The Step in the Design of Effective Teaching and Learning Programs - Essay Example

The fundamental step in the design of effective teaching and learning programs is the establishment of a program overview with a scope and sequence plan.1 On the content mapping grids the Prescribed Focus Area and skills learning experiences are broadly classified into one of three developmental levels. In the learning phase (L) the teacher establishes the students skill level/prior learning and uses this as the basis for developing student understanding through explicit teaching of the relevant knowledge, understanding and skills components. In the practicing phase (P) the student uses the knowledge, understanding and/or skills in tasks to achieve specific goals. The application phase (A) is when the student independently uses the knowledge, understanding and skills in the course of regular work and as a foundation for the development of learning. Assessment that enhances learning recognizes that learners use their current understanding to discover, develop and incorporate new knowledge, understanding and skills. Assessment for learning helps teachers and students to know if that current understanding is a suitable basis for future learning. Assessment occurs as an integral part of teaching and learning. Teacher instruction and assessment influence student learning and learning processes. This involves using assessment activities to clarify student understanding of concepts, and planning ways to remedy misconceptions and promote deeper understanding. Assessment for learning encourages self-assessment and peer assessment. Students can develop and use a range of strategies to actively monitor and evaluate their own learning and the learning strategies they use. The feedback that students receive from completing assessment activities will help teachers and students decide whether they are ready for the next phase of learning or whether they need further learning experiences to consolidate their knowledge, understanding and skills. Teachers should consider the effect that assessment and feedback have on student motivation and self-esteem, and the importance of the active involvement of students in their own learning. Principles of assessment for learning Assessment for learning: AP1 emphasizes the interactions between learning and manageable assessment strategies that promote learning AP2 clearly expresses for the student and teacher the goals of the learning activity. The activity clearly indicates the knowledge, skills and/or understanding to be developed AP3 reflects a view of learning in which assessment helps students learn better, rather than just achieve a better mark AP4 provides ways for students to use feedback from assessment AP5 helps students take responsibility for their own learning AP6 is inclusive of all learners. appropriately acknowledge sources of information apply the student-agreed elements for a poster format to their presentation. The link between the marking guidelines and/or criteria for judging performance and the outcomes is clear and explicit The activity models ways that self-assessment and peer assessment can be used as valid means of assessment. Satisfactory uses and acknowledges information from some sources, for example the internet, CD-ROM, print presents descriptive information using some of the student-agreed elements Marking guidelines and/or criteria for judging performance reflect the nature and intention of the activity and will be expressed in terms of the knowledge and skills demanded by the activity relative to the outcomes, to be gathered and reported of a poster evaluation sheet. During the teaching-learning experiences leading to the presentation of their poster, students will receive oral and/or teacher feedback in relation to: The aim of feedback is to communicate to students how well their knowledge, understanding and skills are developing in relation to the outcomes. Feedback enables students to recognize their strengths and areas for development, and to plan with their teacher the next steps in their learning. They are then given opportunities to improve and further develop their knowledge, understanding and skills. The sufficient evidences of the relevant research of authentic (productive assessment) can be demonstrated as the follows: Assessment is the systematic gathering of evidence to judge a student’s demonstration of learning. Assessment aids educational decision making by securing valid and reliable information to indicate whether students have learned what is expected. Assessment is built around multiple indicators and sources of evidence including tests, combinations of performances, products, etc.(Michigan Curriculum Framework. Newsline. Michigan Department of Education (MDE). www.mde.state.mi.us/off/sped/index.html) Standards-Based Systems Focus on Improving Student Learning Multiple Measures of Achievement Give States the Best Results (Phoebe C. Winter, Project Director, State Education Assessment Center, Council of Chief State School Officers. December 2001 • Newsline) For example, proficiency in science might defined by state content standards as both knowledge of critical scientific facts and the ability to use the scientific process to test hypotheses and understand reports of scientific findings. An assessment consisting only of questions about facts or questions about the scientific process would yield less valid results than one that also required students to design an experiment and critique a newspaper article reporting on a new finding. The second set of measures, which is more closely aligned to the content learned. The best tests and assessments facilitate student learning by providing essential feedback about their learning progress, helping them identify their learning problems and offering guidance and direction for correcting those problems (Bloom, B.S.; G.F. Madaus; and J. T.Hastings. 1981. Evaluation to improve learning. New York: McGraw-Hill). Analyzing Assessment Results An easy but effective way to use tests and assessments to improve teaching is to conduct a simple analysis of each test item or criterion used to evaluate a paper, performance, or demonstration. A tally of how many students missed each item or failed to meet a particular criterion will identify the trouble spots. Special attention should be paid to those items or criteria missed by half or more of the students in the class. The first thing to consider in such cases is the quality of the item or criterion itself. In other words, the teacher must determine whether the problem rests with the assessment tool. Perhaps the question is ambiguously worded. Perhaps the criterion is ‘Using Assessments Can Lead to Better Teaching.’ (Thomas R. Guskey, Professor, College of Education, University of Kentucky, Lexington P.12 Newsline) If no obvious problems are found in the test items or assessment criteria, teachers must be willing to turn to their teaching if half the students in a class miss a clear and concise question about a concept that was taught very well. Whatever strategy was used, whatever examples were employed, or whatever explanation was offered, it simply didn’t work. When half the students in the class answer a question incorrectly or fail to meet a particular criterion, it’s not a student learning problem—it’s a teaching problem. Analyzing test or assessment results in this case can be ‘Consideration of Alternative’—the task gives students choices. They must consider alternative solutions, strategies, perspectives, or points of view. Constructed ‘Instruction and Assessment Should Be Tightly Aligned and Interwoven’ (Sheila A. Potter, Retired Coordinator, English Language Arts, Michigan Department of Education P.16 Newsline) Disciplinary Process—The task expects students to use methods or processes inquiry, research, or communication characteristic of the discipline. For instance, the use of writing process steps (e.g., pre-write, draft, revise, edit, etc.), or reading strategies (e.g., predicting, summarizing, questioning, etc.) are incorporated into assessment activities. Disciplinary Content—The task asks students to demonstrate understanding and/or use of knowledge, theories, and concepts considered central to the academic discipline. For example, the core democratic values are critical themes in social studies that must be taught and assessed. ‘Problem Connected to the World beyond the Classroom’—the task asks students to explore a concept, solve a problem, or explain an issue that is similar to one. The Latin root of the word “assess” means “to sit beside.” In classrooms that address the needs of the “whole learner,” students and teachers sit beside each other, cognitively engaging in meaningful demonstrations of understanding that reflect the assessment standards in the Michigan goals. Through continuous assessment and feedback to students, teachers monitor student growth toward achievement of the benchmarks, and, thus, encourage learners to become all that they are capable of becoming. Instruction and assessment are so tightly aligned and interwoven that they are nearly indistinguishable. Test Taking/Thinking Skills Issues: 1. The item requires a kind of thinking with which students are not familiar. 2. Students select answers that are supporting details when they are asked “big picture” (main idea) questions. 3. Students select answers because the distracter is true, but it is not the answer to the question at hand. 4. Students answer questions using their own experience as a frame of reference rather than accepting the authority of the text presented in the test. Better Understanding Leads to More Accurate Interpretation of Test Scores (Source: Ernest A. Bauer. p.27 www.mde.state.mi.us/off/sped/index.html ) Curriculum Issues: Implementing Performance Assessment Implementing Performance Assessment in the Classroom. Reprinted from Brualdi, A. C. (Implementing performance assessment in the classroom. ERIC/AE Digest. College Park, MD: ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 423 312. 1998, August. http://edstar.ncrel.org/mn/Start.asp) If you are like most teachers, it probably is a common practice for you to devise some sort of test to determine whether a previously taught concept has been learned before introducing something new to your students. Probably, this will be either a completion or multiple choice test. However, it is difficult to write completion or multiple choice tests that go beyond the recall level. For example, the results of an English test may indicate that a student knows each story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. However, these results do not guarantee that a student will write a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Because of this, educators have advocated the use of performance-based assessments. Performance-based assessments "represent a set of strategies for the...application of knowledge, skills, and work habits through the performance of tasks that are meaningful and engaging to students" (Hibbard et al., 1996, p. 5). This type of assessment provides teachers with information about how a child understands and applies knowledge. Also, teachers can integrate performance-based assessments into the instructional process to provide additional learning experiences for students. The benefit of performance-based assessments are well documented. However, some teachers are hesitant to implement them in their classrooms. Commonly, this is because these teachers feel they dont know enough about how to fairly assess a students performance (Airasian, 1991). Another reason for reluctance in using performance-based assessments may be previous experiences with them when the execution was unsuccessful or the results were inconclusive (Stiggins, 1994). The purpose of this digest is to outline the basic steps that you can take to plan and execute effective performance-based assessments. The literature distinguishes between two types of performance-based assessment activities that you can implement in your classroom: informal and formal (Airasian, 1991; Popham, 1995; Stiggins, 1994). When a student is being informally assessed, the student does not know that the assessment is taking place. As a teacher, you probably use informal performance assessments all the time. One example of something that you may assess in this manner is how children interact with other children (Stiggins, 1994). You also may use informal assessment to assess a students typical behavior or work habits. A student who is being formally assessed knows that you are evaluating him/her. When a students performance is formally assessed, you may either have the student perform a task or complete a project. You can either observe the student as he/she performs specific tasks or evaluate the quality of finished products. You must beware that not all hands-on activities can be used as performance-based assessments (Wiggins, 1993). Performance-based assessments require individuals to apply their knowledge and skills in context, not merely completing a task on cue. In order to administer any good assessment, you must have a clearly defined purpose. Thus, you must ask yourself several important questions: --What concept, skill, or knowledge am I trying to assess? --What should my students know? --At what level should my students be performing? --What type of knowledge is being assessed: reasoning, memory, or process (Stiggins, 1994)? Having clearly defined criteria will make it easier for you to remain objective during the assessment. The reason for this is the fact that you will know exactly which skills and/or concepts that you are supposed to be assessing. If your students were not already involved in the process of determining the criteria, you will usually want to share them with your students. This will help students know exactly what is expected of them. Assessing the Performance Using this information, you can give feedback on a students performance either in the form of a narrative report or a grade. There are several different ways to record the results of performance-based assessments (Airasian, 1991; Stiggins, 1994): --"Checklist Approach." When you use this, you only have to indicate whether or not certain elements are present in the performances. --"Narrative/Anecdotal Approach." When teachers use this, they will write narrative reports of what was done during each of the performances. From these reports, teachers can determine how well their students met their standards. --"Rating Scale Approach." When teachers use this, they indicate to what degree the standards were met. Usually, teachers will use a numerical scale. For instance, one teacher may rate each criterion on a scale of one to five with one meaning "skill barely present" and five meaning "skill extremely well executed." --"Memory Approach." When teachers use this, they observe the students performing the tasks without taking any notes. They use the information from their memory to determine whether or not the students were successful. (Please note that this approach is not recommended.) While it is a standard procedure for teachers to assess students performances, teachers may wish to allow students to assess them themselves. Permitting students to do this provides them with the opportunity to reflect upon the quality of their work and learn from their successes and failures. References And Additional Reading Airasian, P.W. (1991). Classroom Assessment. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hibbard, K. M., et al. (1996). A Teachers Guide to Performance-Based Learning and Assessment. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Popham, W. J. (1995). Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Stiggins, R. J. (1994). Student-Centered Classroom Assessment. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Stix, A. (1997). Empowering Students through Negotiable Contracting. Paper presented at the National Middle School Initiative Conference, Long Island, NY. (January 25, 1997). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 411 274) Wiggins, G. (1989, May). A true test: Toward more authentic and equitable assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 70(9), 703-713. (EJ 388 723) Wiggins, G. (1993, November). Assessment, authenticity, context, and validity. Phi Delta Kappan, 75(3), 200-214. Wiggins, G. (1998). Educative Assessment: Designing Assessments to Inform and Improve Student Performance. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass. Ensuring Equity with Alternative Assessments Critical Issue: Ensuring Equity with Alternative Assessments. (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/assment/as800.htm ) In the low-stakes case of classroom-based assessment, where the primary purpose is determining content coverage and conceptual understanding or diagnosing learning styles, teachers are able to take into account the students culture, prior knowledge, experiences, and language differences. When preparing and administering assessments, teachers can follow guidelines for equitable assessment in the classroom and make use of accommodations and adaptations to the assessment to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their abilities and achievement. Teachers also are able to make inferences about student performance and how they must refine their instruction to increase or maintain high performance without calling into question the technical adequacy of the assessment. Schools may attempt to use alternative assessments for sorting and classifying students according to ability level instead of for improving instruction and raising student achievement. Darling-Hammond (1994) notes that in order to close the achievement gap, new forms of assessment must be developed carefully and be used for different purposes than norm-referenced tests. (Darling-Hammond, L. Performance assessment and educational equity. Harvard Educational Review, 1994, Spring, 64(1), 5-29) DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW: Although no educator would say that equitable assessment is not important, there are emerging schools of thought about the nature of equity and how it relates to assessment. In particular, these viewpoints relate to achieving a level playing field for assessing student work. Most researchers and practitioners agree that equity must be a major consideration when planning, developing, and administering assessment systems. Some researchers (Garcia & Pearson, 1994; Johnston, 1992; Estrin, 1993), however, believe that students cultural learning and interpretations of the world around them are so tied to their responses that it is unfair not to address these learning and interpretations directly. These researchers feel that the only way to truly understand a students performance is through assessments that are situated in the local realities of schools, classrooms, teachers, and students. Helping Students Assess Their Thinking Critical Issue: Helping Students Assess Their Thinking. Paul, R., & Elder, L. (Helping students assess their thinking. Critical Thinking Consortium Web Site. (n.d.). http://www.criticalthinking.org/University/helps.html) There are two essential dimensions of thinking that students need to master in order to learn how to upgrade their thinking. They need to be able to identify the "parts" of their thinking, and they need to be able to assess their use of these parts of thinking , as follows: * All reasoning has a purpose. * All reasoning is an attempt to figure something out, to settle some question, to solve some problem. * All reasoning is based on assumptions. * All reasoning is done from some point of view. * All reasoning is based on data, information, and evidence. * All reasoning is expressed through, and shaped by, concepts and ideas. * All reasoning contains inferences by which we draw conclusions and give meaning to data. * All reasoning leads somewhere, has implications and consequences Read More