Designing Learner-Centered Assessments Using the PDSA Cycle

Introduction to Learner-Centered Assessment

Traditional assessment approaches have entailed the use of standardized tests that focus on evaluating, grading, or ranking students' educational value or worth (Duncan & Buskirk-Cohen, 2011). Over the past few decades, learner-centered assessments have gained traction given the increased focus on student-centered learning. This learning approach demands that students set their own learning objectives and determine activities and resources that will help them achieve those objectives. When assessment is learner-centered, it engages students in evaluating their own learning. Learner-centered assessment utilizes self-assessment, self-reflection, and authentic assessments in supportive, collaborative, and cooperative environments. These assessments are also reliant on timely, descriptive feedback from educators. This paper develops and pilots a learner-centered assessment using the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) approach.

Educators generally use in-class multiple-choice exams and other forms of assessments to examine students' understanding of previously learned material (Rich et al., 2014). However, as learner-centered learning has become critical in the modern learning environment, learner-centered assessments have attracted significant attention. Assessments should not simply measure what students have learned; they should also serve as a means to promote learning while students complete assigned tasks. There are various approaches that can be used to design learner-centered assessments. These approaches should be based on the creation of a learner-centered learning environment and the adoption of learner-centered practices to promote students' reflective thinking (Kim, Grabowski & Sharma, 2004). One of the strategies that can be utilized in designing a learner-centered assessment is the PDSA cycle — a framework developed by W. Edwards Deming, a management expert.

Plan: Designing the Writing Assessment

The objective of this assessment is to evaluate students' writing skills and their ability to recall narratives or pieces of literature taught in the classroom. The state standard that will serve as the basis for this learner-centered assessment is CCSS.W.2.3. This writing assessment is designed for narrative writing in Grade 2 and Grade 3 and primarily focuses on examining students' foundational writing skills and their ability to recall informational text. To ensure the assessment is learner-centered, students will collaborate with the teacher to create a rubric they will use to self-assess their own writing. The teacher will provide a sample rubric, which will be reviewed and edited in collaboration with students to fit what is expected of them and their learning. Students will begin the writing process using the given topic and the developed rubric for self-assessment. When creating their drafts, students will revisit the rubric in collaboration with the educator before completing their final piece of work.

The application of this learner-centered assessment will involve creating a pilot group of students in the Grade 3 class. The pilot group will comprise seven students with different learning styles and needs. The seven students will be drawn from diverse racial and ethnic groups — including Hispanics, African Americans, and Whites — reflecting the racial and ethnic composition of the entire classroom. The pilot group will be identified based on students' performance in the previous assessment; the teacher will select students who scored the highest, moderate, and lowest marks.

Since the pilot group incorporates students with different learning abilities and needs, it will help enhance the learning of all students in the classroom. Insights obtained from the pilot group will be used to review and improve the assessment before its implementation across the entire classroom. The assessment is expected to provide information regarding students' foundational writing skills and how instruction can be adjusted to improve student learning. The PDSA cycle in the development of this learner-centered assessment will be initiated by the teacher at the end of the unit of study. Upon completion of the unit, the learner-centered assessment will be given to the pilot group, data will be collected based on their self-assessments, and the assessments will be graded using the same rubric.

Do: Implementing the Assessment with a Pilot Group

Writing assignments are critical for Grade 3 students, who are in the foundational years of developing their writing skills. These assignments promote creativity, encourage student improvement and reflection, and set high expectations. Using standard CCSS.W.2.3, this assignment is a developmentally appropriate, learner-centered assessment for third graders in English Language Arts. The development process of this learner-centered assessment is as follows:

Students will read an anchor text from the book Going Down Home With Daddy by Kelly Starling Lyons. Using this anchor text, students will be asked to describe events from the book, including its characters. During this process, students will also describe their feelings, thoughts, and actions in relation to the story. The next step will involve developing a self-assessing rubric for the assignment in collaboration with the teacher. Students will then produce a personal writing piece based on their recollection of events in the anchor text, guided by the self-assessing rubric. A final self-assessment will be administered and collected. The writing will then be collected and graded by the teacher using the rubric developed collaboratively with the students.

The implementation involved administering the assignment to the pilot group in order to generate data for improving the assessment before extending it to the entire classroom. Several observations emerged during the pilot. First, the pilot group was completely immersed in the writing activity, indicating strong comprehension of the anchor text. Second, the students were interactive and engaged during the rubric-development process, offering suggestions on how they should be assessed. However, students appeared to become distracted after the first 30 minutes of completing the assignment and began engaging in disruptive activities after that point. Despite this, most students performed well. Five of the seven students in the pilot group scored above 78%, while the remaining two scored above 62%.