TEACHING THOUGHTS #7: RETHINKING THE CONCEPT OF EVALUATION

Could it be that there is only one evaluation question that it’s worth using? It’s a very simple question: What engaged you? This one powerful question asks the listener or reader to simply identify something, anything in what they heard or read that connected with them on some sort of level. We would be asking students to identify anything which moved them, that struck them as interesting or funny or that perplexed or baffled them. It’s an open-ended question which allows us to diverge in our thinking rather than converging on short, superficial ideas like saying something was 4 out of 5, good or satisfactory. We would instead be asking people to locate emotionally honest responses to things.

Of course, this is also a brutal question because it opens up the possibility that students did nothing to engage an audience with their work. But if that’s the case – if our learners are producing sub-par, boring work in which they themselves haven’t engaged in what they were doing, then shouldn’t they know about it? Shouldn’t they be made aware that they aren’t putting in the effort to be effective and efficient communicators?

Also, the question becomes powerful when teachers apply it to general classrom activity? What engaged you about that reading? Not much? OK, then we have a problem. What engaged you in that listening? Very little? OK, then we might need to be using different forms of listening activity. Just imagine the classroom as a place of total emotional honesty predicated on the concept of evaluation through engagement.

So yes, your checklists, rubrics and assessment worksheets give you a veneer of organisation and professionalism but isn’t it possible we are focusing on the wrong question? Isnt this question – the question of whether or not something had an emotional impact on you – the only question really worth asking when we want to evaluate something? At least, certainly, as the starting point – the gateway to further and deeper questions about why you were or were not engaged.

Actually, I’ll go further – I would say that a classroom that was built around the concept of asking honest and profound questions about whether or not anyone was engaged in what they were doing would be utterly transformed.

Interested in starting a revolution?