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Aaron


>Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2006 15:50:15 -0800

>From: Regie Stites <regie.stites at sri.com>

>Subject: Re: [Assessment] EFF Discussion Begins Today!

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>Marie and all,

>Thanks for invitation to participate in this discussion.  I have some 

>initial thoughts in response to your question about the complexity of 

>EFF  in comparison to competencies.  I want to ponder a bit more before 

>responding to the second part your question about how EFF is different 

>from other standards?  (Thanks to my EFF colleagues Aaron Kohring and 

>Peggy McGuire for comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of 

>this.  I'm sure they will have more of their own thoughts to add as the 

>discussion continues).

>

>The EFF Standards are grounded in different conceptualizations of adult 

>performance and adult learning than competency-based education (CBE).  EFF 

>is based on an understanding of expertise (high-level human performance) 

>that comes out of cognitive science research and theory developed in the 

>late 1970s and elaborated in the 1980s and 1990s.  CBE is based on a 

>somewhat different (and earlier) model of human performance that stems 

>from cognitive psychology and industrial/organizational psychology 

>research and theory from the 1960s.  The CBE model is fairly simple.  It 

>assumes that human performance can be understood as the ability to 

>accomplish tasks.  It is basically focused on the question "What should 

>people be able to do?"  Researchers studied human performance in various 

>contexts and analyzed the tasks that people performed in those 

>contexts.  Through large-scale surveys (such as the Adult Performance 

>Level study - APL) tasks were identified and through task analysis tasks 

>were placed in a hierarchy from simple to complex. This is the basis for 

>the scaled lists of CASAS competencies that are the foundation for CASAS 

>tests.  Items on CASAS tests are designed to simulate as closely as 

>possible, the tasks that people perform in work and life. Through careful 

>design of test items and analysis of test results (using Item Response 

>Theory - IRT), CASAS has been able to provide a clear picture of the 

>relative difficulty of each item (test question) used in the CASAS tests.

>

>EFF's model of human performance goes several steps beyond this analysis 

>of the relative difficulty of tasks. EFF focuses on the question "What 

>should people know and be able to do?"  To address this question EFF 

>researchers developed descriptions of the underlying knowledge, skills, 

>and strategies, as well as levels of fluency (ease) and independence that 

>adults use as they apply each EFF Standard (each Standard defined as a 

>purposeful application of an integrate skill process) in performing 

>increasingly more challenging tasks.   Looking at more of the cognitively 

>complexity involved in using  skills like Reading With Understanding and 

>Conveying Ideas in Writing is what makes the EFF model appear more 

>complicated than CBE and CASAS competencies model.  This complexity has 

>the advantage of providing more detailed guidance for learning, 

>instruction, and assessment.  In a competency-based approach, the question 

>of how someone is able to accomplish a task is left open.  The manner in 

>which knowledge, skills, and abilities are applied to accomplishing a task 

>is not addressed directly.  By contrast, cognitive science approaches 

>(such as that guiding EFF) let us lift the lid of the black box of human 

>performance to better understand (and teach and assess) the knowledge, 

>skills, and strategies that adult learners need to be successful in 

>performing a wide range of tasks in a wide range of contexts.

>Regie Stites

>SRI International

>

>Marie Cora wrote:

>>

>>Good morning, afternoon, and evening to you all.

>>

>>I'm pleased to welcome Peggy, Aaron, Regie, and EFF Center Staff to our

>>discussion.  I've been thinking about this over the weekend, and I have

>>a couple of questions to start us off:

>>

>>For our guests:

>>

>>-The EFF Standards are complex in terms of what they try to capture in a

>>performance.  Is this was makes them different from competencies?  Or

>>perhaps even different from other standards?

>>

>>For subscribers:  I found the "thought-provokers" really helped me to

>>focus on a piece of this big picture so I could get a handle on it.  Did

>>anyone try #1 below?  Or perhaps if there are EFF users on the List, you

>>might comment on this activity.  As for #2 below - I found this question

>>helpful because it did make me consider how often and in what ways I

>>would look for achievement over time, and it also made me think that I

>>would necessarily look for such incremental gains via classroom

>>assessment rather than with a high stakes test.

>>

>>1.  Pick any EFF standard, read its definition, and imagine what it

>>would look like if you were actually assessing the application of the

>>integrated skill process described in the standard's definition.

>>

>>2.  How often do you feel a need to look for evidence that learning has

>>happened?  How does the nature of the evidence you are looking for

>>change as you look for learning within the space of one class session,

>>one week, one month, one course, one year, and so on.

>>

>>Anyway, that's what I was thinking about.  How about you?  Please post

>>your questions and comments!

>>Thanks,

>>marie

>>Assessment Discussion List Moderator

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

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>

>

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Aaron Kohring
Coordinator, LINCS Literacy & Learning Disabilities Special Collection 
(http://ldlink.coe.utk.edu/)
Moderator, National Institute for Literacy's Content Standards Discussion 
List (http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/Contentstandards)
Coordinator, Equipped for the Future Websites (http://eff.cls.utk.edu/)

Center for Literacy Studies, University of Tennessee
EFF Center for Training and Technical Assistance
Phone:(865) 974-4109 main
           (865) 974-4258 direct
Fax:   (865) 974-3857
e-mail: akohring at utk.edu