Learning Assessment

Introduction

Reviewing the Assessment Toolkit from my reading, has informed me of my classroom instructional strategies and teaching praxeology. Therefore, I will elucidate the assessment FOR learning and AS learning to drive instruction in my classroom.?

Assessment FOR learning is conceived to enable teachers to adapt, adjust and differentiate teaching and learning deliverables. My students learn in distinctive ways due to their socio-cultural and language proficiency. However, there are predictable patterns and behaviors that many of my students follow. Therefore, I will perform a diagnostic and formative assessment to draw insights into how my students are learning. These insights help me to streamline and target my resources and instruction to provide feedback to my students to assist them in advancing their learning (Manitoba, 2006, p. 13).

Assessment AS learning is an activity to develop and support students’ thinking and the process of how they think about their thinking and learning. My focus is to empower my student to connect their knowledge with what they will be assessed critically. Therefore, it is essential to get my students to be active, engaged, and critical assessors of their learning. I will try to integrate content learning with meaningful information to relate to my student’s prior knowledge and get them to construct new ideas around what they have learned. In this way, my students monitor their learning and adjust to change with the feedback they receive. I encourage students to practice self-reflection and self-regulate their learning to analyze their knowledge critically (Manitoba, 2006, p. 13).

Assessment FOR Learning

The instructional strategies I use for my class are appropriate for students between 16 to 19 years of studying for a business diploma or degree program. In my diagnostic or pre-test assessment at the beginning of a class term, I will create a self-test survey to get my students to rate their level of competencies in the business subject they will be learning (NESA, n.d.). This survey helps me ascertain the students’ proficiency in the matter so that I can adjust my lesson plans, activities, and seminars to the curriculum (RIDE, n.d.). One formal and formative assessment strategy is using the “Frayer” model for learning different business management concepts. The purpose of this model is to separate critical attributes from exciting information about a concept. The “Frayer” model builds skills in crafting definitions of concepts. I get my students to fold an A4 size paper into four quadrants, and in the middle of the four quadrants, a diamond space is created by folding a triangle. The diamond space will list the concept, for example, “globalization.” The top right quadrant details the “Characteristics”, the bottom left quadrant lists the “non-examples”, the bottom left quadrant lists the “Examples”, and the top left quadrant lists the “Definition”. Students start sequentially with the “Characteristics, Non-examples, Examples, and Definitions” in the illustration above.

?The” Frayer” model invites further inquiry, dialogue, brainstorming, and collaborative sharing among students (Educare, 2018).

Assessment AS Learning

The instructions for students’ self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-assessment take on the “Zoom In’ model. The purpose of this is to encourage learners to be open-minded. Learners are empowered to exercise flexibility in changing their initial hypothesis when new or conflicting information is available. I will engage my students in a short video clip, image, or object and ask questions as I reveal these images, objects, or video-clip. This instructional strategy enables me to draw students’ insights into what they see, their interpretations, what new things they can see, how this has changed their perception, and what other new things they can discover or imagine. The process allows a student to closely observe the image, object, or video clip and develop a hypothesis. Then, I will introduce new visual information, and learners will again look closely and reassess the initial interpretation using the further information (Educare, 2018). This will develop my students as critical thinkers and continuously inquire about their thinking.

Conclusion

Although I have used other assessment strategies in?driving engaging instruction?in my classroom, I have shared two of my frequently used techniques with positive appraisal in motivating my students to participate in their learning. I purpose to learn more techniques as I believe no matter how attractive, stimulating, colorful, or relevant the lesson plan if the student does not interact with the materials and instructions, they might not be independent learners with a passion for learning new ways of doing things. If you give a student a fish, he will have a fish for a day, but if you teach the student to fish, he will fish for a lifetime (CUWOnline, 2013).

References

CUWOnline. (23 October, 2013). Assessment as Learning | Learning Beyond Letter Grades. Retrieved from [YouTube]: https://youtu.be/u5If-qMZqW0

Educare. (2018). Facilitation Strategies to Promote Learner Engagement. A Professional Development Workshop for Teachers 29th August 2018 (pp. 1-13). Singapore: Educare International Consultancy Pte Ltd.

Manitoba. (2006). Rethinking classroom assessment with purpose in mind: assessment for learning, assessment as learning, assessment of learning. Winnipeg, Manitoba: Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth. Retrieved from https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/assess/wncp/full_doc.pdf

NESA. (n.d.). Assessment for, as,of learning. Sydney: NSW Education Standards Authority. Retrieved from https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/support-materials/assessment-for-as-and-of-learning/

RIDE. (n.d.). Guidance for developing and selecting quality assessments in the elementary classroom, a part of the assessment toolkit. Rhode Island: Rhode Island Department of Education and the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment. Retrieved from https://www.ride.ri.gov/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/Teachers-and-Administrators-Excellent-Educators/Educator-Evaluation/Online-Modules/Quality-Assessments-Elementary.pdf