My Milieu and its craziness!

The Indian education system is inherited from the British,?hence its evaluation is an average of few periodic assessments through the year and then a one-time examination at the end of the year. These tests are not differentiated and all kids are ranked against them. The emphasis is on grades defining the passing or failing for the kids. Every year there are kids who commit suicide for they failed the final examination and were retained in the same class. The system is barbaric for instead of constructive feedback, it provides judgments. Our society uses a grade or numerical ranking to determine a child’s educational worth and merit (Duncan and Buskirk-Cohen, 2011). Further, as governments change, system changes too. There was an effort to bring in continuous assessment in a formative way but due to not having a clear implementation plan, it failed to leave an impact and the subsequent government removed it.

My Frustration

I have been very dissatisfied?by the grading system that seems to check only if the students have rote learnt a subject, and most of the kids study 1 month before the exam using tuitions and clear the examination without any real learning. I have also been saddened by kids chasing me in the corridors of the school screaming, ‘ma’am please give me 2 more marks and I will get 80% and hence 1st class’. This is not education! So, I explored the question of assessment itself and came to some conclusions.

My Innovations

I want to create?a learner centered classroom where assessments are non-threatening. They shift the focus towards assisting teachers in better understanding their students and providing individual tracks as much as possible (Linde, n.d.). To imbibe this, some of the strategies that I used over the years are:

·?Continuous assessment?is a method of evaluating learning outcomes using systematic collection of cumulative judgments on learning, character development, and performance (Maduabum, 1996). I assessed students informally almost daily using their classwork, their group study, their homework and by taking short 3 to 5 min assessments for understanding their learning which were added to the final grade. Knowing that the scores are added to the final grade made the students feel good about having their mini work recognized and they were serious about it.

·?Learning settings must create enthusiasm?in the students for critical thinking related assessments (Seel et al., 2017). I brought in critical thinking questions in group set up where assessment was not only a document but also a viva at the end of it where the whole group had to participate. This ensured that everyone learnt the topic at hand in the groups and the bright ones did not dominate.

·?Diagnostic teaching?(Bransford et al., 2000) focuses on what students think about the topics at hand, confront their misconceptions, and nudge them to keep thinking and modify their beliefs. I brought in diagnostic learning using internet-based quizzes, questioning and think pair share methods.

·?Rubrics?can help students focus on their learning and teachers use rubrics to grade (Pearson Education, 2016). I brought in rubrics for all formative assessments which were initially built by me and then collectively with the kids. This brought a focus to the assessments and improved the work also. I also explained how a summative is assessed pointing the important parts of any question.

                                         Frustration is the fuel for Innovation!