Creating learner-centered assessment strategies for promoting greater student retention and class participation

Many teachers still use in-class multiple choice exams in their classes, the primary goal of which is to see how much the students have already learned. The assessment strategies we will examine in this paper change the focus from assessing whether students have learned anything to creating assessments which double as learning experiences themselves. Assessments do not have to merely measure what was learned; rather, they can be methods for getting students to learn while they are completing the task you have given them. The theoretical framework of learner-centered assessment emphasizes problem solving, higher order thinking skills, the promotion of a sense of ownership in learning, and a dialogic approach to instruction (Rich, 2011). The purpose of this paper is to discuss six specific strategies for implementing learner-centered assessment in the classroom. The six research based strategies we will discuss are: