STAR-POST (Art) January 2020 FINAL_STAR Post Art Jan 2020 | Page 50

Learning does not stop at online quizzes;
it could continue through and beyond
the lessons via these strategies shared
during the workshop:
• Self-Evaluation and Reflection
Provide a series of reflective questions
for students to self-evaluate their
“artistic behaviours” (Kerner and
Mattimoe, 2018) when developing
their ideas; selecting appropriate art
media and techniques; organising
their workspace; creating their artwork;
time management; overcoming
problems and articulating their final
artwork and its processes.
• Peer-Evaluation: Empathic Critique
(Bartel, 2017)
Marvin Bartel’s Empathic Critique
was adapted by Shelly Hallsted who
created a list of “soft” open questions
that encourages a positive dialogue
for students to use while observing
and analysing each other’s artwork
in a safe and non-judgemental
environment.
By using such questioning strategies,
students will be able to self-evaluate in
order to gain more awareness of their
learning. Authentic formative assessment
acts as an essential and motivational
milestone check for students to make
progressive improvement.
Can Summative Assessment Be More
Authentic?
For assessment to be authentic, it has
to be fairly assessed. As art educators,
we have the responsibility to ensure that
assessment criteria are well aligned to the
lesson objectives and outcomes. In my
practice, I assess students’ works criterion
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by criterion and rank them accordingly.
This helps me to focus on the specific
criterion and assess more effectively.
The works are then reshuffled randomly
before the next criterion assessment
to reduce biasness towards the final
outcome. A well-rendered and composed
artwork with adequate supporting studies
may not necessarily perform better than
an artwork with mediocre craftmanship
but packed with an insightful set of
artistic processes.
Through the workshop, we shared and
discovered more strategies for authentic
assessment. For instance, teachers can
pass the power to students to decide on
a list of assessment criteria based on the
lesson objectives and outcomes. Upon
the completion of their assigned task,
they could identify the success criteria in
their peer’s work and give one another
feedback. This helps to affirm their
understanding and awareness of their
learning.
Beattie’s strategy strongly resonates with
the idea of meta-learning where students
are “being aware of and taking control
of one’s own learning” (Biggs, 1985).
Authentic assessment takes place when
students set their expectations, take
ownership in improving and imagining
future possibilities of their artwork.
References
Bartel, M. (2017). Art Teacher Guide Smart-
Soft Critique. [online] Bartelart.com. Available
at: https://www.bartelart.com/arted/
critique08.html
Beattie. D. K. (1997). Assessment in
art education. Worchester, MA: Davis
Publications
Biggs, J. B. (1985). The role of meta-
learning in study process. British Journal of
Educational Psychology, 55, 185-212.
Kerner, P. and Mattimoe, K. (2018). Authentic
Assessment in Choice-Based Art Classes. In:
NAEA 2018 Presentation.
Another strategy I found particularly
helpful is “My Ideal Solution” by Beattie
(1997). This strategy encourages students
to envision the final outcome of their
idea and identify a list of appropriate
criteria, according to its significance,
that will help to lead them towards
creating a successful solution for their
assigned task. The criteria might include
craftmanship, relevancy of subject matter,
specific elements of art and/or principles
of design, choice of colour schemes,
depth of research work with reference
to other artists, etc. After students have
completed their artwork, they will refer
back to their lists and rethink whether the
order of their criterion ranking should be
changed or what improvements needed
to be made in their work in order to
match their ideal expectations.
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