I have learned a lot of information about the
various types of assessments in this module. I was able to know the
similarities and differences of the various assessment types and it also gave
me the opportunity to reflect on my existing knowledge and experiences.
AS
A STUDENT
During my primary and secondary education, I was
only able to experienced mostly traditional assessments and I will always try
to memorize everything that was written on my notes because I know that it is
the only way that I will have good grades and academic ranking. I am nervous
most of the time because I remembered that there are some instances that the individual
scores will be announced especially for quizzes and I do not want to be embarrassed.
There are also some instances that I am not really pressured of pen-and-paper
exams when the assessment type is just “true or false” because I know I have
50% probability of getting the answer correctly but now I feel that these types
of examinations did not really help me to seek for further knowledge aside from
what transpired inside the classroom.
There are a lot of factors that influenced me on how
to prepare for the upcoming assessments. Honestly, back then I will always
consider the grade or percentage that I will get for that particular
assessment. I always think of the standards that were set by the teachers and
the competition that invisibly exist with me and my classmates. I will also say
that the invisible competition motivated me to study harder but I know that
this is not the case with other students. For examinations, I always try to
study my lessons regularly so I am always prepared for quizzes or graded
recitations in class. I normally memorize the concepts or lessons then try to
relate it with my personal experiences, use mnemonic phrases, so I can recall
it easily as most of the exams are either multiple choice, fill in the blanks,
true or false or enumeration. There are also some instances that it will be
essays but there are no clear criteria or rubric on how it will be graded so I
normally feel lost. For projects, I normally invest on creativity and I am
willing to go the extra mile because I have enough time to plan and complete
it. It can also be a group project which gives me the chance to work collaboratively
with my peers.
AS
AN EDUCATOR
Formal, summative and traditional assessments usually
threaten the students because they feel that they have to remember everything that
was discussed by the teacher and they are also expected to read additional
references in order to get high scores or grades. They feel more pressure as
they also know that it will be included in their final grades, academic
standing or future placements and decisions. I will explain to my students that
these types of assessments were designed systematically to improve validity and
reliability of the results. It will also be easier for the teachers to monitor
their progress but those results will not necessarily reflect everything that
they have learned and it will also be used formatively to improve their
learning process. I will let them understand that educators are trying their best
to also incorporate formative, informal and non-traditional assessments to give
them the opportunity to express what they have actually learned and what they
need to improve or change their learning. I will also give my students the
opportunity to inform me on how my teaching and assessment can be improved so
we are both learning in the process of achieving the learning objectives.
As a future educator, I will try my best to
carefully design the assessments. I will practice to give assessments that will
help the students to feel motivated to learn. I will encourage them to develop
metacognition and I will develop questions that will inspire and challenge them
to answer. I will utilize portfolios which will be a combination of various
types of assessments so I have better understanding of the student’s
performance. I will allow my students to reflect and analyze what they have
learned and to also apply those learning in real life situations. I will avoid
the pressure of comparison with other students and to institutional standards
as I want them to be responsible of what, how and why they want to learn. I
know this will not be easy to do as an educator but we should always do what
will be best for the students as this will help them to be more effective on
their future careers or decisions someday. I believe that this will also make
the life easier for educators once the students realized the importance of
being able to assess their own work or progress. The teachers will be
facilitators and not the main resource person and the students will feel that
the teachers are available to guide them without judging. I will prefer that
learning is a partnership between the students and the teachers.
FURTHER REFLECTION AND ANALYSIS
This module allowed me to understand the real
purpose of various types of assessments. I know that as an educator, I will
need more training and more practice in order to design assessments that will
meet the learning objectives and will also cater to the improvement of the
student’s learning. I learned about internal assessments which are designed by
teachers and mostly done during or after instructional activities while
external assessments are done to audit or monitor learning based on content or
skills defined by national standards like National Achievement tests, college
entrance examinations, professional licensure examinations etc. I also learned
about formal and informal assessments and learned that informal assessments are
also helpful to the students because it allows them to explain, reflect,
analyze and synthesize what they are learning and how they can improve their learning.
I also learned about a combination of traditional and non-traditional
assessments and multiple measures of assessments are significant to both the
students and the teachers as this will allow more holistic form of learning.
Alternative forms of assessments can balance the pressure from traditional
assessments and provide opportunity to the students to be responsible of their
own learning. I also learned that simple observation to our students are
classified as an assessment as this will show us some important reactions of
students like excitement, boredom or engagement that will help us determine and
understand what, how and why the students are learning as we can observe how
they progress and what are their weakness.
There are a lot of new concepts that I have learned
in this module and I feel excited and challenged to design assessments in the
future. I have some experiences of assessments that I would like to utilize and
some that I want to modify and improve. I am planning to develop assessments
that are more learner-centered as much as possible but of course it will depend
on the content and learning objectives. The real challenge is to find the most
appropriate type of assessment that will be beneficial to the students as well
as to the teachers. Time constraint, proper training of the students and
teachers, validity and reliability including the fairness and subjectivity of
the teachers are also some challenges that we have to be prepared of in
employing non-traditional assessments.
REFERENCES:
Bales, K. (2018). 13
Creative Examples of Informal Assessments for the Classroom: Simple and
Stress-Free Observation-Based Assessments. Retrieved from ThoughtCo. website: https://www.thoughtco.com/informal-classroom-assessments-4160915
Bond, J.B. (2007).
Reflective Assessment: Including Student in the Assessment Process. Retrieved
from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1099068.pdf
Kwako, J. (n.d.). A Brief Summary of Traditional and
Alternative Assessment in the College Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.stat.wisc.edu/~nordheim/Kwako_assessment4.doc
NYU Steinhardt (2018).
Assessment Methods: A Look at Formal and Informal Techniques. Retrieved from
Teacher Education Reinvented: Supporting Excellence in Teacher Education
website: https://teachereducation.steinhardt.nyu.edu/assessment-methods/
Eunice Abadicio 