Planning and Organizing on the Job Learning - Book Report/Review Example

?TASKS TAEDEL402A List 2 issues to consider when planning and organizing ‘on the job’ learning. For each issue describe steps you could take to ensure safe and productive learning without negatively impacting the learner Work Experience of Learner: The work experience of learners in planning for on the job learning is very important. This is because when the instructor has a very fair idea of the current experience of the learner, it helps the instructor to plan and prepare learning schemes that address the particular working need of the learner. This is to say that a teacher or an instructor who refuses to factor the issue of work experience of a learner when delivering on the job training is likely to give the learner lessons that are either below or far above the working needs of the learner. Most appropriately, every learning scheme designed for a learner on the job should be one that will add to the current experience or position of the learner. It should also be structured and planned in such a way that it adds to the knowledge of the learner rather than giving the learner (in this case the working learner) something that is below his or her occupational needs. Learner's job title: Apart from the previous working experience of the learner, one other important issue has to do with the learner's job title. Once an instructor is aware of the nature or kind of work that a learner is involved in and the position of the learner at work, planning and organizing learning become meaningful and appropriate. This is because the teacher is put in a position to design a learning scheme that would not conflict with busy hours of the learner. This would indeed not have any negative impact on the learner because the learner would not have to go through unpleasant moments like skipping work for classes and learning soon after work – a situation that would create stress for the learner. TAEASS401A- Plan assessment activities and processes What is to be assessed? Assessment is the process of forming and recording a judgment about a person’s skills and knowledge (Commonwealth of Australia 2007). This means that assessment is very necessary for determining the impact of any learning activity that is undertaken. However, proper and effective assessment cannot be done when the wrong kind of assessment is done. This therefore brings to mind the question; “what is to be assessed?” In this course, the major phenomenon that is assessed by instructors is competency of learners: thus competency-based assessment. By competency, the instructor is obliged to assess the level of progress of learners as far as the application of required skills and knowledge for each unit is concerned. It is important to state that instructors vary their assessment types for different units because each unit comes with different units of competence that learners are supposed to acquire. When assessment is to take place There should be three major period or times of assessment. These are pre-lesson assessment, lesson-assessment and post-lesson assessment. Basically, pre-lesson assessment gives the instructor an opportunity to identify the level of competency of learners before the lessons begin. This type of assessment helps in defining where to begin lessons from and how to structure the scheme of work for lessons. Without this type of assessment, instructors are likely to give to learners, areas of studies they do not need. The lesson-assessment is also given whiles the delivery of series of lessons is going on. This type of assessment helps the instructor to identify the level of progress he or she is making with the teaching. Without this type of assessment, an instructor is likely to be shocked by a revelation at the end of the entire unit that learners were not actually following the lessons and that they were not getting along well with concepts that were being taught. Finally, there is the post-lesson assessment, which takes place after the entire series of lessons. This type of assessment may serve two purposes. Firstly, it helps the instructor to find out if the right concepts were acquired by learners in the course of teaching. Secondly, it might serve as a promotional tool for the learners. Where assessment is to take place Basically, assessment may take place at the designated location where the instructor and learner meet for lessons. Most commonly, this could be in the classroom, the learner’s house, the learner’s workplace or online through the internet. The place of assessment is very important as the place must be learning friendly. By learning friendly, there must not be any obstruction to learning such as too much noise, too much or too little light and offensive smell. As much as these factors go a long way to ensuring that the learner gets peace of mind to study, it also ensures that the health and safety of both learner and instructor are protected. How assessment is to take place There are several means and ways of undertaking assessments. Most commonly, assessment may take place through the following means. First, there could be verbal assessment where the instructor or teacher asks learners series of questions for the learner to answer orally. This mode of assessment is quick, easy and reliable. It helps in saving a lot of time whiles offering the instructor to know the level at which the learner is progressing with lessons. There could also be the written assessment where the learner is made to answer questions by writing out responses to questions. The advantage with this type of assessment is that it can be kept for future reference and evaluation. The most important factor however is that for whatever type of assessment an instructor adopts, the type of assessment must have all the four principles of assessment, which are reliability, validity, fairness and flexibility. TAEASS402A- Assess competence Does a candidate need any specialist support? Examples of specialist support include: Assistance by a third party—for example a carer or interpreter It is always important for instructors or teachers to realize that they cannot be bearers of every bit of knowledge or concept needed to be impacted to learners. Even if they do, they may not be best at all of them. For this reason, it is always important that once a while, they fall on the services and assistance of third-party resource persons. These third-party resource persons may come in as either itinerant teachers or just visitors. Support from specialist educator Seeking support from specialist educators is important especially in lesson delivery that has to do with equipping learners with specialized knowledge or skill. Examples of these specialized knowledge and skill include accounting and medicine. In courses like this, falling on specialists to support the entire course is very important and almost inevitable. With their years of training and experience, these educators are in a better position to imparting unto learners knowledge and skill in an unadulterated manner. Provision of developed online assessment activities As mentioned early on, online assessment is one of the means of assessment in today’s technological age. Online assessment is convenient and gives the instructor an opportunity to give out assessment exercises almost everywhere and every time. To this effect, it is not out of place that an instructor or a teacher seeks the assistance of a specialist in information and communication technology (ICT) when it comes to online assessment. Because there are people specially trained to provide developed online services, it is always important to fall on such specialists. Support for remote or isolated candidates and/or assessors A remote or isolated assessor may be described as an assessor who lives at a location relatively far apart from where most other assessors live. For such assessors, there is still some hope of becoming good assessors. One of such ways is by keeping in touch, as regularly as possible with the online course if there is an access to the internet. There could also be support for such candidates or assessors by means of forming learning centers at cluster of areas where such candidates can easy access learning facilities. Support from subject matter or safety experts Safety cannot be ruled out of any form of education. Petty safety practices and awareness in the areas of sitting posture, light regulation, noise regulation and the use of chemicals in scientific experiments and other class activities are all areas of learning that demand safety. For these reasons, it is always appropriate to bring in a safety expert one a while and especially when there are going to be lessons that would demand the use of materials or apparatus that demand safety cautions. Advice from regulatory authorities Falling on regulatory authorities, especially for advice is very important in ensuring success for this course. The advice of regulatory authorities is mostly needed as far as legal and dos and don'ts issues are concerned. In order to ensure that an instructor avoids any troubles as far as application of laws are concerned, instructors are advised to seek for clarity on such confusing issues as copyright, patent and plagiarism. Assessment teams and panels The assessment teams and panels are there to assess instructors. As it is the hope of every person undertaking this course to complete successfully and with very good grades, it is advised that as often as possible, reference is made to the assessment teams and panels on giving remarks on the progress of individual learners. Some of such remarks may be sought after through the publication of performance bulletins and by the use of website blogs. Support from lead assessors Lead assessors may play the role of assessment teams and panels as discussed above. However, lead assessors are considered as senior officers or superiors who should be contacted only as a last resort and only after other members on the team or panel are no longer reliable for needed information. As much as possible, thoughts and advice from led assessors should be considered as final and the most authoritative for decision making. Advice from policy development experts Policy development experts are responsible for drafting and coming out with final policies on how courses should be run. They therefore happen to be the best people to look up to for changes in the curriculum and advice on best course content can be modified or changed. This means that if any instructor or group of instructors want to alter the course content in anyway to suit learners, this must be done with permission from the policy development experts and with their approval. TAEASS403A- Participate in assessment validation What validation activities may be undertaken? Validation activities may include analyzing and reviewing: Assessment tools Validation of assessment tools is very important in any assessment exercise. An assessment tool may be explained to any mechanism that makes the collection of information on the performance of learners possible. Assessment tools may include tests, project work and case study activities. One reason why it is very important to validate or evaluate assessment tools is to ensure that the chosen assessment tool by the instructor has the power or is in a position to sampling or collecting the most needed type of information about the progress of learning of learners. Without this, instructors are likely to use the wrong assessment tools for the right purposes and or at the wrong time. This however happens to be a situation that can best be related to using a stomachache medicine to treat a headache. To validate assessment tools, an instructor may first organize a mock assessment with the desired tool. This mock assessment may or may not be used on the original targeted learners. After the instructor is convinced through the mock assessment that the assessment tool would work, he or she can then extent the assessment to undertake the actual and intended assessment exercise. Collected evidence Collected evidence from learners should also be validated. Validating collected evidence means finding out whether or not evidence or assessment results collected from learners are the result of their own ingenuity and that they are not borrowed ideas. Generally, assessment validation can be explained as “a process where assessors collaborate to compare and evaluate their assessment methods, tools, procedures and decisions against relevant competency standards to ensure quality and consistency in the assessment event” (NCVER Glossary). This means that validating collected evidence would offer the instructor the opportunity to be assured that results or evidence gathered from respondents or learners is a true reflection of the learning that has taken place over the period of teaching. Teachers and instructors who do not validate their evidence stand the chance of being deceived on the true level of progress they have made. Assessment decisions and records of documented outcomes “Assessment processes and tools that are valid, flexible, reliable and fair, will likely result in fewer assessment appeals and other problems that may arise from assessments” (Inspire Education Learner Guide, 2010). However for this advantage to be achieved, instructors must make conscious efforts to validate their assessment decisions and records of documented outcomes to ensure that the right values and figures of assessment are recorded. Cases and instances of recording the wrong values and swapping scores would be corrected and avoided if assessment decisions and records of documented outcomes are cross examined and repeatedly proofread. One other form of validating assessment decisions and records of documented outcomes is by ensuring that assessment targets and gauges set meet the laid down requirement and that they are not set far above or below laid down regulations. Refusing to do the latter might probably create a situation where most learners may be denied their rightful scores and promotions. other aspects of assessment policies, processes and outcomes All other aspects of assessment policies, processes and outcomes are worth validating to ensure that assessment processes are delivered to meet the needs for which they were set out. For a successful validation process, instructors must ensure that validation is a formal process is a collaborative process is planned is documented has a clearly-defined purpose—e.g. to validate the quality of an assessment REFERENCE LIST Commonwealth of Australia 2007, Training Packages @ Work—Back 2 Basics Edition 3: A guide to Australia’s vocational education and training system for teachers and trainers, Training Packages @ Work, Queensland, Australia. NCVER Glossary. http://www.ncver.edu.au/resources/glossary/ 2007. Web June 22, 2011 Inspire Education Learner Guide, 2010, TAE40110 Course Units Certificate IV in Training and Assessment   Read More