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Post 8 - Assessing Student Understanding


Description

Assessment of student knowledge is a crucial component in the educational process.  Teachers must form instructional objectives that guide their lessons and then, ultimately, serve as a measure of comprehension.

Analysis

Instructional Objectives (IO) serve as a guide for the classroom for both the teacher and students.  They are a statement of skills or knowledge the student is expected to have grasped by the end of the lesson, unit, or semester (Slavin, 2014, pp.340).  There are three components of an IO - the performance expected, the conditions under which the student will perform, and the criterion for success.  They must be specific to the content taught in that class and must clearly state the expectations for the students.  Once the IO are completed, completing a task analysis is important in order to determine all the skills needed by the students to perform the lesson.  Will the students need internet skills for the lesson?  Will they need to understand a certain unique vocabulary list?  Will they need certain basic writing skills?  Teachers can use backwards planning to make sure they include all the smaller, necessary IO for the course.  Backwards planning starts with the largest overall goal for the unit or course and then proceeds to plan each smaller IO related to it (Slavin, 2014, pp.343).

Students should be instructed on multiple levels of Bloom's taxonomy.  Benjamin Bloom developed a series of six levels of objectives, from simple to complex, in order to show comprehension.  They range from Knowledge (simplest), Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation (most complex).  All levels should be addressed by the teacher at some point so as to make sure the students have a multi-layered understanding of the topic.

IO should align with the assessments created by the teacher.  Since IO guide the instruction, it is only right that they guide the assessments.  Students should not be unnecessarily confused by information on assessments because the information is different than the classroom content.  One way in which teachers can accomplish this is by preparing the test prior to teaching the unit.  Another way in which a teacher can prepare prior to teaching the unit is by completing a behavior content matrix.  A behavior content matrix shows the different levels of Bloom's taxonomy and how those different levels would appear when applied to a new skills being taught in the class.  A teacher is then able to have an understanding of where the student is at by comparing their skills with the matrix.

Reflection

 One area that I have struggled in as a teacher is assessment.  I understand the specific value of a multiple choice test, but I also see many weaknesses.  By school pushes multiple choice tests because we use a program that can quickly grade and produce data using a web camera.  While multiple choice tests offer a quick, albeit limited, glimpse into student comprehension, they failed to truly determine a students depth of knowledge.  Even writing more complex questions does not solve the issue because it still limits student answer choices.

While I am still trying to assess in ways that give a clearer picture of student comprehension, I am going to implement the IO strategy and will plan my lessons more completely in regards to all the needed skills.  I want clarity in my classroom where the students know what is expected of them and what they can expect.

Slavin, R.E. (2015). Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice. (11th ed.). Boston, MA. Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.

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