Blog 7:

Why do we assess learning in art? How can learning to self-assess in art transfer to other subject areas? Life endeavours?

We assess learning in art because we need some way to quantify growth in students, and thus we need a system that indicates when growth had occured. The values of our society often place emphasis on some form of growth, whether its growth as a society, as a "bottom line", or as an individual, and the value of growth has become intermixed with definitions of success. Somewhat unfortunately, it seems we as educators have to indicate to the different levels of society how growth is occurring in our students; otherwise, how can someone know if we are doing a "good job" of educating?

Learning to be able to assess yourself helps students to learn and improve other academic subject areas, because it forces them to evaluate whatever they are creating by some criteria, often externally created, which says whether their work is "good" or not. Like it or not, society judges its members, evaluating their "worth" and the worth of the things they do or create. Self-assessment allows for reflection and possible correction along a process. This same process of evaluation can help improve virtually any aspect of life, as long as a person is willing to be honest about their goals, difficulties, and strengths.