Description:
Objectives:
- Evaluate the motivational aspects of different student assessment types. (InTASC 3, 6)
- Create a student assessment that is reliable. (InTASC 6)
Evaluation Assignment
You are going to teach a lesson of your choice. Create a student assessment that will assess what you want the students to learn. This assignment can be of any assessment type that was described in this week's readings. Some you can choose from include:
1. Informal versus formal assessment – spontaneous versus planned purpose
2. Paper-pencil versus performance assessment – written down versus demonstration
3. Traditional versus authentic assessment – the 3Rs versus application
4. Standardized versus teacher-developed assessment – global comparisons versus classroom lessons
5. Criterion-referenced versus norm-referenced assessments – accomplishments to specific criteria versus group averages to some measure
After writing your assessment, in an essay of 750 words, respond to the following:
1. Discuss the characteristics of the student assessment that make it reliable.
2. What motivational factors does the assessment include to encourage students to do well?
APA format is required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected and textbook citations and references should be presented.
Lecture 7
Evaluation
Introduction
Under what type of conditions do students learn best? Do they respond better when instruction is clearly laid out? What kind of instructional methods such as lecture, hands-on, or cooperative learning groups assist in learning and remembering? The focus during this lecture is to point out possible answers to the above questions.
This lecture will also focus on assessment measures and strategies. Currently, assessment methods inform a teacher's decisions about what they are teaching and what is being learned. It is essential to use assessment techniques that adequately portray what students know and can do.
Overview of Instructional Strategies
In any discussion about instruction strategies, teachers must be able to identify instruction from two different viewpoints. The first is teacher-directed, where the teacher directs most of the classroom activities, choosing topics and directing the lesson. Most forms of expository instruction fall into this category. The second is learner-directed, where students have considerable input into choosing the issues they will be studing and how they will be studied. Most classroom work is hands-on, interactive, and collaborative. The current research supports the values of learner-directed activities to foster achievement and post-school success (DeLisi & Golbeck, 1999).
Future instructional leaders understand that good teaching begins long before they enter the classroom. As a result, they plan. In most states, in addition to teacher standards, there are instructional objectives that dictate what students should learn. It is up to the teacher to develop classroom activities that will promote maximum learning.
In the state and national standards the scope and sequence are already in place. These are often referred to as instructional goals and instructional objectives with the former referring to long term objectives, while the latter refers to more specific outcomes of a particular lesson or activity. Educational research (Gronlund, 2004) shows that students benefit from knowing the objectives of a lesson or activity. Based upon this, they are able to make more appropriate decisions on time allocations and topic focus.
Task Analysis
In any teaching activity, the general outcome is to transfer complex ideas into workable skills. The approach that many teachers use is referred to as task analysis, a process whereby they identify the necessary subject matter to be taught, and they provide a highway of methods to achieve them. There are three general approaches to this process:
1.Behavioral analysis: Identify the specific behaviors necessary to perform a task.
2.Subject matter analysis: Break down the subject matter into specific topics and concepts.
3.Information processing analysis: Employ the cognitive perspective in the tasks.
There is not a single easy or right approach. The advantage to task analysis is to assistwith choosing the appropriate instructional strategy for instruction.
Teaching Approaches
The most common approach is called expository instruction. Information is presented or exposed to students in the form of activities that students are expected to learn. These activities are then behaviorally reinforced for appropriateness of response whether verbally or in written homework. Some researchers (Skinner, 1968) have indicated that this places the student in a more passive role. Other research, such as Ausubel (1978), supports the notion that students are mentally active during passive classroom activities.
Another approach is called mastery learning whereby students demonstrate they have mastered the topic or topics before preceding to the next activity. This assumes that every student will have the subject mastery before moving on.
Still another approach is called direct instruction, and it is often the approach chosen by districts for teacher evaluation. In this approach, teachers incorporate the elements of expository and mastery learning into one. This approach will use a variety of methods and techniques to engage students (Rosenshine & Stevens, 1986). In this approach, small sequenced steps, fast-paced teacher-led interactions, will typically cover many of the following seven steps:
1.Review of prior learned material
2.Statement of lesson objectives
3.New material presented in small steps
4.Guided practice and assessment after each step
5.Student assessment of progress
6.Independent practice
7.Review
All teachers will move back and forth in order to ensure subject mastery. This approach is most suitable for teaching new skills (Rosenshine & Stevens, 1986).
Assessments as Tools
Assessment is a process of observing a sample of a student's behavior and drawing inferences about the student's knowledge and abilities. This definition has led to various forms of assessment:
Informal versus formal assessment − spontaneous versus planned purpose.
Paper-pencil versus performance assessment − written down versus demonstration.
Traditional versus authentic assessment − the 3R's versus application.
Standardized versus teacher-developed assessment − global comparisons versus classroom lessons.
Criterion-referenced versus norm-referenced assessments − accomplishment of specific criteria versus group averages to a specific measure.
All of these assessment types have functionality with different purposes. These purposes are usually either formative or summative, with the former assessing before and during instruction and the latter assessing after instruction has taken place. They are used to (a) promote learning; (b) guide instructional decision making; (c) diagnose learning problems; (d) promote self-regulation; and (e) determine what students have learned.
Teachers have come to find that assessment practices influence many other aspects of classroom functioning. Assessments affect future planning and instruction, the classroom climate, and students' motivation and affect. The assessment process plays an integral role in the overall achievement of goals and objectives.
Assessment Quality
Several criteria characterize good classroom assessment: reliability, standardization, validity, and practicality.
Reliability of an assessment technique is the extent to which it yields consistent information about the knowledge, skills, or characteristics teachers are trying to measure. When measuring students' work, it helps to be confident that the results are the same on any day and under any condition. The same assessment will rarely give teachers the same exact results for the same student on two different occasions due to issues over which there may be no control:
Changes in the physical environment
Variations in the administration of the assessment
Characteristics of the assessment instrument
Subjectivity in scoring
Confidence in test reliability comes from factors, such as test-retest reliability, scorer reliability, and internal consistency reliability. A number is established, known as a reliability coefficient, which usually ranges form +1 to -1. This reliability coefficient exposes the degree to which temporary errors contribute to the fluctuations in a student's performance results. How much of an error may be present in a single score? In other words, how close are the results to what it should be, or the true score? This question is answered by the standard error of measure, which allows teachers to estimate how far off or close the score may be. (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997).
A second important characteristic of a good assessment is standardization. This is where the assessment tool maintains similar content, format, and administration procedures for each person who may be administered the assessment. Assessments are constructed by test experts and strict procedures are maintained for administering and scoring the assessment. In classroom assessments, this concept helps to ensure that the resultant error is minimized.
A third characteristic of a reliable test instrument is validity, which is concerned with how the test measures what it is intended to be measured. Since several factors may impact test results, validity ensures, in spite of these fluctuations, the results remain the same.
Informal Assessment
There are many opportunities within a school day to observe verbal and nonverbal behaviors, which over time allow teachers to draw and formulate some conclusions about what is being learned or not learned. This is considered informal assessment, which can take on many forms, such as:
Asking questions
Listening to class discussions
Writing journals
Holding brief conferences with each student
Observing performance
Reviewing on-task versus off-task behaviors
Using personal kinetics (body language) to imply feeling about the subject activity.
When acquiring information through the above means, it is imperative to take into account the strengths and limitations of this approach with respect to reliability, standardization, validity, and practicality.
Another type of assessment strategy is called performance assessment. This type of assessment works exceptionally well when assessing complex achievements, such as those that involve coordinating a number of skill areas simultaneously. It is also helpful in high performance identification, such as locating gifted students within the classroom and school setting. Performance assessments are more meaningful and motivating than paper and pencil type tasks (Khattri & Sweet, 1996).
These types of tests and assessments are usually noted as extrinsic motivators. They provide an externally imposed reason for learning school subject matter. A previous lecture discussed the need for intrinsic motivation to play an important part in school learning, and was, at times, very difficult to measure with formal instruments. It remains a goal to assist students in taking risks in the assessment process that will enhance their ability to develop cognitively and produce higher learning applications.
Assessments must address diversity. Several areas of individual difference include test anxiety and testwiseness. Test anxiety becomes more common in older students, students from some minority groups, and from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (Hill, 1984). Some things to minimize the effect include controlling time limits and using notes or other resources when there is not inherent value in committing certain information (Brophy, 1986). Testwiseness employs test taking strategies that enhance test performance, such as:
Using time efficiently
Avoid sloppy errors
Deductive reasoning
Guessing
Students with special needs will be afforded certain accommodations due to physical, social, or emotional disabilities. As a classroom teacher, these accommodations will be spelled out on IEP's, which is an individual education plan, that address these variations in test taking.
Conclusion
Other approaches that are current include CBI (computer based instruction), discovery learning, authentic instruction, collaboration-interactive approaches, class discussions, reciprocal teaching, cooperative learning, and peer tutoring, all of which have merits for developing new instructional leaders.
In this instructional process, it is imperative to consider the diversity of the students in a teacher's care. The strategies a teacher chooses will, to some degree, depend upon the cognitive levels of the students. Some of these strategies adapt well to a wide range of students abilities and needs. For example, mastery learning provides a means through which students can learn at their own pace. CBI methods often tailor instruction to students' prior knowledge and skills, while homework can be easily individualized for the kind and amount of practice students may need. At times, teachers organize their instruction approaches to accommodate cognitive and disability needs. Regardless, it is the individual instructor's responsibility to adapt to the needs of the student population being served.
Learning to develop good classroom assessments may be one of the most challenging tasks as a teacher. This course hopefully has exposed some of the basic skills needed for new teachers to maintain a sense of proficiency in classroom settings.
References
Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Ausubel, D.P., Novak, J. D., & Hanesian, H. (1978). Educational psychology: A cognitive view (2nd ed). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Brophy, J. E. (1987). Synthesis of research on strategies for motivating students to learn. Educational Leadership, 45(2), 40-45.
DeLisi, R.,& Golbeck, S. L. (1999). Implications of Piagetian theory for peer tutoring. In A. M. O'Donnell & King (Eds.), Cognitive perspectives on peer learning (pp. 3-37). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Gronlund, N. E. (2003). Writing instructional objectives for teaching and assessment (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.
Khattri, N., & Sweet, D. (1996). Assessment reform: Promises and challenges. In M. B. Kane & R. Mitchell (Eds.), Implementing performance assessment: Promises, problems, and challenges (pp.1-21), Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Rosenshine, B. V., & Stevens, R. (1986). Teaching functions. In M.C. Wittrock(Ed.), Handbook or research on teaching (3rd ed.). New York: McMillian.
e-Library Resource
1. Integrating Instruction and Assessment
View the video "Integrating Instruction and Assessment."
2. Monitoring Student Progress
View the video "Monitoring Student Progress."