Buyung A. N Sudrajat - 7th E-Reflection

Principles of Effective Teaching and Assessment

7^th E-Reflection – The Role of Assessment in Teaching

and Learning Process

            After attending the seventh meeting of PETA course, I have learned many new and interesting knowledge about assessment although I have learned also some knowledge about it in general lecturing with Ibu Warih. From this session I have learned deeper about the role of assessment in teaching and learning process. I have learned more about what assessment is. I have clearly understood that assessment is a tool to measure students’ understanding. Assessment is not a single activity but a set of activity of collecting and interpreting students’ information from informal observations to formal achievement test such as final exam. I have also learned that the main purpose of assessment is to make judgments or decisions to improve the teaching learning process. Besides I have learned that assessment is broader than evaluation. Since assessment is not only to judge or decide whether a learning process is successful or not, but it involves also some processes to improve the learning process. Assessment is done the whole time during the learning process. The steps are first pre-instruction in which the teacher designing the planning, second during the instruction the teacher provides feedback, and the last is post-instruction in which the teacher evaluate the process and improve the learning process. I have also learned about the criteria of effective assessment, there are three main criteria that I want to highlight. The criteria of effective assessment are valid, reliable, and objective.

I have also learned that a good assessment should have the four essentials elements. This is the new knowledge that I got. I have understood clearly about the elements of effective assessment which are purpose, measurement, evaluation, and the use of assessment. First, the purpose of assessment must be clear and measurable. Second, the measurement of the assessment or the techniques that is used to measure must be appropriate with the purpose. Third, the evaluation is how to interpret the information and what standard or criteria that is used to make a judgment or decision whether the students have achieved the objectives of the learning. The last is about the use of assessment; the teacher should know how to use the result of assessment. There are three main use of assessment those are for diagnosing the problem in learning process, grading the score or students’ achievement, and improving the learning process.

After knowing the essential elements of assessment, I have also learned about the domain of the assessment. There three domain of assessment those are cognitive domain, affective domain, and psychomotor domain. I have understood clearly about each domain of assessment. Cognitive assessment is dealing with the students’ knowledge. Affective domain is dealing with the students’ performance and involvement of the students in learning process. Psychomotor is dealing with the skills or ability that can be performed by the students such. It can be seen from the project or performance from the students. Even though I have understood about it, I still do not understand clearly about how to make a good assessment that can integrate all the domains of the assessment. It is the important thing that I should know as a teacher candidate because in school later on I have to be able to design a assessment that cover all the domains. To solve this problem I will res more about how to design an assessment and ask to my lecturer or my senior about it.

Besides I have also learned about the models of assessment, there are two main models of assessment. First the conventional model, in this model there are several steps that is done by the teacher. The teacher firstly design or plan the instructional unit by determining the knowledge and skills that students should be able to learn. After that teacher do the teaching and learning process. Next is in order to know what students have learned teacher so the assessment by testing the students with particular test. After finish with the test the teacher directly moves to next instructional unit without any follow up activity. This model has several weaknesses. There is a lack of connection between the material and the assessment and there is no follow up activity after the assessment so the teacher does not know what should be improved from the learning process. The second model is standard based assessment. The steps are quite similar with the conventional model but something missing in conventional model is completed in standard based. The first and the second step are the same but in teaching and learning process the teacher uses variety of strategies that is adopted from students’ needs. After that the teacher assesses the students to see what students have learned and can do. Next the teacher evaluates the result and sees what should do and improve by giving the students feedback, adapting the instruction, and reviewing the topic that students have not mastered. If the students have mastered the topic and there is no other thing should be improved the teacher can move to the next topic.

I have also learned that the teacher should know the purposes processes, and the tools in doing assessment. It is also a new knowledge that there are so many forms of assessment. Each assessment tool has the advantages if it is used appropriately. Some examples of assessment tools in classroom based assessment are quizzes, homework, journals, worksheet, research paper and etc. The process of doing assessment also based on the purpose. For example the teacher want to know the prior knowledge of the students in planning the instruction (pre-instruction), the teacher can give short quiz or free writing about the topic. I have also learned that assessment can influence the students’ motivation. It is interesting and important for me to know because students’ motivations play a big role in teaching and learning process. Assessment can increase or decrease the students’ motivation and it will influence the students’ achievement. That is why I am as teacher candidate must be very carefully in designing and giving the assessment. There three aspects that is highly influenced by the feedback from the teacher those are the ego involvement (students’ intrinsic motivation), extrinsic motivation, and task involvement.

         From all my explanation above, all activity and learning process in this session was really interesting. In this session I have learned many things that were really meaningful to me as a teacher candidate. It was really meaningful to me as a teacher candidate because it is important for me to know and understand about assessment. By understanding deeper about assessment it will be very useful for me later on to design and give an effective assessment to my students. I become more aware that in designing an assessment there are a lot of aspects that should be considered. This session has met my expectations in knowing and understanding about the role of assessment in supporting the teaching and learning process. By listening to friends presentation and having discussion that helped by my lecturer I could understand well about the material. For the next session I want to know more about how to design an effective assessment and understand deeper about formative and summative assessment. I think that is all that I want to say in this reflection. Thank you.