ASSESSMENT FOR
LEARNING IN CLASSROOM
Learning is a relatively permanent
change in, or acquisition of knowledge, understanding or behavior. There
are three ways of learning, they’re Transmission, Reception and Construction.
Student Evaluation
in Transmission Reception (Behaviorist ) Model of Education
Reception is model of learning
where there is transmission of knowledge from the external source (for example,
teacher) to the receiver (students). So, learning here is being taught. The
teacher gives students the concept and knowledge while students are only
receiving it purely.
Transmission is Sending &
Receiving messages, knowledge, signals. Which includes no scope for creativity,
Rigidity and Generally method of teaching is Lecture Method.
Behaviorism Theory of Learning “
Teachers must learn how to teach … they need only to be taught more
effective ways of teaching.” -B. F. Skinner By: Brittaney
Behaviorism assumes that a learner
is essentially passive, responding to environmental stimuli. It Believes that When
born our mind is ‘tabula rasa’ (a blank slate) , and behavior is shaped by
positive and negative reinforcement. Behaviorism is primarily concerned with
observable behavior, as opposed to internal events like thinking and emotion.
Observable (i.e. external) behavior can be objectively and scientifically
measured. Internal events, such as thinking should be explained through
behavioral terms (or eliminated altogether).
Assessment in Behaviorist
Model of Education
Here the
importance is to assess how much students where receiving the information
transmitted by the teacher. Knowledge transmission cannot be evaluated. But indirect
methods can be used to assess attention or emotional states. Here teacher can
assess only the success of teaching process. In this more weightage is given to
knowledge level and understanding level of attainment of objectives. Traditional
bloom’s taxonomy is the base for assessment. In this assessment is summative in
nature.
Drawbacks of Assessment
in Behaviorist Model of Education
§ Assessment is only about the success of teaching process.
§ Students are passive listeners so proper assessment of
achievement is not possible.
§ Less importance to psychological aspects of learner.
§ More importance to the product achieved by the students.
§ No weightage to the mental process of learners.
§ No continues assessment of the learner.
§ Less importance to co-scholastic achievements.
Student Evaluation
in Constructivist Model of Education
Formalization of the theory of
constructivism is generally attributed to jean piaget, who articulated
mechanisms by which knowledge is internalized by learners. He suggested that
through processes of accommodation and assimilation, individuals
construct new knowledge from their experiences. “ Teaching is not about filling
up the pail, it is about lighting a fire” Constructivism: focuses on knowledge
construction .It is a theory of knowledge that argues that humans generate
knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their
ideas. Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that argues that
humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their
experiences and their ideas. It has influenced a number of disciplines,
including psychology, sociology, education and the history of science.
When individuals assimilate,
they incorporate the new experience into an already existing framework without
changing that framework. This may occur when individuals’ experiences are
aligned with their internal representations of the world, but may also occur as
a failure to change a faulty understanding; for example, they may not notice
events, may misunderstand input from others, or may decide that an event is a
fluke and is therefore unimportant as information about the world. In contrast,
when individuals’ experiences contradict their internal representations, they
may change their perceptions of the experiences to fit their internal
representations.
According to the theory, accommodation is
the process of reframing one’s mental representation of the external world to
fit new experiences. Accommodation can be understood as the mechanism by which
failure leads to learning: when we act on the expectation that the world
operates in one way and it violates our expectations, we often fail, but by
accommodating this new experience and reframing our model of the way the world
works, we learn from the experience of failure, or others’ failure.
It is important to note that constructivism
is not a particular pedagogy. In fact, constructivism is a theory
describing how learning happens, regardless of whether learners are using their
experiences to understand a lecture or following the instructions for building
a model airplane. In both cases, the theory of constructivism suggests that
learners construct knowledge out of their experiences.
Assessment in Constructivist
Model of Education
Constructivism is often associated
with pedagogic approaches that promote active learning , or learning by
doing. The view of the learner changed from that of a recipient of knowledge to
that of a constructor of knowledge, an autonomous learner with metacognitive
skills for controlling his or her cognitive process during learning. Learning
involves selecting relevant information and interpreting it through one’s
existing knowledge. Accordingly, the teacher becomes a participant with the
learner in the process of shared cognition, that is, in the process of
constructing meaning in a given situation. Concerning instruction, the focus
changed from the curriculum to the cognition of the student. Thus, instruction
is geared toward helping the student to develop learning and thinking
strategies that are appropriate for working within various subject domains.
Correspondingly, assessment is qualitative rather than quantitative,
determining how the student structures and process knowledge rather than how
much is learned. Continuous and comprehensive assessment is one of the main
strategy in constructivist learning. In this assessment is formative rather
than summative. Weightage to learning objectives in the assessment is given based
on the revised blooms taxonomy.
Continuous and
Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)
Continuous and comprehensive
evaluation is a process of assessment, mandated by the Right to Education Act, of India. This approach to assessment
has been introduced by state governments in India, as well as by the Central Board of
Secondary Education in India.
The main aim of CCE is to evaluate every aspect of the child during their
presence at the school. This is believed to help reduce the pressure on the
child during/before examinations as the student will have to sit for multiple
tests throughout the year, of which no test or the syllabus covered will be
repeated at the end of the year, whatsoever. The CCE method is claimed to bring
enormous changes from the traditional chalk and talk method of
teaching, provided it is implemented accurately.
As a part of this new system,
student's marks will be replaced by grades which will be evaluated through a
series of curricular and extra-curricular evaluations along with academics. The
aim is to decrease the workload on the student by means of continuous
evaluation by taking number of small tests throughout the year in place of
single test at the end of the academic program. Only Grades are awarded to
students based on work experience skills, dexterity, innovation, steadiness,
teamwork, public speaking, behavior, etc. to evaluate and present an overall
measure of the student's ability. This helps the students who are not good in
academics to show their talent in other fields such as arts, humanities,
sports, music, athletics, and also helps to motivate the students who have a
thirst of knowledge.
Characteristics of
Continues And Comprehensive Evaluation
§ Teachers evaluate students in day-to-day basis and use
the feedback for improvement in teaching – learning process.
§ Teachers can use varieties of evaluation methods over and
above the written tests.
§ Students can be
assessed in both scholastic and co-scholastic areas.
§ Evaluation is done
throughout the year and therefore it is expected to provide more reliable
evidence of students’ progress.
§ CCE encourages the
students in forming good study habits.
CCE is child-centric and views each
learner as unique. This evaluation system aims to build on the individual
child’s abilities, progress and development. That the child should not feel
burdened during the learning years, CCE made formative and summative assessments
mandatory in all CBSE schools. The learner thus was also benefitted by having
to focus on only a small part of the entire syllabus designed for an academic
year.
