Improved Student Assessment Methods - Essay Example

November 8, 2007 Improved Assessment Methods need to know how what they’ve learned from a Two classical innovations in the learning field for assessing student performance are essays and simulations. These methods provide a way for teacher to evaluate the student’s abilities in real life scenarios as well as providing a way to expand the student’s minds. Teaching and learning are important actions that must occur in order for society to continue evolving towards creating a better world. Without education a country can not progress and transformed its economy from a developing country to a developed nation. Due to the importance of the learning process this position paper was created to compare and contrast the learning assessment performed by Jim Evans in 1962 and two alternate ways to assess learning of students. The position of the writer is that the traditional learning assessment performed by Mr. Evans is inadequate to determine if real learning occurred. The proposed methods to assess learning which are far superior to the techniques utilized by Mr. Evans are simulation and essays. Jim Evans performed a teaching workshop to state agencies for creating effective visuals in which the teaching objectives were outstanding. As an educator Mr. Evans taught a class in which most students seemed to be satisfied until he decided to utilize a 50 item test as the only assessment of what the students had learned during the workshop course. Some students immediately complain after not doing well on the test, some of the comments included constructive criticism such as, “the teacher continue his lesson assuming everyone had learned the concept he was teaching” (Smith & Ragan, 2005, p.104). The methods Mr. Evans utilized did not truly reflect a correct basis to determine if students actually learned the basics they must have picked up from the course. Mr. Evans was teaching a short course to a group of adults. He utilized a technique more appropriate to ensure younger students learning basic skills such as intermediate math or elementary grammar. In this type of course the teachers has to ensure specific items of knowledge are learned to ensure the student learned knowledge they need for future courses. In those types of scenarios the students are taking a course that lasts a semester typically in which they are numerous class reunions and the instructor is able to teach different segments of the material and emphasize on theories and specific applications that are easy to evaluate through a series of written tests. Mr. Evans was not teaching under such circumstances. Jim had a group of adult learners taking a series of workshops in a short time span to learn a practical application of knowledge to improve their performance at work. The approach to assess the learner’s knowledge was inappropriate and did not provide a true way to determine if real learning had occurred that could be applied to the real work problems and actual application of work. There are other ways to implement learning assessments which have nothing to do with taking traditional exams. Two excellent ways to determine if a student has acquired knowledge of a particular subject matter are simulations and essays. Simulations are very practical form of learning that provides tremendous insight about what the students has learned from a course. In addition to being excellent instructional strategies, simulations are excellent assessment platforms, particularly for assessment of higher-order rule learning (Smith, et. al, 2005, p.113). There are various ways to deliver a simulation. Simulations can be delivered to the student via case analysis, group interactions, computer Sims, video Sims, printed material among other alternatives. I personally took a course a few ago online in which computer simulation were utilized as the on of the main assessment methods. I saw first hand how the computer simulation was able to apply artificial intelligence to correct my erroneous paths and create alternative routes or alternatives to a problem, thus the assessment was actually teaching things while I committed errors in the simulation which depicted a real life scenario type learning experience. A simulation does not test a specific item in question, but instead tests the test takers ability to induce the correct answer by playing a virtual game (Sutton, 2007). Essays are another form of assessing whether actual learning took place from a lesson. Instead of limiting the assessment to simple item questions which can be guess on in multiple choice or T/F scenario that in reality only test simple user specific knowledge an essay opens all boundaries and test other skills such as cognitive abilities, creative thinking, and technical report writing all of which are important abilities for a person in the workplace. Based on the lessons the student can expand their knowledge beyond the boundaries of the material provided in class which was limited by time constraints. Once all students pick a topic for an essay based on teacher specific guidelines then real learning takes place outside the classroom for all the students participating in a course. The chance to perform research and utilize library and online resources is provided by utilizing essays as an assessment tool. In real life professionals in our knowledge economy have to able to perform independent research to find answers to real life problems and to create solution based or primary or secondary research. For material to be truly learned and not be forgotten in the short-term memory process the learner has to do something with it, which is where an essay comes in (Chaika, 2003). The situation depicted in the case of Jim Evans in which effective visuals were taught to a group of adult learners failed because the assessment method chosen was an ineffective tools for the type of teaching being performed. The two tools analyze in this paper, simulations and essays, could have increased the level of satisfaction and of the class and effectiveness of the course by providing assessment tools to truly test the material learn in ways which allowed the knowledge to be applied to practical applications. Simulation back in those days could have been set up in a group setting or through written application of the knowledge in different scenarios. The students could have written a freelance essay to the teacher to demonstrate different aspects of the knowledge acquired during the course along with other additional personalized learning on the subject. Both these assessment tools provide a way for instructors to test the knowledge acquired by students in realistic scenarios. References Chaika, E.O. (2003). Essay on Learning. Providence College. Retrieved November 5, 2007 from http://www.providence.edu/CTE/Resources/Essay+on+Learning.htm Smith, P.L., Ragan, T.J. (2005). Assessing Learning from Instruction. Instructional Design (3rd ed.). New Jersey:Hoboken. Sutton, Q. (2007). Simulation Based Learning and Assessment. Retrieved November 5, 2007 from http://edsimulation.blogspot.com/ Read More