Educational Connoisseurship, Criticism, and the Assessment of Integrative Studies

How we might help students “synthesize” or “integrate” and then assess the process has continued to perplexed educators. This paper examines how “educational connoisseurship” and “educational criticism,” as described by Elliott W. Eisner, may be applied to this complex task. First I review the suggestions made by Benjamin S. Bloom and his committee of college and university examiners in 1956 and point out some of the difficulties in using “primary trait analysis.” I then explain some ways to apply Eisner’s model and suggest four additional ways that educators might apply the philosophy inherent in Eisner’s approach to develop students’ ability to synthesize: Use of Exemplars, Team Assessment, Control of Time and Timing, and Student Involvement.