Post 6: Assessment
When I think back to my schooling years, I remember having a lot of positives, definitely some negatives but I remember early on what kind of a learner I was. I remember I appreciated when we did not have to have tests all the time, and would work extra hard when we had a project or something other than tests. I would look at the course syllabus and see how much of my grade would be weighted on tests. I did not like tests because I could never retain the information. I remember saying to myself, "why do I need to know this", "when am I going to use this?", or "I'm not going to remember half of this when I am done".
I knew the value in remembering information but I knew that through a test, I would not really grasp it for long.
There are three different types of assessment: as, of and for learning.
Assessment of learning:
- heavily factual
-tests were the common assessment used
- Recalling facts and basic concepts
Assessment for learning:
- it is formative and on-going
-provided feedback and can always revise if/when necessary
- inquiry based, project based learning, etc
Assessment as learning:
-engages students in learning
- offers immediate feedback
- very similar to for learning
It seems education in BC is really shifting from assessment of learning, which is great. However, in High Schools, and certain subject areas such as: Science and Math, it seems that it is really hard to move from assessment of learning to as and for.
I wonder how other schools are doing and what they are doing differently? Another wondering is how are Universities and Colleges adjusting? I see how Queens in incorporating different ways of assessing but I am taking Education courses after all.
When I attended Douglas College and Trinity Western, my education courses were adjusting to the times however, my Biology courses definitely were not. It was all test and memory based. I wonder if we ever will have a cohesive way of working together? It seems that curriculum is also very much influenced from Universities, after all when BC had changed their curriculum and tried to change assessment (which I was all for), Universities/Colleges were having the hardest time to adjust.
It's been 4 years I think, and nothing has changed in my opinion. I am putting this to a.) society needs b.) the powers that be can't visually see how this will affect society be it for better or worse.
These of course are just my own perceptions, none of which hold any merit. Who knows what the truth really is?
Hi Daniela,
ReplyDeleteI thought you made some great points on the state of assessments in our education system. In regard to Universities/Colleges I would say that there is still some work to be done to shift from assessment of learning. At the university I work at the assessment types seem to be half test based and half practical application based per course. If they had to be revised, I would definitely have to agree with you in the argument for more assessment for learning type grading. I also was not a fan of tests when I was a student as I find it to be entirely based on the ability to memorize rather than actually learn. I always enjoyed writing papers over tests because of the continued learning as you research a topic and the critical thinking skills employed when developing arguments.