Framework aims to better align assessment in sustainability education with its own principles and aspirations
Aaron Redman, instructor, School of Sustainability in the College of Global Futures, is co-author on Rethinking Learning Assessment in Education for Sustainable Development: A Call for Action, a new publication in the Journal of Education for Sustainable Development. The paper’s other co-authors are School of Sustainability graduate Jordan A. King, now professor of practice at University of Tennessee Chattanooga, and Daniel Fischer, affiliate global futures scholar at ASU and professor of sustainability education and communication at Leuphana University.
"For sustainability education to do its part in transforming the world for better, there is a need for assessment that supports and fosters learning of a different kind," says Redman. "Using our framework, everyone involved in sustainability education, from teachers to policymakers, can shift the current status quo (and often counterproductive) practices of assessment to the innovations needed for learning assessments which support transformative sustainability."
The abstract follows:
The role of assessment in education for sustainable development (ESD) is in need of re-assessment. Despite its importance, assessment in ESD has been criticized for its detrimental effects on learner well-being, lack of innovation and failure to adequately consider fundamental sustainability principles, limiting its integral link to learning. A framework for ESD-sensitive assessments is proposed, considering the ‘WHAT’, ‘HOW’, ‘WHO’ and ‘WHY’ of assessment. This commentary argues that constructive alignment is needed not only between objectives, pedagogies and assessment, but also between these considerations of assessment and their alignment with general principles and aspirations of ESD. By rethinking assessment along these lines, and by grounding them in local contexts, ESD can contribute to its original task of reorienting quality education towards sustainable development. In light of this endeavour, the authors call for a more nuanced understanding of the purposes, methods, roles and objectives of ESD learning assessment, and how they can be aligned to better support ESD principles and aspirations.