Chapter 2
How to Develop an Enriched Student Evaluation Program

Introduction

Two ways to increase the confidence with which you approach student evaluation are: to ensure that your evaluation program is the best that you can make it and to reaffirm that the most appropriate techniques for evaluating many objectives requires informed, inferential, and professional decisions. We know that, no matter how objective a mark or a grade may look on paper, it represents a professional's estimate, arrived at through a process involving subjective decision making.

Let us continue the analogy of the financial planner. Once the planner knows your current financial state, he or she can advise you in establishing your goals and in accomplishing them. At this stage, the planner's expertise will come into play more than in the inventory stage. However, the final decisions are yours, based on your own understanding of your goals. In this chapter, you will read about research findings, Saskatchewan policies on curriculum and evaluation, and trends in Saskatchewan curricula. To keep the handbook as readable as possible, no references to the literature are given in the text. A comprehensive bibliography is provided toward the end of the handbook.

After reading these sections, you might want to expand your evaluation program to take into account some of the issues raised. The handbook will show you how to do this. As before, we will proceed in steps. You will find it helpful to refer to your curriculum guide, daybook, or other resource documents you use for instructional planning.

By the time you have worked through this chapter, you will have reviewed the techniques you currently use to evaluate your students in terms of how adequate they are at the task. You will have identified gaps in your student evaluation program and will have considered which additional techniques would be suitable to fill the gaps. You will, in essence, have developed your own student evaluation program.

You may find that working through all the stages of the following process is challenging and time consuming, even to the point where you may feel overwhelmed. If that happens, decide on the one course where you feel it is most important to reassess your student evaluation program. Limit your scope to that course for now, and return to your other courses when time permits. Planning for student evaluation is a complex matter. To oversimplify it for expediency would be selling short your obligation to your students and to your own professionalism.

Assessing Process and Skill Objectives

A number of issues need to be addressed before we embark on the planning activities of this chapter. One concerns the matter of how the Common Essential Learnings can be accommodated within a student evaluation program. Others include discussions concerning the Adaptive Dimension, bias, fairness and equity issues, and relationships among learning objectives, instructional approaches, and assessment techniques.

Common Essential Learnings

• Just as the Common Essential Learnings are not taught in isolation, so it follows that they are not evaluated in isolation. They are evaluated only in terms of the objectives of courses that incorporate these [earnings. The Common Essential Learnings stress the skills and abilities through which students use higher-level thought processes to develop their ideas, attitudes, and values. Therefore, the course objectives that reflect the Common Essential Learnings will be process-oriented.

• In the curricula that are being issued by Saskatchewan Education the Common Essential Learnings are incorporated during the development process. As teachers plan their courses from these curricula, they do not have to concern themselves with incorporating the Common Essential Learnings into their objectives - that has been done for them. With the curricula awaiting revision, teachers have to make adjustments to incorporate the Common Essential Learnings. Opportunities for including the Common Essential Learnings will differ depending upon the CEL, the grade level, and the area of study.

• Because the Common Essential Learnings represent an expansion of what traditionally takes place in the classroom, you may need to expand your repertoire of student assessment techniques to accommodate them. Indeed, this is one of the reasons for developing this handbook.

• The Common Essential Learnings should be incorporated into all curriculum areas. Although some CELs are more easily associated with certain curricula, efforts should be made to gather information on student growth in all aspects of the Common Essential Learnings throughout all curricula. In summary, the Common Essential Learnings represent an expansion of what teachers are required to teach, not a radical departure. In time, as the new curricula incorporating objectives derived from the Common Essential Learnings become available, the interweaving of what students should know, how they should come to know it, and how we should assess both of these will result in a holistic conception of the teaching- learning process.

The Adaptive Dimension

the concept of making adjustments in approved educational programs to accommodate diversity in student learning needs (p. 30).

• curriculum
  
• instructional practices
  
• learning environment

The Adaptive Dimension permeates all practices the teacher uses to make learning meaningful and appropriate to each student. It requires constant monitoring of student progress and exploration into the reasons for the progress or lack of it. It is not designed solely for special needs students but emphasizes the importance of adapting programs for all students, as appropriate.

Student evaluation, as part of good pedagogy, must also be addressed within the Adaptive Dimension. If you are adjusting your program to meet the requirements of the Adaptive Dimension, you must also be prepared to adjust your student evaluation program. The assessment techniques you use are the same techniques that are outlined in Chapter 4.

The specific assessment techniques and the way they are used in the student evaluation program must be in line with the adaptations of curriculum content, instructional approaches and learning environment required within the Adaptive Dimension. Because each student is unique with individual strengths and weaknesses, and abilities, assessing all students in the same way may penalize some students. It is important to remember that, when assessing any student, barriers to accomplishing the assessment task, such as physical disabilities or visual impairment, should not interfere with the task.

When making adaptations to reflect specific student needs, it is important to remember that curricular objectives should not be modified. Therefore, although instructional strategies and assessment techniques may differ, all students are working toward attaining similar learning outcomes. The assessment practices used should align with the adaptations to curriculum and instruction provided for the student.

Adapting assessment techniques may require changing parameters such as the frequency of use, the criteria for judging student progress, the length of time allowed to complete the assessment activity, and the type of assessment technique itself. Some examples of these changes include:

• demonstrating skills or knowledge rather than completing a written test or report.

• using oral assessment techniques for students with reading or writing disabilities.

• allowing more time to complete tests and other assignments.

• stating instructions in simpler terms.

• focusing on a smaller number of assessment techniques or changing the frequency of gathering assessment information.

• adjusting the type of criteria used for expected responses and the degree of accuracy required in these responses.

• reducing expectations in the amount of work accomplished.

• requiring above average students to provide more than one solution to a problem.

• using a word processing program with a spell- check feature with students who have problems spelling correctly.

• modifying the presentation and answer sheets of tests and assignments to accommodate student weaknesses.

• reducing student anxiety by providing familiar surroundings and practice in test-taking strategies.

As outlined in the Instructional Approaches document, the first step in the Adaptive Dimension is the assessment and evaluation of the needs of all students relative to the approved curriculum. Then, teachers have the opportunity to make decisions concerning the needs, abilities, and interests of small groups of students or of individual students.

A challenge to teachers is to determine the knowledge, processes, and skills that already exist in relation to the levels of expectation for the students' age and grade and the knowledge, processes, and skills that are in need of instructional attention in order to facilitate their growth. Both these objectives can be met by using diagnostic evaluation.

Diagnostic evaluation involves an intensive effort to gather information about a student's learning. The classroom teacher or resource teacher may conduct a formal assessment that includes standardized test results on the student's achievement and/or ability. The classroom teacher may also conduct informal assessment based on the curricula that will give information about the student's learning within the classroom setting.

Informal diagnostic assessment has the advantage that it is directly related to instruction. Using diagnostic assessment techniques will provide information on the student's current level of performance, help in the selection of instructional goals and objectives, give direction to instructional modifications, provide documentation of student learning progress, and guide future assessment.

In all types of assessment, and especially in informal diagnostic assessment, teacher observation assessment tools such as rating scales, checklists, and anecdotal records are important and useful data recording and scoring devices. When observation techniques are used systematically to detail, record, and analyze student performance, information is gathered concerning the student's strengths and instructional needs. Work samples collected over a period of time in a portfolio can be the basis for evaluation. Informal inventories and quizzes may also form part of the diagnostic assessment conducted by the classroom teacher.

Diagnostic assessment and evaluation will also provide the teacher with information about student learning style and the instructional strategies that >have been tried previously with the student, either successfully or unsuccessfully. Instructional time can be saved by eliminating unsuccessful methods early in the school year. As well, through daily school contact you become sensitive to the nonverbal reactions students have to the work being presented and you develop the ability to assess these clues for signs of frustration or enjoyment. Recording this information through the use of assessment techniques such as portfolios and anecdotal records are valuable tools within the Adaptive Dimension.

Structuring assessment techniques into questionnaires and interviews can also be used to obtain formative information on student motivation and interests, student study habits, and effective learning strategies. Adaptation can then be made to curriculum content, instruction, or classroom environment for small groups or individual students.

Many students have test information accompanying them throughout their school careers. It is important that teachers are aware of what assessments have been done and what information is already available. Historical test data that is more than one year old can provide some information about students, but current data are more valuable for planning purposes. You may wish to look at the assessment data accompanying students in terms of:

• whether the information consists of all standardized test scores or whether there is a balance between norm-referenced and criterion- referenced testing.

• whether there are representative assessments that are teacher-made and curriculum-based.

• whether the information gives direction to you in terms of planning or holds little instructional value.

• whether there are areas that could still be explored.

Maintaining good communication channels between the home and the school is important with all students, but with students having difficulties in school, the importance escalates. For example, knowing how extensively parents or guardians have been involved in supporting a student's educational program and how past communications have occurred can be valuable information in providing teachers with access to support mechanisms.

For more information about instruction and the Adaptive Dimension refer to Instructional Approaches: A Framework for Instructional Practice, Saskatchewan Education, 1991.

Fairness and Equity

Students, teachers and programs must be evaluated in a way that is sensitive to the context of the family, classroom, school and community. Since the determinants of educational outcomes vary so greatly among classrooms, schools, and communities it is important that evaluation procedures in education provide for fairness among students, teachers and others in education and, in particular, that procedures be sensitive to issues of educational equity (p. 10).

Operationalizing the terms is not simple. It depends upon what is meant by the phrase 'fairness and equity.' There are two extreme views on the matter.

• Fairness and equity can mean that we must take into account each student's individual situation and evaluate accordingly. Students are to be seen as individuals having a variety of educational or social needs that must be addressed through adaptations or alternative approaches to both teaching and evaluation.

• he second view is almost the antithesis of the first. Fairness and equity can mean that everybody should have an equal chance to compete for their goals (e.g., completion of Grade 12; entrance into a limited-access university program) and should therefore be evaluated equivalently. This view has been referred to as the 'level playing field' argument.

These two views on fairness and equity can be seen as mutually exclusive. In Saskatchewan we might generalize by saying that in the elementary school the first view predominates, and by Grade 12 the second view has taken over. How you interpret fairness and equity is a value judgment that you as a teacher must make according to the philosophy of the curricula you use and your own goals and those of your school and district. By acknowledging openly where you stand on the continuum whose ends have been identified above, you will reduce the potential for confusion when you are discussing your teaching and evaluation practices with students and parents/guardians.

Bias

Saskatchewan Education has instituted specific mechanisms for reducing racial and gender bias in curricular and resource material. Teachers must be alert to the possibility of all kinds of bias within their classrooms and must act to eliminate them.

Recent research has found that testing practices are extremely susceptible to gender and ethnic bias. If you develop test items that use illustrations from hockey and baseball, you will find that boys consistently out-perform girls, even when the underlying principles are equally well understood by the two genders. As another example, if you develop an observation checklist to assess your students" functioning in group situations, you may unwittingly assume that your expectations for group functioning are the appropriate ones. In some cultures, group expectations are quite different from those of the mainstream culture to which most teachers belong. For an example of responses being subject to socioeconomic bias, consider the evaluation of an assignment devoted to 'comparing our community to another Canadian community'. Students who have been able to travel may be at an advantage when completing this >assignment.

It is very important that you are constantly on the alert for any type of bias that might creep into your student evaluation practices.

Determining the Intent of Learning Objectives

A useful way of examining the meaning or intent of curriculum objectives is in reference to a taxonomy of instructional objectives. Although it is recognized that other valuable taxonomies exist, elements of Bloom's Taxonomy (1956) are referred to here because educators generally recognize and understand them. Through an examination of the main verbs, teachers can gain insights into the intent of the objectives and the cognitive (knowledge, understanding, thinking), affective (feelings, interests, attitudes, appreciation), and psychomotor (physical skills) levels or domains that the objectives address.

Once they have understood the meaning of curriculum-stated learning objectives, teachers must develop specific course, unit, and lesson objectives. It is important that these objectives are stated clearly because they will form the basis for the selection or design of instructional material and teaching methods. As well, they provide insights into appropriate assessment techniques that can be used to determine the extent to which the learning objectives have been met.

Relationships Among Learning Objectives, Instructional Strategies, and Assessment Techniques

With regard to assessment, teachers should use a variety of techniques to evaluate the cognitive domain. However, the verbs used to convey the intent of the learning objectives provide useful information for selecting specific assessment techniques. For example:

• The verb ‘identify’ in a learning objective describing what the student should be able to do might suggest that the teacher consider using objective assessment techniques comprising multiple choice, matching, or true and false items to gather information on student learning progress.

• The use of verbs such as ‘apply’, ‘manipulate’, and ‘operate’ listed within the Application level of the cognitive domain might suggest that the cognitive domain might suggest that the teacher consider performance assessment tasks as the most appropriate assessment technique.

• Verbs within the Comprehension, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation levels (e.g., ‘interpret’, ‘defend’, ‘explain’, ‘categorize’, ‘formulate’, ‘propose’, ‘judge’, ‘contract 6;) might suggest that extended open responses, written assignments, or presentations are appropriate data-gathering techniques.

• doing extra reading or research on the topic.

• watching television programs and discussing environmental issues.

• joining related clubs.

• showing concern for the environment through everyday actions.

Learning objectives within the psychomotor domain are concerned with gross and finely coordinated body movements as well as verbal and nonverbal communication. Observation checklists, rating scales and anecdotal records are effective ways of gathering student progress information on student psychomotor development.

The chart on the following page has been constructed to aid teachers in matching assessment techniques to various instructional outcome categories that were identified in Instructional Approaches: A Framework for Professional Practice. The assessment techniques assigned to learning outcome categories are only suggestions for usage. Other combinations may also be appropriate.

Matching Assessment Techniques With Learning Outcome Categories

Application to a Saskatchewan Curriculum

The instructional plan is based on the Elementary Science Curriculum at the Grade 4 Level. One core unit in the curriculum is titled Cells and Systems. The first of two foundational objectives is "Understand some aspect of cell theory." Within the core unit, students are expected to learn some basic information about cells. Having mastered this basic information, the students proceed to the next foundational objective in which they study the skin in detail. The following example of instructional planning relates only to the first foundational objective. It should be pointed out at the outset that each teacher's approach to this unit would likely be different. This example is meant to illustrate some of the thought processes a teacher might go through in developing an instructional plan that incorporates assessment and evaluation in a unit of work. The chart that follows provides a handy overview of the planning decisions made by the teacher.

Examination of Learning Objectives

• describe the basic structure of cells.

• identify cells as the smallest component of organisms.

• recognize the relationships among cells, tissues, and organs.

• recognize the characteristics of cells, tissues, and organs.

Instructional Strategies and Assessment Techniques

Although the instructional objectives appear to emphasize the two lowest cognitive levels, the curriculum guide provides possible teaching activities that incorporate experiential, interactive, and indirect instructional strategies. However, this is not to say that direct instruction (e.g., lecture, texts, and note-taking) is inappropriate. Indeed, it can be an effective way of introducing knowledge- level information, provided there is an appropriate match with the teaching and learning styles of the teacher and student respectively.

For the purposes of this example, the teacher spends two weeks on this unit of study.

For printing and copying, these tables require Acrobat Reader

• Instruction Plan
• Instruction Plan

Reviewing Your Course Objectives

Matching Student Assessment to Course Objectives: Worksheet 'E'

Make several copies of Worksheet 'E'. Then, start with your first grouping. For each course or subject in that grouping, list five or six of the major learning objectives your students are expected to achieve. If there are too many major learning objectives, start with a unit or two, then add additional major learning objectives for subsequent units. It is not important for this exercise that the objectives be stated in strict behaviorist termsÄall that matters is that they are pedagogically important and have a basis in the curriculum guide of the course or subject. Additional major learning objectives may be derived from:

• the Common Essential Learnings (for those areas where revised curricula are not yet available).

• the resource materials developed or approved for the course.

• any bulletins or materials concerning the course or subject that have been distributed by your school system for locally developed options.

Using Worksheet ‘E’, record some of the most important objectives for each of the units, courses, or subjects in your first grouping.

Record in the second column the technique to techniques you are using to assess your students. If your current evaluation program does not allow you to assess an objective, the gap in this column will alert you that additional techniques may be needed.

Repeat this analysis for all the groups in your courses using as many copies of worksheet ‘E’ as you need.

Leave blank for the moment the column headed ‘Additional Assessment Techniques to be Included’.

Matching Student Assessment to course Objectives:

Worksheet ‘E’

Student Instructional or

Assessment Grouping

                                         &nb sp;             

Purposes of Assessment Techniques for Student Evaluation

• The needs of your teaching should determine the purposes of your student evaluation program - not the other way around. Are you collecting assessment information for diagnostic, formative or summative purposes? For example, if you plan to structure reading groups based on current level of learning, you will need a student assessment technique that will be used for diagnostic purposes. If you know from experience that students have great difficulty in understanding the scientific concept of density, you need a student assessment technique for formative purposes. This will provide you with the necessary feedback on how well the students have acquired the concept. If you have finished the health education unit on safety and you will not be returning to it again, it is time for an assessment technique that will contribute to summative evaluation.

• Even though an assessment technique can be used for more than one purpose, you should have one primary purpose for using it. In that way you can keep the most important aspects of your student evaluation program at the forefront.

• By thoughtful planning you can often expand the use of any one student assessment activity to achieve more than one purpose. For example, if a presentation is intended to contribute to summative evaluation, you can use the information formatively through teacher-student interviews immediately following the presentation. The event will still be fresh in your students' minds so that you can do some remedial or additional teaching. If you discuss the assessment information much later, then the purposes are restricted to the summative mode.

• The relative emphasis on diagnostic, formative, or summative evaluation will reflect the adaptations made to curriculum, instructional practices, and learning environment within your classroom. Students requiring modifications to their programs will need more emphasis on diagnostic evaluation, accompanied by formative evaluation to guide instruction. If the students are a group requiring enrichment, the emphasis may be on formative evaluation to guide their learning and summative evaluation to assess their range of progress. For students within the regular classroom, a combination of the three will be used dependent upon the information the teacher requires.

  Diagnostic evaluation requires the most care because it is necessary to look at students' performance in terms of both what they are able to demonstrate and how and why they perform in the way they do. What strengths are noted and what areas are weak?

• Student knowledge, skills, and attitudes change over time. While knowledge and skills can be assessed to show a student's level of development over short intervals of time, student growth or progress related to attitudes and values are best observed over a longer period. Teachers tend to do this intuitively, but for summative evaluation purposes, this aspect of student evaluation must be formalized. That means that the data on which you will base your summative evaluation judgment must be systematically gathered and recorded over an appropriate period of time.

• Students are entitled to know the circumstances under which they are being assessed and evaluated. If grammar and general appearance of a written assignment is important to the objectives you are teaching, students need to be informed of these criteria when you assign the task. If evidence of background or independent preparation is an element you are looking for in assessing students" work, it is important that they are fully aware of this criterion as well. If you intend to observe 'working cooperatively' and include this in your assessment of your students, you should announce this fact at the beginning of the task, unit, or course of study.

Using the Techniques to Best Advantage

Systematic Use of Techniques
For each of the techniques you have selected for this grouping, decide how you can use it more systematically.

• You need to know when you will use the assessment technique in the course(s) you are teaching for each student instructional or assessment grouping (e.g., initially, at the start of the course? ongoing, throughout the course? At the end of the course?).

  Diagnostic evaluations involving the assessment of the level of science vocabulary or concepts, mathematical technical competency, language competence, or reading level are often done at the beginning of the year. Summative evaluations are most commonly carried out at the end of a unit although assessment information may have been collected much more frequently. Formative evaluations may be more informal because they are often carried out in response to the way you interpret your students' progress. An example of this is checking on students" rough notes before they begin a major project on 'The Environment'.

• Try to evenly space the times at which you will be assessing your students. In this way your assessments will be less dependent on the rhythms of the classroom and will encompass both the peaks and valleys of learning activities.

• Tell your students when you will not be assessing and evaluating them. Some learning activities are too fragile to survive the strain of knowing that they will be assessed and evaluated. Language arts authorities now suggest that you divide the writing process into stages. For example, students should feel free from the pressures of summative evaluation during those 'writing workshop' phases when they are exploring creative and original ways of expressing themselves, through group work or dialogue with the teacher. During this time, the students will be assessing their own progress. In addition, they will be aware that their final products will be evaluated summatively.

Also, record in your planning book any decisions you have made in light of the working through this section.

Recording of Data
The recording and storing of the raw data from which you will make your evaluative decisions is extremely important. Indeed, this may well be where your new student evaluation program will differ most from your current one. The importance of keeping complete records stems from both the nature of the techniques in an expanded evaluation program and the job the information must do.

The nature of many of the techniques is that they require the teacher as the instrument much more than is traditionally the case. This is, of course, an entirely appropriate professional role. However, teachers are human beings and so have imperfect memories. Not only might you forget important information that you have collected on your students over the course of a school year, but your recollection of the information may be colored by the way you and your students have changed over time. You may be so pleased with the way your class is now functioning you forget the student growth that had to occur in order for the progress to happen. Anita and Darcy may have come out of their shells to such an extent that your recollection of this development fades. Only records written at the time can refresh your memory of what things were like back then. By rereading your data you will be able to arrive at an appropriate assessment of your students' achievements over the school year.

The second reason for maintaining your raw data is that these records have a job to do beyond the classroom. You may find in your community that you will need to work with your students' parents/guardians in explaining how your student evaluation program operates and what it is designed to accomplish. Parents/guardians are familiar with written examinations and have probably accepted the idea that marks on tests are somehow sacrosanct. When you report student progress on dimensions that were not assessed through written tests, you may well find that you need to demonstrate how you arrived at your evaluation. In turn, parents/guardians may provide you with insights into what sort of evaluative information they find most useful and relevant.

The data sheets will be invaluable aids to communication as well as records of student accomplishment. Here are some things to consider.

• Designate a storage area exclusively for student data and evaluation records. Develop a system of files and envelopes that will allow you to store and retrieve data quickly.

• Maintain security and confidentiality of information.

• As a part of school policy establish how long data sheets should be stored and then be ruthless in disposing of outdated material. Saskatchewan Education keeps the provincial examinations for one year. You may wish to follow this guideline.

Also, record in your planning book any decisions you have made in light of reading this section.

Lowest Possible Inference

Do not assume that low subjectivity means making no inferences at all! If you wish to gather data about your students' persona! and social skills, directly observing how your students function in social situations will provide you with more appropriate information than a written test. Asking students what they would do in certain situations provides a wealth of information in this area. The written test may appear to reduce the level of inference you must make about your students" achievements. But it is still an inappropriate assessment technique here because it cannot provide you with the information demanded by the objective.

When you feel you have fully considered this characteristic in relation to the assessment techniques listed on the worksheet, indicate this in the ‘Lowest Possible Inference’ section of the ‘Best Use’ column of Worksheet ‘E 6;.

Also, record in your planning book any decisions you have made in light of reading this section.

Appropriate Frequency of Assessment

• Research shows that notice of upcoming assessment activities stimulates students to study harder - they want to do well so they put in an effort to prepare themselves. This effect wears off when the assessment activities are too close together - the students become overloaded and the effect of prior notice is reduced.

• Count the cost in instruction time of assessment activities. Study periods before a test, the time for the test itself, and the time to go over completed tests are all factors that you should think about. Time spent on student assessment should be considered as time spent in reinforcing learning that has already taken place. Instructional time is usually time spent in helping students acquire new knowledge and skills. Where you strike the balance is a matter of professional judgment.

• If you question the value of time spent by your students in assessment activities, then consider using ways of assessing them that require less instructional time. For example, an assessment station is a technique that may take each student out of class participation for only two or three minutes. In that way, regular instruction may continue.

• Aim for a mix of assessment techniques. Include techniques that require individual students to prepare in advance, work in groups, and participate in activities assessed on an ongoing basis during regular class time. For example, an evaluation plan for a unit might include assessment techniques to reflect the objectives requiring continuous, direct observation as well as a written unit test to reflect the objectives that demand knowledge acquisition and application. Or, you may choose to use one or two less-formal quizzes for the unit test and perhaps add another assessment technique to provide you with richer feedback on the progress of your students.

Also, record in your planning book any decisions you have made in light of reading this section.

Adding Techniques to Your Student Evaluation Program

Scan Worksheet ‘E’ and the notes you have made in your planning book.

Decide where you need additional or alternative student assessment techniques in your overall program.

Write those techniques in the column ‘Additional Assessment Techniques to be Included’.

You may find it helpful to browse through Chapter 4 of this handbook to refresh your memory of the techniques that are available. Each description of a technique includes the student evaluation context in which its use is most appropriate. Also, consult with your colleagues about how they assess their students. There is no point in reinventing the wheel. If you can borrow and adapt an existing instrument, so much the better.

Aggregating and Using the Assessment Information

Weighting the Student Assessment Information: Worksheet 'F'

For example, your course in science might comprise the following types of student learning, weighted according to the percentages shown in parentheses: - knowledge acquisition (30%), knowledge use in critical and creative thinking situations (30%), equipment-using skills (20%), functioning in group learning situations (10%), and attitude towards the subject (10%). These types of student learning may all have been assessed concurrently, through student activities or quizzes and tests, and not sequentially. The types of student learning come from the learning objectives of the course and are made explicit through the types of instructional strategies, student learning activities, and assessment techniques that you employ. You can usually arrive at the weighting of student learning by deciding what proportion of the final grade should be given to the assessment information collected by the various techniques.

Use Worksheet ‘F’ to identify the learning components of your lesson, unit, or course. Identify also the techniques you will use for assessing your students on these components and the weighting you have decided to give each component.

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Weighting the Student Assessment Information:
Worksheet 'F'

Preparing Student Evaluation Handouts for Students and Parents

• a brief statement of the school's and your philosophy on student evaluation

• an outline of the course components or the learning objectives that you will be assessing and the weighting of each

• some broad indications of the techniques you intend to use in your student evaluation program

Reflecting on Student Assessment: Worksheet 'G'

• Did my student evaluation plan permit me to probe sufficiently into my students' knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes, and processes?

• Did I consider the appropriateness of my assessment techniques in conjunction with the instructional approaches used?

• Were my assessment techniques appropriate for the student information required?

• Did my assessment techniques allow my students to show their best performance?

• Were my assessment techniques fair and appropriate for the levels of my students' abilities?

• Did the range of information I collected allow me to make interpretations and evaluate my students' progress?

• Did my student evaluation plan allow me to report results meaningfully to my students, their parents/guardians, and other educators?

Still to Come: Chapter 3

Reflecting on Student Assessment: Worksheet ‘G’

Course Name: