Exams, quizzes, oral recitations, return-demonstrations, laboratories, tournaments and plays-these are the types of assessment I grew up with. I can consider myself as a student and not as a learner back in highschool and college. I simply memorize facts and it gets me to the top. Did I study? Yes. Did I learn? Not as much. Did I remember? Honestly, no.
For most part of my student life, I have been assessed of my learning. The type of assessment is mostly factual. Personally, I think this kind of assessment should not be disregarded because aside for reporting, recording or placement purposes, it is still helpful in some ways. However, little attention should be given as far as learning is concern. Assessment as learning should be highly implemented and should be part largely of lessons and curriculum.
“What is the purpose of my assessment? And how will I plan my assessment?”, these are some of my questions that were answered. After going through module 3, I realized how important learning the assessment and alignment are.
In the educational institution I am currently working with, our program utilizes ‘assessment as learning’ most. We encourage our students to self-reflect in order for them to monitor their own learning.
In my own experience, I think it is really helpful and effective to students. However, for every subjects they have and every lessons they did, students need to make reflections on things they learned. Here comes now the problem, my students are complaining why do they have to make reflections or self-monitoring or assessments for every activity for every topic in every lesson for every subject. My usual response is, “Reflection or metacognition is the best form of learning.”
But how will I make them feel that they are really learning without even telling them? How will I make them reflect on their learning without all these reflective essays? How will I let them feel it naturally rather than an enforced process?
And so my dilemma came in.
After I learned about blogging and this blogsite ‘WordPress’, I came to think of a way to answer my questions, “How about a blog site to express the student’s feelings, ideas and thoughts?” And so I decided to use this website and let my students create their own blogs to express their learnings in a creative way. I told them to put pictures and videos if they like and personalize it.
When I read the blogs, I can really feel what the students are learning from their thoughts through their writings. It’s like I am feeling what they are learning. There are some positive insights and some negative feedbacks on our lessons. And I highly encourage that. This is a bellringer for me that I need some modification on my strategies or I need to improve some of my methods.
But then I felt that still my assessment skill is not enough. I felt like I am still lacking the techniques educators should have. Then that’s the time I decided to enroll for teaching certification in UPOU since I am working overseas.
When I learned that we need to make a blog in wordpress for our reflections here in UPOU, I am really at awe because I did not know that blogs are utilized for assessment purposes before I even used it. And when I found out that my first two subjects would be a course about curriculum and assessment, I am really ecstatic to start because these are the things that I am really in need of knowledge and what I am struggling right now.
After going through this module, it changed my perspective of assessment. It gave me a clear understanding on how students should be assessed. I understand why we are giving assessments and how can I ensure reliability, validity and effectiveness of my methods. I realized how my assessment should be aligned to my objectives and what I wanted my students to demonstrate at the end of our lessons. It also came to my mind why it is necessary to state the objectives in every lesson.
I am still looking forward to learning more and exploring more.
MITCHEL AFRICA 