Using Assessments
Assessing Students
Assessments are one of the most important parts of education as they are used to gauge what students have learned, what they already know/think they know or what skills they have developed. Different types of assessments have different purposes in regard to student evaluation. The two main types of assessments are formative assessments and summative assessments. Formative assessments take place before the learning process. During these assessments, teachers are trying to determine how much background knowledge their students have on the topic being taught. By using formative assessments teachers are able to change their lessons to start on an easier or more advanced topic regarding the main lesson. Summative assessments, on the other hand, takes place at the end of instruction. The goal of this assessment is to see either how students improved over the course of a given unit and/or how much they have learned from it. Summative assessments tend to be more high stakes than formative assessments as they are evaluating what the students have been taught, instead of measuring what they may or may not already know. Thanks to their different uses formative and summative assessments are commonly used together in a system that allows teachers to fully assess their students. By taking both prior knowledge and what individual students learn over the course of a unit, teachers can assess how well they taught the content. This can help the teacher to adjust their teaching methods to further benefit students in the upcoming years.
While students themselves may not be overly fond of assessments they play an important role in the educational process. This role is even more prominent and important in classes where there is a lab period, and the teacher is unable to observe all students at all times. As I already stated assessments are used to determine a student’s background knowledge as well as what students learn over the course of a unit. Teachers are able to use assessments to determine what part of a topic to teach as well as how well they taught it. Teachers are also able to use assessments to gauge students’ knowledge of different procedures before they are able to go into potentially dangerous situations, such as labs. By conducting a lab safety assessment, you will be able to gauge whether or not a student has the necessary knowledge to keep themselves safe during lab periods. Students would be assessed on lab safety before they would be allowed in the lab area unsupervised. This is important as students would need to know what is and is not safe in the lab. All assessments are used to determine what students know, the importance of the assessments will vary based on the topic of the assessments.
In regards to assessments I have a few questions:
To my future students, what types of assessments do you think would benefit you the most?
To my university supervisors, what is the most effective way that you have used assessments?
To my cohort, how and when do you plan to use assessments in your classes?
The most effective assessment is the assessment that authentically lines up with the desired learning outcome ;)
ReplyDeleteI have discovered that very often with formative assessment, students don't even really know that they are being assessed. For example, when I use a Nearpod to teach a lesson with students, I build in short answers, polls, and "quizzes" as well as a few other tools. As we move through the experience in class, these little activities give me a checkpoint of their comprehension of the topic and where I might need to spend more time on a concept. On long term projects, I usually have a check in Google form part way through the project that gives me a feel for their progress, understanding and where they need support from me. I often use self assessments with these projects as well. The goal is to encourage self-evaluation and reflection before the final product is turned in, but often, they don't use that tool to the fullest. Although some topics in agriculture are pretty cut and dry and an be tested with a traditional multiple choice, fill in, short answer exam as the summative assessments, there are other times where a small project that incorporates several concepts from a unit provides a deeper dive into topics and gives the summative look.
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