Assessment Strategies for Self-Directed Learning

by Arthur L. Costa, Bena Kallick

The authors present educators with strategies for designing diverse ways of gathering, organizing, and reporting evidence of self-directed learning.  

Genres: Education

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2003

About the author

Arthur L. Costa is professor emeritus of education at California State University, Sacramento. He has served as a classroom teacher, a curriculum consultant, and assistant superintendent for instruction, and the direction of educational programs for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Reviews

[Stuart Macalpine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Art Costa, the co-founder of cognitive coaching, explores the importance and strategies associated with self-directed learning in school communities (for teachers and students). If you didn't already agree, this is a massively important book; if you already agree (which I do), it is a pity that the strategies are so straight forward. But it maybe speaks to the fact that simple changes in belief within a culture are so hard and 'complex' (in the Snowden cognitive edge meaning of that word) that basically it is a matter of having the vision and going for emergent probing and experimenting.

I'll be experimenting with two very straight forward ideas in my grade 8 class: going back again to student generated specific indicators on checklists, and I like the idea of a student co-teacher.

More broadly, this is an important piece of East Campus UWCSEA culture and it is interesting to explore some of the nuances.

[Amanda Schreiber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great information if you want to get started in self-directed learning. The book is easy to understand & gives several practical shifts in teaching. There could be more authentic examples from various grade levels sprinkled throughout the book in my opinion and therefore there are some better options out there for a more “teacher” friendly text. But there is an extremely helpful section on checklists & rubrics that I will use in the future.

[Susan Norton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lot's of interesting ideas and information. Still relevant, but there are assumptions made that teachers have more autonomy than what may be afforded in this current climate.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In these days of "obective" education, we have obscured the "humane" facets of education. Marzano's recent revision of Bloom's Taxonomy and the introduction of "metacognitive" to the educator's vocabulary have begun to soften the "objective, factual" dryness in current education.

This book gives thoughts and guidelines to address those "metacognitive" aspects inherent in any human interaction, education being one of the primary aspects. Practical and philosophical, the authors make their case and provides useful examples and resources for its ideas.

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written. This book helps you integrate self-directed learning into your current lesson plans. I consider this a vital part of education that is often assumed to be included in our classrooms yet is not as intentional as it needs to be. This book has transformed how I can give students the opportunity to examine how they direct their own learning.