It is hard to talk about knowledge, learning and assessment
As I am researching multimodal text making and the recognition, evaluation and assessment of such texts in higher education it is becoming increasingly apparent how difficult it is to talk about these areas even with other researchers.
There is a need for some basic assumptions to be articulated, because we do not always make the same assumptions about basic (but complex) concepts such as learning and knowledge. I recognise that learning can be approached from different perspectives. However, in my research I make the assumption that learning and knowledge are interdependent. This is a basic assumption that comes with the theoretical framework of multimodal social semiotics (Jewitt, 2014; Kress, 2010) that I am using. Other assumptions are that all education is socially situated and that learning is context dependent.
I also assume that the activities of evaluation and assessment requires recognition of learning and knowledge. Students represents their learning and knowledge in some material way. In these material representations, where students can be using speech, writing, image, gestures, sounds etc., the teacher has to notice and recognise the knowledge and learning that the students are expressing or giving shape and form to (Kress, 2014). My point is that teachers cannot assess what has not been noticed. First we have to ‘see’ it. Then what the teacher sees has to be recognised as valid.
References
Jewitt, C. (Ed.). (2014). The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis (2nd ed.). London, England: Routledge.
Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. London: Routledge.
Kress, G. (2014). The rhetorical work of shaping the semiotic world. In A. Archer & D. Newfield (Eds.) Multimodal approaches to research and pedagogy: Recognition, resources, and access, (pp. 131-152). New York: Routledge