I think we all agree that assessment is an important part of education. But sometimes we don't know why, or maybe we think in the wrong reasons. I like how Gareis and Grant (2008) defined it:
"assessment --whether informal or formal-- is the means by which a teacher knows what students are or are not learning" (p.3).Simple, right? We need to know whether our students have learned or not, and most important what they have learned!
Gareis and Grant (2008) continue explaining that assessment (to what degree students have learned) is the third component of students learning, the other two being curriculum (what we teach) and instruction (how we teach). So if we don't articulate the three aspects, it is like non dependable two-legged stool. Moreover, they state, if assessment is absent "teaching becomes all about teachers and their decisions and not about students and their needs or their learning" (p.5).
Look at the following common misconceptions about assessment are (Gareis & Grant, 2008):
- assessment is to give grades
- tests are a necessary evil
- assessment doesn't have anything to do with teaching and learning
- standardized assessments only test lower-level thinking
- assessing students is easy: just ask some questions
Assessment is a necessary evil, or is it? There are some very rare schools that do not assess in the traditional or non-traditional ways. William Glasser has a book, "Quality Schools." He has some schools that do not have a grading system. I also highly recommend the educator, Alfie Koln's books.
ReplyDeleteI think we will always be in this assessment trap. We have at least two hundred years of tradition to overcome. Believe it or not, parents want it, governments want it, and teachers want it. The only way to teach in a school that has alternative grading is to start your own.
"assessment --whether informal or formal-- is the means by which a teacher knows what students are or are not learning"
ReplyDeleteI like this quote by Gareis and Grant. But I like it in another dimension --it is the mean by which a teacher can see how students grow in learning.
It's not to quantify what the students learn, but is to see the quality of students' learning. Just a thought.