Assessments are an essential part of instruction. They provide the means to check whether the goals of the instruction are being met. The goal of assessment is to obtain a sound inference about what a student knows, understands, and can do. Assessments should be without bias to the students, in other words, they should be fair. What is a fair assessment? Fairness is the equitable and just treatment of those being assessed. An assessment that is fair is not unduly influenced by factors or conditions that are unrelated to the learning objectives that the assessment intends to measure.
When
it comes to learning, I believe that all students have the ability to learn
given the right environment. I fully subscribe to Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple
Intelligences. Gardner proposed his theory in 1983, suggesting that all people
have different kinds of intelligences. People are not only intellectually
intelligent, but they are also musically, interpersonally, spatial-visual, and
linguistically intelligent. The application of this theory in the classroom
involves the addition of various methods of instruction with the expectation
that most students are able to find one or more methods that suit their
learning style. I agree with this theory because I am a firm believer that no
one is too dumb to learn. However, one student may be very good at math and
poor in music or history; another student may be good at arts and struggle with
science, both sets of students should be seen as intelligent. It is my opinion
that students’ success is dependent on the learning environment that either
motivates or de-motivates them. I have students in my class that started the
year very poorly; low participation in class, low classwork completion, low
assignment completion rate, and low test scores. Today, at least one of those
students is performing a lot better than most in his class. One can argue that this
student’s motivation may have come from any myriad of factors which include, interest
in the class, fear of failure, change in family circumstances outside the
classroom, or other factors. Since students do not all learn in the same way, I
think it is unfair to expect them to demonstrate their knowledge in the same
way. Assessments should consist of multiple methods that students can use to
show their learning and academic growth. They should be fair, reliable, and
valid to the content that students are instructed on. While some students perform
well on multiple-choice tests, some on drag and drop or matching questions,
others prefer short response or essay questions. Therefore, tests should include
more than one type of question but a mix of them. I also think that some
students should be assessed using portfolio method as this provides evidence of their effort and perhaps growth in the classroom. As a teacher, I attempt
to use at least two to three question types in my daily exit ticket, I also
occasionally check the work completion of my students by looking at their
workbooks which I score and assign grades for in their grade book. In guarding
against my own personal bias in assessing my students I usually grade by
question, not by student. I also attempt to provide feedback for improvement for
short response questions. I think it might be helpful to ask for help from a
neutral party, such as another teacher or department chair to check for bias in
grading and the fairness of the tests in relation to the content taught.
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