Philosophy of Assessment
Through
my philosophy of assessment, one sees many of the beliefs that I hold regarding
teaching, learning, and living. As an
educator, assessment is an important and valuable resource. Importantly, it allows me to evaluate student
status in regards to content knowledge and skills in summative analysis. Yet, as importantly, it allows me to
formatively evaluate the teaching and learning we have done in any particular
curriculum area, at any given point in learning. Through this ebb and flow of learning,
unlearning and relearning, students can be best served in educational
pursuits. The same types of assessments
that affect student outcomes, affect teaching outcomes as well. Self-reflection is an important aspect of being
an effective educator, as well as successful learner.
I
believe that assessment is an integral part of learning, that is to say, that
to be effective, assessment needs to be woven into our learning environments,
throughout the learning process. To this
end, students need to be assessed in a variety of ways. In this way, I ensure that differing
learning styles, differing strengths, and differing ways of manifesting
knowledge are valued and utilized.
Although the focus of assessment is often on
the cognitive domain, for known and good reasons, I also highly value the information
gleaned in assessing the affective and conative domains. It is vital for me to learn what students
believe about learning, their attitudes, and how this impacts successful
learning outcomes. Assessment in the
conative domain, where students exhibit meta-cognition of their processes and
methods in their learning is critical as well.
To become life long learners, independent and critical in their
thinking, students need opportunities and empowerment towards these ends.
It is through the combination of many
indicators within assessment that an educator best can make educational
decisions. Included in this area (yet
not exclusively) would be informal observation, paper tests, on-going portfolio
assessment, performance assessment and peer/self-assessment. Each of these modes of assessment offers
different and valuable information lending towards informed decisions for
learning and teaching. An important
precursor to effective assessment is guiding students in strategies that will
provide them with the best opportunities to manifest all that they have
learned.
Weaving
together a variety of opportunities to evaluate learning, with district and
state learning standard objectives and curriculum, while creating an atmosphere
where students seek to find enduring meaning and new opportunities for
discovery are all important aspects of a healthy learning environment.
