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Professional Advice
Student Evaluation
The focus (of assessment) is on the changes the learner is
undergoing rather than on arrival at some point along a fixed scale.
(p.110, Robert J. Anthony et.al., Evaluating Literacy, 1991)
Procedures must include not only actual knowledge students have
gained as a result of study, but also the means they have used to
solve a problem, to take a position on an issue, to reconceptualize
or to create a new idea. The endpoint of extended thinking changes
from one of reproducing to one of producing ideas and concepts at a
higher level. The means of attaining results changes from measuring
growth in recalling ideas, to examining processes of analyzing,
evaluating, generating and predicting ideas. (p.81, Teaching
Thinking, Enhancing Learning, Alberta Education, 1990).
Purpose of Assessment
Diagnostic
Checking up: teacher asks questions or makes observations to see if
child is learning or a testing situation where Person A asks Person
B a question to which Person A knows the answer.
Formative - Instructional/Cumulative
Finding out: Purpose of inquiry, what actually do the children know
about /understand an activity; this stance is fundamental to the
success of decentralized, process-oriented curricula; provides the
framework for responsive teaching.
Keeping track: Using folders, inventories, checklists, class lists,
etc. of individual and group/class activities; record keeping
Purpose: To communicate what is important to make decisions about
class climate, content and methods
Summative
Summing up: Organizing information for those outside the classroom
Methods of Assessment
- Diagnostic
- Observation
- Oral questions that ask students to explain their procedures
- Focused written tasks
- Directed test items
- Formative
- Written tests, including those that require differential methods
for solutions to problems
- Class presentations
- Extended problem solving projects
- Observation of class discussion
- Take-home tests
- Homework, journals
- Group work and projects
- Summative
- Extended problem solving projects
- Papers or written arguments that demand thoughtful inquiry about a
topic
- Written tests that present problems with a range of difficulties
based on expectations for course
- Oral presentation
(NWT Education, Culture and Employment, 1993)
Internet Resources:
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