15/11 - ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

Hello everyone! This class was focused on assessment and evaluation. The generic goal of most evaluations is to provide "useful feedback." Something I learned is that assessment and evaluation are not the same; I had always thought they were synonymous with different names. However, assessment focuses on measuring learning progress and achievement, while evaluation focuses on making judgments and decisions based on collected data. As educators, we should not instill fear in children with the word "exam" as it causes them stress; we can tell them that we are going to do an exercise so they don't get scared. Additionally, many children fail due to the type of evaluation they undergo (memorization), as this favors children with better memory rather than the rest. 

Assessment is seen as an integral part of the learning and teaching process rather than being 'added on' for summative purposes. Finally, I also learned the difference between "assessment for learning" and "assessment of learning." The difference lies in that with assessment for learning, the teacher is typically assessing the student on how well they are understanding a concept or idea, with the idea of going back to reteach if necessary. This is different from the purpose of assessment of learning, which occurs after all of the objectives have been taught and is used to gauge performance rather than progress. I consider it is very important to know how to assess well because many times teachers do not know, as they do not truly understand how the process should be carried out.