Refresher Course for Licensure Examinations for Teachers: Assessment of Learning Part 2

 II. PRINCIPLES OF HIGH QUALITY ASSESSMENT

A. Clarity of Learning Targets

• Assessment can be made precise, accurate and dependable only if what are to be achieved are clearly stated. 
• Learning targets need to be stated in behavioral terms or terms which denote something which can be observed through the behavior of the student.

 Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

1. REMEMBERING

• Recall previous learned information.

Keywords:

defines, describes, identifies, knows, labels, lists, matches, names, outlines, recalls, recognizes, reproduces, selects, states.

Examples:

• Recite a policy. 
• Quote prices from memory to a customer. 
• Knows the safety rules.

2. UNDERSTANDING: 

• Comprehending the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. 

Keywords:

comprehends, converts, defends, distinguishes, estimates, explains, extends, generalizes, gives an example, infers, interprets, paraphrases, predicts, rewrites, summarizes, translates.

Examples:

• Rewrites the principles of test writing. 
• Explain in one's own words the steps for performing a complex task. 

3. APPLYING: 

• Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the workplace.

Keywords:

applies, changes, computes, constructs, demonstrates, discovers, manipulates, modifies, operates, predicts, prepares, produces, relates, shows, solves, uses.

Examples:

• Use a manual to calculate an employee's vacation time. 
• Apply laws of statistics to evaluate the reliability of a written test.

4. ANALYZING: 

• Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences.

Keywords:

analyzes, breaks down, compares, contrasts, diagrams, deconstructs, differentiates, discriminates, distinguishes, identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines, 

Examples:

• Troubleshoot a piece of equipment by using logical deduction. 
• Recognize logical fallacies in reasoning. 

5. EVALUATING: 

• Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials.

Keywords:

appraises, compares, concludes, contrasts, criticizes, critiques, defends, describes, discriminates, evaluates, explains, interprets, justifies, relates, summarizes, supports.

Examples:

• Select the most effective solution. 
• Hire the most qualified candidate. 
• Explain and justify a new budget.

6. CREATING: 

• Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure.

Keywords:

categorizes, combines, compiles, composes, creates, devises, designs, explains, generates, modifies, organizes, plans, rearranges, reconstructs, relates, reorganizes, revises, rewrites, summarizes, tells, writes.

Examples:

• Write a company operations or process manual. 
• Design a machine to perform a specific task. Integrates training from several sources to solve a problem. 

Refresher Course for Licensure Examinations for Teachers: Assessment of Learning

 I.  BASIC CONCEPTS IN ASSESSMENT

MEASUREMENT

• The use of tools or instruments to provide a quantitative description of the progress of students toward desirable educational goals
• A process of quantifying the degree to which someone/something possess a given trait

TEST OR TESTING

• A systematic procedure to determine the presence or absence of certain characteristics or qualities in a learner
• An instrument designed to measure any characteristics, quality, ability, knowledge or skills.
• Comprised of items in the area it is designed to measure

ASSESSMENT

• The process of interpreting the measurement data
• A process of gathering and organizing quantitative or qualitative data into an interpretable form to have a basis for judgment or decision making

EVALUATION

• Implies that measurement and assessment of an educational characteristic had been done and that it is now desired to pass a value judgment on the educational outcome by comparing results with predetermined criteria or objectives.
• Provides a tool for determining the extent to which educational process or program is effective and indicates directions for remediating processes of the curriculum that do not contribute to successful student performance

Types of Measurement

a) Objective measurement

• More stable since repeated measurements of the same quantity or quality of interest produce more or less the same outcome
• Do not depend on the person or individual taking the measurements

b) Subjective measurement

• Are used in certain facets of the quantity or quality of interest that cannot be successfully captured by objective measures
• Often differ from one assessor to the next even if the same quantity or quality is being measured

Forms/Kinds of Assessment

1. Traditional Assessment

• Refers the use of paper-and-pencil test

2. Alternative Assessment

• Refers to the use of methods other than pen-and-paper objective test which includes performance test, projects, portfolios, journals and the like.

3. Authentic Assessment

• Refers to the use of assessment methods that simulate true-to-life situations
• This could be objective tests that reflect real life situations or alternative methods that are parallel to what we experience in real life

Roles of Assessment

a) Diagnostic

• Determines the gaps in learning or learning processes and hopefully to be able to bridge these gaps
• Used to determine students’ recurring or persistent difficulties
• Searches for the underlying causes of student’s learning problems that do not respond to first aid treatment
• Helps formulate a plan for detailed remedial instruction

b) Formative 

• Allows the teacher to redirect and refocus the course of teaching a subject matter
• Teachers continuously monitor the student’s level of attainment of the learning objectives
• The results are communicated clearly and promptly to the students for them to know their strengths and weaknesses and the progress of their learning

c) Summative

• Determines the extent to which the learning objectives are met and why
• Used to certify what students know and can do and  the level of their proficiency or competency
• Reveals whether or not instructions have successfully achieved the curriculum outcomes
• Paves the way for educational reforms

d) Placement

• Determines the appropriate placement of a student both in terms of achievement and aptitude
• Assess the needs of the learners to have basis in planning for relevant instruction
• Used to know what the students are bringing into the learning situation and use this as a starting point for instruction

Middle Childhood Stage of Development

  Elementary school children are mostly in the age range of seven to twelve years old. This stage is commonly referred to as middle childhood stage. If based on Freud's psychoanalytic thought, this stage is the fourth stage of psychosexual development called latency stage. On this stage, traumas from preceding stage, the Phallic Stage, cause sexual conflicts to be repressed and sexual urge to be rechanneled into schoolwork and vigorous play. The ego, or the rational component of personality, and the superego, the component that consists of one's internalized moral standard, continue to develop as the child gain's more problem-solving abilities at school and internalize social value.

     Meanwhile, Erikson's psychosocial Theory presents this stage in his Eight Life Crisis in which one needs to overcome. By the age of six to twelve years, children experience the crisis of industry versus inferiority. Children must master the importance of social interaction and academic skills to feel assured. Failure to acquire these important attributes leads to the feeling of inferiority. Significant social agents are teachers and peers.

Erikson labeled the elementary school years as "I am what I learn". This is the period for school children to learn everything they have to do, such as learning to play, sports, extra-curricular activities, academic competition all of which they learn from peers and classmates, as well as from the school itself. They are also anxious to demonstrate the skills mastered.
     In Piaget's Cognitive Development, middle childhood is the stage which he called Concrete-Operational Stage. By this period, children can think logically and systematically about concrete objects, events and experiences. They can now perform arithmetical operations and mentally reverse the outcome of physical actions and behavioral consequences. The acquisition of these and other cognitive operations permit the child to conserve, seriate and make transitive inferences. However, concrete operators still cannot think logically about hypothetical proposition that violates their conception of reality.
    On this stage, development continues to be rapid, although the changes that take place may not be as obvious and observable as those in the earlier periods. Physical growths has slowed and few inches yearly is no longer as dramatic as it was in infancy or toddlerhood. Now, the major changes are largely internal, having to do with the child's way of thinking and feeling.

Cognitive Model of Learning

     Information Processing Theory explains acquisition of knowledge in a step-by-step manner. Sometimes, this theory is said to be analogous to how a computer works. What is good about this theory is its being organized in presenting how information comes to our mind. It gives us a picture or a diagram about how we learn things and processes that take place inside our head.

The Three Primary Processes
I. Encoding. This when the information in our environment is being sensed, perceived or attended to.

II. Storage. After we encode the information, it is stored for either a short or long period of time depending on how we process or encode the said information.

III. Retrieval. The stored information is retrieved when needed in a certain task.

The Three Main Stages of Information Processing

1. Sensory Memory
          Human body perceives the environment through the senses. These sensations travel to the brain as electrical impulses or synapses. However, these electrical impulses or synapses must be translated in such a way that the brain can understand. This process is called transduction. Sensory Memory, the first main stage of information processing is affiliated with the transduction of energy.
In this stage, our mind holds the information for extremely brief period of time, since it receives a great amount of information more than it can hold or perceive. This is the reason why attention is very important on this stage. In order for the information to proceed to the next stage, that information must be attended to, or must be familiarized by the thinker. In addition, the duration is different among the senses, like auditory memory is more persistent than visual memory.

2. Short-Term Memory
          This memory is also called working memory because this refers to what we are thinking in a certain moment of time. This stage is created if we attend to an external information, a thought that popped in our head, or both.
The capacity of short term memory is said to be 7 plus-minus 2. This means that STM can hold 5 to 9 chunks or bits of information. The duration of the information while in the STM is dependent on how we organize or practice/repeat that information. Thus, organization and repetition, plus chunking or grouping, can help the information proceed to the next stage, that is the Long-Term Memory.

3. Long-Term Memory
          This is the final stage of memory wherein the information can be stored permanently until needed. Its capacity is unlimited and its duration is indefinite.


          Take note however that these stages are not like that of machines that once turned on, will do the process 1st step, 2nd step, 3rd step, so on and so forth. The processes are said to be controlled and regulated by an executive processing system, more popularly known as metacognition. Metacognition, in simpler terms, is "thinking about thinking"

Social Learning Theory in Classroom

 1. Students can learn by observation. As teachers, we need to expose our students to good role models for them to exhibit positive behavior. Observational learning can as well be applied across various subject areas. Demonstration method is perhaps the most common example in which a teacher model or demonstrate a certain skill while students learn by observe and follow. 

2. Discuss to the learners the reward and consequences of certain behaviors. This can effectively make students be driven to exhibit appropriate behaviors while reducing the occurrence of inappropriate ones.  

3. Modeling can be used to teach new behaviors. It gives another way of molding certain behaviors aside from reward and punishment. By exposing students to certain models and the consequences of their certain behavior, it provides a more efficient way for teaching new behavior.  However, the teacher has to take into account that the four important conditions exist to make modelling effective. These are attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation.

4. Teachers and parents must be an exemplar of appropriate behavior. This highlights that we teachers, together with parents and adults, first and foremost be a good role model for our students. We must be careful with our own actions since what we do, being adults, is most of the time considered right in the eyes of the students.

5. Present students with different models. We should not limit modelling to typical examples rather exposed students with a variety of other models. This way, students avoid stereotyping and labelling certain groups of people.