I agree with Peter Rawsthorne
Is it possible to assess emergent learning? In science the testing fixes and creates the product, process and phenomena. So testing actually makes it so. Do testing to see if the circumstances, teaching learning is effective if only to learn how to teach and learn better but it’s a snapshot imperfect tool that excludes more data than it captures. The effect of testing may create the phenomena, will influence the phenomena and may destroy the phenomena rather than reinforce it. it certainly closes out other options.
I think self-assessment, peer assessment and digital tracking without intervention may be valid but testing may not tell you what you think it is telling you.
How do you 'capture' learning that is not expected?
I think all learning, discovery and original science is unexpected - if we expected it - it wouldn’t be unexpected. I think it’s hard to know what students and teachers, know, learn and think. Memories are made up of dream fragments that we assemble on the fly so there is no future or past just a present becoming and making both through making meaningful stories. If there is a past then there is no reason why it isn’t the future and vice versa i.e. they both plot, progress and proceed the same. i think it’s all down to choices we make on a moment by moment basis at a nanoparticle, micro and cellular level - most of these cells are not ours but bacterial or fungal or even viruses. So we are a sort of a multispecies hive or ecology lurching into other ecosystems in both time and space. Capture is the wrong word, track, discover, manifest, measure, assess,
How do you measure or value it?
If you measure it then start with self-assessment through reflection, journaling and meta data analysis, move to more interventionist approaches but avoid detection of assessment, videoing simulating and drama. Finally if you must invent a totally artificial paper based time resource support and location limited test based on comprehension, writing, numeracy and scientific literacy skills and inflict that on all students of a certain age based cohort on an annual basis and tie careers, lives and income to such spurious measure at your and their peril. But don’t fool yourselves, students, managers, bosses assessors and professional peers and colleagues that it is anything more than your ability to create a newer swifter more attractive mouse trap – ie mouse dead - cheese safe
Are they the right questions or are they flawed?
Assessment is more for the teacher’s managers to rank and negate/reward teachers. They interfere with learning and become the purpose of the process. Teachers teach to the test and to the assessment questions – they forgo learning and teaching and replace with cramming, revising, reiterating, repeating, replicating rather than discovering, exploring and learning. Learning is replaced with grading. It is part of but not the reason for education it seeks to measure but there is no transferability, objectivity or point to it apart from ranking students and teachers and making rewards and disincentives easier to administer
The problem with not assessing brain surgery is the dead bodies of those that did not adopt the strategy that resulted in the best outcomes for the patient, family community and professions – both surgeons and patients – but few things are as extreme as this – most are incremental and not mission or survival crucial. Also brain surgeon’s and surgery changes over time from shamans to trepanning, to laser surgery and so should assessments and processes – robotic surgery and assessment simulations are now coming into focus