Assessments Impacting Learning

Assessment to Promote Understanding & Achievement.

Day 1

After a very busy weekend and what I assumed what a successful elective on Instructional Strategies the week before, it is now  time to encounter the rigors of assessment that is facilitated by Dr Hamilton. As is customary, we begin with worship as one meditate on whomsoever their Deity is considered to be.

No later had we received the course outlines and expectations outlined. It became evident that pacing of my time and higher level thinking would become critical factors for the completion  of the electives. Emotionally I have braced myself for the challenges and reminding myself that ‘’what man has done, man can do”.

 The reading materials are vast, inter-related and much is dependent on the interpretations of the reader. Though not an avid reader and a concrete sequential learner I am being optimistic that I will be  moulded to the level of a professional reader. This was also outlined in the GWEN  (give, want, expect, need) activity that  was guided by the facilitator.

The central focus was on assessment and the way it impacts learning based on how it is used.  Assessment is sometimes misinterpreted as evaluation, however it is intimately inter-twined with learning. Three of the approaches that were of central interest were; assessment for learning, assessment of learning and assessment as learning.

As educators, sometimes too much of energies are spent  creating and implementing assessment tools, in comparison to the energies utilized to provide feedback and on-going assessments.  This means much is dependent on the diagnostic skills of us as educators to balance the assessment approaches, interpret data, make informed decisions and judgments and modify our instruction so that learners can see a reason for learning and assist in self –evaluation.

I am hoping that I would be able to implement many of these approaches  in my classes as soon as I return back to school.

Well what can I say????? A transformer has been blown and I am out of power. So like Roger Farr, I have no option but to go and start dreaming about assessment.