Traditional assessment theory concentrates on a binary mode of responses that boil down to “correct/incorrect.” Since Mrs. Jones’ 2nd grade geography class, that’s been pretty much the way things go in assessment theory. What Knowledge Factor has done is add a different dimension to this one-dimensional variable, and it makes a big difference.
The added variable? Confidence.
Think about it. If you were able to ask a student, “How confident are you in your answer?” on an assessment prior to scoring it, what kinds of information might that yield? The simple “right/wrong” gets enriched with a “confident/uncertain” variable, and the quadrants of responses from students now fall into four areas.
Ever been highly confident about something, and completely wrong? (My wife discovers this about me on a regular basis). Imagine being able to reflect this attribute about individual knowledge in a particular content area or skill. For example, if I am a clinical nurse and am absolutely confident about dosing options while at the same time being completely wrong, I land in that upper left “misinformed” quadrant—and imagine the impact in an ICU ward if I continue in my merry, blundering way! The other quadrants yield even more intervention strategies: For the accurate/doubting respondent (bottom right), there is more effectiveness in confidence-building activities (hands-on training, skills validation exercises, etc.). In the incorrect/unconfident quadrant (bottom right), there is more of a need to boost both content expertise and confidence along the way.
Do you see how this information—gained in real time—could revolutionize our teaching? From corporate training to elementary schools, this added dimension (observed by good teachers for many years, but now quantified and integrated thanks to the Knowledge Factor folks) could really aid our training and assessment efforts.
I’m meeting with their leadership at CompTIA HQ in a few weeks, and I look forward to learning more about their work. Imagine how teaching and assessment could be improved if this variable became a part of our thinking. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to give my wife the right answer, too.
On second thought, I said “game-changing”, not miraculous.
