EDUC 112 Discussion
EDUC 112 Discussion
EDUC 112 Discussion
DISCUSSION
LESSON 1: 21st CENTURY ASSESSMENT
In order to thrive in this constantly changing and extremely challenging period, the
acquisition of 21st century skills is necessary. It is imperative that the educational system sees
that these skills are developed and honed before the learners graduate. It should be
integrated in the program of each discipline. More than just acquiring knowledge, its
application is important. To ensure that education has really done its role, ways to measure or
to assess the learning process are necessary. Thus, the assessment processes and tools must
be suited to the needs and requirements of the 21st century. In this chapter, the
characteristics of 21st century assessment, how it is used as one of the inputs in making
instructional decision, and outcome-based assessment will be discussed.
Inevitably the 21st century is here, demanding a lot of changes, development, and re-
engineering of systems in different fields for this generation to thrive. In the field of education,
most of the changes have focused on teaching and learning. Preparing and equipping the
teachers to cater to the needs of the 21st century learners are part of the adjustments being
done in the education system. Curricula are updated to address the needs of the community
in relation to the demands of the 21st century. This aspect of teaching and learning has been
given its share of focus, the various components/factors analyzed and updated to ensure
that students’ learning will be at par with the demands of the 21st century. Although a lot of
changes has been made on the different facets of education, there are some members of
the educational community calling for a corresponding development or change in
educational assessment. This belief, coupled with the traditional focus on teaching and
learning will produce a strong and emerging imperative to alter our long-held conceptions of
these three parts: teaching, learning, and assessment (Greenstein, 2012).
Twenty-first century skills must build on the core literacy and numeracy that all students
must master. Students need to think critically and creatively, communicate and collaborate
effectively, and work globally to be productive, accountable citizens and leaders. These skills
to be honed must be assessed, not just simply to get numerical results but more so, to take
the results of assessment as guide to take further action.
Educators need to focus on: what to teach; how to teach it; and how to assess it
(Greenstein, 2012; Schmoker, 2011).
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The Assessment and Teaching of 21 Century Skills project (act21s.org) has a core belief
st
that alignment of goals with learning and assessment is essential to policy and practice. They
emphasize the importance of balanced assessment systems that incorporate the 21st century
goals.
Watch:
Assessing 21st Century Skills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qqWsHBeRfM
Characteristics of 21 Century Assessment
st
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSIIK9bVyPI
This section focuses on the characteristics of 21st century assessment and the different
types of assessment. You are expected to integrate the concepts that will be discussed and
apply them in using appropriate assessment tools and techniques in making instructional
decisions; and finally, relate assessment to learning outcomes.
1.
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1.1 Responsive
Visible performance-based work (as a result of assessment) generates data that inform
curriculum and instruction. Teachers can adjust instructions, school leaders can consider
additional educational opportunities for students and policy makers can modify programs
and resources to cater to the present needs of the school community.
Processes for responding to assessments are thoughtfully developed, incorporating best
practices in feedback and formative assessment. Feedback is to be targeted to the goal
and outcome. Rather than just a single test grade, students are informed of progress toward
the attainment of goal. Self-reflection, peer feedback, and opportunities for revision will be a
natural outcome.
1.2 Flexible
Lesson design, curriculum, and assessment require flexibility, suppleness, and adaptability.
Assessments and responses may not be fitted to expected answers. Assessment need to be
adaptable to students’ settings. Rather than the identical approach that works in traditional
assessment, 21st century approaches are more versatile. These approaches best fit for the
demands of the learning environment at present since as students’ decisions, actions and
applications vary, the assessments and the system need to be flexible, too.
1.3 Integrated
Assessments are to be incorporated into day-to-day practice rather than as add-ons at
the end of instructions or during a single specified week of the school calendar.
Assessments are enriched by metacognition. Assessment is about stimulating thinking,
building on prior learning, constructing meaning, and thinking about one’s thinking. It offers
opportunities for students to consider their choices, identify alternative strategies, transfer
earlier learning, and represent knowledge through different means.
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1.4 Informative
The desired 21st century goals and objectives are clearly stated and explicit taught.
Students display their range of emerging knowledge and skills. Exemplars routinely guide
students toward achievement of targets.
Learning objectives, instructional strategies, assessment methods, and reporting processes
are clearly aligned. Complex learning takes time. Students have opportunities to build on
prior learning in a logical sequence. As students develop and build skills, i.e. learning and
innovation skills, information, communication and technology skills, and life and career skills;
the work gets progressively more rigorous.
Demonstration of 21st century skills are evident and support learning. Students show the
steps they go through and display their thought processes for peer and teacher review.
1.6 Communicated
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Communication of assessment data is clear and transparent for all stakeholders. Results
are routinely posted to a database along with standards-based commentary, both of which
must be available and comprehensible at all levels. Students receive routine feedback on
their progress, and parents are kept informed through access to visible progress reports and
assessment data.
The educational community recognizes achievement of students beyond the
standardized test scores. Large-scale measures, including all the results of traditional and
authentic assessments, include and report on 21st century skills.
1.8 Systemic
Twenty-first century assessment is part of a comprehensive and well-aligned assessment
system that is balances and inclusive of all students, constituents, and stakeholders and
designed to support improvement at all levels.
These eight characteristics of 21st century assessment, are essential guide for the
preparation of assessment activities by educators. It is necessary to refer to these
characteristics to ensure that the learners are being assessed towards the skills and demand
of the 21st century.
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LESSON 2: INSTRUCTIONAL DECISION IN ASSESSMENT
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It is made to determine a student’s A teacher gave an essay
Diagnostic strengths and weaknesses and the test. The teacher noticed
reason or reasons. that the students were able
to write more than five
grammatically correct
sentences but the
coherence of the ideas
contained in the paragraph
is poor. So the result shows
that the students sill need
more help in understanding
the principles of writing a
good paragraph.
2. OUTCOME-BASED ASSESSMENT
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2.3 Characteristics of Good Learning Outcome
It is important to define outcomes as clearly and explicitly as possible. Good learning
outcomes give emphasis to the application and integration of the knowledge and skills
acquired in a particular unit of instruction (e.g. activity, course program, etc.), and emerge
from a process of reflection on the essential contents of the activity, course, program, etc.
1. Very specific, and use verbs (that makes expectations clear). By being very specific, it
informs students of the standards by which they will be assessed, and ensures that student
and instructor goals in the course are aligned.
2. Focus on the learner: rather than explaining what the instructor will do in the course,
good learning outcomes describe knowledge or skills that the student will employ, and
help the learner understand why that knowledge and those skills are useful and valuable
to their personal, professional, and academic future.
3. Are realistic: all passing students should be able to demonstrate the knowledge or skill
described by the learning outcome at the conclusion of the course. In this way, learning
outcomes establish standards for the course.
4. Focus on the application and integration of acquired knowledge and skills: good
learning outcomes reflect and indicate the ways in which the described knowledge and
skills may be used by the learner now and in the future.
5. Good learning outcomes prepare students for assessment and help them feel engaged
COURSE MODULE
In what ways do our students achieve more learning outcomes? What are the
ways with which we could measure students’ achievements? Assessment of student learning
requires the use of a variety of techniques for measuring outcomes which plays a significant
role in effective teaching and learning processes. In the previous module, an overview of the
different 21st century assessment characteristics, instructional decision, and outcome-based
assessment were discussed. Assessment shall be used primarily as quality assurance to track
student progress to the attainment of standards, promote self-reflection, and personal
accountability for one’s learning, and provide a basis for the profiling of student program.
(DepEd No. 73, s. 2012).
This module 3 presents various techniques and procedures of assessing student
learning outcomes which help the teachers in making instructional, curricular or
administrative decisions.
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1. Traditional and Authentic Assessment
TRADITIONAL ASSESSMENTS
- are indirect and inauthentic measure of students learning outcomes. This kind of assessment
is standardized and for that reason, they are one-shot, speed-based, and norm-referenced
(Bailey, 1998).
- often focus on learner’s ability of memorization and recall, which are lower level of
cognition skills (Smaldino, 2000).
Examples: Paper-and-pencil tests and quizzes
AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT
- focuses on the analytical and creative thinking skills, students to work cooperatively and
collaboratively and performance skills (process and product) that reflect student learning,
student achievement, and student attitudes of relevant activities.
- when it measures performances or products which have realistic meaning that can be
attributed to the success in school.
The commonly reported dimensions of authenticity are grouped into three broad
categories (Frey, 2012).
A. The Context of the Assessment
Realistic activity or context
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In general, below are some of the best uses of authentic assessment (Mueller, 2010):
1. Authentic assessments are direct measures.
e.g. Conducting a science experiment - hypothesis testing, developing feasibility study,
calculating savings.
2. Authentic assessments capture constructive nature of learning.
3. Authentic assessments integrate teaching, learning and assessment.
4. Authentic assessments provide multiple paths to demonstration.
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The table summarizes the attributes of traditional from authentic (performance) assessment.
Attributes of Traditional and Performance Assessments
Attribute Traditional Assessment Performance Assessment
Assessment Activity Selecting a response Performing a task
Nature of activity Contrived activity Activity emulates real life
Cognitive Level Knowledge/comprehension Application/analysis/synthesis
Development of Solution Teacher-structured Student-structured
Objectivity of Scoring Easily achieved Difficult to achieve
Evidence of Mastery Indirect evidence Direct evidence
Liskin-Gasparo (1997), Mueller (2008) & Wren (2009)
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performance of others which uses preset criteria or predefined and absolute standards or
outcomes. Usually, it describes student’s mastery of the course content, thus, there is no
competition for a limited percentage for a high score.
Both methods are very useful in assessing learning outcomes. The first tells how an
individual performance compares with that of others, the record tells the specific
performance in terms of what an individual can do without reference to performance of
others.
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According to Biggs (2011), Decontextualized assessment includes written exams and
term papers, which are suitable for assessing declarative knowledge, and do not necessarily
have a direct connection to a real-life context. It focuses on and/ore
in artificial situations detached from the real work context.
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EXAMPLES:
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HOLISTIC RUBRIC EXAMPLE
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Assessment of Learning 2 Book, Ronan M. Cajigal, MA.Ed. & Maria Leflor D. Mantuano,
MA.Ed. Code: ISBN 978-971-9656-03-6
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