Assessment
Overview
Reflective Learner Assignment & Rubric—Individual
Weeks
6, 9, 12, and 15
Goal:
Evolve your private theories about the event described in
the scenario.
Background:
Your journal is a private place where you can post your reflections,
comments, and suggestions concerning the course. Your journal
will be password-protected so that only you and your facilitator
may access it. For this reason, you may use your journal to
carry on a private dialog with the facilitator.
At this
point you have completed all eight steps of the PBL Model.
Now it is time for you to reflect on how your knowledge has
changed since you have completed the individual and team Week
A assignments and the team Week B assignment. Revisit the
individual private theories that you stated during Week A
and describe how you have updated them based on the new information
you learned in your team discussion, reading, research (what
you know now that you did not know then), and ESS analysis to modify your hypothesis or statements about
relationships, or to beef up the evidence to support your
statements.
The problem
with personal theories is that they are tenacious. They develop
subtly, over time, as a part of experience. As long as they
are unexamined, these theories are staunchly defended by your
brain in a process that Festinger calls "cognitive dissonance."
Anything that is dissonant, or contradictory to what you believe,
is ignored, blocked, or reworked so that it fits your theory.
To overcome
cognitive dissonance, you have to be on the look out for ideas
that rub you the wrong way and that you really want to dismiss.
It pays to consciously seek out opposing ideas and to try
to understand them completely before rejecting them. With
practice, you will find you are less judgmental, more thoughtful,
and better able to evolve your theories over time.
To evolve
your private theories, look for discrepancies between your
internal view and what you hear and read. Think of them as
discrepancies to be explored--not disagreements to be resolved.
This subtle, but important, difference puts you in a curious
frame of mind rather than a defensive one.
Next,
try to understand the discrepancy by becoming a student of
that viewpoint. Learn it completely to gain some ownership
and affinity for it as an idea. This approach will help you
to give the discrepancy or viewpoint consideration in light
of your own closely held theories. Ask, "Could both ideas
be valid? When? How? Is one problematic sometimes? Is one
unsupportable under most conditions? Is the evidence stronger
or more comprehensive for one idea? How could the ideas fit
together?" Consider each discrepancy and explore it thoroughly.
Then look for patterns in the discrepancies to discover your
blind spots.
You are
using new input to become more objective about your private
theories. This is constructivism through recognizing dissonance
and resolving disequilibrium. This evolution of private theories
is an essential outcome of Problem-Based Learning.
Use the
directions below to complete your Reflective Learner
Assignment.
|
Assignment
Posting
Instructions for steps 1-5
Go
to the Classroom.
Click
on Journal Space. |
1.
Use
what you have learned in your team discussions, reading,
research, and ESS
analysis to modify your original private theories (your hypothesis
and/or statements about relationships)
or beef them up with new evidence. To review your
original private theories you will need to go to the Classroom.
Click on the event name (Volcanoes, Coral Reefs,
Tropical Forests, Ozone, Global Climate Change) you
studied in this particular cycle to enter the
appropriate event classroom. Then click on the Teacher
as Problem Solver graphic. Locate your original posting
and reread it.
2.
Compare
your thinking with that of your team's. Does your individual
perspective differ from your team's ideas? How do you
account for the discrepancies? How can you strengthen
and elaborate your argument?
3.
State
what or who has changed or added to your thinking.
4.
Annotate
the value of the resources in adding to or changing
your thinking.
5.
Post
your reflections on the process and content experienced
during Weeks A and B.
|
Rubric
You may post to your journal during every week of the
course. However, you are required to make reflective learner
entries in your journal at the end of Weeks 6, 9, 12, and
15. Your reflective learner entries during these weeks should
follow the criteria set out in the rubric below and will be
graded.
Remember
you are developing your ability and willingness to turn your
private theories into supportable hypotheses. While a "4"
indicates a practiced level of theory building, these indicators
represent a continuum of progress. Where you are on the continuum
is an indicator, not a judgment or a label.
| Rubric
Criteria:
Case
or argument |
4
Rating:
A
clear, argument for why your current understanding is
better than your original private theory.
|
3
Rating:
A
clear argument for your current theory.
|
2
Rating:
A
description of the ideas that support your current theory.
|
1
Rating:
A
description of why you think your current theory is supportable.
|
| Rubric
Criteria:
What
is generally known |
| 4
Rating:
Incorporates
ESS arguments into own theory.
|
3
Rating:
Incorporates
research and theory from ESS literature into own theory. |
2
Rating:
Incorporates
some ESS research into own theory. |
1
Rating:
Shows
knowledge of current ideas in ESS. |
| Rubric
Criteria:
Evidence
(reasons) |
| 4
Rating:
Evidence
from multiple sources for each assertion including countervailing
evidence.
|
3
Rating:
Evidence
from multiple sources for each assertion. |
2
Rating:
Evidence
for each assertion without sources. |
1
Rating:
Evidence
provided for each main idea. |
Festinger, L.
(1957). Theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
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