Exam Week was over for my students! And now I am cramming to finish my last module in this course before my finals.
As I was reading through the different parts of this module, I just realized how important is planning the assessment and designing it carefully to 
ascertain its effectiveness.
When I first started teaching, ( By the way, I am not a graduate of education course or the like.) I thought simply having a heart and passion for teaching can get me through this profession. However, my perception is wrong. Though I am very passionate to teach, I still need to equip myself with the necessary theories and principles to be able to get through this profession and be an effective teacher. One of which is having knowledge of the assessment planning and construction.
As planning and implementing the assessment is important, and so is the construction of tests and assessment tasks. These include the table of specifications, effective test questions and knowing how to implement classroom assessment techniques.
For a couple of years of my teaching career, I find it really hard to make test and examination questions. I end up putting more low-level questions that requires recall and memorization. It is difficult for me to generate questions, which will compel the students to higher order of thinking.
After understanding the ways on how to set specific allocations for questions based from the number of hours spent in teaching a certain objective, I finally realize why my students were complaining to me on how ineffective my exams are or that it is not gauging their level of understanding.
The teacher should give students a wide-array of learning experiences necessary to increase their level of competency should utilize different forms of assessment. As an educator it is our duty to ensure that a higher order of thinking is being develop through engaging our students to H-O-T questions that are carefully planned and assessed.
MITCHEL AFRICA 