Formation of a Value-rich Peer Community for continuous, criterion-referenced and authentic Assessment

Abstract

The fact of art-making as a social/cultural institution implies that the single artist is never really alone in action: in assessing the outcomes of art education, many stake-holders are involved - fellow artists in the art community, theorists, historians, critics, technologists, curators, producers, art administrators and so on. SCM has long been aware of the importance of involving expertise in teaching-and-learning at different levels. Service and study tours, exhibitions, internship/practicum as graduation criteria, forums with professionals from the creative industries have played a crucial role in enabling students to meet with the public, to flesh out purposes and core values, and subsequently to magnify the intended outcomes of the curriculum proper. All these activities have been proven to be effective in broadening horizon for creativity as well as career. Our rigor and vigor has been objectively documented at: http://sweb.cityu.edu.hk/teachingandlearning (SCM OBTL Website) In order to act in harmony with the University's focus on assessment, we want to renew a strategic community of stakeholders to become part of our teaching-and-learning practice, and furnish evidence to close the loop of authentic Outcome Assessment (OA). Most of the activities are recurring but methodology of assessment will be strengthened by making use of the peer community. The project will be considered as a school OBTL initiative, and under the inspection of the SCM OBTL team. The project is complementary to Outcomes Assessment (OA): structuring "negotiated intended learning outcomes" and forming a value-rich peer community, a proposed OBTL research project for compiling a document stating the principles and practices unique to School's mission for quality art education and with multiple templates for assessment tasks of different nature. This project is now pending for funding support for OBTL Implementation 2010-11.