Friday, September 24, 2010

Principles of Teaching and Learning: Assessment of Learning

Assessment of Learning is one of the, shall I say, "challenging" topics in education. This is so because it involves a little bit of statistics. Since, I lack time to discuss the various topics involved in assessment, I will just present the principles behind assessment of/for learning. Remember that LET will not really focus on the technicalities, like what is variance, how to get the standard deviation, what is the difference among the mean, median, mode, etc. Rather, it is more focused on how will we interpret these statistical data in understanding the learner's achievement and to improve our instruction.

These principles are again, "adapted" from Corpus and Salandanan, 2007)

1. Teaching and learning is never complete without assessment. This means that assessment is an integral part of the teaching-learning process. We need to test how far the learners have learned, either before, during or after instruction, in line with our objectives. Thus, if learners are made to realize about this, negative attitudes about assessment will be minimized since the quizzes and tests will be just "usual" to them. They will come to realize the purpose of assessment, that is, to check how far they have learned.

2. Assessment tool and objectives must be colinear. The test/quiz or any assessment techniques must be in line with the objectives. This also includes the type of assessment appropriate for a certain objective. This is like a teacher who has an objective about "Singing the Philippine National Anthem". Which is more appropriate assessment tool: let the student write down completely the anthem, or let them sing the anthem? Reflect. Hehehe...

3. Assessment results should be fed back to the students. This is one of the mortal sins of some of the teachers. They will give quizzes, tests, projects, etc yet they fail to return these to the students, or to just inform the grade/score the students acquired. The purpose of assessment is to give learners a feedback to what extent their learning is. How will the learners learn this if the teacher won't give their scores or return their papers?

4. In assessment, consider learners' multiple intelligences and learning styles. The traditional paper and pencil test puts verbally and linguistically intelligent students at the advantage. Let us take into account the learners multiple intelligence and learning styles in assessment. Give various assessment techniques in order to cater individual differences.

5. It is wise to give some positive feedback as well as constructive criticisms. Don't forget to praise the students on a job well done. This can boost their morale to study and appreciate the value of success. Further, let's give them some constructive criticisms on the areas they need to improve. Remember that the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.

6. Emphasize self-assessment. Assessment must be intracomparative rather than intercomparative. In short, if learning is as well a personal process, then, let the learners assess their performance on their own against a certain criteria(is this "in short"? Hehehe). Let them be aware of and reflect on their own progress. Rather than comparing themselves with other people, let them compare their "then" self to their "now" self. Competitive nature of learning must be as much as possible avoided. If there is a competition, let this be between the students and their own prior performance. One thing more, always remember that self assessment must also be in line with teacher assessment. This can avoid overestimation or underestimation of students' performance on themselves.

7. Build the culture of success in the classroom. Avoid the bell curve mentality, or the belief that it is normal that some students pass while some fail. Have that mentality that ALL learners can achieve.

8. Never use assessment as a disciplinary action or a punishment. This distorts the true purpose of assessment. This will enkindle the negative attitudes toward assessment.

9. Assessment should be communicated regularly and clearly to parents. Take note however the importance of accountability, transparecy and confidentiality.

10. Emphasize on real world application that favors realistic performances over out of context drill items. Hence, assessment must focus on real life application, as well as developing higher ordered thinking skills such as analyzing, evaluating and most of all creating.
(Sorry if the explanation on the last principles are short, out of character spaces in my cellphone.hehehe...)

57 comments:

  1. thank you it helps a lot

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  2. maraming thanks, nahirapan akong magsearch tungkol sa mga principles, salamat uli

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  3. tnk u poh...it helps me in my project...

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  4. tnx poh...it really helps me.....

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  5. hi! thank you for a very informative and helpful site most esp. for those who wants to pursue a career in teaching, like ME..keep it up..GODBLESS..

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  6. hi thank you very. you're a great help with my field study 5. God bless!!!

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  7. thanks for all these comments...they inspire me to post more...keep reading....

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  8. thanks a lot..it really helps me a lot in my report

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  9. thanks it helps me a lot

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  10. I'm an FS student and this one helped me a lot answering the questions on my book. :))
    -sasi ferraris DLSU

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  11. thanks if i have helped a bit...hope you'll also share this blog to other educations students...:)

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  12. thank po..it's a big help!sana maka present kayo any incident when any of these principles was/were violated by teachers..hehe

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  13. thank yoouuu soo much for this site..it helps a lot in answer my FS 5..hehehehe....!

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  14. thank yoouuu soo much for this site..it helps a lot in answering my FS 5..hehehehe....!

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  15. hmmm...it's a nice idea...will consider that on my later posts....

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  16. thanx po.. i agree that it helps a lot in answering my FS 5... God bless! :D

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  17. this helps... thanks

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  18. thanks may answer n sa fs5...page 6,haha.

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  19. though it didn't give me the full idea at least this my help me in my teaching prof. thanks a lot

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  20. maraming salamat sa tulong ninyo dahil nahirapan po talaga akong mag search

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  21. ok po..............maraming salamat ulit

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  22. through this explanations, i was able to give teaching behavior of the teacher of each principles.... keep it up! tnx so much!

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  23. thanks a lot,it helps me so much...keep it up!

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  24. HI JAY..THANK YOU VERY MUCH. YOU'VE HELPED US A LOT. MORE POWER AND GOD BLESS!

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  25. thnx a lot this really helps us...

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  26. thanks my answer narin sa FS 105.

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  27. thank you so much for sharing ur knowledge regrding on this topic i learned a lot....

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  28. Thanks po i learned a lot,,.............

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  29. It really helps me in answering my FS. To God bethe glory! Thank for sharing to us...I pray that you will post because you really help us...Indeed You are a teacher!!!!God bless!!

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  30. thanks it help e a lot to answer y FS book . haha ;)

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  31. thanks a lot. You did a great job!!!!!!!

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  32. salamat poh. nakatulong po kayong marami sa aming requirements.

    nawa'y pagpalain kayo ng poong maykapal.

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  33. your welcome!!!I dunno but I think this post is my most commented post in this blog...hehehehe

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  34. thank you so much....i can answer now the questions that our instructor asked to us....hirap palang mg unit specially kung wla kang background xa mga fs,ped and etc....it helps me a lot....tnx

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  35. .thanks a lot for the info... :-)

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  36. thank you so much....you enlightened me with your work.

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  37. i really like the explaination...
    it helps me a lot...
    d ko kc maintindihan taecher cu the way she explain..
    i need to research more pa to gain more information...^^

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  38. tnx sa post ninyo at mas lalo kong naintindihan ang report ko

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  39. hope you can give me more info updated about this article.

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  40. salamat poh.. malaking 2long ito sa fs5 q poh..

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  41. thank you so much malaking 2long poh 2 xa prof ed namin

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  42. it helps me a lot :) keep it up and more posting of CORPUZ and SALANDANAN books :) God bless.

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  43. tnx mr. jay-i sa mga post mo it helps me a lot to answer my activity...=)keep it up!

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  45. tnx po. Such a great help tlga...

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  46. yeah! it really helps a lot. Thank You :)))

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  47. pa explain nman po yung sa intercomparative and intracomparative

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  48. ano pu ung assessment in the different phases of instruction? and appropriate assessmant tools? :)

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  49. thannkkkzzzz poooo:)

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  50. I read lots of principles of assessment hat being revised by other author, but this one. i find it meaningful to me.. tnx for this info sir

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  51. thank you it helps me a lot...

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  52. The explanations are easy to understand. Thanks a lot. God bless!

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