Reproduction of lectures OR ability to reason with concepts
What are they thinking about OR how do they think
Performance OR learning
Is counting off for late papers related to the course objectives?
Teaching students to use their time and helping them get organized might be more effective and in line with best teaching practices. I think of the Pomodoro Technique which I wrote a short report on for a different course. Equipping students with study and time management skills is more effective than threatening to mark them down for late papers.
As a parent, should I say "don't do that" or "do this instead". It seems like the latter is more effective for enacting change in future behavior because it equips the child with knowledge on how they can approach a situation differently. The same is true in teaching any age.
Of no surprise....evaluating the teaching also comes down to the same theme running strong through this book: the focus is on student learning. An true assessment of an instructor is based, not on colleagues' ratings or students' ratings, which reflect other priorities than that of true learning, but on a true understanding of what the students are learning from a given instructor.
What are your thoughts on cumulative examinations? They seem to have fallen out of favor, but this book suggests they encourage more long term learning because the information has to be learned and in place for more than one test. That makes sense. It sounds to me like a type of forced review and once again, good study habits.
I think a lot about how we evaluate students at the correctional facility because, while we are full of standardized-type tests because we are required to use these, all the teachers would agree that the main thing is to teach students to be more responsible people than when they came into prison. This is harder to evaluate but creating a sense that with students that they can learn and succeed at school and in life is really more important than any formal test.
ReplyDeleteWhile I might feel confident that a student has increased his or her learning, there are outside forces who wish for us to "prove" to them that students have, indeed, mastered the material.
ReplyDeleteI have not worked on a cumulative exam structure for my classes. I might have to try that in the future. BTW--I love the quote from the medical faculty about "meningitis is as important at the end of the semester as it is in the beginning." That is SO true in medicine!
Margaret