authentic assessment task” is discipline and course-specific, but for example in a history course, rather than testing whether a student can remember the facts of history, an authentic assessment task might ask students to research a controversial historical account to determine the facts. Because authentic assessment tasks seem more relevant and also tend to be more interesting, students are often more motivated to do them than they are to do conventional assessment activities. Additionally, because of their greater complexity, they can allow for a range of responses that can encourage students to work within their optimal challenge zone.
There are many different ways to approach assessment, but to be effective in improving teaching and learning, assessment strategies involve the same basic steps: (1) identify a learning goal; (2) select an assessment technique that will measure to what extent the goal has been achieved; (3) apply the assessment technique; (4) analyze the results of the assessment and share the results with the student(s), ideally providing an opportunity for student feedback; and (5) respond to the results and implement any necessary change in teaching strategy or course content (Fenton & Watkins, 2008, pp. 6–7). In our 2016 book on learning assessment, we similarly suggest that assessment should involve:
1 Identifying significant learning goals
2 Implementing effective learning activities
3 Analyzing and reporting upon outcomes
Metacognition
Students who reflect on their learning are better learners than those who do not. Being aware of oneself as a learner and constantly monitoring the effectiveness of one's learning involves metacognition, a term used by cognitive psychologists to describe the so-called executive function of the mind. As we suggested in our 2016 book Learning Assessment Techniques, there are two prominent characteristics of metacognition: knowledge of cognition and self-regulation of cognition. According to McGuire (2018), metacognition includes the ability to (a) think about your own thinking, (b) be consciously aware of yourself as a problem solver, (c) monitor, plan, and control your mental processing, and (d) accurately judge your level of learning. Nilson (2013) argues that meta-cognition is an important component of self-regulation, but the latter is the larger concept: “… self-regulation encompasses the monitoring and managing of one's cognitive processes as well as the awareness of and control over one's emotions, motivations, behavior, and environment as related to learning” (p. 5). Activities such as planning how to approach a given learning task, monitoring comprehension, and evaluating progress toward the completion of a task play a critical role in successful learning in college and university courses.
Metacognitive strategies require activity on the part of the learner, not for grading purposes but for the pedagogical purpose of actively monitoring and controlling the learning processes. Teachers can help students develop the metacognitive strategies that enable them to exert more control over the quality of their learning. After all, in the final analysis, the learners themselves are in the best position to determine whether or not they are learning at their optimal level of challenge.
Empowering Students as Partners in theLearning Process
Because optimal challenge zones are determined by an individual student's unique needs, it helps if students are empowered partners in the learning process. When students have the power to make decisions regarding their own learning, they can take steps to ensure they are working in their optimal challenge zone. Weimer (2002) identifies sharing power with students as the first of five key changes required to shift to learner-centered teaching. Her chapter on the balance of power opens with this paragraph:
How would you characterize today's college students? Empowered, confident, self-motivated learners? That is not how I would describe mine. The ones in my classes are hopeful but generally anxious and tentative. They want all classes to be easy but expect that most will be hard. They wish their major (whatever it might be) did not require math, science, or English courses. A good number will not speak in class unless called on. Most like, want, indeed need, teachers who tell them exactly what to do. Education is something done unto them. It frequently involves stress, anxiety, and other forms of discomfort. (p. 23)
Weimer's description evokes a wonderfully clear and instantly recognizable image of disengaged students. She discusses power sharing from many perspectives, including summarizing the major themes in the writings of radical, critical pedagogues such as Freire and Hooks, noting the emphasis they give to the influence of power on the motivation to learn and on learning outcomes themselves. She also observes, “teacher authority is so taken for granted that most of us are no longer aware of the extent to which we direct student learning” (p. 23) and provides ample evidence of the power differential between teacher and students in typical college classes.
In Weimer's own teaching, she observes that when it becomes clear that she is not going to tell students what to do, they begin to exercise their power tentatively and anxiously, wanting feedback and needing reinforcement in order to move forward with a bit more confidence. She then shares:
It is difficult to say precisely when it happens, but one day, quite unexpectedly, the students are engaged and involved with the course and its content. There is an energy about the class, a kind of enthusiasm. Instructional nirvana does not descend. Not everybody is involved and engaged, and some activities and assignments still bomb. But student response to my efforts to share power has been the most eloquent evidence to me that learner-centered teaching is a powerful pedagogy. (pp. 30–31)
Empowering students to be active partners in their learning requires a subtle but thorough shift in focus away from what the teacher is teaching to what and how the student is learning.
Providing students
