Critical reflection

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Assessment is an important aspect of the continuous learning cycle and ongoing process with an overarching goal to improve student learning and to provide teachers with information that they can make judgments on in order to determine what to teach and how to teach ( Churchill et al., 2019). It is usually categorised under the headings of formative assessment, summative assessment, formal and informal. Formative assessment may be referred as assessment for learning and assessment as learning because it is ongoing and often informally embedded within the everyday process of the classroom, such as student teacher chats and feedback, anecdotal notes take during group discussions and activities, peer to peer feedback and work samples that have been analysed just to name a few. Formative assessment referred to as assessment of learning is often used after a lesson series where teachers use evidence to make a judgment about students' achievements against state or federal curriculum learning criteria such as the implementation of tests and rubrics (Victorian State Government Educating and Training, 2020). The information provided may be useful for teachers to effectively report on students learning too.  In addition to providing evidence of learning so teachers can report to stakeholders both formative and summative assessments can be used to improved teaching and learning. However, there is always a danger of assessment simply being used to see what students can and cannot do and assessing for the sake of doing so (Churchill et al, 2019). Another danger is when teachers only focus on a particular outcome they expect the students to achieve rather than assessing the student’s skills and processes toward learning. Skills such as persistence, contribution, collaboration, sharing ideas, attitudes toward learning and creativeness. Assessing these skills is integral within a constructivist’s curriculum because learning and constructing new ideas do not occur by recalling information and facts. Rather new ideas and processes are continually being constructed within a community context, tested and redeveloped over time. Hence educators need to continually be looking for and determining what students know, what they are thinking, what assumptions they have and what attitudes students are displaying toward learning (Fleer, 2015; Ritchhart, Church & Morrison, 2011). This can be done effectively when educators gather an abundance of varied and rich evidence of learning for individual students and provide timely feedback to students so they can set learning goals and improve their learning and learning dispositions.  Feedback especially done face to face may also be informal and therefore provide opportunities for teachers to get to know students and their students' unique disposition and strengths. Therefore, teachers may then be more effective at differentiating pedagogies and assessment strategies to be more meaningful and authentic for unique learners (Spence, 2009). Teachers will also be more effective on reporting learning outcomes to families and other stakeholders because they can point out students’ strengths, skills and processes toward improved learning and learning goals.

 Following are examples of how I have met the standards of 5.1 and 5.2 in my use and choice of assessment strategies and  in my examples of providing timely feedback to my students.

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