Module 4 Activity 4: How We Assess - Assessment Methods

I am being reminded that assessment should inform practice and support the management of learning. It therefore means that product and process-related standards should be considered in the overall process accompanied by appropriate assessment method and should allow the system to determine whether outcomes have been met, then review and revise accordingly. It is also important to develop assessment guidelines for assessment during ICT integration to cater for the effectiveness of the process,

Module 4 Activity 3: What we assess - catering for diversity

In our schools today, we are being faced with increasing diversity among our student population and as a result, it is imperative that we respond to the challenge of meeting the individual needs of students to deliver personalised, relevant and meaningful learning. I am being reminded that a diversity approach to the teaching, learning and assessment process does not distinguish between learners on the basis of disability or non-disability, instead regarding all learners as individuals with their own strengths, competencies and identities. Therefore, catering for diversity entails taking a strength-based approach to each learner that builds upon what they know and their beliefs about themselves as learners.

Module 1 Activity 8: Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

The reading of Piaget's theory of cognitive development has rekindled in me the significance of understanding the development of children's thinking during the different stages of development. It is critical for educators to be aware of how a child functions and his capabilities at the various stages of development as this provides a base to plan the instructional, learning and assessment processes of the individual. I am in agreement that learners don’t all learn at the same rate or the same pace and all learning and teaching, therefore, needs to be flexible and learner-centred.

Module 4 Activity 2: What We Assess

Assessment is an integral part of the whole education process and serious attention needs to be paid to what we assess as educators. It is amazing the wide range of things that are recorded in this activity by group members on the activity's brainstorm page on what we can assess. While brainstorming, we recognize the diverse abilities of our learners and just as how we plan our lessons taking our learners individual differences and multiple intelligences into consideration, similarly the way we assess and what we assess must be accorded the same consideration, if we are going to be fair as educators. It is a cause for reflection.

A knowledge-based, highly technological economy requires that our learners master higher-order thinking skills and that they are able to see the relationships among seemingly diverse concepts. For this to be realized, assessment must guide the process. They need to be able to recall, analyze, compare, infer, and evaluate, and these are the kinds of skills that aren't fully measured by our current tests. In addition, skills such as teamwork, collaboration, and moral character traits that aren't measured in a typical standardized tests, are increasingly important.This require us as educators to include many more skills on our assessment agenda.

Module 1 Activity 7: Cooperative Learning

It is evident that cooperative learning is proven to be beneficial to the entire teaching/learning process. It is a method of teaching and learning in which learners form groups or teams for structured activities to achieve a common goal. The learners are individually accountable for their work and the work of the entire group. However, it must be understood that merely putting the learners into groups and allowing them to work together is not enough to constitute cooperative learning.

There must be an atmosphere created where team members are obliged to rely on one another to achieve their goal, all students in group are held accountable for doing their share of work, group assignments are constructed so that the work cannot be simply parcelled out and done individually but instead include work that has to be done interactively,  students are encouraged and helped to develop and practice trust building, leardership, decision-making, communication and conflict management, team members set up group goals, periodically assess what they are doing well as a team, and identify changes they will make to function more effectively in the future, and individuals benefit the most from working with people different from themselves.

With the advances in technology and changes in the workforce infrastructure, the teamwork and cooperation learned through Cooperative Learning activities are of high value for the future success of all learners.

Module 4 Activity 1: Reflecting on your assessment practice

The reviewing of one's assessment practice should be an ongoing effort for all educators. A summary of the results of the both questionnaires was very informative and has caused me to be more reflective in everything I do as an educator. It is very evident that for us to be fair as educators, the entire education process; planning, delivery, and assessment must be a correlated undertaking. If we are going to be effective in executing our duties, the whole idea of individual differences of our learners and strategically catering for them in every way must be our modus operandi, thus equal attention must be paid to our assessment practices.

Module 1 Activity 5: Developmental Psychology

I am being reminded that as educators, we need to progressively develop and nurture a better understanding of how learners differ to help us structure suitable classroom activities that are keeping with their development. The study of developmental psychology allows us to have a better understanding of what a child needs to develop in the best possible way, issues children face as they develop so that they can be better supported, how to help learners to overcome the problems they have, to know that learners may show little progress sometimes and significant progress at other times and not to make assumptions about what a learner can or cannot do because of age.

It is very crucial to understand that a child's development may be influenced physically, socially, emotionally, cognitively and morally as adults today. Hence, as educators we need to get to understand how our learners grow and develop, what barriers and challenges they may face so that we will be in a better position to create a more effective learning experience for them.