CREATING AND LEARNING

All I thought assessing students is very easy. I thought one exam, activities and other tools can just give you a pertinent data to find out who the best is and who’s not. But I was wrong. Assessing student’s learning is beyond my own imagination.

I realized as I make the assignment that assessment of student learning will demonstrate the students knowledge aligned with objectives, outcomes, implementation and even curriculum to meet the appropriate higher education goals. According to the sources given, the systematic assessment of student learning outcomes are vital to monitor the quality of learning and will provide information to stakeholders that lead to improvement. In fact, assessment of student learning promotes communication among the faculty. WHY?

Let me give you a brief scenario. When the student is being assessed (formally or informal), the teacher can give data to another teacher on how to handle him. So if the assessed that the student’s strength is in writing but poor in communicating. Then the English teacher should help him to improve or develop his communication skill through different instructional activities and measure it with various tools which are reliable and consistent. I believe that teachers who always do what they always done, then affirmatively they will get what they have always got. Surely, then plan, develop and deliver this not only to students but to other stakeholders. Évaluation has a big role to determine the result of the assessment. These could lead to revision of the activities (instructions), materials, assess and evaluate again.

This is evident when I did one of the objectives. I have a lot of revisions and rechecks because I also do backward assessment if my outcome, methodology and criterion are aligned with the objectives. I believe that perfection is always just out of reach but a continuous strive for perfection will definitely contribute to keep my assessment and instruction activities (in the future) useful for the student learning, as learning and of learning.

 

THE CYCLE OF ASSESSMENT

Life is a cycle. There are things that keep on coming back. The sun rises on the east and set on the west morning ‘till afternoon from Mondays to Sundays- everything goes back. But even in our daily routine, we tend to overlooked things and regret things that we didn’t do. That is why assessment is very important as to bring the best things in life.

 

In assessment in learning, teachers should assess what students able to learn from her, the student’s improvement, skills that were able to develop but it does not end that way. It is beyond the totality of the student’s progression? WHY? Because there are a lot of matters that is part on the cycle.

For  me, the assessment process is like a “teleserye”.

EPISODE 1:

You have to introduce the characters. Know them very well, from protagonist to the most hated antagonist. In assessment, we should know who our students are, we should know the level of understanding they have and what kind of curriculum you want to address to this students. That is why; some of our teachers gave us pre-test and diagnostic test before having a proper class. I still remember my teachers wherein they let me jot down my background, my expectation in the class and what are my interests in life. Now, I realize that the first part of assessment will always be the sentence: I WANT YOU TO KNOW… more.

EPISODE 2:

When we watched drama series, in the beginning we always find those amazing backgrounds of our characters. We gathered pertinent data about it. So we can directly plan what to do, what to teach and what to give. These are important details what to achieve at the end of class and semester. We should try to assess what resources, tests, activities that are best interest of the students’ learning which is still in the context of the curriculum.

EPISODE 3:

As the characters mostly the antagonist has a plan to destroy the protagonist is a typical type of our teleserye. It is same in the assessment, we try to assess how critical thinkers our students. Teachers implement what is in their course outline, syllabus or lesson plans. These are thorough assessment by teaching the subject as well as checking what they have learned. Activities are very much appreciated during this stage. Indeed, I remember my teacher let us answer certain questions without discussing the entire subject matter. It helps me to research more and constructs ideas and concepts from previous lesson and experiences.

EPISODE 4:

Of course, everything comes to an end. We surely want to know the outcome. Students and parents should take part in knowing their own performances. Therefore, an evaluation is part of the assessment. But, it does not stop there. There must be reinforcement especially if the teacher thinks that it is not enough, there are still things to modify and improved, then the teacher has the flexibility to do it.

 

That is the wonder of cycle of assessment. Keep on checking and try to assess every phase. ASSESS WITHIN ASSESSMENT because after all, what students achieve also reflects the way you handle your own assessment

ASSESSMENT: THE FIRST AND THE LAST

WHAT DO YOU MEAN… ASSESSMENT?

Image source: assessment.uconn.edu 

When I heard the word “assessment”, I immediately consulted Merriam Webster Dictionary and it defines that, “the act of making a judgment about something and an idea or opinion about something.” Well sounds easy to comprehend, isn’t it. But as I go over with the materials and resources, I was having hard time to picture out what is it to assess and how to assess in the field of education.

Exams, oral recitations, comprehensive exam and other forms of assessment are things that I encountered during elementary, high school, college and post graduate. These are things that are beyond student’s control. I can still remember during my elementary years to memorize 100 English vocabulary words and its spelling. There was a time, I had a fever and we had a long exam in History subject, fortunately, I passed the exam. During my college years, it was really tough because of schedules and duties in the hospital. I had my demonstration then quizzes after. How can I grasp all these methods of assessment in one day? Well, maybe, we are born to be superheroes.

As I go through the resources, I realized that assessing students is not as easy as pie. It takes time and proper process to complete its journey. For me it is like, before going to a certain place when I travel for the first time, I have to assess and gather information about that certain area such as what to do, what to eat, good places to visit. Through this research and information, I can have data to pinpoint my travel itinerary. When I arrived the place, I cannot also assure that everything in my data is correct so I have to visit and take more observation about the environment and see if it is safe or not. When I realized that everything is okay then I can have these travel recommended to my friends and will come back again soon. So based on my experienced in traveling, assessment requires- same thing in teaching. Teachers must gather information to plan or modify the teaching method and learning for individual, group and as a whole class. Teachers able to assess the strengths and weakness of each students and able to identify what kind of learning should each of them received.

For me assessment is all about process. It boils down how you plan carefully, execute and evaluate the student’s learning to be able to know that your assessment met your desire outcome. However, I believe that not only one assessment can constitute and measure one’s cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. It needs various assessment to conduct for the teacher to and confirm student’s level of learning and improvement.

Well, assessment its not only limited for student’s performance. I must disagree to some ideas that it is commonly for the student’s skills improvement, but, however this is mainly an assessment as well to the teachers’method and strategies that she ponders to her students. For me, it is directly related and interconnected the student’s achievement to the teacher’s skills. Therefore, it is important that assessing one is like assessing everyone.