Evaluation without Tears

Selma Wassermann is Professor Emerita in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Her books include What’s the Right Thing to Do? (2019), The Art of Interactive Teaching (2017), This Teaching Life (2004), Teaching for Thinking Today (2009) and An Introduction to Case Method Teaching: A Guide to the Galaxy (1994).

• IntroductionPrefaceAcknowledgementsChapter 1: What’s Evaluation For?Force of HabitWhat’s Evaluation For?Chapter 2: Marking and Grading: The Tail that Wags the DogA House of CardsChapter 3: A Case for Using Evaluative FeedbackEvaluation as FeedbackObstacles to Using Evaluative Feedback In Lieu of GradesChapter 4: Evaluative Feedback that Enables and Promotes GrowthIdentifying the Criteria: What are we looking for?What is Being Measured? Learning Goals and Evaluation PracticesChapter 5: Written Diagnostic Evaluative Feedback Across the Curriculum Examples from the Primary GradesExamples from the Intermediate GradesExamples from Secondary SchoolConclusionChapter 6: It’s All About How You Say ItReflecting in ActionExamining a Classroom DiscussionHooked on PraiseChapter 7: Impediments to Good Diagnostic JudgmentTaming the Impulse to Punish by Evaluative JudgmentTwo Cents Worth of Advice to TeachersChapter 8: Reporting to ParentsSome examples of teachers’ written reportsParent-teacher-student conferencesChapter 9: Students as Self EvaluatorsChildren Evaluating Themselves in the Primary Grades – The Child in the ProcessWritten Self-Evaluation Reports in the Primary GradesStudents Evaluating Themselves in a One-on-One TutorialStudents Evaluating Themselves in the Secondary SchoolTeachers’ Assessments on the ProfilesConclusionChapter 10: Institutional Changes Toward Using Evaluative Feedback in Reporting to ParentsExamples of Schools that “Dare to Be Different”Chapter 11: Evaluation as a Subversive Activity: What Can a Teacher Do?Chapter 12: Postscript: A Personal OdysseyA Professional JourneyReferencesIndexAbout the Author

In equal parts a fascinating history of assessment and a concrete call for action. Professor Wassermann empowers readers to reflect on their own approach to evaluation and confront biases, preconceptions and challenges, taking the reader beyond already well-trodden themes of basic weaknesses in the methods and our “love affair” with numbers. Key distinctions are made between enabling or disabling feedback, complemented by a wealth of examples and specific feedback. Wassermann suggests approaches that can be adopted even when teachers are faced with pressure to conform to traditional measures from administration, parents and even students themselves.