"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,Old Time is still a-flying;And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying."
“Rather than using a single test, of one type, at the end of teaching, effective teacher-assessors gather lots of evidence along the way, using a variety of methods and formats.”
The first part of this quote made me think about Bachman’s definition of assessment seen in class. We have to GATHER evidence of learning from our students in a systematic way, that is to say all along the process and not only at the end of teaching.
There are multiple ways of gathering this precious evidence, not only the classical test and quizzes we are so used to. In fact, “Understanding is revealed in performance, thus, assessment for understanding must be grounded in authentic performance based tasks.”
We have to face our students to real problems that will trigger transfer from their previous experiences. There is no point in creating false situations where both, teachers and students know that its only aim is to assess a determined content and that its future is to be forgotten and never used by the student.
I am also thinking about formative assessment v/s summative assessment. If our final goal is to really use assessment for learning, then we have to systematically gather our students’ weaknesses and strengths in order to later provide them with the necessary feedback they need to improve their performance. If we only assess them at the end of a period, no feedback is possible and as we can read in this week chapter, “Learning is maximized when cycles of perform-feedback-revise-perform guide the production of high quality products.”
Finally I would like to attempt to answer the question “What kind of evidence do we need to find hallmarks of our goals, including that of understanding?
I think our goals are fulfilled and we can claim that our students really UNDERSTOOD when they are truly able to solve real problems using the contents given in class, when they can manipulate information, techniques and even situations to fulfill a task, when the feeling of having solved a real problem is the final taste of our classes.
The first part of this quote made me think about Bachman’s definition of assessment seen in class. We have to GATHER evidence of learning from our students in a systematic way, that is to say all along the process and not only at the end of teaching.
There are multiple ways of gathering this precious evidence, not only the classical test and quizzes we are so used to. In fact, “Understanding is revealed in performance, thus, assessment for understanding must be grounded in authentic performance based tasks.”
We have to face our students to real problems that will trigger transfer from their previous experiences. There is no point in creating false situations where both, teachers and students know that its only aim is to assess a determined content and that its future is to be forgotten and never used by the student.
I am also thinking about formative assessment v/s summative assessment. If our final goal is to really use assessment for learning, then we have to systematically gather our students’ weaknesses and strengths in order to later provide them with the necessary feedback they need to improve their performance. If we only assess them at the end of a period, no feedback is possible and as we can read in this week chapter, “Learning is maximized when cycles of perform-feedback-revise-perform guide the production of high quality products.”
Finally I would like to attempt to answer the question “What kind of evidence do we need to find hallmarks of our goals, including that of understanding?
I think our goals are fulfilled and we can claim that our students really UNDERSTOOD when they are truly able to solve real problems using the contents given in class, when they can manipulate information, techniques and even situations to fulfill a task, when the feeling of having solved a real problem is the final taste of our classes.
I completely agree with your idea that there are multiple ways of gathering this precious evidence, not only the classical test and quizzes we are so used to.
ReplyDeleteIt is essential to open our minds and analize what types of tasks are helpful to gather evidence and to make students uderstand and trasfer knowledge into other contexts.
Probably this is the only way to redifine our assessment strategies.
Vicky:
ReplyDeleteIf our goal is to have a higher education, it is vital to demand for systematic and thoughtful students learning assessment. A reason why assessment have had little effect on the teaching learning process is because teachers see assessment as chore instead of seeing as an opportunity to use our own inquiry skills to investigate the teaching and learning questions we find most compelling, intriguing and relevant.
As you mentioned in your post, assessment helps learning. Besides, feedback is very important because it enables teachers to detect when students are wrong or right or their strengths and weaknesses. What is more, it enables students to learn.
Hi dear Vick!
ReplyDeleteI found interesting your idea when you mention that there is no point in creating false situations for our students as probably the will not use whatever we are trying to teach them and also they are trying to “learn”. As you said, we should assess systematically in order to gather real and absolutely valuable information about our students’ learning. This evidence should guide us in order to improve not only the students’ weaknesses, but also our own weak points. However, I have to confess that time does not help me, actually it goes against my work, because I think that we teachers normally are supposed to work X number of hours, but this number considers the amount of time we spend in a classroom and not the time we SHOULD spend in planning and assessing adequately and properly.
Thx, Vick
XOXO
Hi Vicky,
ReplyDeleteYou took the words out of my mouth when you mention formative assessment. I think it is the key issue that can assure in some extend our students learning. Even though it is not preferred by teachers due to the fact it demands a large extend of work, it actually shows students where they are, provide feedback and helps our students reinforce and work harder where they are weaker.
However, feedback becomes even more important, because if it is not given explicitly, it becomes irrelevant. It is the student who has to interpret what the teacher says both in written and orally. As well as teaching children to learn and think, we have to teach them how to make the most of the feedback received to apply it to their learning process.
Thanks!
L.
You mention the following:
ReplyDelete"If our final goal is to really use assessment for learning, then we have to systematically gather our students’ weaknesses and strengths in order to later provide them with the necessary feedback they need to improve their performance. If we only assess them at the end of a period, no feedback is possible and as we can read in this week chapter, “Learning is maximized when cycles of perform-feedback-revise-perform guide the production of high quality products.”
If this is so, then our final assessments would be always in vain, no need to go through the enriching process. I believe that there is psossibility of feedback at the very end, and I also think it's one the best moments to provide some, as this is the moment in which you have the oportunity to see with your students the whole process, analyse it, comment good and bad points and project solid ideas for the future. So the cycle that you opened at some time probably, has to be closed not only with a "convivencia" but with a good comment on how the performance was carried out in order to reinforce as many good aspects as possible.
xxx
Claudio
After reading the article I could realize that the approach given to assessment in the current system of education is entirely wrong, because the aim of assessing is not just to control isolated and meaningless portion of contents, in order to get grades, on the contrary it must be used as a powerful tool which allows to measure the level of understanding got by the students from the very beginning to the end of a teaching process. It will give us the enough feedback to check if the tasks developed in class are really effective regarding to the level of transferability proposed by every one them. It means that its is a mistake to consider just tests or quizzes as the only instruments existed to measure if goals were truly achieved by the students, because you can not wait just at the end to do it, on the contrary it must be a permanent task along the process.
ReplyDeleteDear Vicky,
ReplyDeleteWhat you say is the saddest truth, classical written tests and quizzes have become the most common way to gather information of the "learning process" in our students. There is no way we can trace our students' achievement in the language through tests and quizzes!
I think there's a strong belief connected to formative assessing. From my point of view teachers don't consider its potential use, since we just think about end of unit assessment and not process assessment.
My dear,
ReplyDelete“Rather than using a single test, of one type, at the end of teaching, effective teacher-assessors gather lots of evidence along the way, using a variety of methods and formats.” It sounds like triangulation…gather information to know what our students learn. Evidence is essential to do so and this chapter suggests an interesting method: GRASPS. Of course is not a piece of cake but anyway at last we have something concrete to be applied in our teaching. The problem is to forget our beliefs and start thinking like assessors and moreover, find a positive response from the rest of the teachers to not go against the world.
Hugs
Hi Maria Virgnia,
ReplyDeleteI think tests are not quite bad after all, is the way we use them and waht we do with the results of that use. When I say use I refer to the fact that sometimes (always)we rely on tests as the only available and valid method of gather information about our ss. improvement.
First. we gather those tests results with ourselves,and then, if we are lucky enough to have a supportive group of co-workers we gather the info with them.Moreover, if we are luckier than that, we will have the possibility to gather that info with the school administration, which will be the ideal setting in order to improve and vary our assessment methods and as a consequence, the evidence we gather will be better.
Hi Vicky!
ReplyDeleteI liked you comment on the chapter and the last question about the kind of evidence we need for future decision-making. Defining that evidence is the key point in this issue. What the goals are and how to achive them should be one of the central parts in our class design. Now, we have to start considering all the points discussed in the previous posts in order to achieve coherence throughout the whole process.