The only way to make your students grow in learning is by understating where they stand. Effective learning is only possible when you know what you have achieved and what you need to change to do more. There is nothing worse for the instructors than knowing their students have not learned anything they were teaching. Taking assessments can help teachers get a clear idea of how much learning has taken place and whether their teaching methodology was effective or not. The direct and sometimes indirect assessment measures can give an inner insight to instructors on the learning capacity of each student.
Educationists are constantly considering ways to estimate learning outcomes and student achievements through different methods. You are mistaken if you think that written assignments and projects can be the only ways of assessing student learning. Nowadays, we can use various strategies to maximize the skills of students. Using digital gadgets like the modern attendance system and simulation software can increase the learning ability of most pupils. With the help of various methodologies for assessment, we can empower each student to take charge of their learning as per requirement. Know that every student has a different mindset and learning ability. Having more than one way to assess the students is a more fair and reliable strategy.
Before beginning the assessment process, it is essential to have a proper plan in hand. Below are some of the main points you need to understand to assess the learning capability of your students effectively.
What are the two main approaches to measuring student learning?
The two main methods of assessing students often fall into the category of two assessments.
Summative assessments:
A summative assessment is an assessment to take at the end of each academic year. It is a way to assess the ability of pupils to score high marks and have high stakes. Some instructors take summative assessments throughout the academic term. Know that it can include the grades of summative assessments in the overall final score. Summative assessments include tests, quizzes, graded activities, projects, assignments, and other evidence to estimate learning. All in all, summative assessment cover the complete content area of any subject.
Formative assessment:
Unlike summative assessments, formative assessments are more like an informal way of examining the concepts of your students. Formative assessments are more likely to conduct over the entire academic term. These assessments are needed to know the gaps in the learning of students. Contrary to the summative, the formative inspections cover small content areas. Formative assessment can help student focus on the process of learning. Formative assessment can be graded or non-graded.
It will be ideal for instructors if they measure the learning of their students from the start of the academic term. Following some tips can help you monitor the understanding level of your students more productively. Below are some of the techniques you can increase the learning of students and assess them better.
Start your lesson by taking entry slips:
Entry slips can help your students review the previous lesson and explain it from their perspective. Try to make your students bring entry slips to each lecture. This way, you know how much your students have grasped from the previous lesson. Besides, this activity will help you review the key points from the last lecture.
Clarify the learning outcomes:
Your students will have more clarity when you share the learning outcomes from any subject with your students. The learning targets will help the student understand what they have to learn from the course.
Use mid-semester survey:
Even though summative assessment is more likely for the end of the academic term, the mid-semester survey will help you tackle many problems your students are having. You can take a comprehensive survey to get feedback on the learning. You can use the results to know if you have to revise any content or grey areas of the course or not.