07/04/2006

Classroom Assessment and Individual Differences in Learners and Learning

In education, assessment is needed for different purposes. There are two kinds of classroom assessment. The first one is Formative Assessment which is ungraded testing used before or during instruction to aid in planning and diagnosis. The second one is Summative Assessment which summarizes students' accomplishments. Learning is supported by frequent testing using cumulative questions that ask students to apply and integrate knowledge. There are two kinds of traditional testing that are Objective Test(multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in and matching items) and Essay Test. Authentic assessment test skills and abilities as they would be applied in real-life situations. Portfolio and Exhibition are the two examples of authentic assessment. Portfolio is a collection of the student's work in an area, showing growth, self-reflection and achievement. Exhibiton is a performance test or demonstration of learning that is public and usually takes an extended time to prepare. Mastery Learning is that most students can attain a high level of learning capability if instruction is approached sensitively and systematically, if students are helped when and where they have learning difficulties, if they are given sufficient time to achieve mastery and if there is some clear criterion of what constitutes mastery. In this model of school learning, the central focus of the research on the effects of particular strategies of teaching-learning rather than on the characteristics of the teacher or the characteristics of the students. One way of approaching a minimal-error system in the process of schooling is likely that a systematic way of identifying and correcting errors in group instruction and individual learning. In this theory, there are three variables which are Cognitive Entry Behaviors, Affective Entry Characteristics and Quality of Instruction. The learning outcomes in this theory are; 1.Level and Type of Achievement 2.Rate of Learning 3.Affective Outcomes. Also there are two basic assumptions in this theory. The first one is that the history of the learner is at the core of school learning. The second one is that modifications are possible in the entry characteristics of the individual, in the instruction for the learner or in both. To conclude, modern societies no longer can content themselves with the selection of talent; they must find the means for developing talent.

21:21 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this

07/03/2006

Time and School Learning and Standardized Testing

In this study, instead of setting a fixed amount of time within each class to learn particular facts and skills, these alternate strategies have set fixed criteira of achievement and provided students with varying amounts of time and help to permit almost everyone to attain mastery of these achievement criteria. However, in either a fixed-time classroom or a variable-time classroom would find that different students spend differing amounts of time directly involved in the learning. In this model, there are two types of time; Elapsed Time and Time-on-task. Learning is a function of time-on-task, other things being equal. Also three variable classes, which are cognitive entry behaviors, affective entry characteristics and quality of instruction, are used in this study.The model states that student characteristics in a given learning envirınment affect the amount of time that a student spends on-tsak which affects the student's achievement. There are two studies related with this paper; Naturalistic Study and Experimental Study. Some of the results of the study are; 1.There exists a high associational relationship between time-on-task and achievement, 2.There is a significant correlation between cognitive entry behaviors and time-on-task, 3. There is relative importance of each of the antecedent variables considered separately on time-on-task and achievement. If equality is a desired goal in education one must complement inequality in entering characteristics with inequality in amounts of elapsed time and help provided. To conclude, initial differences in global, stable characteristics such as intelligence can be overcome by providing all students with relevant, learnable pre-requisite skills and knowledge.
Evaluation is decision making about student performance and about appropriate teaching strategies. Measurement is evaluation put in quantitative terms.Assessment includes measurement, but is broader because it includes all kinds of ways to sample and observe students' skills,knowledge and abilities. In norm-referenced tests, a student's performence is compared to the average performance of others. In criterion-referenced tests, scores are compared to a preestablished standard. The mean(arithmetical average), median(middel score) and mode(most common score) are all measures of central tendency.The standard deviation is the measure of how widely scores vary from the mean. There are different kinds of scores; Percentile Rank, Grade-Equivalent Score and Standard Scores(such as z score and T score). If test results are consistent, that test is raliable. And validity of a test is degree to which a test measures what is intended. There are three types of standardized tests; Achievement Tests, Diagnostic Tests, Aptitude Tests.

21:55 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Innocence In Education and Individual Differences in School Achievement

We have been innocents in education till new knowledge, new methods of detecting and measuring phenomena and improved communication made us aware of more about education, so we are no longer innocents about the mistakes which we used to in education. There are seven areas of education where our innocence is being threatened: Individual differences in Learning, School Achievement and Its Effect on Personality, What can be Learned, Manifest and Latent Curriculum, Role of Testing, Education as Part of a Larger Social System. Students differ in the rate at which they can learn-not in the level to which they can achieve or in their basic capacity to learn. In addition, the term "individual differences" is the effect of particular school conditions rather than of basic differences in the capabilities of the students. Repeated success or failure in school over a number of years appears to increase the probability of the student's gaining a positive view of himself and high self-esteem or vice versa. Also the highest students in the inferior school have a more positive view of themselves than the lowest students in the superior school, even though the two groups of students have almost the same level of tested achievement. To conclude, it is the perception of how well one is doing relative to others in the same situation that appears to be a key link between school achievement and personality effects.
Individual differences in school achievement is affected by seven areas which are; Learning Unit, Laboratory and School Learning, Individual Variation, Achievement Variation in School Settings, Entry Behavior, Affective Entry Characteristics and Quality of Instruction. Availability to the learner of requisite entry behavior determines the extent to which a specific learning task can be learned. Affective entry characteristics determine the conditions under which the learner will engage in a learning task. The quality of instruction determines the efficiency with which a learner will accomplish a learning task.

18:00 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this