Assessing Assessment

   Formative assessment is an assessment that is made during the course of a lesson.  It is used to evaluate whether or not the learning program is obtaining the desired results so that an instructor knows if the program should be modified.  A summative assessment occurs at the end of a lesson.  It is used to make a final judgment about the achievements of the students.  Using this information, an instructor can evaluate the effectiveness of the course.
   Criterion-reference assessments are used to determine if a student has reached an objectively set level of competence. Norm-referenced assessments are used when there is no agreement on what a person must know.  Self-referenced assessments are used when the goals of the course are based on the personal goals of the student.
   Self-directed learning is directed towards sophisticated learners who are capable of post-formal thought.  They need constant feedback on how successful their work is. These students need self-referenced assessments and critiques from two or more peers on formative and summative levels.

Selecting Methods and Adult Learners

    There are four generally accepted categories of instructional methods.  The first is the Instructor-Centered method.  In this form of teaching, the instructor is primarily responsible for conveying information to students.  This method usually involves some sort of lecture or demonstration.  The next method is Interactive.  Working under this method, learning would be facilitated by involvement, cooperation, collaboration, and the construction of knowledge through dialogue.  One way to do this is through a discussion group.  One might use a discussion group to allow small groups of students to go over, organize, and prepare information they already know, to further their understanding of the information by discussing it and obtaining different points of view. It's also a useful way to get those normally reluctant to speak out in front of the entire class to get involved.  The class of students will be divided into smaller groups, normally between three and six people, and assigned a specific question, topic, or issue to work on.  Purpose should be clear and students should be well informed.  The topic of these discussions should be meaningful and interesting to those involved.  The instructor should walk around to different groups to answer any questions.
    The third learning method is Individualized Learning.  This method works off the idea that different people learn at different speeds and that immediate feedback will allow an instructor to better facilitate the student to learn.  Instructors do this via modularized or computerized instruction, being sure to always adapt the lesson to how the student is learning.  The final method is Experiential Learning.  This method states that students learn better by actually doing.  This is particularly important in aviation, where actually learning how to fly an airplane is the final goal.  Role-playing is one way that Experiential Learning is conducted.  One situation where role-playing can come in handy is the practice of CRM.  Student and instructor can fly around in a simulator pretending to be captain and first officer and practice how to work together in different emergencies, or how to get through disagreements.
    Of course, the material you are teaching and the information level the students have greatly effects which method you choose.  For example, it's not too easy to learn how to land an airplane via the Interactive method if you have never been in an airplane before. It would also be much easier to teach a student about airspace using a Instructor-Centered method versus an Experiential Learning method.  Just like modalities, it is very important to decide the best method by which to teach your particular topic, so as to best facilitate learning to the student.
    It is important to realize that this learning is directed at adults.  Adults learn differently for a number of reasons. For one, most adults become involved in a learning situation voluntarily, and have a clear goal in mind.  They want to accomplish this goal as quickly as possible.  It is important to make sure all of your lessons are related to goal and that the student recognizes that. Adults are normally more self directed, so it is important to let the student call the shots as often as practical.  Adults are also more reluctant to change their values, opinions, or behaviors, so it becomes difficult to break a student from a bad habit or from misinformation.  Older adults also have some physical requirements that demand respect and patience from instructors.
    There are a couple of important demographics to consider when teaching adults. The first is age, which gives clues to maturity and experience.  Adults of different ages have different types of experiences that shape their beliefs.  Gender is also important, as studies suggest that women and men learn differently. It is essential to avoid gender stereotyping while teaching to avoid alienating learners.  Language and background is also important to consider, as some who speaks English as a second language may not understand many complex words, slang, or sayings.

Epistemology and Modalities

     Epistemology is one of those things that philosophy nerds love. It's a bigger word than necessary to describe what said philosophy nerds call the debate about what knowledge really is.  These guys try to explain what it really means to "know" something and how people go about "knowing" things.  They are really just obsessed with the word know. There are two particular types of epistemologies described by Hinchey in his article "Rethinking What We Know." Sound like a philosophy nerd title? That's because it is.  Positivist epistemology figures that knowledge is out there waiting to be found.  To a positivist, knowledge is factual information that can be verified.  Thus, positivists are all about science and the scientific process. We all know that science is way cooler than philosophy, so we can empathize with positivists a little bit.  A positivist teacher should be an expert in her field, and pass her amazing quality and quantity of knowledge along to her student. The other type of epistemologist is a constructivist.  Unlike the positivist, the constructivist is pure philosophy nerd.  A constructivist does not believe knowledge is something one can have.  A constructivist thinks that knowledge is more about the meaning assigned to facts.  They believe knowledge is about having a deeper understanding of the material and having the ability to logically think through problems to come to rational conclusions based on said deep understanding.  Constructivists basically believe that being a philosopher is knowlegde.  This is why we hate them.  A constructivist teacher will attempt to design experiences that will allow their students to develop their own understanding of the information being stuffed into their head.  Unfortunately, I must confess that I am a constructivist. This is probably me just compensating for the fact that I am horrible at memorizing information, and in order to make myself not feel like an idiot I tell myself that I am smart because I can think through things and use the small amount of knowledge I have to come to some pretty cool conclusions. And for that reason, I think that students should be taught using the consructivist learning epistemology, because it makes it easier to remember the plethora of information we are bombarded with by our instructors and our professors, yet actually have to learn (unlike our other classes) because we want to be legit pilots.
     When it comes to the concept of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners, we don't have to get so angry.  This is because the concept actually makes sense. I know I personally am absolutely not an auditory learner.  I probably learn best with the kinesthetic modality. An important thing for us to realize is that people do not store information as a visual or auditory memory. People normally store information in terms of meaning. Thus, when teaching, no matter what modality a student learns best with, it is important to make sure the student has grasped the meaning of this information.  Some students are just more likely to grasp meaning from one modality than any of the others.  For this reason, though, it is more important to teach a particular subject on that subject's best modality, because the mind uses different representations to store different types of information.  It is important to display the information in it's most practical modality so that a student can most easily store the information.