Module 4 Activity 4 Assessment Standards and Guidelines

Assessment is used to inform teacher practice and provides an opportunity to offer specific feedback to help students improve their learning. Assessment is the process of gathering and recording information about student work during a specific period of time.  Assessment may be formative or summative. In formative assessment, students monitor their own learning. They set curricular and learning skill goals, engage in learning, and reflect on the feedback from teachers and peers to help determine next steps. It is important that as teachers we do not test ICT specific skills but rather seek evidence of the students’ understanding in the presentations. I have come to the realization that it is better to assess my students ICT competence than to assess their ICT skills.

In addition, assessment guidelines are necessary to guide the assessment process whether it be through individual, self, peer or group assessment.  In my opinion, the major issue with assessment is that various methods are used and adequate feedback is given to the students.

Module 4 Activity 3 Diversity

Diversity

There is no doubt in my mind that I need to meet the needs of my students regardless of their varying abilities. I am aware that all students are different and they learn differently and it is my job to ensure that the experiences provided for them are meaningful to them.  This reading reminded me of the various ways in which students learn....those who are either active or reflective learners, those who are sensing and intuitive learners, those who are visual and verbal learners and those who are sequential and global learners. Teachers  need to assess the learning needs of their students and provide those experiences that will fit into how they learn.  The old way of assessing students using paper and pencil tests should be used sparingly if used at all since they cater for those students who are mainly visual learners.

Module 1 Activity 8 Piaget_Influence

Piaget Influence
This activity has reminded me of the need for teachers to be refreshed about the reasons why students learn the way that they do and made me think about what can be done to make them learn even more. It reminded me as a teacher that though students might appear to be similar in the stages of development, they learn differently at different pace, and this must be catered for in the classroom. No longer can a teacher go into a classroom and post tasks on the chalkboard expecting all students to handle all of them the same way.  No longer should the one test/exam at the end of a term decide a child's future. A good reminder for me is that all children go through these stages of cognitive development and we should not expect them to skip a stage. This means that we have to make the students naturally develop and provide the necessary experiences for this development to take place. We cannot and should not force children to develop before they are ready for that stage.

Module 1 Activity 7 - Cooperative Learning

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is an approach that caters to the needs of many students and it helps in the development of their collaborative skills as they work together to complete tasks.  Students will have responsibility for their learning and the teacher will only act as a guide or facilitator in this case.  When I conducted the activity, my role was to ensure that the students stuck to task.  As a matter of fact, the students were so focused that my presence was not needed.  The students had fun learning and they will always want to repeat such activities. There is no doubt that once the students are aware that a similar activity is going to take place, I will have the full complement of students on that day.

Module 4 Activity 2 What we assess

What we Assess

This activity has enabled me to get a more comprehensive picture of what it means to assess.  I know of instances where teachers assess students in the hope of tricking them so that they can claim that the students did not study.  Assessment is designed to help students to learn and to help them in the process. Assessment as a process is critical to helping the students determine how well they are coping with the tasks so that they may be assisted if the need arises.  It creates the opportunity for fixing a problem before the end result is achieved.  Product assessment, however, deals with the end result of the process and how well it was done.

Module 1 Activity 5 Developmental Psychology

This activity has renewed my resolve to get to know my students as thoroughly as possible so that I can adequately plan for them. The more that we know about students physical, social, emotional, moral and cognitive development, the better equipped we will be in understanding the students that we teach and cater for their needs. I am reminded of the fact that all students are different even though their developmental stages are somewhat similar. I can recall the writings of Vygotski  which referred to the zone of proximal development and the need for teachers to set work that is slightly above the students' abilities to create a challenge but not too difficult to make the students lose confidence. I can definitely say that I will incorporate the information gleaned from the readings in my teaching.