Task: Reflective journal
Provide a sample of reflections that demonstrate critical thinking and reflection of my learning together with a learning summary, and a concluding statement about my learning within 500 to 600 words.
Provide a sample of reflections that demonstrate critical thinking and reflection of my learning together with a learning summary, and a concluding statement about my learning within 500 to 600 words.
Reflections on Assessment
Task: Reflective journal
Sample of reflections based upon my observations and readings.
Concluding statement about my learning
Overall reflection of my learning journey through this course:
During this course I have become aware of the immense differences that exist between schools in the past and schools today and the significance of this in terms of planning and assessment for the current role of the teacher. Living and working is completely different to even decades ago. This means the school system today needs to meet different needs in order for the students to successfully navigate, enjoy and participate in a rapidly changing world. Some of these skills and attributes are:
creative thinking, computer literacy, effective communication skills, problem solving, resilience, working successfully with peers, broad literacy skills, including electronic media and being numerate.
New technologies provide an exciting and engaging basis upon which to do this. Students need to demonstrate (outcomes based) proficiency in skills as well as develop and show higher order thinking skills and interpersonal skills. I believe this can be achieved through the use of new technologies and well - planned assessment activities, so that the learning process is both exciting and engaging. I believe that as long as technology is used with an ethical educational setting, then it’s use is essential in the provision of an excellent and effective tool to help meet the needs of today's children for the future world.
Teaching and Learning and hence lesson planning are dependent upon the development stage of the child/ren and learning is best achieved in a secure stimulating environment. Equity is paramount and is achieved through tolerance, knowledge, understanding and the use of a variety of teaching strategies that address individuality, different learning styles, children with special needs and recognition of diverse backgrounds.
I have also become aware of strategies to engage children in learning new skills, some of these are:
Project based learning, group activities, debates, following their lead.
Steiner ideology supports the one teacher taking a class for 8 years in order to “develop more holistic understanding of the pupils in their care” (Burnett Vol 23, Issue 3 P132). This provides for more authentic assessment. Although I concede that this may not be immediately realistic in our current climate, it does highlight my concern with such large class sizes in today’s schooling system, that limited time is available to teachers to attend to the needs of each student on a one to one basis.
This has been an interesting and rewarding course and combined with my classroom practical sessions I have been exposed to a broad range of school activities, I have enjoyed getting to know the students and also understand the significance of getting to know each individual student. I understand that establishing clear expectations is a necessary part of good classroom management. I look forward to expanding my knowledge and always reflect upon the good and bad points of each lesson, which guides change.
Sample of reflections based upon my observations and readings.
- Assessment is an essential part of teaching and learning but care and quality planning are necessary to ensure that there is not too much assessment and insufficient teaching. It sometimes appears that children are being assessed too often to prove/justify what they know for record keeping purposes, rather than using the time to develop and extend their knowledge.
- Assessment during a learning session (formative) needs to be strategically placed and designed so that it can highlight and inform the teacher of areas that need to be revisited. Attention to and analysis of the assessment need to be given a priority in the teacher's allocation of time, in order to effectively redesign and plan the next steps. This is important as the classrooms of today are comprised of a far more broad range of students than in the past. This is seen from the diversity of ethnicity and cognitive ability, including intellectual, physical and emotional disabilities. Class sizes are often too big.
- Continual external assessment often places demands on the entire process of education. Teachers strive to use their knowledge, passion and creativity to advance the education of each individual child which can be in conflict with external assessment. Burnett (p.132) acknowledges that it is challenging to reconcile quality teaching attributes of individualism with "external institutional pressure for accountability and standardised performance indicators linked to assessment". Naplan and Year 12 Tertiary entrance exams are examples.
- Differentiation of the syllabus is based upon ability determined from class assessment. The basis of differentiation can be quite difficult to accurately attain due to the lack of long term rapore and time constraints. Burnett (p.132) also proposes the parameters of differentiation to include individual temperaments.
- Assessment is an essential tool that comes in many different shapes and sizes.
- To be effective assessment must be used appropriately.
- Different types of assessment are used for different purposes. Formative, Summative (Criterion referenced & Normative referenced).
- Children with disabilities are included in mainstream education and classes don’t tend to be streamlined.
- It is the role of the teacher to teach to all students based upon their individual differences. The strategy that is primarily used to cater for current realities is Assessment. “ Assessment is the process that professionals use to understand individual differences in the schools” (Burnett, p.3).
- Assessment involves analysis of a problem and development of a strategy to solve the problem, for example a student or whole class having difficulty with addition involving more than single digits.
- “Assessment for learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there” Assessment reform group 2002. (http://www.assessmentforlearning.edu.au)
- The first literacy test I designed I realised was too difficult as it required the students to do several different learning task in the one question. I redesigned this and re presented for a fairer assessment.
Concluding statement about my learning
Overall reflection of my learning journey through this course:
During this course I have become aware of the immense differences that exist between schools in the past and schools today and the significance of this in terms of planning and assessment for the current role of the teacher. Living and working is completely different to even decades ago. This means the school system today needs to meet different needs in order for the students to successfully navigate, enjoy and participate in a rapidly changing world. Some of these skills and attributes are:
creative thinking, computer literacy, effective communication skills, problem solving, resilience, working successfully with peers, broad literacy skills, including electronic media and being numerate.
New technologies provide an exciting and engaging basis upon which to do this. Students need to demonstrate (outcomes based) proficiency in skills as well as develop and show higher order thinking skills and interpersonal skills. I believe this can be achieved through the use of new technologies and well - planned assessment activities, so that the learning process is both exciting and engaging. I believe that as long as technology is used with an ethical educational setting, then it’s use is essential in the provision of an excellent and effective tool to help meet the needs of today's children for the future world.
Teaching and Learning and hence lesson planning are dependent upon the development stage of the child/ren and learning is best achieved in a secure stimulating environment. Equity is paramount and is achieved through tolerance, knowledge, understanding and the use of a variety of teaching strategies that address individuality, different learning styles, children with special needs and recognition of diverse backgrounds.
I have also become aware of strategies to engage children in learning new skills, some of these are:
Project based learning, group activities, debates, following their lead.
Steiner ideology supports the one teacher taking a class for 8 years in order to “develop more holistic understanding of the pupils in their care” (Burnett Vol 23, Issue 3 P132). This provides for more authentic assessment. Although I concede that this may not be immediately realistic in our current climate, it does highlight my concern with such large class sizes in today’s schooling system, that limited time is available to teachers to attend to the needs of each student on a one to one basis.
This has been an interesting and rewarding course and combined with my classroom practical sessions I have been exposed to a broad range of school activities, I have enjoyed getting to know the students and also understand the significance of getting to know each individual student. I understand that establishing clear expectations is a necessary part of good classroom management. I look forward to expanding my knowledge and always reflect upon the good and bad points of each lesson, which guides change.
