Our Motivating Questions

Our particular interest is in the question of self-assessment and its relation to broader conversations about assessment at the College and beyond.  We are motivated by questions each of us has about responding to:

• diversity of students

• the tension we perceive between nurturing thinking and evaluating thinking

• the difficulties grading poses to teaching and learning relationships

• the artificiality of grading as compared with the work of problem-solving and leadership ("What does the professor want?")

• the need to open students' minds to ways of working and valuing their work that go beyond standardized measures so potent in this era