Authentic Assessment

The criteria I wish to address most with this project is the attitudes of the students toward plants. I have been guilty in the past of biasing students against plants and other areas of biology that are less laboratory based. Through learning and teaching about plants I have become a better teacher as I am more knowledgeable and interested in how plants function and their adaptations. Since plants are such a big part of the course, it is vital that the students acquire a sense of wonder about them and actively want to know about them. The course refers to adaptations twice: Describe the concept of niche and discuss examples of adaptation of organisms to their environment (behavioural, physiological and anatomical). Describe how natural selection can lead to adaptation and evolution.  These statements are vague and have wide context.

Attitudes -

• That plants are important to our survival,
• That our future depends on plants and we need to understand them,
• That while plants may be slower than animals in general, their adaptations for survival are very diverse and extraordinary.

I believe the creation of a video that highlights a number of local plant species, perhaps 5, for their “cool”, “strange” or “weird” adaptations would be a good way to bring the students into contact with the more interesting plants. The Raflesia species, native to Malaysia, may be a good start, but closer to home there is a weed that grows on our football field with fast thigmatropic responses to touch that protect its leaves and reveal its thorns!

The video could be presented as a documentary that highlights the plants’ adaptations with brief explanations as to the mechanism that causes the action to occur, or the reason behind the evolution of the adaptation. If the actual plants can’t be found, clips from YouTube could be used to produce the documentary with the student presenting their points in between.

I would be aiming to have the students move up Bloom’s Affective Domain Taxonomy by at least one step but with most showing an enhanced attitude to the level of Valuing. This will require a pre and post survey as to the students’ attitudes. Relying solely on the authentic assessment measure of the video documentary may not be accurate as some students may be good actors! Combining the effort they make with the video and their responses may provide a greater degree of accuracy; assuming they respond honestly!

Bloom's Affective Taxonomy (retrieved from :http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html)

Receiving Phenomena: Awareness, willingness to hear, selected attention.

Responding to Phenomena: Active participation on the part of the learners. Attends and reacts to a particular phenomenon. Learning outcomes may emphasize compliance in responding, willingness to respond, or satisfaction in responding (motivation).

Valuing: The worth or value a person attaches to a particular object, phenomenon, or behavior. This ranges from simple acceptance to the more complex state of commitment. Valuing is based on the internalization of a set of specified values, while clues to these values are expressed in the learner's overt behavior and are often identifiable.

Organization: Organizes values into priorities by contrasting different values, resolving conflicts between them, and creating an unique value system. The emphasis is on comparing, relating, and synthesizing values.

Internalizing values(characterization): Has a value system that controls their behavior. The behavior is pervasive, consistent, predictable, and most importantly, characteristic of the learner. Instructional objectives are concerned with the student's general patterns of adjustment (personal, social, emotional).