Philosophy of Assessment Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Philosophy of Assessment - Term Paper ExampleThis essay considers my personal philosophy of assessment. One of the primary considerations I greet in terms of assessment is developing a means of judging student participation and effort throughout the marking periods and course. One of the primary challenges I had when originally considering assessment was the nature of developing assessment strategies that are student specific, or measure objective metres of comprehension. While ideally classrooms are constituted by students of the same level of achievement, in reality this is not always the case. Early in my teaching career I recognized that I would have to suck in the difficult decision of requiring all students to achieve the same level of achievement. From this foundational level I then began to design assessment strategies that required students to achieve an objective standard of accomplishment. In these regards, I have been greatly influenced by constructivist theory of asse ssment, specifically a text Understanding by Design. This text contends that assessment should be intentional from a top-down structure with the end goal in mind. Working from this theory, each semester I considered the ultimate objective for the course and then worked back from that in developing assessment strategies that would work as standards bearers for the marking period. Still, I recognize that this approach to assessment should only be used to construct a full general approach to curriculum development. As is later demonstrated, the most effective instruction and assessment will consider the learners background knowledge and phenomenological mountain range of the acquire material in developing dynamic and multi-varied assessment mechanisms. In addition to these constructivist approaches to assessment, I have become more accountly acquainted with direct methods of assessment. Its indicated that one of the primary such means of demonstrating direct assessment strategies is through the teachers active involvement in student learning. In these regards, the teacher a) presents information, b) develops concepts through lecture, c) requires students to recite or respond to questions, d) provides feedback and reteaching as necessary (Payne 63). In terms of my own assessment strategies, I implement direct methods in a variety of ways. After determining the end of course objective I would then break down the marking period into manageable units (chapters). inside each of these units (chapters) there would be a final exam and provezes. The quizzes were implemented in large part as a means of motivating students to hold on consistent with scholastic work throughout the chapter. In these regards, oftentimes I approached quiz grades with a more lenient approach than I did the chapter tests. The student quiz scores also functioned to aid me in identifying areas of student promotion that are more in need of attention. Indeed, student quiz assessment was a lea rning process for the students as well, giving them an early idea of elements of the text that they must further study. With the final exam then students had to demonstrate their mastery of the material. Rather than work as a learning aid, the final exam existed solely for the purpose of measuring the students achievement in relation to the objective progress they made within the specific unit. Through research I have discovered a