Constructive alignment

Topics:

-Learning outcomes
-Assessment tasks
-Teaching learning Activities

Definition
 Constructive alignment means bringing into alignment the predetermined competencies, the learning and teaching activities,
and the assessment types. It is one of the most influential principles in higher education. 
 Constructive assessment was devised by John B. Biggs (2003,1999) and represents a marriage between a constructivist
understanding of the nature of learning, and an aligned design for outcomes-based teaching education.
 the underpinning concept behind the current requirements for programme specification, declarations of Learning Outcomes
(LOs) and assessment criteria, and the use of criterion based assessment.

There are two basic concepts behind constructive alignment:

❶Learners construct meaning from what they do to learn. This concept derives from cognitive psychology and constructivist theory,
and recognizes the importance of linking new material to concepts and experiences in the learner's memory, and extrapolation to
possible future scenarios via the abstraction of basic principles through reflection.

❷The teacher makes a deliberate alignment between the planned learning activities and the learning outcomes. This is a conscious
effort to provide the learner with a clearly specified goal, a well designed learning activity or activities that are appropriate for the
task, and well designed assessment criteria for giving feedback to the learner.

 Biggs’s Model of Constructive Alignment

 The main theoretical underpinning of the outcomes-based curriculum is provided by Biggs (2003). He calls the model
CONSTRUCTIVE ALIGNMENT which he defines as:
 …coherence between assessment, teaching strategies and intended learning outcomes in an educational programme.
(McMahon & Thakore 2006)
 When designing a programme or course unit, you should consider the following three questions:
 What should students know or master after the programme or the course unit? In other words, which objectives (learning
outcomes or course competencies) do you aim to reach with these students? 
 Which teaching and learning activities are required to teach the students these competencies? 
 How to assess whether or not students truly master the intended competencies? 
 A high-quality learning process properly aligns these three elements (objectives, teaching and learning activities,
To develop a “constructively aligned” course unit, you should start from the intended competencies, after which you should select
the most appropriate education and teaching activities, and assessment methods for these specific competencies. These
competencies always comprise a verb that refers to what students have to master, for example:
apply theory X to Y
express the importance of concept 2
This verb frequently refers to the relevant learning method the students can apply to acquire the competency, and to those
teaching activities lecturers can organize to stimulate students to adopt these learning methods.

Relating the Constructive Alignment Model to Learning Taxonomies

Relating the Constructive Alignment Model to Learning Taxonomies

Why is Constructive Alignment so Important?

Assessment strongly influences how students learn, which is why it is important that it is properly aligned with education and
teaching activities. Only then can you achieve an effective learning process. 

This is not the case when the assessment measures other competencies than the ones that were developed during teaching
activities, for example: 

 Does a certain course unit aim at students being able to run a marathon? Then your teaching activities had better not
consist of formal lectures comprising an overview of various running disciplines. Neither is an exam with multiple
choice questions about Olympic marathon winners appropriate. Surely the students will then focus on cramming
marathon winners rather than on training for a marathon. The course unit then defeats its purpose. 

Outcome Based Education

An outcome is a culminating demonstration of learning

OBE is an approach to education in which decisions about the curriculum are driven by the exit learning outcomes that the
students should display at the end of the course.

[Spady WG. Outcome-Based Education. ACSA report no 5. Belconnen: pii Australian Curriculum Studies Association,
1993]

Outcome Based Education(OBE)

What should our students be able to do?”

“What sort of people do we expect our graduates to be?”
“This is what we want to achieve, so what do we need to do to reach those objectives?”
Variety of Assessment Methods, Tools and Tasks
Assessment methods are ways to ascertain (“measure”) students achievement levels associated with stated student learning
outcomes (SLOs)

“Outcome” is a generic term for goal and objectives, and/or aims.

Outcomes are cognitive processes and practice behaviors students should demonstrate at program completion
 Characteristics that students should display at a particular point in time
 Competencies are behaviors needed to develop those characteristics
Some teachers refer to outcomes as objectives
 Also referred to as learning targets
  What student should achieve at the end of the instruction
Assessment Methods Tests Papers and other types of written assignments
-Tests
 Set of items to which students respond in written or sometimes oral format
-Papers and other types of written assignments
 Formal papers
 Reflective journals
 Short papers
 Concept maps
 Writing-to-learn activities
 Other written assignments
-Assessment of papers
 Need to have specific criteria for assessment
 Share with students prior to beginning the paper
 Develop a rubric for evaluating paper
 Rubric is a scoring guide
 Specifies criteria to be assessed and points allotted to each criterion
 Principles for assessing papers and other written assignments

 Integrative cases, unfolding cases, and case studies

 Multimedia for assessment
 Short segments of digital recording, a video from YouTube, and other media clips can also be used for assessment

 Portfolio
 Types: Working, Display, Showcase, or Best Works and Assessment or Evaluation
 Electronic portfolios can be updated, stored, and shared more easily
 Discussions and conferences
 Group projects
 Simulations
 Standardized patients
 Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE)
 Principles for setting up an OSCE for formative or summative evaluation
 Self-evaluation

 Portfolio falls under non-paper-and pencil test. A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work or documented
performance (e.g. video of dance) that tells the story of student achievement or growth. The word purposeful implies that a
portfolio is not a collection of all student's work. It is not just a receptacle for all student's work. The student's work that is
collected depends on the type and purpose of a portfolio you want to have. It can be a collection of products or recorded
performances or photos of performances.

 Advantage of Portfolio Assessment

 Improves student’s cognitive ability to understand their own learning process.
 Enhances awareness of strategies for thinking and producing work.
 Creates documentation to submit to reliable audiences or reviewers.
 Promote assessment of a wider range of learning styles.
 Promote creativity, individuality, and uniqueness in the assessment of learning. • Encourage students active
involvement in the assessment process.
 Disadvantage of Portfolio Assessment
 Require Additional time for planning instructional activities.
 Require considerable time for assessment.
 Time –intensive for instructors to implement since students lack familiar with portfolios.
 Requires considerable storage space to maintain portfolios.
 May require special equipment.
 Students may need traditional evidence of learning for access, criteria, job placement, or similar events.
 Develop a grading rubrics or criteria takes a considerable amount of time.
  Performance data from portfolios is difficult to analyze.

 Types of Portfolio

 Working portfolio

 A working portfolio is so named because it is a project "in the works," containing work in progress as well as
finished samples of work. A growth portfolio demonstrates an individual's development and growth over time.
Development can be focused on academic or thinking skills, content knowledge, self-knowledge, or any area that is
important for your purposes. For this reason, it is also called development portfolio. Growth or development
portfolio can serve as a holding tank for work that may be selected later for a more permanent assessment or display
port- folio. (Charlotte Danielson and Leslye Abrutyn)

 Display, Showcase, or Best Works Portfolios

 It is the display of the students' best work. Students exhibit their best work and interpret its meaning. Showcase
portfolio demonstrates the highest level of achievement attained by the student.

 Assessment or Evaluation Portfolio

 As the name implies, the main function of an assessment portfolio is to document what a student has learned based
on standards and competencies expected of students at each grade level. The standards and competencies of the
curriculum, then, will determine what students select for their portfolios. Their reflective comments will focus on the
extent to which they believe the portfolio entries demonstrate their mastery of the standards and competencies.

 Assessment or Evaluation Portfolio

 For example, if the standard or competency specifies persuasive, narrative, and descriptive writing, an assessment
portfolio should include examples of each type of writing. Similarly, if the curriculum calls for technical skill such
as use of Power Point in report presentation, then the display portfolio will include entries documenting the
reporting process with the use of Power Point.

 p://www.ascd.org/publications/books/100046/ chapters/Determining-the-Basics-of-Student- Portfolios.aspx

 Scoring Rubrics

 A rubric is a coherent set of criteria for students' work that includes descriptions of levels of performance quality on the
criteria. The main purpose of rubrics is to assess performance made evident in processes and products. It can serve as a
scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a student's performance in many different tasks based on a full range of criteria rather
than a single numerical score. The objectives tests can be scored by simply counting the correct answers, but the essay tests,
student's products and student's performances cannot be scored the way objective tests are scored. Products and performances
can be scored reliably only with the use of scoring rubrics.

 Rubrics have two major parts: coherent sets of criteria and descriptions of levels of performance for these criteria.
(Brookhart, Susan. 2013. How to create and use rubrics).

There are two types: 1) analytic and 2) holistic.

 In an analytic rubric, each criterion (dimension, trait) is evaluated separately. An analytic rubric is good for formative
assessment, It is also adaptable to summative assessment because if you need an overall score for grading, you can combine
the scores.
 In a holistic rubric, all criteria (dimensions, traits) are evaluated simultaneously.

 In a holistic rubric, scoring is faster than with analytic rubric. It is good for summative assessment.