Assessing the Meaning of All Wet

Dear Power that Be (aka:Colleagues  Across
the Curriculum)

         The Meaning of All Wet
 
“. . . too much of the assessment rhetoric
still focuses on institutional accountability
rather than on the importance of working
from the classroom level up to improve how,
and how much, students learn…. If the chain
of logic [behind learning outcomes assessment]
begins from an accountability perspective, the
focus is on the institution, and if it is primarily
an institutional measure, it is potentially
disconnected from how individual faculty
members teach.

"Faculty must own [assessment] and live it in
the context of each student…because if faculty
do not own outcomes assessment, there will be
minimal impact on teaching and learning and,
therefore, on student achievement," which is
supposed to be the point, she said.  (Sampling
Doug Ledermans’ samplings in “The Faculty
Role in Assessment.”)
 
Look, the implicit and crucial distinction here is
between
 
I)  Finished Product Assessment--
    validating and accrediting institutions &
 
II)  Process Assessment: the mess & guess
     of  individual pedagogical  trial & error-ing
     & oops oh my that dint work damnit hmmm
    a um: yes Yes YES ooo no etc.
 
Can you tell the difference--between I & II?
           if so then you maybe can

III.    Assess the relationship (I & II)
 
I mean to be a roll model, modeling
amateur and amateurism round here
best I can and hope I do, surrounded
by professionals and swimming in a
professionalism I might define by
comparison & contrast like giving
Joe Fish a breath of fresh air & the
meaning of All Wet simultaneously:
him,  hooked  &  hauled into the
canoe for a few sunny flip-flop
moments of  true love without which
he’s nothing  but resounding splash
and clammy symbol. Now back in
the pond he’s got to make his way
like a one-eyed man in the valley
of the bind,  worse off than before
he  knew the difference between wet
& dry on the one hand and all-wet
“wet & dry” on the other: a difference
that makes a difference but can’t be
expressed without a fence. Do you
see the all-wet problem?
 
How can a professional conceive of
“professionalism” when he’s swimming
in it, permeate,  saturate, all sopping
wet —cerebral oil slick so to speak:
covered and coated.
 
How does a system self-correct without
demoralization—or with demoralization,
sure, but not Demoralization?
 
It would take something like immaculate
conception. News from  beyond. Or else:
hooked, hauled, heaved out of the see for
a telling experiential moment as opposed
to mere conceptualism.  
 
xxxooo, Sam