Personal Assessment Philosophy

Personal Assessment Philosophy

In my opinion, both formative and summative assessments are valuable in that formative assessments assess certain skills while summative assessments test everything being taught in a certain subject.

Authentic Assessment is the creation of learning outcomes that are meaningful for students that are significant in their intellectual development (Brown, 2015).

Authentic assessment is important because without properly defined learning outcomes, there is no blueprint of direction for teachers to help their students learn and grow (Barnes & Urbankowski, 2014). An example would be giving someone a bicycle who has never seen one or used before and tell them to ride it without helping or guiding them. Authentic assessment gives teachers assistance in developing the best methods to reach students and train them to become independent, critical thinkers (Koh, Tan, & Ng, 2012). Authentic assessment could be helpful for teachers by identifying what material is crucial and what material can be used in smaller doses as teachers prepare students for college, careers, and standardized tests. 

Module 5: Reviewing what you wrote for your personal philosophy of assessment, what can you add or revise from your initial posting?  Include any research, discussion points, or information you have learned since Week 2.

One thing that I have received from this course specifically is the idea that Tommy mentioned in his video chat about my group’s Group Project Assessment and that is “what are you trying to gain from this assessment?” As simple as this sounds, I feel this consideration is so important as a teacher who will be evaluating students on a regular basis. I feel that teachers should focus on specific feedback like teacher lesson presentation feedback, class activity feedback, homework and assessments feedback, speed and pace of learning feedback as well as other topics. I believe that this detailed response from students will allow teachers to see where their teaching strengths may lie like presenting information clearly and what they can improve on like allowing more time for students to complete problems in class drills or activities.

During my Field Placement at New Town High School, the teacher I have been observing, Ms. Myles always speaks to me about receiving feedback from students during lessons and homework as she teaches. She accomplishes this either in a formal manner by providing surveys to fill out or by asking a handful of students at random throughout the class period either before or after class begins to gauge whether or not the material is engaging and comprehendible to various levels of educational abilities and different styles of learners. 

Module 8: Reviewing what you wrote for your personal philosophy of assessment, what can you add or revise from your initial posting?  Include any research, discussion points, or information you have learned since Week 5.

My personal philosophy of assessment has grown through this eight week course, but I do not feel that my opinions on assessment have changed, but rather the value that I place on assessment has simply grown. My opinions have grown with respect to seeing trends in student’s areas of strengths and weaknesses. I feel that assessments are more valuable not in determining whether a student is strong or weak in a topic, but that one student may need more time to draw connections in one subject rather than another. I still feel that teaching and assessing students from a growth mindset with mastery learning as the plan of education and assessment is the best method to encourage students to learn their material. I feel that assessing students allows teachers the opportunity to help push students in the right direction when they are showing signs of mistakes.