A quickie for you. Blogging and School Administrators has a post about high tech cheating and then continues on to show how an innovative teacher turns the tables.
A math teacher in Canada named Darren Kuropatwa wrote about a new approach he took with an exam for his pre-Cal students. He gave the exam to his students, gave them a deadline, and told them he expected each student would earn 100%. This was because, “They can get help from me, talk to each other but not show each other any written work (yes, I know, I’m naively optimistic). I’ll tell them what they need to fix in order to get that perfect mark.”
I think it’s a fascinating topic that needs to be revisited a few hundred times in the next few years. I wrote about it a few months ago. This just isn’t a topic that’s going to be going away any time soon.
If a teacher’s goal is student learning, then this should be the expectation of every exam–100% for all students. Even if you disagree with this particular approach, shouldn’t every student be given the opportunity to achieve a perfect score, even if it takes several attempts? This approach is known as assessment FOR learning, and it is different from assessment OF learning, which, unfortunately, is the most common form of assessment teachers use. I love how Darren gives students help and tells them what they need to fix. He is using informal assessment to help students learn. After all, if he checks their work and it is not correct, then they have to figure out how to make it right. Assessment for learning.
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