Philosophy of Assessment So far, I have had to write about my philosophy of education at least twice so far in my college career.

If anything, I find my philosophy continually evolving. Now I get to expand it to include assessment. This is a good thing. My practicum teacher last semester said he wished somebody had taught him about assessment and grading while he was in college. I am first going to explain my philosophy of education and then use that context to explain my ideas on assessment. There are two theories that drive my educational philosophy. Theres Banduras social learning theory and Vygotskys ideas of zones of proximal development and scaffolding. Starting with Vygotsky, a student is not going to learn calculus without first having a basis in algebra. The same student is not going to learn algebra without having a basis in arithmetic. Each level of math learned adds scaffolding to reach the next level of math, or in terms of the zone of proximal development, the zone is increased with each new level of math learned. Another way of looking at Vygostsky is to build on what the student knows. Having this mind allows student experiences to be given weight in the classroom. Culture, language, abilities and disabilities are just some of the bases for how to approach teaching a math concept. Bandura has a theory where students learn by observation and then show they have learned by reproducing the behavior they observed. An example in the math classroom is for me as a teacher to demonstrate step-by-step how to solve a linear equation. Students may learn on the first observation or it may take a few demonstrations for the students to learn. The second part of Banduras theory is where assessment comes in. The students are to reproduce the behavior they observed. As a teacher, I need to determine how the students reproduce the behavior (from the example, solving linear equations). This is where homework and tests will come into play. Homework gives students the chance to practice the new behavior, skill, process, concept, etc. Assignments can also include applying the new behavior, skill, etc. in different circumstances. Bringing back Vygotsky, these different circumstances to apply the new skill can be based in the students experiences, cultures, languages and abilities or disabilities. Student homework gives me a chance to assess if the student understands the new concept and if they can apply it to other circumstances. This would be my time to refine how I am presenting the material to the students. After practicing the new skill or process, the students will get a chance to demonstrate the behavior reproduction on a test. The question is why test after all the practice with homework. This fits in with Bandura in that the student is showing they have learned the behavior by reproducing the behavior. For each test, I will need to set up a grading rubric. I will need to determine what is nonexistent, below average, average, above average and exemplary. I would need to decide where just demonstrating the skill would fall on a scale compared to applying the skill to a unique situation.

This brings up the type of questions that would be on the test. There will need to be questions where the student demonstrates the skill being tested, such as solving linear equations. Then there will need to be questions where solving linear questions are used in some sort of unique situation. The situation, of course, will be based on students backgrounds. Overall grades will be primarily based on tests. Homework will also be included in the overall grade, but it will not be weighed as heavy as tests. I see homework as practice of a skill that will be reproduced on a test. Students should receive points for just doing the homework rather than the quality of their homework. It is practice and there should not be penalties for errors. Other projects or assignments, will also contribute to the overall grade. I plan on using the combined scores method for the overall score. To determine the levels of scores, I will add the individual test score levels together. For example on one test, according to the rubric I set up, the average score is 5-6. A second test may have a rubric stating the average is 7-8. If I were to determine an overall score, average would be in the range of 12-14. I do realize that this method may mask a students abilities. He may have scored high on one test and low on another test and the overall grade would reflect an average score. What then the score represents is the amount of skill the student has learned over the year. If a student is not able to reproduce behaviors on several tests, the overall score would be low, indicating they learned few behaviors. With the idea of scaffolding, this student will not have acquired enough skills to learn the next level of math.