E-COMP 6102: Module 1:1: Reflection On Good and Bad Assessment Experiences
Carla McSwain
- Identify and describe one BAD experience you have had being assessed. Choose to reflect on an assessment experience that was distinctly negative for you. As you describe this experience, identify which of the 5 standards of assessment quality your teacher violated.
My experience with bad assessment would be an instructor that gave absolutely no feedback and no grade on an individual assessment. Why even complete the assignment if there is going to be no end result or closure. It makes you wonder if they even looked at it, much less graded it. The standard that this violates would be number one: promote and verify learning. To offer more detail, this experience was not negative to begin with because the instructor did provide a clear and valued target in the assignment stage. It was a research paper of our choice, a specific scoring rubric was provided, and a student example. The fact that no feedback or assessment was given leaves me, the learner in the dark as to whether I met the desired target.
- Identify and describe one GOOD experience you have had being assessed. Choose to reflect upon an experience that was distinctly positive for you. Discuss how well the teacher addressed each of the standards of assessment quality.
An experience that represents a good assessment would be of course a successful grade, but also clear expectations from the beginning and a sense of accomplishment that those goals were met with a good grade. My experience involved our first graduate level APA paper and we had a most thorough professor who realized our whole graduate school experience might be affected by learning the proper technique in writing a paper worthy of this academic level. So, the expectations and purposes were made very clear, but even more memorable than that was the constructive feedback that was given that would insure success on future assignments. The standard that most closely relates to this is #3: clear and valuable targets – clear purpose from the beginning and valuable feedback affecting future success.
- What happens to students when classroom assessment is done well?
Two things come to mind that happen if assessment is done well. First, students experience a sense of confidence because of success achieved and have mastered content. If mastery has not occurred, then valuable feedback is provided that will promote future success.
- What happens to students when classroom assessment is done poorly?
If assessment is done poorly, a student’s progress is not measured accurately meaning learning cannot be ascertained. If assessment is poor, a student may also become discouraged and become unmotivated. Another negative effect could be a teacher being ill prepared to plan properly the future instruction. Negative consequences could also follow the student beyond that particular class and into future classes because skills were not accurately assessed in the previous class.
COURSE GOAL ALIGNMENT: SOUND CLASSROOM ASSESSMENTS COMMUNICATE RESULTS EFFECTIVELY.