Posts about assessmenthttp://cestlaz.github.io/categories/assessment.atom2018-09-19T23:47:48ZMike ZamanskyNikolaNo Magic Bullets - Discovery Learninghttp://cestlaz.github.io/posts/no-magic-bullets-constructivism/2018-04-21T07:40:16-04:002018-04-21T07:40:16-04:00Mike Zamansky<div id="outline-container-orgf11b7f9" class="outline-2">
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<p>
The most recent NYC CSTA chapter meeting was "How do I assess CS?" I
wanted to go but it's been such a crazy month I was just too wiped
out. Fortunately, the meetup was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIMKAZbHAiA&index=83&list=WL&t=1796s">recorded</a>. I was able to watch the
first half this morning while working out on my <a href="https://www.staczero.com/hero">stationary trainer</a>
which leads me to today's rare Saturday morning blog
post. The meetup consisted of two panels. The first was made up of K12
teachers who taught CS. I can't talk about the second panel yet since I'm
only halfway through but there were a couple of points made by my
friend <a href="https://twitter.com/KatieJergens">Katie Jergens</a> who teaches at Dalton that I thought were worth
talking about.
</p>
<p>
The first was when Katie noted that through working with the panel,
one of her takeaways was that:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Giving students an explicit strategy for solving a problem - "this is
how I would do it….," - giving them an explicit strategy first and then giving them a
problem for which that strategy would apply is much more effective than
having them discover it on their own.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
This was refreshing to hear after being beaten over the head on
discovery learning and constructivism for the past five or so
years as being the magic bullet for teachers. I shared more thoughts
on this a few weeks ago when I wrote about a SIGCSE paper presented by
<a href="https://cestlaz.github.io/posts/sigcse2018-bootstrap/">Bootstrap World</a> that I very much liked.
</p>
<p>
Katie went on to talk about how the group found that while "discovery
learning" can be effective it can also be frustrating and lose kids
along the way. It also takes a lot of time and preparation, something
that's short on supply in most public schools.
</p>
<p>
This made me think about the recent flurry
of discussion around the debunking of learning styles which had
previously been the magic bullet. When I started, the secret sauce was cooperative
learning.
</p>
<p>
Of course any good teacher knows there's no magic bullet. You fill
your tool belt and chest with as much as you can and use what's
best based on your strengths as a teacher combined with what will work
best with your students.
</p>
<p>
Another point that Katie made that I found refreshing had to do with
something she does with her classes. A good portion of a student's grade is
based on what she calls a "booster." Each student has to work one on
one with her on some project. The student either scores a 0 or a 100 -
the student keeps working with the direct support of the teacher until
it's perfect.
</p>
<p>
The important thing that Katie said with respect to this is "I can
do this because my largest class is sixteen students." No way could
this ever scale to a public school where a teacher can meet with over
150 students a day and barely has time eat lunch let alone
work one on one with a student in a suitably quiet place like an
office. The refreshing thing to hear was the acknowledgment of the
fact that what works in a rich private school won't work in a public
school.
</p>
<p>
All to often education and yes, CS Ed is driven by people who
really have no clue. They're anointed as thought leaders but they
don't walk the walk. Some have some knowledge and experience but many
don't. Until you've gotten a few years under your belt in a strap
cashed public school that takes all comers, don't tell them how they
should do it. Katie didn't - she acknowledged the problem - too bad so
many others don't.
</p>
<p>
I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the video during a future
workout and might have more to share then. For now, take a look for
yourself.
</p>
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</div>Making contest problems and writing testshttp://cestlaz.github.io/posts/advent-2017-making-tests/2017-12-11T19:39:16-04:002017-12-11T19:39:16-04:00Mike Zamansky<div id="outline-container-org7759a8a" class="outline-2">
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I'm now well behind in <a href="http://adventofcode.com">Advent of Code</a>. Traveling up to Michigan to see
my son and my brother and his family will do that.
</p>
<p>
I was planning on working to catch up but got distracted earlier by
<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/adventofcode/comments/7idn6k/question_why_does_the_difficulty_vary_so_much/">this thread</a> on the Advent of Code subreddit. Specifically <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/adventofcode/comments/7idn6k/question_why_does_the_difficulty_vary_so_much/dqy08tk/">this comment</a>
by <a href="http://was.tl/">Eric Wastl</a>, the contest creator. The thread is about the level of
difficulty of the various problems and Eric's comment talks about some
of the factors that go into creating a good collection of problems for
a contest and the difficulties involved.
</p>
<p>
It made me think of a conversation I had twenty years ago with Rob
Kolstad. We were chatting at a programming competition while the
students were hacking away. We were discussing that there were only so
many questions that a typical high school or college competition can
ask:
</p>
<ol class="org-ol">
<li>The Mathy question</li>
<li>Recursion / divide and conquer etc.</li>
<li>Graph stuff</li>
<li>Dynamic Programming</li>
</ol>
<p>
and I think one or two more. The actual questions were just window
dressing on these fundamental question types.
</p>
<p>
You can see this in many competitions including Advent of Code -
particularly if you look over all three years. This is not a
criticism. I love Advent of Code and think that Eric and the people
he's working with are doing a great job . Read Eric's comment to get a
deeper dive into what he thinks about as a contest designer.
</p>
<p>
I also got to thinking how similar creating a competition is to
creating an exam. Maybe that's because I'm currently writing the final
my students will take in a couple of days. In class tests are
certainly not the best of assessments but they do have their place and
in any event, they're frequently required by school or departmental
policy.
</p>
<p>
There are many similarities between what teachers consider when making
tests to what contest designers consider. What concepts and techniques
must the students use? Are the problems too similar? Do they ramp up
in difficulty? Are they all or nothing or can a student incrementally
work their way to a solution? Does one problem lead into another?
</p>
<p>
There's no big reveal or surprise here today. Just something I've been
thinking about.
</p>
<p>
A couple of busy days coming up but maybe over the weekend I can get
back to Advent of Code.
</p>
</div>
</div>A test result is just a test resulthttp://cestlaz.github.io/posts/ap-results-measure-of-curriculum/2017-10-15T20:17:21-04:002017-10-15T20:17:21-04:00Mike Zamansky<div id="outline-container-org40b6030" class="outline-2">
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This past weekend was <a href="http://catskillsconf.com">Catskillsconf</a> - my favorite event of the
year. I spent the weekend up in Ulster County with a bunch of my
students. some great friends old and new, and Devorah. It was a great
weekend but I was mostly offline.
</p>
<p>
As a result I missed a rather heated discussion in the CS Ed Facebook
groups. The debate was over whether or not Strong AP CSP exam results
are indicative of a good curriculum or good professional development (PD).
</p>
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<h2 id="org9ee3f4b">TL;DR - NO!!!!!</h2>
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<p>
Further, anyone who thinks that a set of exam results can tell you
that a particular PD sequence or curriculum is good shouldn't be
allowed to call themselves a teacher and I don't want them anywhere
near my kids.
</p>
<p>
I guess that language is strong, even for me but it's true.
</p>
<p>
Tests are designed to assess students and many tests don't even do
that well. They shouldn't be used to measure something further
removed.
</p>
<p>
The last time this idea made its rounds was using student test results
for teacher evaluation. They do that in NY. A judge called the
practice "capricious" and "arbitrary." My friend and former
colleague Gary Rubinstein showed a year or so ago that standardized
test scores varied enough from year to year so as to make the ratings
useless <sup><a id="fnr.1" class="footref" href="http://cestlaz.github.io/posts/ap-results-measure-of-curriculum/#fn.1">1</a></sup>
</p>
<p>
Using test scores to say a PD sequence is good? What if that PD
focused on test prep? What if it did nothing in particular? When I was
at Stuy and when I was at Seward Park the Calc teachers' students had
great AP results. I can tell you that none of those teachers had any
quality PD specific to AP Calc.
</p>
<p>
Curriculum? My mentor and friend Danny Jaye told me many times - "A
great teacher can save a class from a horrible curriculum but a great
curriculum will do nothing for a class with a horrible teacher." He
was right. Again, what if the curriculum encourages test prep. What if
pressure on the teacher encourages them to focus on test prep
regardless of curriculum or PD (see my recent <a href="http://cestlaz.github.io/posts/standards-who-for">post</a>).
</p>
<p>
An AP test measures one thing - how well the student did on the AP
test. There are so many variables that go into a class:
</p>
<ul class="org-ul">
<li>Is it first period at 8:00am?</li>
<li>Is it the last class of the day?</li>
<li>Is it before lunch or right afterwards?</li>
<li>What about right after Gym.</li>
<li>What's the mix of students - every class is different</li>
<li>Is the teacher teaching the subject once a day? Two times? Five
times?</li>
<li>How large is the class</li>
<li>How many other classes are the kids taking?</li>
</ul>
<p>
The list goes on and on. There are so many contributing factors that
you just can't say "Good test results = good curriculum" or "good test
results = good PD."
</p>
<p>
Want to know if a curriculum is good - have experienced teachers who
know their subject run it a few times through and ask them. Same for
PD.
</p>
<p>
Teachers know education a lot better than test makers, curriculum
developers and PD providers. How about listening to them for a change?
</p>
</div>
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<div id="footnotes">
<h2 class="footnotes">Footnotes: </h2>
<div id="text-footnotes">
<div class="footdef"><sup><a id="fn.1" class="footnum" href="http://cestlaz.github.io/posts/ap-results-measure-of-curriculum/#fnr.1">1</a></sup> <div class="footpara">sorry, I just got back from the weekend trip and am too tired
to find the link. You can go to his site and search and while you're
there, there's lots of good stuff to read.</div></div>
</div>
</div>