Assessment Strategies for Self-Directed Learning, Dec/2003

Bestseller!

Are we preparing students for a life of tests or for the tests of life?

Educators agree that the characteristics of self-directed learners are traits that students will need to succeed in school and in life. Accurately assessing the skills and behaviors of self-directed learning is essential in developing life-long, self-initiated learning habits.

Assessment Strategies for Self-Directed Learning provides successful methods for assessing students’ progress towards becoming self-managing, self-monitoring, and self-modifying learners. Using practical examples drawn from a variety of classrooms and schools, renowned authors Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick present educators with strategies for designing diverse ways of gathering, organizing, and reporting evidence of continual learning.
This hands-on book provides the practical tools that educators need to implement these ideas, including:

1. Classroom activities
2. Sample rubrics
3. Forms, portfolios, questions, and checklists
4. Examples of student work

Assessment Strategies for Self-Directed Learning offers a more balanced and complete evaluation method that includes classroom-based assessments that complement state-based assessments. Authors Costa and Kallick illustrate the means to develop and cultivate the intellectual dispositions of self-evaluation and self-correction in all students.

About The Authors:
Arthur L. Costa, Ed.D., is Emeritus Professor of Education at California State University, Sacramento, and co-founder of the Institute for Intelligent Behavior in El Dorado Hills, California. He has served as a classroom teacher, a curriculum consultant, an assistant superinten­dent for instruction, and as the director of educational programs for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He has made pre­sentations and conducted workshops in all fifty states as well as Mexico, Central and South America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the islands of the South Pacific. Dr. Costa has written numerous books, including Techniques for Teaching Thinking (with Larry Lowery), The School as a Home for the Mind, and Cognitive Coaching: A Foundation for Renaissance Schools (with Robert Garmston). He is editor of Developing Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking, coeditor (with Rosemarie Liebmann) of the Process as Content Trilogy: Envisioning Process as Content, Supporting the Spirit of Learning, and The Process Centered School. Active in many professional organizations, he served as president of the California Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and was the National President of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1988 to 1989.

Bena Kallick is a private consultant providing services to school districts, state departments of education, professional organizations, and public sector agencies throughout the United States. Her areas of focus include group dynamics, creative and critical thinking, and alternative assessment strategies in the classroom. Formerly a Teachers’ Center Director, she also created a children’s museum based on problem solving and invention. Kallick was the coordinator of a high school alternative designed for at-risk students. She is cofounder of Technology Pathways, a company that facilitates teachers’ networks and communications about curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Her teaching appointments have included Yale University School of Organization and Management, University of Massachusetts Center for Creative and Critical Thinking, and Union Graduate School. She was on the boards for JOBS for the Future and the Apple Foundation. Kallick received her doctorate in educational evaluation from Union Graduate School.