Actions Speak Louder Than Surveys: An innovative approach to socio-emotional learning Assessments

Imagine this: Ten-year-old Priya sits in a classroom and stares at a questionnaire asking her to rate herself on imagination on a scale of 1 to 5. 

Down the corridor, her schoolmate, Amit faces a different creative challenge:

Which of these student responses do you think will reveal more about their imagination?

When Priya checks box “3” for imagination, what does that really tell us? Her response gets tangled in:

• Her understanding of what “imagination” means
• How confident she feels that day
• What she thinks a “3” or “4” looks like
• Whether she’s comparing herself to her best friend, her teacher or her younger sister

When Amit transforms circles into diverse objects like planets, faces, cycles, and handcuffs, he demonstrates multiple dimensions of his imagination ability in real-time. His responses reveal three key competencies: the capacity to work within creative constraints (utilizing the circular form), the ability to elaborate through detailed representations, and divergent thinking that produces unique solutions distinct from peer responses. This performance-based evidence provides concrete, measurable indicators of imagination that surpass the limitations of self-reported creativity scales.

This contrast captures the heart of Slam Out Loud’s approach to measuring socio-emotional learning in adolescents. We’re working one assessment at a time to change from traditional surveys to real world challenges. 

The Big Idea: Show, Don’t Tell

We’ve all been there. Rating ourselves on arbitrary scales, trying to figure out if we’re a ‘3’ or a ‘4’ in Imagination. It’s like trying to measure your cooking skills by asking how good a chef you think you are, instead of actually tasting the food!

We apply this same principle of “Show Don’t Tell” to student assessment. Every socio-emotional skill is a combination of certain cognitive, social and emotional competencies that students develop towards performing aligned actions to the skill. Webreak down SEL constructs as actionable child-level indicators that a student can perform. We then create open-ended, competency based and relatable assessment prompts for students so that they can showcase their level in these competencies aligned to the SEL construct.

For example,Instead of asking “how curious are you ?” or “ how often do you ask questions in classrooms”, we give a simple open ended situation based prompt: 

“Jaya is a new student in your classroom and you want to get to know her better. What are all the questions you would ask her?”

Responses from students, highlight the following abilities at child level:

• Ability to ask relevant questions aligned to the knowledge gap
• Ability to ask questions that covers a wide range of domains around the knowledge gap
• Ability to ask higher order/deeper questions 

This helps educators identify specific gaps aligned to constructs within students and create tailored and targeted plans of action towards supporting students at different levels enabling students to continuously improve their skills.

At the core of our assessment approach lies 4 key principles:

Why Traditional Surveys Fall Short

Traditional surveys and self-ratings fall short in measuring student capabilities compared to competency-based assessments. While likert scale tests rely on subjective self-reporting that can be skewed by mood, social desirability bias, and varying interpretations of rating scales, competency-based assessments directly measure observable behaviors and abilities. 

These assessments offer higher predictive validity by evaluating students’ actual demonstrated capabilities rather than perceived ones. They provide specific, actionable insights that help educators identify exactly where students need support, unlike the vague feedback from traditional rating scales.

The standardized nature of competency-based tasks also enables fair comparisons across student populations, while their open-ended format encourages authentic responses rather than socially desirable ones. By focusing on direct observation of skills rather than self-perception, this approach delivers more reliable data for measuring and supporting student growth.

Looking Forward: A New Chapter in Education

This isn’t just a new way of measuring growth, it’s a whole new way of seeing our students. It’s about creating opportunities for every student to shine in their own way. And isn’t that what education should be about? Not just measuring growth but inspiring it. Not just asking students what they can do but giving them the chance to amaze us with what they’re capable of. After all, in life, we rarely succeed by telling people how good we are – we succeed by showing them. Isn’t it time our assessments reflected that reality?

About Slam Out Loud:

Slam Out Loud (SOL) is a non-profit that uses the power of visual and performing arts like theater, poetry, and storytelling to build Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL) skills – like imagination, analytical thinking, and curiosity in children – from underserved communities. SOL’s mission is to transform how arts education and SEL happen for underserved children in India. They work with teachers and teaching artists and create contextual curriculum resources integrated with the lens of climate action and gender.

They currently partner with two state governments (Punjab and Maharashtra) for their at-scale Arts for All program, and their Jijivisha Fellowship program (that places art educators in classrooms) exists across four cities in India (Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, and Bangalore). The OECD, World Bank, and UNESCO have recognized our work, and some of their partners, apart from us, include UNICEF, Girl Rising, HP, and LVMH.