Typically, educators frame the purpose of assessment as a way to gather relevant information about students' performance or their learning process.
In this article by JEIC Founding Director Rabbi Shmuel Feld, he suggests that “Jewish studies teachers could use assessment for a different purpose. Imagine if assessment could also be a way to develop students’ intrinsic motivation by making assessments more learner-centered.”
“We could redefine assessment as a tool for students to harness instead of a way to evaluate what they demonstrate,” he maintains.
What do you think about this robust exchange of ideas posted on eJewish Philanthropy?
How can and should Jewish day schools use data and assessment to guide their work with students? What are the ultimate goals of a Jewish education? What might lasting impact look like for day school alumni?
Let us know what you are doing in your school or what you hope to learn more about. Contact Sharon Freundel, JEIC Managing Director, with your insight, input, or questions.
Visitors to Schechter Manhattan often comment to me about how engaged and happy students appear. They notice how the students are busy at work, focused on the learning activities at hand. Sometimes I am asked, what motivates our students? Why do they choose to do hard things in order to learn?
Motivating students, and people, in general, is a challenge faced by all educators, and Schechter Manhattan is no exception. After all, our students don’t get a choice about whether they come to school, the adults in their lives insist. And, at Schechter Manhattan, like at most schools, we adults have made decisions about what content, concepts, skills, and values to include in the curriculum of study- things we think are really important and expect all students to learn. Add to that our approach to assessment and reporting, which includes lots of feedback but no grades or other such external motivators, and the question becomes even sharper. What motivates students to try?
