Evaluation of Ability

After implementing an idea, the Design Thinking process returns to the beginning of the cycle— empathizing with stakeholders, this time with data from testing. Feedback comes from stakeholders, but it can also come from self-assessment. 

Google Forms

In the summer of 2021 I was part of GVSU’s Library Summer Scholars program, and in addition to learning about curation and information literacy, I interviewed several art educators and developed a blog, the Art Educator’s Resource Guide at scholarlyresourceguide.blogspot.com. I collected feedback on my blog and research through Google Forms, which is a method of self-assessment I plan to use in the future. With multiple-choice and short-answer questions, Google Forms can collect quantitative and qualitative data on my performance from stakeholders. 

A Google Forms survey I designed to collect feedback on a research project. 

Recommendation letters

Richard Curwin, from Edutopia, suggests that teachers looking for ways to improve can assign students essays, asking the question: “If you were the teacher in this class this year, what would you do the same or differently than I did?” (Here's a link to Curwin's article.)

This prompt, given at regular intervals throughout the school year, from lesson to lesson as well as from unit to unit, can be a direct means of implementing Emdin’s theory of reality pedagogy in the classroom. 

A student’s recommendation letter would be both summative and formative assessment of the instructor; it provides qualitative data which the instructor can use to redesign future iterations of content, but like a high-stakes test score, the instructor can also use it to advocate for themselves and their classroom. 

Journaling

I’m an avid journaler (avid enough to assert that "journaler" is a word), and the notes I take before and after leading a lesson are some of my most valuable materials. I rigorously implemented this method in elementary art units during my Teacher Apprenticeship, and my journals served as documentation of my in-the-moment thinking. Not all of my notes were valuable when redesigning a lesson before teaching it again, but I was able to synthesize them into a more coherent reflection once the units were over. 

There’s also an aesthetic component to my Teacher Apprenticeship journals; unlike typical notes for a class, which are (at least, in my experience) discarded at the end of a semester, I’ve treated the journals as artistic artifacts almost as much as a means of note-taking or self-evaluation. Each page is high-energy, colorful, and dense; while journal-as-spectacle might not be a proven method of boosting performance, it certainly makes the process more fulfilling. 

Future iterations of this method might involve establishing specific, personal goals for a lesson or a unit, to keep journal entries more focused and streamlined.