Chris Worsnop

Why is assessment important in media education?

The existence of media education seems to be constantly threatened. There are many reasons for this:

• Media education takes up curriculum time that some people would like to devote to other subjects.

• Media education uses equipment that is expensive to buy and maintain.

• Media education tends to focus on subject material that young people know more about than their teachers.

• Media education examines popular culture, and some people believe that popular culture is not worthy of study.

Media education tends to reveal commercial and ideological agendas in popular culture that some people would prefer to keep hidden.

One of the chief outcomes of media education is that students learn to be critical of their information sources, and some people would rather not see that happen.

It is difficult for teachers in many jurisdictions to combat these threats to their subject area. These teachers often work alone, or with only one other colleague on staff - and some of the threats even come from these colleagues.

However, one of the best defenses against criticism of any subject area is the ability to show that your assessment is strong, solid, rigorous and fair - and to show that as a teacher, you are happy to be held accountable for your assessment. Administrators and parents (not to mention the students) are always impressed by teachers and courses with strong assessment - which can forestall many of the day-to-day problems.

A high proportion of encounters between teachers and parents, and between teachers and students, are due to some kind of disagreement over assessment. If the assessment can be developed to the point of being relatively unquestionable, then a course will develop a reputation of making a lot of people happy - including parents and administrators.

Often, in an attempt to make strong assessments, school systems will impose external assessment and evaluation instruments such as tests. In such cases, teachers often have little or no chance to negotiate the assessment before it is imposed. These teachers are often not happy with the situation.

Media educators may get the chance to take the initiative into their own hands. They may be able to make themselves accountable for strong and reliable assessment by establishing it for themselves, and then embracing it voluntarily.

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