INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY EDP 1103

NAME

: NUR SYAHIRAH BINTI MOHD NORDIN NURHADIRAH BINTI MOHD NAT (1320300)

SECTION INSTRUCTORS NAME SUBMISSION DATE TOPIC

:2 : MADAM AZMAH : 7th APRIL 2014 : What type of classroom assessment methods can teachers implement? Describe a few standardized tests that are commonly used in class

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CONTENT NUM 1 2 3 4 Introduction Content Closing Reference TOPIC PAGE

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Efficient teachers must have solid reasons behind every single decision-making that they make. They must be able to foresee or expect the most likely outcome that will happen for every move and decision that they have come to. Being teachers is not only about coming into classroom every day and deliver their lectures and going out of the classroom without improving even a minute aspect of their methods of their teaching. Real teachers must have vision and structured plan pertaining on how to educate their students effectively. There are many teachers out there but not all of them are real teachers. Having said all that, the non-real teachers are not completely inadequate or lousy teachers. They might do not have an explicit understanding about the art of teaching or master the pedagogical skill as well as other teachers do. Real teachers must be visionary and be able to think ahead when it comes to evaluating or assessing their students. Assessing students is one of the most integral parts in being a teacher. There are many aspects and factors that have to be considered before evaluating students. Besides that, teachers must know the very reason or the purpose of why they wanted to test the students in the first place. How will the outcome of the students assessments be of use to the teachers? Will it help towards the betterment or improvement of instruction process? And teachers also have to take into consideration of when to assess students. Knowing the answers to these questions will be a great help for teachers in the process of developing the assessment for students. There are many answers or reason pertaining to the question of the purpose of the administering of assessments to students. Generally, students are being assessed by their teachers for many different purposes. Assessments are not necessarily administered for the purpose of scoring. It can be implemented for various different goals and objectives. One of the many purposes of assessment is to inform and guide teaching and learning. Teachers should be having
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a thorough and good classroom assessment in order to know to gather information about their students in terms of their academic development specifically. Assessment is crucial because it lets the teachers know if students have a problem of misunderstanding or misconception about a particular subject or topic. Being able to identify all this issues in classroom, teachers can easily or at least it will help the teachers in developing a lesson plan for the next topic. Furthermore, it will not only help teachers but also the students in guiding their learning process. Students need frequent opportunities to reflect on where their learning is at and what needs to be done to achieve their learning goals. When students are actively involved in assessing their own next learning steps and creating goals to accomplish them, they make major advances in directing their learning and what they understand about themselves as learners. Research has shown that students will be motivated and confident learners when they experience progress and achievement, rather than the failure and defeat associated with being compared to more successful peers. Teachers must have a clear purpose or goal in assessing students because only by having explicit goals then only they can produce or construct appropriate and suitable sets of questions that can assess students accordingly with teachers goals. Teachers must know the reason they assess students in the first place in order to know what question that they will most likely going to ask. Therefore, it takes a very committed and vigorous effort from educators to design the assessments adequately. Recalling back what our teachers sometimes do before they start teaching, they will generally ask us what we already know pertaining to the subject matter that they are going to teach. Teachers do this to assess students background knowledge on that particular subject and

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they then will spend less time on the things that students seem already comfortable with and more on those things that they have not yet mastered. Teachers might even have to go back and improvise their instructional plan if this assessment indicates that students have not yet mastered a particular thing that we think they already mastered. This type of assessment is known as a diagnostic testing or diagnostic assessment. If diagnostic testing discusses about assessment before teaching, formative assessments on the other hand is assessment utilized by teachers during the instructional process itself. After teaching a part of unit or topic, teachers might want to consider administering or providing an assessment for students to see their level of understanding until the part that teachers have taught and to observe how are they keeping up with the lessons. For instance teachers may give students a worksheet or exercise for students and observe if they have reached a good level of understanding. If all students seem to have mastered understand a particular topic, teachers may move to the next topic. But if only some students have mastered the while others not, teachers may divide the groups into those who can move on to the next step and those will be given extra worksheet and practice particularly about part that they do not understand. Formative assessment can be divided into two ways which are informal techniques and formal techniques. First one is informal techniques. Informal technique is the techniques where the teachers do assessment through students feedback either from students themselves or from students works. There are various methods of informal techniques of formative assessment. One of them is written reflections. Written reflection or known as minute paper is the way where a teacher stops the class about 10-15 minutes early to ask the students. For an example, teacher asked the students What do you learn today? or What do you get from our lesson today. Then, students start to write on the summary of the lesson they learned. From their summary, teachers can
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evaluate how far they are paying attention during the lesson. Muddiest point is the same techniques as minute paper but muddiest point is more to general questions. In other word, students will write the feedback not only about the lesson on that day but also about the previous lesson and their homework. Then, teachers are the one who responsible to respond to their feedback during the next lesson or meeting as soon as possible afterward. Second is formal technique. Formal technique is the technique where the assessment of the students are orally be evaluated and happen in the classroom during class time. For an example is quiz. Quiz can be conducted either chapter by chapter or make it as mid semester test and final test. It depend on the teachers how to make the question but the best is make it as chapter by chapter. Hence, teachers can aware on what chapter, students get the lowest mark that showed students are not understand the chapter well. In the addition, students can learn on how to answer questions during the examination. Other way than quiz is online assessment. Many online learning modules have built in assessments where students solve problems or answer questions along the way. This can provide you with analytics on student responses and class performance so you can tailor your instruction to their particular learning needs. One other way is class deliverables which same as class project. What is the difference of assignment and class But what should teachers do if majority of the students seem to not understand about the topic? If teachers encounter with this situation, they might need to reteach the students but this time using another different approach or technique that will most likely easier for students to understand. Teachers should not keep teaching until the whole chapter without assessing or asking students how they are getting along with the lesson. If necessary, repeat a certain part which students seem to be confused with. Teachers have to bear in mind that even if they are supposed and required to finish a particular topic on a particular time, they have to take into
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consideration the well-being of students and their capacity. Formative assessment here is more likely an evaluation of our own teaching in developing appropriate instruction and is not specifically meant to evaluate individual students. After carefully altering our instruction based on diagnostic and formative assessments, at this point we will want to assess students in terms of instructional objectives which mean it is no longer the teachers evaluation towards their instruction but rather an evaluation towards the students individual progress. This process is called a summative assessment. Summative assessment techniques evaluate student learning. These are high-stakes assessments (i.e., they have high point values) that occur at the end of an instructional unit or course and measure the extent to which students have achieved the desired learning outcomes. For summative assessment, both teachers and students are responsible whereby teachers need to make sure that their students have come to a good level of understanding and for the students as well to revise the previous lesson and do their homework if they intend to pass this assessment with flying color. On the other hand, for diagnostic and formative assessment, teachers bear full responsibility for student learning. A few examples of summative assessments that teachers will usually come up with are exams, portfolio presentation and paper project. This includes mid-term exams, final exams, and tests at the end of course units. The best tests include several types of questions short answer, multiple-choice, true-false, and short essay to allow students to fully demonstrate what they know. These give students the chance to go deeper with the material to put the knowledge theyve acquired to use or create something new from it. This level of application is an extremely important and often overlooked part of the learning process. Submitting a portfolio at the end of a course can be a powerful way for students to see the progress theyve made. More than just a
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collection of students' work from the semester, good portfolios also include reflections on their learning It can be concluded that the purposes of teachers administering assessments to students are vary and depending on their objectives or the focus that they wish to accomplished. Some teachers acquire information about the efficacy of their instructional method while others probably assess their students in order to know or evaluate their progress throughout the whole teaching session. Actions speak louder than words. By far, paper-and-pencil written tests are the most popular type of teacher-made-test. However, to assess some instructional outcomes or evaluate certain areas of student learning, using paper-and-pencil tests is inappropriate. Teachers cannot determine how well a student can type a letter, for example, with a multiple-choice test. Sometimes a paper-and-pencil test will do, but it is not always the best method. Hence, for a certain assessment situations, observation is clearly the most appropriate approach. In observation assessment method, teachers gather data by observing students behaviour in the class and estimating or recording the level of understanding of the students. The value of observation is illustrated by a study that was conducted on Mexican-American students. Many teachers claimed that Mexican-American students were difficult to teach because of their alleged lack of participation in the classroom and failure to answer the questions asked. Systematic observation revealed why Mexican-American students were behaved like that, the main cause was that they were not asked too many and their teachers tended to talk less often and less favourably in the class. Thus, observation not only provided more accurate information but also made the teachers aware that they unintentionally be the part of the problems.

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In addition to assessing student performance, student products may also be assessed. For an example science projects, book reports, homework and essay writing by students also called as students products. Assess students works also called as grading. Barbara Walvoord and Virginia Anderson identify the role of grading. Based on Barbara and Virginia words, grading can be a source of motivation to the students for continued learning and improvement. Grading can be role as connecting medium between teachers and parents also teachers and students. As we know the system of education that make compulsory of either annual book report or monthly book report which must be distributed to the parents as a detail about their childrens achievements. The ways of assess students products are evaluated on how well them summarizes the plot or how accurately it describes the relationship among characters that be teach in the class. The best method to appraise students works is by asking them to write notes in the class according to the topic be taught. In other words, they are making their own notes based on what the students learn in the class and at the same time, teachers can get their full attention. Try to attract them to make the notes by promising bonus mark. Students absolutely want to grab this once in a blue moon.

Other than that, teachers can evaluate students through presentations. Why presentation? This is because by assign them to do presentation on what have they learn, students will find another sources of information that can make them understand more. Besides, teachers can evaluate how far they understand on the lesson. Are they much use teachers words during class time or not use it at all? This can show on how far they are paying attention on the class. Usually
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students who are pay attention during lesson supposed to write down short note according to teachers lesson. Teachers may evaluate themselves by the students presentation. Are they teaching well or not. Teachers can implement one type of assessment that is group assessment. How group assessment be practiced? Teachers can assign students to form a group of 3 to 4 members to make up any topics related to the lesson or subject. The most important that teachers need to be account is not to assess the product of the group but the process of the group. Mean, teachers must get the flow of what are the students doing during group work. If teachers just evaluate based on the product, teachers cannot get the accurate data because some of the members in the group might do nothing. Another important thing that must bear in teachers minds is to hold on the individuals accountable but still keep assess on the students. The other advantage doing this method is students can get the new information through their friends and they might know the part of the lesson that they do not understand.

Furthermore, students can be assessed by doing revision. For an example, brainstorming. Brainstorming is method where students are competing to each other answering teachers question and collect marks. The more rousing environment during the activity, teachers can assume that the more students understanding about the lesson. Other than brainstorm is matrix. Matrix is using a table to list the main topic and then students who are completing the points and explanations of the main topic. Matrix can reduce complexity of the topic and also can help students to make their own note.

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What are the standardized test that be conducted in the class? One of the common tests is essay items. Essay item is the questions that provide an essay that a few question according to the essay. In other word, it is understanding question. The advantages of essay item test are more realistic and generalizable task requires use of writing, reading and grammar skills, more complex to the students to guest accurate answers and can test complex learning objectives. Hence, essay items completely train students on improve their reading and writing skill that are important in order to complete the answers. Essay items have their own disadvantages. There are usually take more time to answer the essay items type of test, essay answers are often written poorly because test takers may not have time to organize and proofread answers, requires special effort to be graded in an objective manner and requires more time to grade or score. It is the best to use essay items test when teachers want to evaluate students ability to formulate a correct answer. If teachers want to assess students ability to express themselves in writing, they can use essay items test and writing is the important aspect of the job. What the most important thing must teachers take account are the time and ability of the teachers themselves. Are they have enough time to score the essay items thoroughly and are they confident that they are able to read written answers critically that to construct effective multiple-choice items. Besides, there is another type of standardized test that is multiple choice items. Multiple choice is a test where students are asked to choose the best answer or answer among the multiple choice of answer. The multiple choice format is most frequently used for educational purpose. Multiple choice items consist of a question and a set of options. This contrasts with essay items in which more than one answer may be accepted as correct. Usually, a correct answer earns mark will incorrect answer gain nothing. For advanced items, such as an applied knowledge item, the
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question can consist of multiple parts. The question sometimes be attach with graph, pictures and other attachment to inspire the students. Multiple choice test advantages are can cover many levels of difficulties, usually take less time to complete the whole questions compared to the essay items test, and can ask many questions not focusing on one topic only. However, multiple choice test may make students misinterpret questions. Multiple choice also difficult to practice learning and gaining information because correct answer might fake. Teachers can always come up with other standardized test as well such as asking students to do reflection after they are done teaching a particular topic or even part of the topic. Reflection is very effective as it requires students to do reflect upon themselves of what input have they managed to grasp after the lesson is done. It is a simple task and teachers need not to have students to write many pages as reflection will usually be done in the beginning or middle of a semester. Hence, you do not want to burden you students by asking them to write ridiculously 8 pages for only one topic. These way teachers will be able to observe students scale of understanding and see if they need and extra emphasizes on that particular topic or otherwise they can always move on to the next part of the chapter. Other than reflection, the commonly used standardized test is quizzes. Quizzes should be prepared in a simple way as you are assessing your students in the middle of a semester which means the result of your students will most likely be used by yourself to see how they are keeping up with your way of teaching. A few types of questions that you can use in quizzes are like True-or-False, Short Answer and Completion items. These are some of the type of question that teachers commonly used to ask question in quizzes. These kinds of question call for an explicit and exact answer although short answer selection item do require students to generate an answer, they call for a very brief answer that is counted right or wrong. This group of questions
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is commonly known as selected response whereby students need to give one answer or an explicit answer.

Short-answer questions are open-ended questions that require students to create an answer. They are commonly used in examinations to assess the basic knowledge and understanding (low cognitive levels) of a topic before more in-depth assessment questions are asked on the topic. Short Answer Questions do not have a generic structure. Questions may require answers such as complete the sentence, supply the missing word, short descriptive or qualitative answers, diagrams with explanations. The answer is usually short, from one word to a few lines. Often students may answer in bullet form. Short Answer Questions are relatively fast to mark and can be marked by different assessors, as long as the questions are set in such a way that all alternative answers can be considered by the assessors. Short Answer Questions are also relatively easy to set compared to many assessment methods. Short Answer Questions can be used as part of a formative and summative assessment, as the structure of short answer questions are very similar to examination questions, students are more familiar with the practice and feel less anxious. Unlike MCQs, there is no guessing on answers, students must supply an answer.

Short Answer Questions (SAQ) is only suitable for questions that can be answered with short responses. It is very important that the assessor is very clear on the type of answers expected when setting the questions, because SAQ is an open-ended question, students are free to answer any way they choose, short-answer questions can lead to difficulties in grading if the question is not worded carefully. Short Answer Questions are typically used for assessing knowledge only, students may often memorize Short Answer Questions with rote learning. If assessors wish to use Short Answer Questions to assess deeper learning, careful attention (and

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many practices) on appropriate questions are required. Accuracy of assessment may be influenced by handwriting or spelling skills. There can be time management issues when answering Short Answer Questions. True-false questions are typically used to measure the ability to identify whether statements of fact are correct. The questions are usually a declarative statement that the student must judge as true or false. Some of the advantages of the true and false questions is it can cover a lot of content in a short time (about two questions per minute of testing time) The question is useful when there are only two possible alternatives. It is also less demand is placed on reading ability than in multiple-choice questions. It can measure complex outcomes when used with interpretive exercises. The matter of scoring is easy and reliable. However there are also some limitations when teachers opt to use these methods. For instance it is difficult to write questions beyond the knowledge level that are free from ambiguity. Besides, false statements provide no evidence that the student knows the correct answer. Scores are more influenced by guessing than with any other question type. Teachers also cannot discriminate between students of varying ability as well as other questions. It also requires that the answer to the question is absolutely true or false. As conclusion, I can conclude that assessment is one of the most important element that should be emphasize by the teachers in learning and teaching process. The ways we assess our students can really make a difference to how students learn. So we are left with the need for professional higher education practitioners to take the lead in ensuring that we do not allow the process to slip out of our hands. We cannot let bureaucratic regulations (whether from within our institutions or nationally) to skew our effective assessment processes. If we find our systems do not allow us to implement a really valuable assessment innovation, for example, then we must find ways to change the system. We need to ensure that decisions about assessment strategies
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are based on the best available evidence-based research on assessment, rather than on custom and practice or what is easy to do. So we need to keep abreast of new developments, evaluate tried and tested ones and experiment with our own initiatives, preferably within a supportive learning community of fellow practitioners.

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References Assessment in Mathematics. (n.d.) Purpose of Classroom Assessment, http://www.learnalberta.ca Retrieved April 6 2014 from http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/mewa/html/assessment/purpose.html Airasian, P. W. (2000). Assessment in the classroom, a concise approach. United States of America: McGraw-Hill Company.

Center for Teaching and Learning (n.d.) Methods of assessment, https://ctl.utexas.edu Retrieved April 6 2014 from https://ctl.utexas.edu/teaching/assessment/methods

Dodge, J. (n.d.), What Are Formative Assessments and Why Should We Use Them? http/.www.scholastic.com Retrieved April 6 2014 from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-are-formative-assessments-and-why-should-weuse-them Gallagher, J. D. (1998). Classroom Assessment for teachers. United States of America: PrenticeHall, Inc. Guskey, R. T., & Marzano, R. J. (2001). Natural Classroom Assessment: Designing Seamless Instruction & Assessment. California: Corwin Press, Inc. Mellon, C. Why and how assessment. (n.d). Eberly Center For Teacher Teaching. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://www.cmu.edu Oxford Brookes University (n.d.), Types of assessment, http://www.brookes.ac.uk/ Retrieved April 6 2014 from http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/resources/assessment/types.html

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Pork, (2014, March 1). Multiple Choice. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org Society for Indrustrial & Organizational Psychology, Inc. Types of Test Item Formats (n.d). Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://www.siop.org/workplace/employment Centre For Teaching and Learning. Methods of assessment (n.d). Retrieved April 5, 2014, from https://ctl.utexas.edu/teaching/assessment/methods VanderBilt University, Center For Teaching. Grading Students Work (n.d). Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/grading-student-work/ Thomas, A. A., & Patricia, C. K. Classroom Assessment Techniques Examples (n.d). Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://www.ncicdp.org/documents/Assessment Brown, S. Assessment for learning (n.d). Retrieved April 6, 2014, from http://www2.glos.ac.uk/

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