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An essay on summative assessment
What is the role of assessment in teaching
The importance of assessment in teaching
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The sixth factor is “Assessments” (McBer, 2000). Assessments and instructions are inseparable. This is the factor that decides if the effective learning has taken place, which I will cover in the latter part of the essay. Effective teachers employ different assessments techniques and tools to know the understanding of their pupils. Assessments not only serve as the tool for measuring students’ understanding, it is also for the teachers to improve their teaching. They also need to differentiate their assessments based on the cognitive needs of the students. Effective teachers use three types of assessment. Diagnostic Assessment (DA), which is widely known as pre-assessment or prior knowledge assessment is used by the teachers to check the skills of the students, which will be helpful for the planning and guide DI (ASCD website). Formative Assessment (FA) is those ongoing assessments, helps teachers understand the grey areas, and helps them to clear the misconceptions by immediately acting on it. FAs can include both formal and informal ways such as written test, oral questioning, quizzes, and group discussions. It is not necessarily being graded. There are also few modern differentiated FAs such as ThinkDots, Cubing, Tic-Tac-Toe used by formally trained and trainee teachers in IIS. Using these differentiated FAs breaks the monotony of the class, and students find these FAs to be interesting activities. The fear of failure is reduced here. The Summative Assignments (SA) is nothing but the traditional way of assessing the students at the end of the topic/course. Though the SAs are important, it does not give opportunity for the students to rework on it or for teachers to support the students in building the concept. But the teachers ...
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... school should be trained well about the DI techniques and methods to meet the needs of the pupils. Effective teachers no matter the challenges and hindrances fall in their path; they always find the possible ways for their students to succeed with their power of resilience. To provide an effective education, the school, the management, the environment and most importantly the teachers should be well nurtured to provide an effective education. I conclude by saying that the hidden potential of the students will be uncovered with the effective teaching strategies of a teacher as Carol Ann Tomlinson and Edwin Lou Javius (ASCD Website) say, “Classrooms that ‘Teach Up’ function from the premise that student potential is like an iceberg–most of it is obscured from view–and the high trust, high expectations, and high support environment will reveal in time what is hidden”.
The tools and techniques used are comprehensive which helps assess a learner’s development in the area of learning like the ability to understand, analysis, and apply knowledge acquired through creative process that are evaluated. The evaluation section was divided into two broad categories Scholastic that looked at the areas which were subject specific and Co-Scholastic that included activities that were co-curricular like life skills, attitudes and values. The Scholastic evaluations was divided into Summative assessment to help analyse how much the students have learned after teaching through various medium like multiple choice questions, long and short answers , match the following , fill in the blanks and understanding diagrams in science and Formative assessment were to evaluate the students everyday learning situations during teaching to help identify gaps which help provide feedback to teachers to be able take remedial action through the use of various tools like observation, document analysis ,peer reviews ,self-assessment ,tests and implementation of various techniques like projects ,assignments , activities , making of posters ,charts ,collages ,group discussions and seminars. While the life skills activities looked at enhancing the thinking, social and emotional skills, the summative assessment looked at assessing skills like teamwork
And while each of the six elements are important perhaps none is as important as the first, “Teacher leaders convey conviction about a better world.” (Crowther, 2008) Perhaps the single greatest ill to plague educators today is the deficit thinking that strips them of hope for their students’ and their schools’ success. “My pupils live in ‘this’ district, and go to ‘this’ school so their ceiling for academic growth lies here.” “Well of course they are academically unacceptable, have you seen our socio-economic status?” While these quotes may not be attributed to anyone individual the sentiment that drives them are pervasive in our education system today, and in particularly the district to which we find ourselves employed. Deficit thinking that places external caps on student production, and teacher ingenuity, is the greatest barrier to achieving success. Crowther ends his discussion of element one by saying, “we have been struck by the clarity of the values aspects of these teacher’s lives, and also by their sense of confidence regarding the power of schools and the teaching profession to shape lives.” (Crowther, 2008, p. 13) For Crowther, the first step in creating a successful school is recruiting or nurturing teacher leaders to unfalteringly share the same vision. That vision must be that all students can succeed,
Teachers are meant to be motivators into student’s effort. Nobody wants to attend a class where the teacher simply lectures and then quizzes the students nor attend a class where you literally do the same repeated steps every time. Teachers have to make connections with their students by showing their approachability. Rose says, “the teachers had no idea of how to engage the imaginations of us kids who were scuttling along at the bottom of the pond.” Teachers have to attempt different tactics to excite and discipline students to be “groomed for the classroom” for the students are screaming for help when they are fooling around and not paying attention. Given this point the atmosphere created with lack of preparedness by teachers will not have students striving for success in their
I would have to contend that the 21st Century learning skills are a model example of effective instruction. In an ever-changing society it goes without saying that our classroom practices will also be revolutionized. In order to successfully prepare a student to enter in to the world outside of high school we must prepare them for the realities that they will encounter. Rotherham & Willingham (2009) state, “… the skills students need in the 21st century are not new” (p.352). Critical thinking, problem solving, the “mastery of different kinds of knowledge”, and multifaceted analysis are all skills that originated with the traditional school setting (p. 352). “What is actually new is the extent to which changes in our economy and world mean that collective and individual success depends on having such skills” (p. 352). With that being said- as our economy and world continue to transform, as educators, we must also renovate our thinking and teaching in order to put our best foot forward; however, some believe that we will never find perfection in the classroom or in preparing our students and that we must not capitulate to every movement we encounter. Senechal (2010) argues that a movement, such as the 21st Century skills movement, is nothing more than a distractor. She acknowledges that our schools “are in need of repair- but we will not improve them by scorning tradition or succumbing to the “claims of the present”” (p. 370). She states that in order to repair the problems that we are to “seek out excellence, nurture it, defend it, and live up to it. We must be willing to lift the levels of the subjects we teach…” (p.370). Perhaps I am reading too much, or too little, into this statement but I would...
Teachers use a range of formative assessment tools and teaching approaches to gather evidence for the purposes of: monitoring and measuring student learning; providing students with feedback; and providing feedback to inform teaching and modifying instructional strategies to enhance students’ knowledge and performance in mathematics (ACARA, 2015; DEECD, 2009; McMillan, 2011; Taylor-Cox, & Oberdorf, 2013). Regular use of formative assessment improves student learning as instruction can be adjusted based on students’ progress and teachers are able to modify instructions to cater to students’ individual needs (Black & Wiliam, 2010; Taylor-Cox, & Oberdorf, 2013). Various forms of informal and formal formative assessment methods are conducted as learning takes place, continuously through teacher observations, questioning through individual interactions, group discussions and open-ended tasks (McMillan,
However, a formative assessment is ongoing and is used to check for students’ understanding throughout a lesson. Both work samples “matched learning objectives” and I was able to identify the students’ strength and weaknesses. I was also able to “analyze assessment data to understand patterns and gaps in learning” to guide my future instructions. In the word problem assessment, I recognized where the student was struggling and gave “effective and descriptive feedback” to address the area that she needs work in.
Part III: Conclusion and Recommendations, 3.1. Conclusion remarks Formative assessment plays an important role in teaching and learning process. Firstly, formative assessment is applied to clarifying, sharing and understanding learning intentions and criteria for success. Secondly, formative assessment also helps to engineer classroom activities that elicit evidence of learning. Thirdly, formative assessment can provide feedback that moves students forward.
There are different methods and uses of assessment that are used in the Education system, the reason for this, is that not all assessments serve the same purpose for its methodologies, the feedback that learners receive needs to correspond with the purpose of the assessment. (Sieborger, 1998)Thus educators tend to make use of multiple assessments to establish a fair and just measurement of the learner’s capability. This essay will extensively describe and analyse the tensions between the two methods of assessment: Summative assessment and Formative assessment and further reflect on their ability to integrate.
Assessment, in the context of education, was defined by Lambert, D (2000, pag 4) as the processs of gathering, recording and using information about pupils' responses to educational tasks. Despite some can consider that assessment is separated from the learning process, assessment is, in fact, an essential part of the learning proccess. Maguire, M. and Dillon, J. (2007, pag 213) pointed out that assessment is intrincately bound-up in the teaching-learning cycle.
Although somewhat vague compared to summative assessment, several key features help frame formative assessment. First, formative assessment happens while learning is taking place as opposed to at the end of content delivery. Rather, this is considered “assessment for learning,” (Chappuis, J., Stiggins, Chappuis, S., & Arter, 2012, pg. 5). The format is formal or informal, but the outcome in its use is an in-progress check of what students know and what students do not know. Chappuis, Stiggins, Chappuis, and Arter (2012) define formative assessment as, “Formal and informal processes teachers and students use to gather evidence for the purpose of improving learning,” (pg. 24). Second, this type of assessment is used to make instructional strategy adjustments. If student learning did not happen via one instructional method, the teacher must make the necessary accommodations to reteach the concept or skill. Next, it is not only used by teachers for feedback on instruction, but formative assessment is also used for providing timely, descriptive feedback to students and extends to allow for student self-assessment (Chappuis, J., Stiggins, Chappuis, S., & Arter, 2012; Popham, 2008). Formative assessment provides opportunity to provide specific feedback to students on where they are currently in their learning, and where they should be headed.
Through assessment students and teachers are able to determine the level of mastery a student has achieved with standards taught. Both formative and summative assessment should be purposeful and targeted to gain the most accurate data to drive further instruction (Ainsworth, 2010). While this syllabus does a good job of identifying the need for both formal and informal assessments, the way in which this is communicated does not provide enough detail for understanding. Simply listing assessment types does not give any insight into how these assessments fit in the learning process of this course. While some of the assessments mentioned could be common assessments chosen by the school or district to gain insight into the effectiveness of instruction, the inclusion of authentic assessments is most beneficial to students and demonstrates learning in a context closer to that of a work environment (Rovai, 2004). Unfortunately, this particular course, according to this syllabus, relies heavily on quizzes and traditional tests and essays to form the bulk of assessment opportunities. While other activities, such as formative assessments, journaling and discussions are mentioned as possible avenues for scoring, they are given a very low percentage of the overall grade. This shows that they are not valued for their ability to show progression and mastery. If this is indeed the case, this puts the students as a
...also believe in their own ability and the schools to teach students regardless of the circumstances. Students have to feel safe and be able to trust their school as well as the employees and other students in it. This means that rules and policies must be established otherwise it’s not an effective school. The school cannot be too small or too large to be an effective one either. Also, the parents and community definitely have to be involved in the education of their children or neighbor’s children in order for the school to be an effective one. This pertains to me because once I graduate and start looking for a place of employment I will want to work in an effective school. The knowledge that I have gained from this book will help me in choosing an effective school to work at.
In order for learning to take place in the classroom the teacher has to put in place an effective teaching and learning strategy. Being an effective teacher is not something that can be achieved instantaneously but rather something that has to be continuously developed and improved upon over time. Petty mentions how good teachers are not born but rather make themselves and that effective teaching comes from learning from your mistakes and successes. Petty, p. 516, 2009. This process involves teacher reflection and assessment of the effectiveness of different teaching strategies used in the classroom. It is only then that teachers can learn and advance themselves.
With the proper guidance and support, teachers can achieve academic excellence in the classroom. They follow their principal’s vision and share their goals. Teachers also serve as leaders in their classroom. They share their vision and goals with their students promoting positive attitudes in the classroom. Just like it is important for principals to respect and understand what their teachers need, students also need the support, understanding, respect and empathy from their teachers. When teachers demonstrate commitment in the classroom and set high expectations they raise the level of learning in the classroom. Teachers that work with the students and their parents to understand and meet their needs will achieve positive academic outcomes. Students engage in learning with positive attitudes and strive for high achievements. Teachers work together with their leaders to improve their teaching
I’m a firm believer that all students have some capacity to learn. It only takes the dedication and compassion of a teacher to ignite the wick and the light of the student starts to shine.