In this section, Noah Riskin shares his insights about assessment.
Grading for this course was on a pass/fail basis. I paid particular attention to students’ participation and engagement when assessing their learning. I asked students to try to let go of their resistance and fully participate in our discussions and exercises. In general, when students struggled with some of the material or exercises, I engaged them in a conversation about the personal relevance the class held for them (all of the students enrolled in the class cited physical and or social challenges that they wanted to address). I asked them what they were hoping to get out of the class and why the class felt as if it wasn’t working for them. Once we determined what they really wanted to gain from being in the class, I reminded them that they were on a path toward achieving their goal, but that it requires a high level of commitment and engagement. My goal was to help them understand—each in his or her own way, that it’s the overall cognitive-physical experience of the class (as opposed to one or two exercises) that’s going to help transform their physical and social intelligence.
