5-2: The Exhibition of Mastery
While formative assessment should be a frequent occurrence throughout the process of learning a new subject, there must also be a final summation of the journey, an artifact that demonstrates beyond all doubt to yourself and others that you've accomplished your goal. Traditionally, these final tests are known as cumulative assessments, but I prefer another approach: the Exhibition of Mastery.
Borrowed from the late Dr. Theodore Sizer's Coalition of Essential Schools, the Exhibition is intended to be a holistic practical project that requires full comprehension and ownership of a subject's concepts and skills. Exhibitions take many shapes, all depending on the subject in question. What matters most is that you, having completed the Exhibition to your satisfaction, feel that you have indeed accomplished your learning goal.
Every TTI course has a suggested Exhibition at the end of it, but ultimately the choice is yours how you prove your learning to yourself. The "to yourself" portion is crucial. This is not about credentials, nor internet bragging rights. The only person who needs to believe they've successfully learned something is reading this text. If your Exhibition is designed well, your growth will be more than obvious to others.
Exhibition Design
Go back to your Learning Plan. The "Evidence" section should have a broad outline of what you wanted to be able to do at the end of your study. This is your starting point.
Building from there, you want the Exhibition to be of reasonable size. I never used to give my English students page counts for their essay assignments. A good essay is like a pair of pants: long enough to cover everything, but not so long that you're tripping over yourself. I think the Exhibition follows the same rule. Don't forget that you are still beholden to the Theory of Margin! What can you do in a reasonable amount of time and effort that meets the completeness required of an Exhibition? What will keep you in the ZPD?
Evaluation
Forget letter grades. To properly evaluate an Exhibition of Mastery, we need a rubric built especially for the subject matter. If at all possible, I strongly encourage you to work with an expert in the material to develop the rubric—and, if they're willing, provide an objective scoring of your Exhibition using that rubric.
Every subject will have different categories, but here's an example for a computer programming Exhibition in the Python language.
| Criterion | Needs Improvement | Adequate | Above Average | Outstanding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Code Complexity | ||||
| Code Readability | ||||
| Algorithmic Correctness | ||||
| Pythonicity | ||||
| Software Development Practices |
See how that works? There is no universal template for these things; each subject needs one built to order. Ask for help if you need it. Actually, ask for help even if you don't think you do. Reach out to your Learning Community!
Master the material. Build the Rubric. Demonstrate your learning. Repeat again and again and again. That's the journey of the self-directed learner. It takes discipline to actually complete the Exhibition of Mastery. It's much easier to skip it and move on to the next subject. I beg you: don't. Take the time to prove to yourself—and others, if you like—how much you've learned. I promise it will be time well-spent.
This Course's EoM
What else could the Exhibition be for this course, but the creation of your Learning Plan? But unlike other Exhibitions, this one will never stop being evaluated.