THE FINAL ASSESSMENT OF ASSESSMENT (A self-assessment)

When I have Assessment as my course for the semester, I was really excited. I was thinking that it will be just an ordinary kind of subject. But I was wrong. I definitely learned a lot, really. Does assessing a student easy? NO. Does evaluating a student quite interesting? Perhaps. Does assessment cycle needed to become better in your assessment? Definitely. And endless questions that popped up my mind as I write this final entry of this semester.

 

THE FIRST SAGA: DIVERGENT

Honestly, I find it annoying when the teacher gives pre test before the class proper starts. When I entered in college, they almost let us answer these 100 questions that I really don’t know- diseases, prevention, treatment, pathology and etc. Isn’t it annoying for someone who doesn’t know anything about it? And you just don’t know if I did well or not since they are not giving it back the tool. Well, after studying this course, I must admit that all along I must thank my professors in doing it. For me, pre test is very important. Not only to assess the level of cognitive skill and prior knowledge but how will the teacher designs the instructional plans that will cater all the learners in our knowledge and skills expense. Moreover, I want to applaud my other professors who really challenged me by giving a lot of assessment such as homework, self-assessment, journal writing, open ending questions and so forth. I think assessment in nursing level should be always relevant in our field because it is not just about our knowledge but as well an evaluation of our analysis and comprehension to collaborate with theory and practice.

THE SECOND SAGA: INSURGENT

Making an assessment is not just about assessing students. It is most likely assessing the entire connected stakeholders. The school’s curriculum, the value and principles, validity, reliability, feedback and even the costing.I always say this, even a piece of assessment is very important and significant because this can make or break a certain beneficiary. Have you noticed that there are different kinds of assessment and its purpose? If yes, then congrats because it is necessary that we should know where these assessment lead us. For me, it can spice up something for the student’s knowledge and skill, teacher’s efficiency, school’s performance and effectivity and government’s education status. So everything boils down with assessment.

Now, what if the assessment goes wrong? Well, blame it to the one who did it. Yeah, practically for me it is correct answer. That is why, as an education student, I have to be efficient and really study hard what is meant and elements of assessment. I don’t want to be bias in terms of assessing my students. There shall be fairness in our practice. Nevertheless, the kind of teacher we are will reflect if the student shall be responsible in the society. That is why, table of specifications, feedbacks and other resources prior to making assessment are effective ways to double check, justify the construction and even the layout and etc. Indeed, it takes time but being a teacher we have to think the result on it. Assessment is not just about assessing as what I have said in my previous journal, it is more beyond what we expect.

THIRD SAGA: ALLEGIANT FOR THE FUTURE GENERATION

As part of education society, we should be active participants for change. Change for good assessment that is grounded with principles and proper methods will lead to factual information and evaluation. Yes, Grades are, most basically, a means of feedback.  Therefore, as a teacher we should provide measurement of performance, collaborating with proper comments and criticisms and enhanced students improvement.

As a community, involvement of parents is very important because they can help their children’s weakness points. Proper report cards, written progress report and even parent teacher’s conferences are ways to show how their children evolve and enrich their learning process.  In my own opinion, these can provide greater meaning to the stakeholders of the school if teachers and administration help one another to come up with certain reformation together with the parents as well as students.

Being allegiant to our principle and motivation to be responsible educator to our students is one of the most aspiring things to become a teacher. Now, that I am on my journey, I learned a lot of things beside theory itself. However the affection on how things turn out to my students if proper assessment is involved during the learning process enlightened me deeply. As a student, I must LEARN more and should be MOTIVATED to be good at assessment. This course changed my personal opinions regarding tests, methods and teacher’s methods in giving assessment. There are positive and negative ideas that remind me during my elementary, high school, college and post graduate. It gives me joy that my teachers are very dedicated to assess her students and lead us to what we are right now. I was a nursing student, so our assessment process was somehow difficult because we are dealing with lives. I truly appreciate this kind of course because it enlightens me what true factual information can do for the students.

LAST SAGA: AT THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

When you hike going to the mountain it is quite hard. You need to grasp your breath, you need good shoes and gear to feel safe and you should be knowledgeable where the direction is. I can relate these experiences to my past schooling wherein you hate to study and finish a lot of home works, projects and tests. You have to have good resources to study so that you can pass the test. You should memorize and analyze the questions when you take any kind of assessment.

When you are already at the top of the mountain, you see the beautiful scenery same with assessment. When you finished taking the tests, home works and other tools, you feel relax and happy most especially if you passed everything.

When you are ready to go down, it feels easier. You don’t need to catch your breath and learn to be independent. Through thorough assessment, you learned a lot of things not only the level of cognitive but also touches the affective and psychomotor domains that’s why I learn to be on my own and learn a lot of things that I can use in my daily life.

And now… I am ready… ready to learn more about ASSESSMENT. This is not yet the end of my journey. I want to keep the pace going. Think aloud. Be more active in the learning process. I want to be a good educator someday and I believe through GOOD ASSESSMENT, I can simply achieve this.

 

 

ASSIGNMENT 2: FRUIT OF LABOR

Assessment as I always imply, is very important in the learning process and student’s progression. Since it is a definite important it should be relied on specific principles of assessment. Yes, we can make our own assessment. I believe so. But while doing the assignment, I certainly realized that it is not just about constructing an exam and it is beyond what I expected.

I had a partner with this assignment (Abel) and I was very happy because he is very intelligent and we do have same college course. We chose our assessment tools way back in college so that the two of us can relate of the assessment. We were tasked to present characteristics or attributes of each authentic assessment we used.

INSIGHTS

The level of assessment depends on what do you really want to achieve. For example, in our tool for formative assessment, the clinical instructor uses assignment to know what kind of understanding, level of knowledge and so forth. This is very important because the instructor wants to make his or her instructional method and plan to be effective to the students learning outcome. I can still remember when I was still in college, I hate doing assignments especially on the first day. I mean I always try to persuade myself that it is useless activity because I cannot get anything about it. Why start an assignment wherein fact the teacher hasn’t fed us anything. Well, there is always a reason for everything- and that is for my own sake.

I wrote the attributes for traditional, alternative, formative and summative. I have learned a lot that it is important that you clearly stated your instructions, the stems, and even alternative answers. There are certain characteristics of selected items where I find it strange. Teachers in tertiary must perhaps expert in giving us assessment. I remember some of our exams, teachers tend to trick us with certain questions and leads us with a lot of mistakes especially with the instruction is very vague and ambiguous in nature. And one thing that I have to ask is that, teachers in higher education should be careful in validating the test or questionnaires given. I believe there are a lot of errors given to us way back in college after studying this subject. I find it invalid, inaccurate, and bias in nature some of the items I took.

That is why; I realized that when I become a teacher I want to be FAIR with my assessment though I have to always take note those diverse students particularly weak and physically incapable to do some assessment activities. I want to take note what is really the best assessment I can give and dispense to the students and through this I can measure what more learning and methods that I can inject to them. My principle why I want to become a teacher is to teach them to become responsible and instill values that can help them mold into better persons therefore my job is to always try to evaluate what is the best for this students.

100%, the score we always wanted

 

Scores are very important. This is somehow an evaluation if you win or lose in a volleyball game. Scores is the determiner if you already able to passed a certain level in a game application. Mostly, it is important in giving a proper judgment if the student passes or fails an examination, admission and national assessment test.

With the previous modules, I learned about norm-referenced and criterion type of test. These are valid methods that can serve as a benchmark of the student’s level. Importantly, scores then will give reason for us to be motivated and reinforce one self of our own abilities and skills. For example, I remember when I had my test in an admission test in high school. They are quite strict about the passing score since not all shall be admitted. I remembered that I need to get over 700 that is why I studied really hard. Fortunately, I passed but some of my classmates didn’t.  I think scores are determiners who is accepted and rejected and becomes a valid information that is widely accepted.

Standardized test scores are merely a piece of a puzzle because why some institutions required high test score while others not. Does this mean that the scores set a standard to implement a certain degree of league between other schools? Well, perhaps YES. UPCAT is one of the most popular admission tests in the Philippines. They set a high standard score for a certain student to be admitted in University of the Philippines. Unfortunately, not all can be admitted and pass their test.  Why? The intent is to have a benchmark so that schools and universities can be assured that those students who are admitted in their institutions are equally knowledgeable set by their own standard. That is why score plays vital role in this kind of system.

Indeed, some people really it’s bias and unfair because of the score limitation in admitting and passing students but in the event that all students shall pass even though they are incapable into the next level, would you think the learning process is effective, knowing that this student needs more learning and achieving proper knowledge? You guess.

For me, I believe that we do have same interpretation about scores wherein the higher your score in your test the better. We shall be more fit in a certain level that the teacher is assured that I gained knowledge from the subject matter. But it shouldn’t stop there, you must be more motivated to learn more and help other who didn’t get good score. It shall be your own bases to assess yourself if you learn or not.