Classroom Assessment: Clear the Misunderstanding

 Seventh Reflective Journal for PETA Course 

            Finally I started to learn about assessment in PETA course. I have waited for this topic since the first meeting. The reason I really want to learn about this topic is to extend my understanding on classroom assessment because I ever learned classroom assessment briefly in Educational Psychology before. Some things were rather confusing for me about assessment before. Luckily for me after attended PETA last session on 29^th November 2011 all of my confusion is vanished.

            Here I want to share some important points about classroom assessment:

1.      1. Assessment ≠ Test 

Many people (including me before I knew the truth) think that assessment and test is a synonym. They think that both terms are interchangeable. However the truth is test and assessment is different. It is because assessment is an effort from teacher to collect data or information about student and this attempt is sustainable. Meanwhile test is an attempt to evaluate student understanding or progress on certain learning material. So to sum up, assessment is bigger than test and test is part of assessment.

2.      2. Domain of Classroom Assessment

Another misconception about classroom assessment is an assumption which states classroom assessment is all about assessed student’s cognitive. It is because most of schools use paper and pencil test to assess student in learning process. However that assumption is wrong. It is because assessment is not only meant to assess students’ cognitive but also student’s affective and psychomotor.

3   3. Type of  Classroom Assessments

There are two types of classroom assessment. First is formative assessment and second is summative assessment. For further explanation formative assessment is could be simply define as ongoing assessment like daily test or quizzes. Whereas summative assessment is an assessment which is covered all the learning material in certain period of time. For example is midterm and final test in university and national examination in primary school and secondary school. 

4.      4.How Assessment Support Learning Process

Assessment is one important aspect in learning process. It is because assessment can be a good medium of reflection for us as teacher. So we can know how effective our instruction is.  Another important thing to remember is feedback is really needed in the learning process because sometime there is a gap between instruction and assessment and only feedback which could be the bridge for its.

That all some important points about classroom assessment that we as teacher or teacher candidate should know. Based on those points I realize that my concept on assessment before I study in SSE was wrong. Beforehand I always thought that assessment is related with test or quizzes which never fail make me stress out.  It is because at the time my teachers never told me about their method to assess students. So I jumped to the conclusion that assessment is midterm, final test and quizzes and I thought that once I fail in one of those tests I will fail the entire course.

      In SSE I feel better because in every course the lectures give student the rubric of assessment which explains about all things that being assessed. So student will know what they have to do. In the future I think will copy my lectures in SSE way with giving a rubric of assessment for my course to my student. So they will know about what I expect from them.

Educational Design to Meet Learner‘s Need

Sixth Reflective Journal for PETA Course

23th November 2011 was another first meeting with PETA course after two weeks of midterm. That day our schedule was covering all the materials which hadn’t studied before. That why Ms Ine divided the class into five groups because there were five topics to be covered. There were differentiate model, cooperative learning, effective teacher and effective teaching, developing lesson plan and last is learning style and multiple intelligences. I was in the fifth group and got learning style and multiple intelligences topic. So in this reflection I will talk about learning style and multiple intelligences.

            According to discussion result in my group, we assume that learning style and multiple intelligences are theories which learned about human differences in educational context. Though these two theories teachers are expected to design an appropriate educational model/ instruction which meet learner needs.  To highlight learning style and multiple intelligences have different point of view to classified learners. I will talk about both of its one by one.

            First is learning style theories. Just like the name learning style theories classify learners into four groups based on learner’s learning styles. They are:

1.      The mastery style learner

This type of learner has tendency to absorb information concretely. So this learner like to process information sequentially step by step and put more focus on clarity.

2.      The understanding style learner

This type of learner is stress on how to understand an idea and an abstraction. They like questioning, reasoning, testing and evaluating an idea based on their logic and the contextual event.

3.      The self-expressive style learner

This type of learner are using more emotion and feeling in learning process. This learner is really good in expressing new idea and modifying/developing the existing idea. This learner also value and judge learning process with parameter originality, aesthetics and delight.

4.      The interpersonal style learner

This type of learner is similar with the mastery style learner but the difference is this type of learner prefers to learn in group rather that individually.

            Another thing to be noticed from this model is the statement that learning styles are not fixed throughout life. It could be shift from one type into another type. My concern is I still confuse whether someone’s learning style actually related or depend on the subject of the lesson. Does it possible if one person is a mastery style learner when she/he learns science then he/she becomes the self expressive style learner when he/she learns art?

            The second theory is multiple intelligences theory which is purposed by Howard Gardner. He classified learners into seven group based on their intelligences. They are linguistics intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, musical intelligence, bodily- kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence.

            Until now Gardner theory is popular. However there are two weakness of multiple intelligence theory. First this theory based on cognitive science. Second this theory focus on content of learning and does not consider individual process of learning. It cause some question like: Are the bodily kinesthetic intelligence between a football player and dancer different or the same? Are the musical intelligence between a singer and a composer different or the same?

            Actually those questions could be answered by integrating learning style and multiple intelligences theories. Because with the integration we will know that singer and composer have the same musical intelligence with different learning style.

            However to me it is still vague about the exact number of multiple intelligences. It is because some books say there are eight types of multiple intelligence, in other hand other books say there are nine types of multiple intelligence and my article (for group discussion) say it only seven types of multiple intelligence. Another thing which makes me confused is about the cognitive science. I am wondering about why one of the weaknesses of multiple intelligences is because it based on cognitive science. Is cognitive science hasn’t recognized yet in scientific world? That my entire reflective journal for now.

           

The Meeting after School Experience Program

Fifth Reflective Journal for PETA Course

After two weeks did school experience finally I went back to my regular activity which include go back to my academic activity, doing assignments and attending all the courses. Tuesday 1 November 2011 was first meeting with PETA course again. That day we did three kinds of activity.

 The first activity was experience sharing, in that session Miss Ine divided the class into four groups. I was in the first group which consists of seven members. We shared our experience to each other. That was so much fun and meaningful activity because beside I heard funny and interesting stories I also could learn many things from my friend’s experience. For example I learned about behavioral issues like student who are hard to handle and mentor teacher who is not quite friendly. Not only listen to the stories and laughed whenever funny events occur from the stories there were also lesson learn like how to overcome the obstacles in learning and teaching process.

Actually all of my friend’s stories lead me to reflect on my own experience because in the school experiences, I met a student who was hard to handle and I think he was quite childish for a senior high school student.  He keep do some activity to draw teacher’s attention and he just wouldn’t do the given assignment if the teacher didn’t accompany him. Until now I still couldn’t figure out how to deal with those types of student. I am wonder whether we as teacher should give those types of student special attention or not. I am afraid if give them special attention will elicit negative reaction from other students like envious.

After sharing experience the second activity was did group discussion on four types of model instruction and did gallery walk. Because my group was the first group we discuss about direct instruction model. When working in group our lecturer gave each member of the group different position like facilitator, recorder, illustrator, material manager and encourager. Each position had different job and responsibility. I think everyone was did the job really well. However actually I quite confuse with the encourager’s job description because in my opinion the encourager’s work is only as a ‘cheerleader’. I wonder if an encourager is really needed or not for a small group work.

 The third or the last activity was did reflective journal in the end of the class. Miss Ine gave us a paper and we were expected to write down our understanding about all models of instruction on it. Personally I think our last activity was good because through the journal I as a student could check my understanding on the lesson and the lecturer also could know about student’s level of understanding. In the future I think I will ask my students to write reflective journal too because it effective to check student’s level of understanding and could stimulate student’s high order thinking skill.

New Exciting Experience

Reflective Paper for School Experience 

After did school experience for four days I learned so much things in each day. In the first day I observed the class I found that my mentor teacher didn’t do the all the things which written in lesson plan. I think that because the students were really active they keep commenting on anything and make fun of each other. Based on my observation the teacher just ignored the “chaos sources”. If only I were him I would acknowledge them and give them more responsibility like appoint them to become the class assistants.

            In the second day observing, I noticed that the teacher using a power point to support his class but the content in his power point presentation was really similar with the one in the student handbook.

In the third day I observed my mentor teacher’s listening class. The thing I noted was he used a popular song for listening practice. I concerned if there were students who already memorized the lyric.

            Meanwhile in the fourth day I and my partner, Martan were given chance to teach. We have prepared the lesson plan, the teaching aids and practiced the day before. But too bad, because of the limited of time we couldn’t lead all the activity completely.

Last from this new experience I noted two things. First I should learn more about classroom management and second I shouldn’t use an up to date and popular song for listening session.

New Finding, New Understanding

Forth Reflective Journal for PETA Course

            11^th October 2011 was the forth times I attended PETA course. Today learning schedule was not really tight because all I had to do is observing all micro teaching performance my classmate did. Today there were seven groups doing micro teaching excluding my own group because my group already did it in PETA previous meeting.

            At first I thought I will get bored and would instantly fell sleepy because practically I had nothing to do. But then my assumption was wrong, I could pay my full attention at each group which did micro teaching. One of reason was because their micro teaching is really interesting and it seemed like they have prepared all the teaching aids well (It made me feel a bit jealous because my group performance was not so good). The other reason was because the rest of class was assigned to guess about which model of instruction was used by the group that did micro teaching and also assessed their performance.

            Through observing at all the micro teaching performances I could get clear picture about how to teach in front of class with use creative ways. I also learned about how to choose a model of instruction wisely so it will be appropriate with the leaning objective. More than that, I also could get a picture about real classroom climate.

            In the end of today session Ms Ine summed up everything and gave further explanation about four models of instruction we have learned before. Form this session I discovered answers  for some problems and I also met new understanding about four models of instruction. I’d like to list my new finding in learning four models of instruction:

1.      I got basic understanding on models of instruction’s nature that models of instruction is the same with learning methodologies, what makes it different is only the matter of term.

2.      I finally discovered that the main difference of Guide Discovery model and Group Interaction model is the purpose of each model. If Guide Discovery model’s purpose stress on how to make student become an individual learner, Group Interaction model stress on student ability in solving problem in group

3.      I got to know about type on question in Lecture Discussion model.  Because to be honest it was rather unclear for me whether the type of question used in Lecture Discussion model is remain on LOTS (Lower Order Thinking Skills) or it could be HOTS (High Oder Thinking Skills). Today I finally knew that the types of question are depended on the need and learning objective itself. Highlight in Lecture Discussion Model is how teacher link the recent lesson with the older one.

That is all of my reflection on PETA material so far. I will end it with a unique fact I found out today after I observing all micro teaching performance my classmate did. They had tendency to use lecture discussion model or combining between lecture discussion with group interaction model (So did my group).

I am wondering about was this happened coincidentally or maybe it was happened  because there is tendency for new faculty member or new teacher to use lecture discussion model because it easier to maintain the student. For me, personally I prefer to use lecture discussion model combining with group interaction in teaching. So I can let my students interact with each other but still I have control on them, because the idea  that my class gone ‘wild’ doesn’t sound good to me.

Ways to Convey Lecture

After attending the third session of PETA course in 4^th October 2011 I get new knowledge that actually there is a lot of way to convey lecture in classroom. It can be categorized into four models:

1.      Direct instruction

2.      Lecture- discussion

3.      Guide- discovery

4.      Group interaction

Each of those instruction models has its own strength and weakness, for the further information I will try to recall my knowledge about it and also give my opinion about each methods.

First is about Direct instruction model, this model has strong trait that is TCL or teacher centered learning. It means that in direct instruction teacher has an important role in learning process. Teacher becomes an information-provider in the classroom because teacher will give all information about the course as clear/direct as possible. I think I often find this model in the real world reflect on my own experience as a student for almost 13 years. Personally I think this method will be appropriate if it use for a low level of student which still need a lot of guide form teacher.

Second is Lecture discussion model. This model has trait has a strong interaction between teacher – student. It is because in this model interaction is mostly happened between teacher – student only, through teacher asking question to student for review the lesson, for checking student understanding and for creating a link between the previous lesson and newer lesson. I think this model are really popular for new teacher because it is easy to implement and with this model teacher still has a big part in learning process so teacher can control the classroom. However I think with this model student’s cognitive level is hardly development and will be remain at understanding level only.

Third model is Guide Discovery. This model is more ‘loose’ compare to the models before because this model allows student to explore and develop their own thinking in a group. Teacher role has been shifted from a provider to a facilitator. Teacher here has a role as person who elicit student’s thinking trough asking question. The trait for this model is teacher often asks open-ended question. Personally I think this model will be good if it use for teach Civic or History subject in school. So instead become a boring subject it could be turn out more fun.

Last is Group interaction model. This model allow student to become the center of learning process because student will often assign into a work to solve the problem or find an answer by themselves. Teacher here has a role as facilitator and just like it name in group interaction model student are expected to work well in a group. Although this model has strength because it could encourage student’s thinking to develop. I think this model has its own weaknesses because through this model which assigns students into group, it is not impossible that students will end up discussing about anything but the lesson.

In the end I have to say that between four models above there is no the best models. All models are good if it use wisely with considering the learning objective and student’s characters.

The Truth: What Teacher Actually Do

PETA Second Reflective Journal 

Becoming a teacher isn’t as simple as it may seem form outside,  even mostly teacher looks like a person who do his/her job repeatedly so teacher could do all his/her job without thinking anymore. It can be done automatically like how robot works. Honestly although I am one of teacher candidate I ever thought about teacher profession in that way.  I thought teacher is one of most “loose” job in this world. Because all teacher has to do is enter one class to another for teaching about the same topic. I assumed that teacher also doesn’t have to think about examination like student do. Because teacher is the one who can give examination or quiz as free as he/she wants.

 But then I realized that my previous thought is wrong after I attended PETA second meeting. Through that session I learn about so many things I never knew before like fact that 80% of teacher’s time is used for class preparation meanwhile the rest is for teaching, assessing and so on. Beside than that I also learn about what is thematic learning, what is Bloom taxonomy and last but not least I get to know about how develop a lesson plan. I will just talk about thematic learning, Bloom taxonomy and how to develop lesson plan one by one before I go to the main topic about why I say become a teacher isn’t as simple as it may seem.

First about thematic learning, today I watched about demonstration of thematic learning through a video. For that video I knew that thematic learning is one of teaching method which integrated more than one subject in school at the same time. So there is no clear constraint from one lesson to another in the classroom.  I think this teaching method is effective and ineffective in the same time. It is effective because it can engage students into classroom activities and because it can make student more understand in subjects which are related to each other. But on the other hand is ineffective because with this method, explanation for each subject will be done briefly. Personally I think thematic learning is only appropriate for early stage of school and isn’t good if it is used for higher stage of school.

Second is about Bloom taxonomy, I learn that it is a framework teacher usually use as standard for making assessment. In Bloom taxonomy there are six levels of cognitive difficulties:

1.      Remembering

2.      Understanding

3.      Applying

4.      Analyzing

5.      Evaluating

6.      Creating

Teacher can look up to this taxonomy when they want to make a question, the higher the number, level of cognitive difficulty will increase as well.

Third thing I learn from PETA second session is how to develop lesson plan. I learn that to make a good lesson plan teacher should avoid twin sin, there are:

1.      Making student busy with unclear activity

2.      Teacher just teaches, gives exam and prays for the best result.

Last I will talk about why it is not easy to become a teacher. Reflect on my experience today I learn that teacher cannot teach in class without any preparation before because teacher should master about what they will teach and should know about how to transfer the material to the student. Because of that teacher need a lesson plan to become a guideline for teacher. In this session I have tried to make a simple lesson plan and I realize that it not easy because I should avoid two sin in designing lesson plan and I also need to consider Bloom taxonomy when I design the assessment. I need about 30 until 45 “tough” minutes for designing a simple lesson plan and still it is not perfect yet. What scary me the most is in the future I as a teacher should design a good lesson plan before I teach which mean it could be 3 times at one week!! But well… I guess I don’t have other choice. This is challenge I should take in other to become a new generation of teacher.

PETA 1st Reflective Journal

Tuesday 19 September 2011 was my first time attending PETA course. Once I heard about “Principle of Effective Teaching and Assessment” I think that I will learn about the basic principle to become an effective teacher and how to assess student fairly and it seems like my assumption is right until now. I hope this course will help me for my future preparation as teacher. Because I always think that become an effective teacher and assess student fairly aren’t easy thing to do. I reflect it from my own experience since I was in my first grade in my elementary school. I have met so many teachers with different teaching styles and also different assessment styles.

I ever like some of my teacher so much and on the other hand I also ever dislike some of my teachers. Mostly I like certain teachers because they good in mastery the materials they teach, they can lead the class for running smoothly, they show their concern toward students and they also really good in dealing with all students including students which labeled as ‘troubled students’. On the other side I dislike certain teachers because I think they do have focus in teaching and do not have interest in their students. Some of them have bad habits like coming late to the class, absent without informing the class coordinator and talk too much about other things but the materials they should give to students. So I feel like I do not get anything from their class.

All of those experiences help me to figure out about characteristic of effective teacher and effective teaching.

I assume that an effective teacher is:

1. Teacher who prepares herself/ himself before teaching (make lesson plan, mastery the material, prepare all things needed like post-it or something like that)
2. Teacher who good at time management (stick on the schedule, she/he doesn’t come late nor ended the class late)
3. Teacher who good at classroom management ( he/she already make an agreement with the class, he/she gives attention fairly to all students, he/she knows how to maintain students attention to be engage into learning process)
4. Teacher who knows using ICT tools wisely.

Meanwhile I think that effective teaching is:

1. Teaching which makes almost all students understands about the materials.
2. Teaching which meet teaching’s objectives like what have been planned in lesson plan.

But aside from that, I still confuse about whether a teacher who could lit up classroom’s atmosphere is automatically categorized as an effective teacher or not? And whether a teaching method which could make students enjoy learning and teaching process will automatically categorized as effective teaching?

That my entire reflective journal for now hopefully I could be an effective teacher in the future and I could get better understanding about PETA course.