What makes evidence usable?

Making learning visible is important. But for it to be useful, it needs to do more than describe an activity. It needs to help someone else understand what a student can do, and what that might mean in another context.

Usable evidence is not just helpful for reflection. It is what allows capability to be recognised and understood by others. This is a focus of work by organisations like the Mastery Transcript Consortium, which supports schools to adopt competency-based approaches that focus on what students can do, rather than traditional grades. Its work enables learners to demonstrate their capabilities through flexible learning records that capture and share credible evidence of their learning.

Usable evidence often includes three elements:

1. Action: What did the student do?
2. Context: In what situation or task?
3. Impact: What changed, improved, or resulted?

Less usable: “I completed a history project on migration to Australia.”

More usable: “I researched different migration stories to Australia, compared sources to understand different experiences, and explained how migration has shaped Australian society using the information in the various articles that I found.”

The second gives enough detail for someone else to interpret and use.

Which Is More Useful?

Below are examples of student statements. Rather than deciding if they are “weak” or “strong”, consider:

• Which statements would be most useful to someone outside your classroom?
• Which ones provide clear evidence of what the student can actually do?
• Which include detail, but still don’t make capability visible? Why?

A. Jake worked consistently on his robotics project, followed the task instructions, and completed all required components on time.

B. Jake collaborated with his group to design and build a robot, tested different design options, and refined his approach based on performance results to improve how the robot moved.

C. Jake spent several lessons carefully documenting each stage of the project, wrote detailed notes about what the group discussed, and described the steps they followed in building the robot.

D. Jake designed and tested multiple robot prototypes, identified issues with movement, adjusted his design, and improved the robot’s performance as a result.

Which statements are most useful, and what makes them more useful?

Rewrite for Usability

Choose one of the less useful statements and rewrite it so that:

• it shows what the student did and can do
• it includes some context
• it gives a sense of impact or change

Share your rewritten statement

Share your rewritten statement in the comments and describe why the original statement was not as useful and why yours is more useful.