Topical Content
PRINCIPLES OF HIGH QUALITY CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT
1. Assessment should be based on clear and appropriate learning targets.
2. Assessment should be based on appropriate methods.
3. Assessment should be balanced.
4. Assessment should be valid.
5. Assessment should be reliable.
6. Assessment should be fair.
7. Assessment should be practical and efficient.
8. Assessment should be continuous.
9. Assessment should be authentic.
10. Assessment should be practical and efficient.
11. Assessment targets and standards should be made public.
12. Assessment should have positive consequences.
13. Assessment should be ethical.
PURPOSES OF CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT
1. Assessment FOR Learning – this includes three types of assessment done before and during instruction.
a) Placement – done prior to instruction
· Its purpose is to assess the needs of the learners to have basis in planning for a relevant instruction.
· Teachers use this assessment to know what their students are bringing into the learning situation and use this as a starting point for instruction.
· The results of this assessment place students in specific learning groups to facilitate teaching and learning.
b) b. Formative – done during instruction
· It is this assessment where teachers continuously monitor the students’ level of attainment of the learning objectives (Stiggins, 2005)
· The results of this assessment are communicated clearly and promptly to the students for them to know their strengths and weaknesses and the progress of their learning.
c) Diagnostic – done during instruction
· This is used to determine students’ recurring or persistent difficulties.
· It helps formulate a plan for detailed remedial instruction.
2. Assessment OF Learning – this is done after instruction. This is usually referred to as the summative assessment.
· It is used to certify what students know and can do and the level of their proficiency or competency.
· It is used to grade the students and whose results are communicated to the students, parents, and other stakeholders for decision making.
· It is also a powerful factor that could pave the way for educational reforms.
Learning/Assessment Targets (Mc Millan, 2007; Stiggins, 2007)
TARGET
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DESCRIPTION
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Knowledge
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student mastery of substantive subject matter
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Reasoning
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student ability to use knowledge to reason and solve problems
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Skills
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Student ability to demonstrate achievement-related skills
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Products
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Student ability to create achievement-related products
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Affective/Disposition
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Student attainment of affective states such as attitudes, values, interests and self-efficacy.
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Learning Targets and their Appropriate Assessment Methods
Targets
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Assessment Methods
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Objective
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Essay
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Performance Based
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Oral
Question
|
Observation
|
Self-
Report
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Knowledge
|
5
|
4
|
3
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
Reasoning
|
2
|
5
|
4
|
4
|
2
|
2
|
Skills
|
1
|
3
|
5
|
2
|
5
|
3
|
Products
|
1
|
1
|
5
|
2
|
4
|
4
|
Affect
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
4
|
4
|
5
|
Note: Higher numbers indicate better matches ( e.g. 5 = high, 1 = low)
Types of Tests According to Format
1. Selective Test - provides choices for the answer.
a. Multiple choice - consists of a stem which describes the problem and 3 or more alternatives which give the suggested solutions. One of the alternatives is the correct answer while the other alternatives are the distractors.
b. True-False or Alternative Response - consists of declarative statement that one has to mark true or false, right or wrong, correct or incorrect, yes or no, fact or opinion, and the like.
c. Matching Type - consists of two parallel columns: Column A, the column of premises from which a match is sought; Column B, the column of responses from which the selection is made.
2. Supply Test
a. Short Answer - uses a direct question that can be answered by a word, a phrase, a number, or a symbol.
b. Completion Test - consists of an incomplete statement
3. Essay Test and the Scoring Rubrics
a. Restricted Response - limits the content of the response by restricting the scope of the topic
b. Extended Response - allows the students to select any factual information that they think is pertinent and to organize their answers in accordance with their best judgment.
General Suggestions in Writing Test
1. Use test specifications as guide to item writing.
2. Construct more test items than needed to have extra items when making decisions as to which items have to be discarded or revised.
3. Have test of sufficient length to adequately measure the target performance (Note: the longer the test, the more reliable it is.).
4. Write the test items well in advance of the testing date to have time for face and content validity.
5. Write the test items with reference to the test objectives.
6. Write each test item in appropriate reading level.
7. Write a test item in a way that it does not become a clue to other test items.
8. Write a test item whose answer is one that would be agreed upon by the experts.
9. Write test item in the proper level of difficulty (difficulty index vary from 0-1, 0.2-0.8 are average items, 0-0.19 are difficult items, 0.81 to 1.0 are easy items).
10. Have items that could discriminate the bright from poor pupils (discrimination index of 0.3 to 1.0 have good discriminatory power).
Criteria to Consider when Constructing Good Test Items
A. Validity - is the degree to which the test measures what is intended to measure. It is the usefulness of the test for a given purpose. It is the most important criterion of a good examination. A validity coefficient should be at least 0.5 but preferably higher.
Factors Influencing the Validity of the Tests in General
1. Appropriateness of Test - it should measure the abilities, skills and information it is supposed to measure
2. Directions - it should indicate how the learners should answer and record their answers
3. Reading Vocabulary and Sentence Structures - it should be based on the intellectual level of maturity and background experience of the learners.
4. Difficulty of Items - it should have items that are not too difficult and not too easy to be able to discriminate the bright from slow pupils. The acceptable index of difficulty is 0.2-0.8, higher than 0.8 means too easy, lower than 0.2 means too difficult. The acceptable index of discrimination is 0.3 – 1.0. lower than 0.3 means poor discriminatory power.
5. Construction of Test Items - it should not provide clues so it will not be a test on clues nor ambiguous so it will not be a test oninterpretation.
6. Length of the Test - it should just be of sufficient length so it can measure what it is supposed to measure and not that it is too short that it cannot adequately measure the performance we want to measure.
7. Arrangement of Items - it should have items that are arranged in ascending level of difficulty such that it starts with the easy so that the pupils will pursue on taking the test.
8. Patterns of Answers - it should not allow the creation of patterns in answering the test.
Ways in Establishing Validity
1. Face Validity - is done by examining the physical appearance of thetest
2. Content Validity - is done through a careful and critical examination of the objectives of the test so that it reflects the curricularobjectives.
3. Criterion-related Validity - is established statistically such that a set of scores revealed by a test is correlated with the scores obtained in another external predictor or measure. Has two purposes.
a. Concurrent validity - describes the present status of the individual by correlating the sets of scores obtained from two measures given concurrently.
b. Predictive validity - describes the future performance of an individual by correlating the sets of scores obtained from two measures given at a longer time interval.
4. Construct Validity - is established statistically by comparing psychological traits or factors that theoretically influence scores in a test.
a. Convergent Validity – is established if the instrument defines a similar trait e.g. Critical Thinking Test that is being developed may be correlated with a Standardized Critical Thinking Test.
b. Divergent Validity – is established if an instrument can describe only the intended trait and not the other traits. e.g. Critical Thinking Test may not be correlated with Reading Comprehension Test.
B. Reliability - it refers to the consistency of scores obtained by the same person when retested using the same instrument or one that is parallel to it. Reliability coefficient should at least be 0.7 but preferably higher.
Factors Affecting Reliability
1. Length of the Test - as a general rule, the longer the test, the higher the reliability. A longer test provides a more adequate sample of the behavior being measured and is less distorted by chance factors like guessing.
2. Difficulty of the Test - ideally, achievement tests should be constructed such that the average score is 50 percent correct and the scores range from near zero to near perfect. The bigger the spread of the scores, the more reliable the measured difference is likely to be. A test is reliable if the coefficient of correlation is not less than 0.85.
3. Objectivity - can be obtained by eliminating the bias, opinions or judgments of the person who checks the test.
Method
|
Type of Reliability Measure
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Procedure
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Statistical Measure
|
1. Test-Retest
|
Measure of stability
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Give a test twice to the same group with any time interval between tests from several minutes to several years
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Pearson r
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2. Equivalent Forms
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Measure of equivalence
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Give parallel forms of tests withclose time intervals between forms.
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Pearson r
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3. Test-retest with Equivalent Forms
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Measure of stability and equivalence
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Give parallel forms of tests with increased time intervals between forms.
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Pearson r
|
4. Split Half
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Measure of Internal Consistency
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Give a test once. Score equivalent halves of the test e.g. odd- and even-numbered items.
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Pearson r and Spearman Brown Formula
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5. Kuder- Richardson
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Measure of Internal Consistency
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Give the test once then correlate the proportion/percentage of the students passing and not passing a given item.
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Kuder- Richardson Formula 20 and 21
|
C. Administrability - the test should be administered with ease, clarity and uniformity so that scores obtained are comparable. Uniformity can be obtained by setting the time limit and oral instructions.
D. Scorability - the test should be easy to score such that directions for scoring are clear, the scoring key is simple; provisions for answer sheets are made.
E. Economy - the test should be given in the cheapest way, which means that answer sheets must be provided so the test can be given from time to time.
F. Adequacy - the test should contain a wide sampling of items to determine the educational outcomes or abilities so that the resulting scores are representatives of the total performance in the areas
PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT
Performance-Based Assessment is a process of gathering information about student’s learning through actual demonstration of essential and observable skills and creation of products that are grounded in real world contexts and constraints.
Reasons for Using Performance-Based Assessment
· Dissatisfaction of the limited information obtained from selected-response test.
· Influence of cognitive psychology, which demands not only for the learning of declarative but also for procedural knowledge.
· Negative impact of conventional tests e.g., high-stake assessment, teaching for the test
· It is appropriate in experiential, discovery-based, integrated, and problem based learning approaches.
Methods of Performance-based Assessment
1. Written-open ended – a written prompt is provided
2. Behavior-based – utilizes direct observations of behaviors in situations or simulated contexts
3. Interview-based – examinees respond in one-to-one conference setting with the examiner to demonstrate mastery of the skills
4. Product-based– examinees create a work sample or a product utilizing the skills/abilities
5. Portfolio-based – collections of works that are systematically gathered to serve many purposes
PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT
Portfolio Assessment is also an alternative to pen-and-paper objective test. It is a purposeful, on going, dynamic, and collaborative process of gathering multiple indicators of the learner’s growth and development. Portfolio assessment is also performance-based but more authentic than any performance-based task.
Reasons for Using Portfolio Assessment
Burke (1999) actually recognizes portfolio as another type of assessment and considered authentic because of the following reasons:
· It tests what is really happening in the classroom.
· It offers multiple indicators of students’ progress.
· It gives the students the responsibility of their own learning.
· It offers opportunities for students to document reflections of their learning.
· It demonstrates what the students know in ways that encompass their personal learning styles and multiple intelligences.
· It offers teachers new role in the assessment process.
· It allows teachers to reflect on the effectiveness of their instruction.
· It provides teachers freedom of gaining insights into the student’s development or achievement over a period of time.
Principles Underlying Portfolio Assessment
There are three underlying principles of portfolio assessment: content, learning, and equity principles.
1. Content principle suggests that portfolios should reflect the subject matter that is important for the students to learn.
2. Learning principle suggests that portfolios should enable the students to become active and thoughtful learners.
3. Equity principle explains that portfolios should allow students to demonstrate their learning styles and multiple intelligences.
Types of Portfolios
1. Portfolios could come in three types: working, show, or documentary.
2. The working portfolio is a collection of a student’s day-to-day works which reflect his/her learning.
3. The show portfolio is a collection of a student’s best works.
4. The documentary portfolio is a combination of a working and a show portfolio.
Portfolio Process
1. Set Goals
2. Collect Evidence
3. Select Evidence
4. Organize Evidence
5. Reflect on Evidence
6. Evaluate Evidence
7. Confer with the Student
8. Exhibit Portfolio
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DEVELOPING RUBRICS
Rubric is a measuring instrument used in rating performance-based tasks. It is the “key to corrections” for assessment tasks designed to measure the attainment of learning competencies that require demonstration of skills or creation of products of learning. It offers a set of guidelines or descriptions in scoring different levels of performance or qualities of products of learning. It can be used in scoring both the process and the products of learning.
Types of Rubrics
1. Holistic Rubric - It describes the overall quality of a performance or product. In this rubric, there is only one rating given to the entire work or performance
2. Analytic Rubric - It describes the quality of a performance or product in terms of the identified dimensions and/or criteria for which are rated independently to give a better picture of the quality of work or performance.
Important Elements of a Rubric
Whether the format is holistic or analytic, the following information should be made available in a rubric.
• Competency to be tested – this should be a behavior that requires either a demonstration or creation of products of learning
• Performance Task – the task should be authentic, feasible, and has multiple foci
• Evaluative Criteria and their Indicators – these should be made clear using observable traits
• Performance Levels- these levels could vary in number from 3 or more
• Qualitative and Quantitative descriptions of each performance level – these descriptions should be observable to be measurable
Guidelines When Developing Rubrics
Ø Identify the important and observable features or criteria of an excellent performance or quality product.
Ø Clarify the meaning of each trait or criterion and the performance levels.
Ø Describe the gradations of quality product or excellent performance.
Ø Aim for an even number of levels to avoid the central tendency source of error.
Ø Keep the number of criteria reasonable enough to be observed or judged.
Ø Arrange the criteria in order in which they will likely to be observed.
Ø Determine the weight /points of each criterion and the whole work or performance in the final grade.
Ø Put the descriptions of a criterion or a performance level on the same page.
Ø Highlight the distinguishing traits of each performance level.
Ø Check if the rubric encompasses all possible traits of a work.
Ø Check again if the objectives of assessment were captured in the rubric.
AFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT
Affective Assessment – this is the process of gathering information about the outcomes of education that involve disposition or personal feelings such as attitudes, sense of academic self-confidence or interest in something that motivationally predisposes a person to act or not to act. It also involves individual’s choice whether he/she likes to finish a task or how s/he would like to do it.
Affective/Disposition Targets (Anderson & Bourke (2000) cited by Stiggins (2001)
Target
|
Descriptions
|
Attitudes
|
It is learned predisposition to respond in a consistent favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object.
|
School-related values
|
Ø Values are beliefs about what should be desired, what is important or cherished, and what standards of conduct are acceptable
Ø Values influence or guide behavior, interest, attitudes and satisfactions
Ø Values are enduring. They tend to remain stable over fairly long periods of time
Ø Values are learned and tend to be of high intensity and tend to focus on ideas.
Ø The following are values related to academic success:
· Belief in the value of education as a foundation for a productive life
· Belief in the benefits of strong effort in school
· A strong sense of the need for the ethical behavior at testing time (no cheating)
· The belief that a healthy lifestyle (for ex. No drugs) underpins academic success
· Feeling about the key aspects of their schooling, that predispose students to behave in academically productive ways
|
Academic Self-concept
|
Is a learned vision that results largely from evaluations of self by others over time. It is the sum of all evaluative judgments one makes about one’s possibility of success and/or productivity in an academic context.
|
Locus of Control
|
It is the student’s attributions or belief about the reasons for academic success or failure.
· Internal – the attributions come from within. “ I succeeded because I tried hard.”
· External – the attributions come from external contributions or factor. “I sure was lucky to receive that A!” or “I performed well because I had a good teacher.”
|
Self-efficacy
|
Its target is a task, a (school) subject, an instructional objective and the like. The direction is best captured by “I can” versus “I can’t”. A “can’t do” attitude lies at the heart of a concept known as learned helplessness.” The symptoms include a lack of persistence in the face of failure, negative affect and negative expectations about the future.
|
Interests
|
A disposition organized through experience which impels an individual to seek out particular objects, activities, understandings, skills or goals for attention or acquisition. These represent feelings that can range from a high level of excitement at all at the prospect of engaging in or while engaged in, some particular activity.
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Academic Aspirations
|
The desire to learn more, the intent to seek out and participate in additional education experiences.
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Anxiety
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The experience of (emotional) tension that results from real or imagined threats to one’s security.
|
Methods in Assessing Affect/Disposition
Method
|
Description
|
Questionnaire
|
It asks questions about students’ feelings which areanswered either by selecting from options or by giving brief or extended written responses.
|
Performance Assessment
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This is done by doing systematic observations of student behavior and/or products with clear criteria in mind.
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Personal Communication
|
This is done through interviews either with the students alone or in groups.
|
Tools and Techniques in Affective Assessment
1. Interest Inventory- measures learners area of interest
2. Personality Inventory- measures learners traits such as self-concept, social adjustment, problem solving styles, and other traits.
3. Observation Techniques
1.1. Casual Information Observations- unstructured, unplanned or an observation without using any instrument
1.2. Observation Guides- structured or with the use of a planned instrument to record observations
1.3. Clinical Observations – a prolonged process in diagnosing clients in a controlled clinical setting, which involves the use of sophisticated techniques and instruments
1.4. Anecdotal Records – a narrative record of observations of a particular learner behavior during a given situation or event free from interpretations and conclusions.
1.5. Scales-consists of list of characteristics or behaviors to be observed and an evaluative scale to indicate the degree to which they occur
1.6. Checklist – a set of traits that an observer has to mark if demonstrated by a particular learner
4. Self- Reporting Techniques
1.1. Autobiography- enables the learners to describe his/her own life and experiences
1.2. Self-Expression Essay- seeks to assess the learner’s response to a particular question or concern usually in a short written essay form
1.3. Self-Description – requires the learner to paint a picture of himself/herself in words
1.4. Self-Awareness Exercises- designed to help learners become more aware of their feelings, emotions, and values
1.5. Questionnaire – provides an opportunity to easily collect a great deal of information that may be useful in further understanding the learner client in identifying problems as well as opinions, attitudes, and values
1.6. Structured interview – enables the counselor to obtain specific information and to explore in-depth behavior or responses
5. Group Assessment Techniques
1.1. Sociometric Technique- provides information on social relationships such as degrees of acceptance, roles and interactions within groups
1.2. Guess Who Technique- best used with relatively well-established groups in which members are well acquainted with each other.
1.3. Communigram – assesses the frequency of verbal participation of a learner in a particular group within a given period.
1.4. Social Distance Scales – measures the distance of a learner between other persons and himself/herself that is usually identified through the reaction to given statements that compare attitudes of acceptance or rejection of other people.
Formats of Affective Assessment Tools
1. Closed - Item or Forced-choice Instruments – answers are selected from the given choices
a. Checklist - measures students preferences, hobbies, attitudes, feelings, beliefs, interests, etc. by marking a set of possible responses.
b. Scales - these measure the extent or degree of one's response.
Types:
1. Rating Scale - measures the degree or extent of one's attitudes feelings, and perception about ideas, objects and people by marking a point along 3- or 5- point scale.
2. Semantic Differential Scale - measures the degree of ones attitudes, feelings, and perception about ideas, objects, and people by marking a point along 5- or 7- or 11- point scale of contrasting adjectives at each end.
3. Likert Scale - measures the degree of ones agreement or disagreement on positive or negative statements about objects and people.
c. Alternative- Response - measures students’ preferences, hobbies, attitudes, feelings, beliefs, interests, etc. by choosing between two possible responses.
d. Ranking - measures student’s preferences or priorities by ranking a set of attitudes or objects.
2. Open-Ended Instruments – there are no choices for the answers.
a. Sentence Completion - measures students’ preferences over a variety of attitudes and allows students to answer by completing an unfinished statement which may vary in length.
b. Survey - measures the values held by an individual by writing one or many responses to a given question
c. Essay - allows the students to reveal and clarify their preferences, hobbies, attitudes, feelings, beliefs, interests and the like by writing their reaction or opinion on a given question.
Suggestions in Writing Affective Assessment Items
1. Avoid statements that refer to the past rather than to the present.
2. Avoid statements that are factual or capable of being interpreted asfactual.
3. Avoid statements that may be interpreted in more than one way.
4. Avoid statements that are irrelevant to the psychological object under consideration.
5. Avoid statements that are likely to be endorsed by almost everyone or by almost no one.
6. Select statements that are believed to cover the entire range of affective scale of interests.
7. Keep the language of the statements simple, clear and direct.
8. Statements should be short, rarely exceeding 20 words.
9. Each statement should contain only one complete thought.
10. Statements containing universals such as all, always, none, and never often introduce ambiguity and should be avoided.
11. Words such as only, just, merely, and others of similar nature should be used with care and moderation in writing statements.
12. Whenever possible, statements should be in the form of simple sentences rather than in the form of compound or complex sentences.
13. Avoid the use of words that may not be understood by those who are to be given the completed scale.
14. Avoid the use of double negatives.
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Process in Developing & Validating Evaluation Instruments
Shapes of the Frequency Polygons
1. Normal – bell - shaped curve
2. Positively skewed – most scores are below the mean and there are extremely high scores. In this shape, the mean is higher than the median while mode is the lowest among the three measures of central tendency.
3. Negatively skewed – most scores are above the mean and there are extremely low scores. In this shape, the mean is lower than the median while the mode is the highest among the three measures of central tendency..
4. Leptokurtic – highly peaked and the tails are more elevated above the baseline
5. Mesokurtic – moderately peaked
6. Platykurtic - flattened peak
7. Bimodal Curve – curve with two peaks or mode
8. Polymodal Curve – curve with three or more modes
9. Rectangular Distribution – there is no mode.
Four Types of Measurement Scales
Measurement
|
Scale
|
Characteristics Example
|
1. Nominal
|
Groups and labels data
|
Gender ( 1-male, 2-female)
|
2. Ordinal
|
· Ranks data
· Distance between points are indefinite
|
Income (1-low, 2-average, 3-high)
|
3. Interval
|
· Distance between points are equal
· No absolute zero point
|
Test scores and temperature
* a score of zero in a test does not mean no knowledge at all
|
4. Ratio
|
􀂃 All of the above except
that it has an absolute zero point
|
Height, weight
* a zero weight means no weight at all
|
MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY AND VARIABILITY
STANDARD SCORES
· Indicate the pupil’s relative position by showing how far his raw score is above or below average
· Express the pupil’s performance in terms of standard unit from the mean.
· Represented by the normal probability curve or what is commonly called the normal curve
· Used to have a common unit to compare raw scores from different tests
1. PERCENTILE
• tells the percentage of examinees that lies below one’s score.
Example: P85 = 70 This means the person who scored 70 is higher than 85% of the examinees.
2. Z-SCORES
• • tells the number of standard deviations equivalent to a given raw score
3. T – SCORES
it refers to any set of normally distributed standard deviation score that has a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10.
Ø Guide for the Interpretation of Standard Scores
The equivalence of z-scores, t-scores and their relation to percentiles and to the normal curve is shown below.
Grading and Reporting
A. Marking/Grading is the process of assigning value to a performance
B. Marks/Grades/Ratings could be in percent, letters, numbers, or in descriptive expressions. Any symbol can be used provided that it has a uniform meaning to all concerned.
It could represent –
· how a student is performing in relation to other students (Norm- Referenced Grading)
· the extent to which a student has mastered a particular body of knowledge (Criterion-Referenced Grading)
· how a student is performing in relation to a teacher's judgment of his or her potential. (Grading in Relation to Teacher's Judgment)
Purposes of Grades
Purpose
|
Description
|
Certification
|
gives assurance that a student has mastered a specific content or achieved a certain level of accomplishment
|
Selection
|
provides basis in identifying or grouping students for certain educational paths or programs.
|
Direction
|
provides information for diagnosis and planning
|
Motivation
|
emphasizes specific material or skills to be learned and helping students to understand and improve their performance.
|
Different Grading Systems
System
|
Description
|
Criterion – referenced grading
|
grading based on fixed or absolute standards where grade is assigned based on how a student has met the criteria or the welldefined objectives of a course that were spelled out in advance. It is then up to the student to earn the grade he or she wants to receive regardless of how other students in the class have performed. This is done by transmuting test scores into marks or ratings.
|
Norm-referenced grading
|
grading based on relative standards where a student's grade reflects his or her level of achievement relative to the performance of other students in the class. In this system the grade is assigned based on the average of test scores.
|
Averaging Grading System
|
done when the teacher computes the final grade of the students by getting the mean or the arithmetic average of all the partial grades.
|
Cumulative Grading System
|
done when the final grade is based on the previous grade and the computed grade for the present performance of the students. Most schools that practice this grading get 30% of the grade of the student in the previous quarter or level and adds this to 70% percent of the computed grade of the student for the present quarter or level to report the final grade of the student.
|
Point or Percentage Grading System
|
whereby the teacher identifies points or percentages for various tests and class activities depending on their importance. The total of these points will be the bases for the grade assigned to the student.
|
Contract Grading System
|
Grading where each student agrees to work for a particular grade according to agreed-upon standards.
|
Guidelines in Grading Students
1. Explain your grading system to the students early in the course and remind them of the grading policies regularly.
2. Base grades on a predetermined and reasonable set of standards.
3. Base your grades on as much objective evidence as possible
4. Base grades on the student's attitude as well as achievement, especially at the elementary and high school level.
5. Base grades on the student's relative standing compared to classmates
6. Base grades on a variety of sources.
7. Become familiar with the grading policy of your school and with your colleagues' standards.
8. When failing a student, closely follow school procedures
9. Guard against bias in grading
10. Keep pupils informed of their standing in the class.
Conducting Teacher-Parent Conference
1. Make plans for the conference
2. Begin the conference in a positive manner
3. Present the student’s strong points before describing the areas needing improvement
4. Encourage parents to participate and share information.
5. Plan a course of action cooperatively.
6. End the conference with a positive comment.
7. Use good human relation skills during the conference.
Conclusion/Generalization
This e-portfolio is a compilation of modular reflections and various assessment strategies and principles that will help us succeed in the LET Exam. This will also serve as our all time reference as pre-service teachers.
Reflective FUNderstanding
Module 1: Overview in ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING
Assessment was never easy, but it is one of the most exciting for us as future teacher. It is on this level where the efficacies of our teaching strategies reveal learning outcomes from the results of the administered assessment.
Actually, in the assessment of learning it is not only the learners are being assess, it is also assesses how equipped we are in teaching. The key player in assessment is the teacher and the key factor for a success or superb assessment result is the instructional quality. On the other hand, the instructional quality depends so much on the administrative support of the school, governance support of the government, and other curricular and instructional support system.
Module 2: Establishing the LEARNING TARGETS
At the conclusion of this module, we, the learners were able to understand the learning targets and know the importance of it in the teaching-learning process. We practiced on how to construct learning targets, where to anchor it, and to explain the criteria in making a strong and feasible one. The learning activity in this module gave us an opportunity as learners on how to evaluate learning targets and be able to assess, compare and contrasts, and categorize learning targets through the use of the Blooms Taxonomy. It really give us an idea on how we will be able to generate, experiment, and adapt instructional activities that will sustain student’s attention, that will motivate student’s to participate, and make them both (teacher and student) responsible and accountable of the learning outcome.
Module 3: Keys to EFFECTIVE TESTING
Testing is the gauging of the level of achievement or performance of the learners. It greatly affects the results if the administration, the scoring and interpretation of the test is effective. The very essence of testing is to know if there is a behavioral/attitudinal change. A quality and relevant testing is a must because the result of this is for grading purposes and it will be reflected to the student’s report cards which will become a permanent educational record and later dictates the career that the student will pursue in the future. Thus, this should be authentic and reflects the real personality of the person. The educational authorities demand careful planning and expertise in the construction and that this should also reflects the national and school’s educational goals.
Module 4: Development of ASSESSMENT TOOLS
The assessment in the classroom is both a teaching approach and a set of techniques. The approach is that the more you know about what and how students are learning; the better you can plan learning activities to structure your teaching.
How are they learning will be reflected in the formative assessment result, this will further tell the teacher on the quality of the tools and the depth of their learning. The techniques are mostly simple, non-graded, in-class activities that give both you and your students’ useful feedback on the teaching-learning process.
The tools are the vehicle in obtaining a measurable data from the responses of the learners. In constructing assessment tool; careful planning and matching of the objectives is very crucial in order to assess the desired learning outcome that the teacher and the school administration wants to know. Avoid making assessment tool which will not answer the objective, thus this will be labeled as “irrelevant assessment result or irrelevant assessment tool”. In this module, we learned a lot on the various factors and consideration in constructing a relevant and effective assessment tools. We now believed that our knowledge in tool construction will really reveal an assessment result that truly reflects the quality of our teaching someday. Assessment result helps teacher to improve the strength of instruction.
Module 5: Characteristics of a GOOD TEST
“STEM” is the word we always associate when we hear of the word “Good Test”. Because the understandability of the question depends so much on how the stem was constructed by the teacher or assessor or “what is being asked is well stated” which does not need for the learners to speculate of what is being asked in the question. Clarity and simplicity of the words used is a must.
Characteristics of A Good Test are as follows: Validity: A test is considered as valid when it measures what it is supposed to measure. Reliability: A test is considered reliable if it is taken again by the same students under the same circumstances and the score average is almost the constant, taking into consideration that the time between the test and the retest is of reasonable length. Objectivity: Objectivity means that if the test is marked by different people, the score will be the same. In other words, marking process should not be affected by the marking person's personality. Comprehensiveness: A good test should include items from different areas of material assigned for the test. e.g ( dialogue - composition - comprehension - grammar - vocabulary - orthography - dictation - handwriting ) Simplicity: Simplicity means that the test should be written in a clear , correct and simple language , it is important to keep the method of testing as simple as possible while still testing the skill you intend to test . ( Avoid ambiguous questions and ambiguous instructions ) . Scorability: Scorability means that each item in the test has its own mark related to the distribution of marks given.
Module 6: Analyzing and Using of TEST ITEM DATA
The Purpose and Elements of Item Analysis are: To select the best available items for the final form of the test; to identify structural or content defects in the items and to detect learning difficulties of the class as a whole. Thus, the teacher will be able identify the areas of weaknesses of students that is in need of remediation.
The difficulty level of an item is known as index of difficulty. Index of difficulty is the percentage of students answering correctly each item in the test. Index of discrimination refers to the percentage of high-scoring individuals responding correctly versus the number of low-scoring individuals responding correctly to an item. This numeric index indicates how effectively an item differentiates between the students who did well and those who did poorly on the test. Analyzing is very crucial on the test item administered; this will help evaluating if the questions are too easy or difficult for the students or if the item discriminates the upper (high performer) and lower (low performer) in the class. This will give the teacher a basis to retain, discard, and to modify test questions for effective learning assessment.
Module 7: EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS
The fundamental knowledge of statistics can prove very useful, indeed. The presentation of information became more persuasive if it is backed up by facts. In education, the statistics is indispensable; it makes things like data in research (education, government, business, economics, medicine, psychology and even sports) and the performance grade of students more credible and scientific.
We realized the necessity of this subject; we need to have a strong foundation on this in order to ensure success in the licensure exam. The entire statistic subject is for us esoteric, but so far, the educational statistics is understandable base on the lessons provided in the module. It just needs a time to master the concept. We are very thankful because the instructional strategies of Prof. Robles on this subject put so much emphasis on the process of solving and the relevance of each concept on education. We do not just stick on knowing the terms which is so knowledge base but on the application of the concept for future use.
Module 8: RUBRICS, PORTFOLIO & PERFORMANCE-BASED Assessment
The aforesaid assessment strategy is far-different from the conventional way of assessing student learning. The rubrics and the portfolio are not new, but the two became renowned when it was discovered its efficacy in assessment of learning. The performance-based is also the commonly used assessment of learning which “learning by doing”
The portfolio is not easy to prepare and it requires much time and resources to complete. Theoretically, it is also important that both the learner and the teacher vividly knows why they are preparing the portfolio. The teacher’s role in preparing a quality portfolio stops until its completion. In fact, this is also too tedious on the part of the teacher if she/he seriously wants quality portfolio content.
Going to rubric, purposely, it summarizes both student performance and product against the criteria the teacher priorly established. It even makes scoring of student performance more exact or precise and a clear description of what quality work looks like. The series of statements in the rubric which describes a range of levels of achievement of a process, product, or a performance must be carefully constructed. It is aimed at accurate and fair assessment, fostering understanding, and indicating a way to proceed with subsequent learning/teaching. Again, the rubric is for the assessment of the process, a product, or a performance. A must for the teacher to be adept in rubric and portfolio assessments.
Module 9: Grading and Reporting Practices
The following are questions which an instructor may want to answer when choosing what will go into a student’ grade: (1) should grade reflects absolute achievement level? (2) should grades reflect achievement only or others like non-academic components such as attitude, speed, and diligence? (3) how can several grades on diverse skills combine to give a single mark?. We realize that grading is not a simple task to do.
Although grading will always be a process of professional judgment, making those judgments require heartfelt thinking and continual reflection on the purpose of the activity. If we give grades to represent information about the adequacy of students’ achievement and performance, then the evidence used to determine grades must denote what students have learned and are able to do. To allow other factors to influence grades or marks is not good or detrimental to students’ learning attainment. Grading requires planning, thoughtful judgment, a clear focus on purpose, excellent communication skills, and an overwhelming concern for students. Such qualities are necessary to ensure grading policies and practices that provide high-quality information on student learning. We as a future teacher must be impartial in assigning grades especially to students who are a family, an affinity, or to close to us. We will grade base on learning outcome and changes on behavior.
Unfortunately, some teachers consider grades or reporting form as their “weapon of last resort.” Teachers view that students who do not comply with their requests must suffer the consequences of the greatest punishment a teacher can give: a failing grade. Accordingly, such practices have no educational value and, in the long run, adversely affect students, teachers, and the relationship they share. There are other ways to remedy the giving of failing grades but sometimes the learner shuns away making the teacher to utterly give a failing mark.
To sum up reflections: “WE FEEL EQUIPPED!!!!!!!!!!!”
References:
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Campbell,D.M., Melenyzer, B.J., Nettles, D.H., Wyman, R.M. (2003). Porfolio and performance
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Gredler,M.G. (1999). Classroom assessment and learning. Newyork: Longman.
Kubiszyn, T. & Borich G. (2000). Educational Testing and Measurement Classroom Assessment and Practice. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Linn, R. (2000). Measurement and Assessment in Teaching (8th Ed). Prentice Hall
McMillan, J.H. (1997). Classroom Assessment Principles and Practice for Effective Instruction, Boston: Allyn and Bacon
Popham, J. (1999). Classroom Assessment what teachers need to know (2nd ed). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Schipper, B. & Rossi, J. (1997). Portfolios in the classroom, tools for learning and instruction: York, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
Stiggins, R.J. (2001). Student-involved classroom assessment. New Jersey, Merill Prentice Hall.
􀂾Ward, A.W.& Ward, M.M. (1999). Assessment in the classroom. Belmont, California: Wadswort
