Assessment; process/product; In/after the moment. A response to Ann

This is post is a response to Ann Arden's excellent first post "Beyond Test in HS Math (Part 1)" where she breaks down the following diagram that she drew after conversations with Peter Liljedahl and I during #CAfLNchat back in January 2017.

As usual, @pgliljedahl makes me think. Many Ts seem to spend most of time on "product/after moment". #caflnchat pic.twitter.com/k0HDGV3iet

— Ann Arden (@annarden) January 11, 2017

Go read it if you haven't yet!  Otherwise this post probably won't make much sense.

What a great first post!  I also love how this is only part 1 – looking forward to more!
Lots to talk about here, I think.

I think you’ve provided some very good examples of each aspect of the quadrant – and most align with my practices + thinking, too.  But I think I'd like to dig deeper - and I know you wouldn't mind!  I am just going to haphazardly put down some thoughts and wonderings.

Some thoughts:

1. Presently I am thinking that the grid is helpful for framing temporal aspects of assessment.  In other words, I think both the references to process/product and in/after the moment address when an assessment might occur.  I think there’s another dimension of ‘purpose’ that might also need to be considered (although perhaps that complicates things a bit more and would be harder to illustrate).  In other words, what are we assessing about the process/product or in/after the moment?  Mathematical processes?  Precision/accuracy? Collaboration? Intention is important here, I think, because it not only influence how we respond to students, but how we listen, as well.
2. I think framing assessment in this way helps emphasize that a large part of assessment is about what we do in-the-moment.  I think this is an emphasis that definitely needs to be made more often.  Especially since 'assessment' is one of those hated words - mainly because many have restricted its definition to 'grading' or 'evaluation.'  I think we both agree that it's a shame.  Perceptions of assessment definitely impact what teachers do and what they value about what they do.  Hopefully this diagram of yours (credit to Peter for the idea) helps alleviate some of that.
3. I think there’s also room to think about ‘how’ the assessment is done as well.  You made the point that students have a hard time interpreting low-quality feedback (you referenced Weimer 2013 here), which is a great point. Further, though, even when students receive ‘quality feedback’ (descriptive), it may still be difficult for the feedback to actually serve learning.  I think the ‘how,’ here, then, necessarily involve activities that reflect assessment as learning in some way here.
4. You quoted my tweet where I asked “why separate product and process? To distinguish intention? Do the two not relate and influence?”  I think I still think about those questions.  I think often we separate the two out of convenience, but I think there are many opportunities that we can provide in the classroom where the two are interrelated.  For example, living documents like portfolios would be both a process and a product as students are working through them.  I think perhaps there is a dynamic relationship here where we can go between the two without a clear separation.
5. My question about “what is ‘in’ & what is ‘after’?” refer to how if learning is continuing, then a moment might stretch across time.  Schön (1982) defined ‘action-present’ as “the zone of time in which the action can still make a difference to the situation…, and may stretch over minutes, hours, days, or even weeks or months, depending on the pace of activity and the situation boundaries that are characteristic of the practice” (p.62).  That was super impactful for me when I read it, and I think play a role here.
6. I mentioned pre-moment (noticing) in the threads of conversations there too.  Here, I am thinking of Mason's (2002) work on noticing.  Particularly about how, as we accumulate lived experiences and reflect upon them, we can use these to think about how we might act differently in an uncertain future -- to break out of habitual reactions.

Some wonderings:

1. I continue to wonder about the many implications of framing the temporal aspects of assessment in this way.  How might this diagram help teachers think about assessment? does it actually help?
2. If I were to take the grid as is, I wonder about the frequency of actions within each quadrant.  Even in an ideal environment - would the 'best' frequency be equivalent across all 4?  I recognize that it necessarily depend on the context/student/task, but I wonder about priority/effectiveness.
3. I also continue to wonder about the same questions I posed (which I also somewhat expanded on in #4, 5, 6 above)

Thanks for hitting publish, Ann!  Now there's no turning back!