Christina Scharbaai’s Updates

Discussion # 7 Assessments Influences Outcomes in Education

Comment: How does the "logic" of assessment influence the logic of education?

Two prominent educational philosophers in the analytic tradition: R. S. Peters and P. H. Hirst, grounded in their co-authored book The Logic of Education, Hirst and Peters (1970) examine the different uses of the concept of “education” and argue that knowledge and understanding is central to the use of the concept in that “education” suggests not only that what develops in someone is valuable but also that it involves the development of knowledge and understanding. Whatever else an educated person is, he is one who has some understanding of something. He is not just a person who has a know-how or knack. [i]

As stated, then the logic or rationale for an assessment must be grounded in Learners’ development of knowledge and understanding. In his lecture: “New Learning: Because Now We Can, We Should Dr. Bill Cope demonstrates the impact of learning analytics and continual Data Mining influenced outcomes in 130 learners participating in a project. Learners were able to improve their projects based on the give and take giving each other feedback in collaborative environments. [ii]

Summary:

Assessments which involve analytics, data mining, continual feedback, peer reviews and highly collaborative learning environments are directly tied to the knowledge and understanding (logic of education). In these environments, learners become knowledge producers and take responsibility for their learning.

[i] https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/intellectualism-education-educational-philosophy-r-s-peters-and-p-h-hirst

[ii] The New School: Learning Analytics in Scholar | Coursera