Assessment of Teaching and Learning

Improve course-based learning assessment methods and encourage grading policies that assess student performance relative to well-articulated academic standards

To assess student learning of disciplinary knowledge and skills, and of foundational abilities, assessment should be individually based and reflect each student’s performance on their own merits and without reference to the performance of other students. Students should receive clear feedback regarding their conceptual understanding and competence in order to achieve mastery in a discipline and student performance should be judged and graded relative to a standard of excellence as articulated by the faculty member. Under such practices, faculty will be able to clearly articulate the knowledge, skills, and abilities that students should have achieved at the end of a course (i.e., course level learning objectives) and will align assessments to provide formative and summative feedback to students regarding their attainment of those standards.

Establish a new system for the assessment of teaching and student mentoring by faculty.

The assessment of teaching and mentoring now in place at Hopkins requires immediate reform. The provost should charge the vice deans of education from across the University to determine comprehensive, transparent practices for the assessment of teaching and mentoring for all Johns Hopkins faculty.

Progress

• AEFIS is being piloted at Homewood to establish and track learning outcomes at both course and programmatic levels.
• A faculty committee report was written for the Provost by faculty from both KSAS and WSE. This report will be reviewed by faculty governing structures of the schools and considered for implementation.