ASL 2 - Module 2 PDF

Unit 1: PRINCIPLES OF HIGH- QUALITY CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT Learning Objectives On the successful completion of this module, students are expected to: 1. discuss and clarify the concept behind the definition of high-quality classroom assessment; 2. di erentiate the criteria for ensur...

Unit 1: PRINCIPLES OF HIGH- QUALITY CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT Learning Objectives On the successful completion of this module, students are expected to: 1. discuss and clarify the concept behind the definition of high-quality classroom assessment; 2. di erentiate the criteria for ensuring high-quality classroom assessment; 3. classify learning targets by types; 4. analyze targets and appropriately match them with assessment methods; and 5. formulate a generalization for ensuring high- quality in classroom assessment and the need for it.  Lesson 1: What is a High-Quality Classroom Assessment? High-quality classroom assessments focus on how they impact student learning and motivation. The primary criterion is the e ect on students, not just the test details. Assessments should verify and ensure that learning targets lead to real learning. They guide better instructional decisions and provide fair, credible student achievement reporting.  Criteria for Ensuring High-quality Classroom Assessment 1. clear and appropriate learning targets or instructional objectives 2. alignment of assessment of methods and learning targets 3. validity 4. reliability/precision 5. fairness 6. positive consequences 7. practicality and e ciency  Lesson 2.1: CLEAR AND APPROPRIATE LEARNING TARGETS Learning targets are statements of intended learning and student performance. They describe what students must learn or do by the end of a unit. Clear learning targets are essential for e ective assessments and guiding instructional decisions. Learning targets should include both the specific skills/knowledge to be acquired and the criteria for evaluating performance. Every assessment design should begin with clear and appropriate learning targets. Consider the types of targets when formulating learning target statements.  TYPES OF LEARNING TARGETS 1. Knowledge – Student mastery of substantive subject matter. - Knowledge targets include factual information, procedural knowledge, and conceptual understandings foundational to each academic discipline. - These targets are essential as they form the foundation for other types of targets. - Labeling something as a knowledge target does not automatically make it a simple target within the taxonomy. - According to Arter et al. (2012), when a target starts with "understands," it could be a knowledge target or a reasoning target, depending on the intent. - The di erence lies in whether the goal is for students to explain something (knowledge) or to reason beyond a simple explanation.  TYPES OF LEARNING TARGETS 2. Reasoning – This is about the student’s ability to employ knowledge to reason and solve problems. - Reasoning targets specify thought processes students need to learn and apply across various subjects. - These targets emphasize the application of knowledge in an authentic manner, requiring reasoning. - Reasoning processes include predicting, inferring, classifying, hypothesizing, comparing, drawing conclusions, summarizing, estimating, solving problems, analyzing, evaluating, justifying, and generalizing. These processes belong to a higher level in the taxonomy. 3. Skills - student ability to demonstrate achievement-related skills, such as reading aloud, interpersonal interaction, speaking in a second language, operating equipment correctly and safely, conducting experiments, operating computers, and performing psychomotor behaviors. - Skill targets refer to those learning targets where a real-time demonstration or physical performance is the learning source.  TYPES OF LEARNING TARGETS 4. Products – Students can create achievement-related products such as written reports, oral presentations, and art products. - Confusion may arise with certain targets, such as "bake a cake." - This target involves assessing both the skill (baking process) and the final product (the cake). - A combination of product and process-based performance assessments is more appropriate in such cases. - The key to determining the ultimate task is focusing on "What is the intended learning?" rather than "How will students perform it?" 5. A ective/Disposition - student attainment of a ective states such as attitudes, values, interests, and self- e cacy. Disposition in any subject is being influenced by experiences that must be developed within the classes' activities. Bloom’s taxonomy and its revised model can serve as an assessment framework to help teachers determine and maintain the right level of di culty. Kastberg (2003) emphasized that the taxonomy aids teachers in fully understanding the content and processes involved in teaching and assessment. The taxonomy can prevent mismatches between what is taught and what is assessed. - It also serves as a guideline for developing or revising instructional and assessment activities by providing a physical reminder of essential content and processes for students' cognitive growth. Overall, the taxonomy plays a key role in ensuring the quality of the assessment process. Old versionis more appropriateto be the basis in designing product-based assessments (especially the written tests) Revised version in creating process-based (pertaining to skills)  Lesson 2.2: ALIGNMENT OF ASSESSMENT METHODS AND LEARNING TARGETS - Di erent types of assessment methods are used in classrooms, and ensuring a match between the target and method is crucial. - The quality and accuracy of any classroom assessment depend on selecting an appropriate assessment method that matches the achievement target. - According to Mcmillan (2007), the quality of assessment methods improves when there is a match between learning targets and the assessment tools used. - Knowledge targets align best with objective tests, reasoning targets with essays, and a ective targets with observation and student self-reports.  Types of Assessment Methods (Mcmillan, 2007) 1. Objective tests: Most popular, easy to construct and administer; require structured responses; include supply type (short answer and completion) and selection type (multiple- choice, true/false, matching). 2. Essay tests: Paper-and-pencil assessments allowing students to construct responses; can be restricted or extended type. 3. Oral question assessments: Used continuously to monitor understanding; includes oral examinations, interviews, conferences; goes beyond simple recitation. 4. Observation assessment: Common in teaching; teachers observe students informally to assess understanding and progress; used extensively in performance-based assessments and to assess classroom climate and teacher e ectiveness. 5. Performance-based assessments: Require students to demonstrate skills or proficiency by creating, producing, or doing something; includes paintings, speeches, demonstrations, projects, etc.; assessments can also focus on the process. 6. Self-report assessments: Students complete forms or answer questions about themselves, often used in a ective assessment. - Quality decreases when there is a mismatch between the assessment method and the learning target, leading to less precise information.  Lesson 2.3: VALIDITY - Validity refers to the degree to which a score-based inference is appropriate, reasonable, and useful in a specific context. - Inferences and decisions are valid or invalid, not the tests themselves (Popham, 2005). - Validity is the appropriateness of the inferences, uses, and consequences resulting from an assessment. - It concerns the soundness, trustworthiness, or legitimacy of claims or inferences based on scores. - Validity questions whether the interpretation of scores is reasonable, if the gathered information is appropriate for the intended decision, and how sound the interpretation is. - Validity is often understood as the extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure, indicating the quality of the assessment. - Validity also encompasses the appropriateness, correctness, meaningfulness, and usefulness of the conclusions drawn from the assessment.  Four Forms of Validity Evidence 1. Content-related evidence: Assesses how well an assessment samples the content of the domain it represents; the Table of Specifications helps ensure this validity by confirming the test's appropriateness. Answers the question, "Am I testing what I taught?" 2. Criterion-related evidence: Measures how well an exam predicts a student’s subsequent status compared to an existing valid test. Answers the question, "How does this compare with the result of an existing valid test?" 3. Construct-related evidence: Gathers empirical evidence that a hypothetical construct (e.g., a student’s ability to generate written compositions) is accurately assessed. Answers the question, "Am I testing in the way I have taught?" 4. Face Validity: Considered the weakest form of validity, it concerns the physical appearance of the test. Answers the question, "What do students think of the test? Does it look like a valid and o cial one?"  Lesson 2.4: REALIABILITY Reliability refers to the consistency with which a test measures whatever it is measuring. It is the extent to which an experiment, test, or measuring procedure yields the same result on repeated trials that may reveal an individual's real performance level or capacity. Like validity, it is not the test that is saying the reliability but the extent to which the scores are free from error resulting in better judgment. Something reliable is something that works well and that you can trust. That is why reliability answers the following questions: Can the results of the test be something to rely upon? Would we get the same results if the tests were retaken and scored by a di erent person? Noticeably, the answers to these questions focus on decisions. Reliability in classroom assessment is unique because teachers use resultsfrom the assessments to make instructional decisions.  Lesson 2.5: FAIRNESS - A fair pre-instructional assessment provides equal opportunities to all students and is unbiased and non-discriminatory. - Fair assessments are uninfluenced by irrelevant or subjective factors such as race, gender, ethnic background, or handicapping condition. - It is crucial to remain unbiased and give every student an equal opportunity. instead focus on individual performance on assessment tasks. - Teachers should heighten their awareness of bias eradication when generating or reviewing test items to ensure fairness. - In education, assessments must always be fair, and assessment bias should be absent.  Potential Influences on Fairness 1. Students' knowledge of learning targets and assessment - Students should know the content and scoring criteria before the assessment and often before instruction begins, helping them understand what to study and focus on. 2. Opportunity to learn - Fair assessments align with instruction that provides adequate time, resources, and conditions for all students to learn and demonstrate their achievement. 3. Prerequisite knowledge and skills - It is unfair to assess students on content requiring prerequisite knowledge or skills they do not possess; teachers must understand students' levels and scrutinize assessments for required prerequisites.  Potential Influences on Fairness 4. Avoiding student stereotyping - Teachers must avoid judging students based on stereotypes related to gender, race, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics and instead focus on individual performance on assessment tasks. 5. Avoiding bias in assessment tasks and procedures - Assessment bias distorts students’ performances and reduces the validity of score-based inferences. Teachers must recognize and reduce bias to ensure fair assessments, aiming for the absence of bias.  Lesson 2.6: POSITIVE CONSQUENCE - The nature of classroom assessments significantly impacts teaching and learning. - Assessments directly influence how students learn and study, aligning their e orts with the assessment task. - Students are motivated when they believe their e ort will lead to meaningful success. - High-quality assessments lead to positive outcomes for both students and teachers. - Authentic assessments encourage active engagement, resulting in deep learning and potentially increased motivation. - Multiple assessments, rather than a single one, reduce fear and anxiety, enhancing risk-taking, exploration, creativity, and questioning among students.  Questions Teachers Should Consider How will the assessment a ect student motivation? Will students be more or less likely to be meaningfully involved? Will their motivation be intrinsic or extrinsic? How will the assessment a ect how and what students study? How will the assessment a ect my teaching? How much time will the assessment take away from instruction? Will the results allow me to provide students with individualized feedback? What will the parents think about my assessments?  Lesson 2.7: PRACTICALITY AND EFFICIENCY High-quality assessments are practical and e cient, balancing these aspects with other important criteria. Time is limited for teachers, so it is important to consider the type of assessment used. While performance-based assessments can be valuable, they may not always be practical if they take too much time away from instruction or other activities. Teachers should ask: Is the information obtained worth the resources and time required to get it? Positive consequences for both teachers and students enhance the overall quality of assessment, particularly its e ect on student motivation and study habits.  Other Factors to Consider Familiarity with the method of assessment. Time required for students to complete the assessments. Complexity of administering the assessment. Ease of scoring. Ease of interpretation. Cost. Thanks! Do you have any questions?