Ed Week
The co-founders of a Washington-based consulting practice, Artful Education, Emily Gasoi and Sonya Robbins Hoffmann, authored this article How to Assess Arts Education – And Why You Should, Education Week, October 9, 2017.
As many of the Maine Arts Education blog readers are aware in 2010 when the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative (now called the Maine Arts Leadership Initiative) was established, the spotlight was shed on assessment in visual and performing arts classrooms across the state. Since the first statewide conference focusing on arts assessment in 2011 Maine has transformed – assessment in the arts is more commonly part of everyday practice.
How timely that Gasoi and Hoffman make points in their article that I mentioned in a recently (blog post Our Responsibility as Educators), addressing and assessing the 21st century skills.
Taken from their article….
Teaching and assessing skills gained through the arts, as well as in creative processes across other disciplines, will become the norm. Here are some examples of the kinds of demands we are already responding to in the 21st-century that compel us to advocate more and better arts education:
1. To sift through the constant flow of information, students need to develop skills to evaluate the quality and accuracy of content and recognize false information.
2. A wide variety of technology and media platforms necessitates the ability to think critically and work with a variety of tools.
3. Employers are demanding creative problem-solving skills, as well as the ability to self-direct and collaborate.
4. In a gig economy characterized by temporary projects and frequent shifts in occupation, students will be faced with both increased control of career path and no clear road map. Being able to imagine one’s path and to pivot as external realities change is critical.
5. In our global society, curiosity, flexibility, and particularly the ability to see multiple perspectives are necessary building blocks for interacting with other cultures.
And, speaking of Assessment – The Art of Education included a recent post with 5 Simple Pre-Assessments for Short Class Periods written by Kelly Phillips. She uses a technique called “Now I Know/I Already Knew That” and claims that it is a perfect pre-assessment for showing growth for Student Learning Objectives (SLOs). In her post she explains the details.
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