As a student, what kind of assessment did I prefer
to take? What types of assessment were/are threatening for
me? Why?
When I was in high school, I always prefer to take the
short quizzes, given by dictation or reading the Manila Paper posted on the blackboard, as I had high chances of getting a
perfect score and I do not have to study too long. The quizzes were easy because
most of the time it will be identification, so if I memorize the lessons, I
always get a high score, and it makes me
happy. However, when I was in college, I still preferred the formative
assessment, but this time in a paper and pencil tests. Likewise, I liked the
identification part because it was more of memorization, and I liked the multiple choice as well because I
only have to analyze the question. On the
other hand, a summative assessment that
included an essay part was threatening to me when I was in college because I
was afraid that I missed keywords in my essay. However, after undergrad
studies, I liked to take-home exams, especially on essays as I can
do some research and substantiate my essay.
It gave me comfort that I have done my best to answer the essay assignment.
Another threatening assessment for me was an informal assessment. Due to the poor validity
and reliability of this assessment, I always perceived that my teachers had favoritism, and I felt that if don’t try to please my teacher or if I don’t
behave, I will be less favored, so lower
grades.
What factors influenced how I chose to prepare for an upcoming assessment (exams, projects, or other assessment tasks)?
Time is the main factor
that influenced my preparation for any upcoming assessments. If I am given enough time, I tend to be more
prepared and confident to take the exam. However, if the time is very long, I
tend to become relax with the preparation, but it allows me to study deeper about the concepts, and sometimes I feel
that I am an expert earner about the concept.
Another factor is the availability of materials to study. Most of the time, I will access the internet to find out the
latest information about a topic. However, if there are only very few materials
available, it makes me less interested because I feel that I only need to study a particular material to pass the assessment.
What kinds of test do I perceive will be threatening to
learners (e.g., my students)? How
do I explain this situation, using my new understanding of materials from this
module?
Summative exams are threatening to the students especially if
this is given more weight than any other
assessments combined. Informing students in advance on the requirements on how
they will be objectively assessed for the
summative exams will encourage students to be engaged with their learning.
As an educator (current or future), what kinds of assessment do (will) I prefer to give? Why?
As a future educator, I
prefer to give take-home reflective exam because this type of exam do not only shows a deep understanding of the students
about the topic but also their written communication skills. It will
help them develop to articulate their ideas in a more organized manner, and
this will become a transferrable skill in
real-life.
What new insights emerged from
this lesson?
‘Students can, with difficulty, escape from the effects
of poor teaching, they cannot (by definition if they want to graduate) escape
the effects of poor assessment.’ David Boud
The above quote concretely describes
the new insights from this lesson. The assessment
must be well-prepared, so it meets the principles of validity and reliability.
It has to be an effective assessment design, so we can establish exactly what we are
trying to achieve in a particular type of assessment. Every teacher has
to realize that assessment design can have as big an influence on what our
students learn as our teaching. Students may
have a real passion for their subject, but for many, the goal of a university
education isn’t necessarily to deepen their understanding of their chosen
discipline, it’s to get ‘a degree.’
As such, their learning may be more focused on what they need to know to pass
their coursework and exams.
Ideally, the methods of assessment we use should do more
than award a grade – they need to serve as an
aid to students’ learning, allow them to gauge their progress, get feedback on
their strengths and weaknesses, and consolidate their learning. This fits with
the concept of Assessment for Learning. However, the assessment also has to meet quality assurance standards. These two, almost
opposing requirements of assessment make effective design a real challenge, but
doing it well can help our students to better engage with the subject
and their learning; potentially reduce our assessment workload, and may help to reduce the number of
plagiarism cases.
In
what ways do I find the lessons in this module personally important?
We are all aware that the nature of assessment is known
to affect students’ approaches to learning and
research has shown that students are more likely to adopt ‘surface’ rather than
‘deep’ approaches to learning if regurgitation of knowledge is the main
criterion being assessed. But
assessment satisfies some different
purposes in addition to student learning, such as classifying achievement,
quality assurance and supporting lifelong learning. In an ideal world, the assessments
that we use should be sufficiently diverse and balanced to support these different (and diverse) purposes.
Also, I realized
that the nature of assessment can also
have a significant impact on our working life. Do we find ourselves bored to
tears when it comes to setting and marking that pile of 50 essays on our desk?
Do we get wrapped up in cases of academic misconduct when our time would be
better spent writing grant proposals? Do we yearn
for students to read beyond the standard texts and to draw together their
learning from across a wide range of modules? And do we hear ourselves
asking “there has to be a better way of assessing these students”? If we answer yes to any of these, then the time
may well have come for us to take some time to consider whether or not an
alternative method of assessment is right for our students (and for us).
asilv2019 