Reflective Journal Sample

Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.

The stress settled in once the word ‘testing’ echoed through the classroom. The students knew what it brought, and they knew how dreadful it would be; sitting in one room, hour after hour and day after day, silent and still, with only the sound of the clock resonating through their heads. Standardized tests are assessments that local and national governments may require their students to take. However, these tests do not properly evaluate their intellect, and only lead to tension and mental strain on a student’s attentiveness. Although many schools believe that these assessments are productive, it is proven that they are not beneficial to students because standardized testing leads to stress and anxiety, it is wasting valuable classroom time,

There will be formative assessments on student’s participation, progress, and effort during the lesson. For instance, in the individual handout sheet, student’s ideas and thoughts on each question will be assessed, and the differences of the responses between the Bellringer and the exit slip will also be evaluated as well. The Bellringer can be examined as a pretest that teachers can use for determining what students already know (Woolfolk, 2015, p. 571). The summative assessments will be held mainly on students’ English language development in order to examine the level of accomplishment students gained (p. 571). For native speaking students, teachers will examine the quality of student’s response on the homework assignment sheet and the usage of tone, diction, and literary devices in building arguments on the critical response. Also, student’s reflection on fellow students’ contribution regarding the argument construction and the racism will be examined as well.

Standardized testing has become something of a norm under the No Child Left Behind Act. It has left the student and teacher responsible in having high test scores and has forced teachers to teach directly by the curriculum. What standardized testing does do is help develop memory, but at the cost of creativity (Emanuel 9-10). This is the problem behind standardized testing is that it has become linear and obsolete (Emanuel 9-10). It has been noticed by many for example Sir Ken Robinson said,” Testing in principal is a logical way of measuring student knowledge”, but he continues by saying that, “In practice it creates a very dry learning environment”. This shows that the No Child Left Behind Act and standardized testing is not working,

State-mandated standardized testing has lately become a monster to be feared by students from the beginning of their school career. According to well respected educational author Alfie Kohn, “[…] Most of today’s discourse about education has been reduced to a crude series of monosyllables: Test scores are too low. Make them go up” (Kohn 1). Why all the testing? Some is to meet the federal government requirements, some to meet state requirements, some for the district and some for the school, and still more tests are given simply to help students prepare for the ones already mentioned. So much testing has reduced time for instructors to actually teach. In addition, many of the tests neglect to cover all important material,

Principles of assessment, different methods, strengths and limitations of these, relevant to their subject area, which can effectively meet the individual needs of learners.

Many people in the United States are concerned with the role that standardized testing has on education. Most of them have very strong views on this subject and as it usually happens with large-scale issues these views are very diverse and often opposite. Some claim that standardized testing is the best way to determine student’s skills and qualities because they are equally designed for everyone and not biased. Others, on the other hand, argue the fairness of these tests. They believe that test scores do not represent student’s knowledge. What is certain, in my opinion, is that this subject needs more attention followed by actions that will actually make difference in the education system.

“Assessment focuses on the learners’ performance. It is about measuring achievement, both ongoing (formative) and at the end of the programme (summative).” Wallace. S (2007: 118)

What once began as a simple test administered to students yearly to measure understanding of a particular subject has, as Kohn (2000) has stated, “Mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole” (p.1). Today’s students are tested to an extent that is unparalleled in not only the history of our schools, but to the rest of the world as well. Step into any public school classroom across the United States and it will seem as if standardized testing has taken over the curriculum. Day after day teachers stress the importance of being prepared for the upcoming test. Schools spend millions of dollars purchasing the best test preparation materials, sometimes comes at the cost of other important material. Although test

* This is to determine if the delivery and assessment meets the requirements of the standards or assessment criteria , the whole assessment process needs to be accutat, consistate, safe and meets all organisation requirements.

Assessment for learning is any assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting further student learning and enabling improved student learning through purposeful interaction and providing meaningful feedback. Formative assessment is specifically intended to generate feedback and feed forward on performance to improve, accelerate and enable learning (Sadler, 1998). Formative assessment can and should occur throughout a daily class, through implementation of learning and teaching strategies that lead to both oral and written feedback. The Formative assessment approach is equitable and reliable, producing some significant indicator of student developed understanding that links directly to the syllabus outcomes. This then allows the teacher or other students to respond by trying to

I grew up in a small town in western Pennsylvania. The town is very small, and everyone knows one another. I cam from a two parent home. My mom worked for the the unemployment office in our area. She was an interviewer for unemployment. Her duties included interviewing persons with claims to see if they were eligible for unemployment benefits. She worked for 35 years until it was time for her to retire. My mother took her time with me as a child. She made sure that I was in church every Sunday as well as throughout the week. I was involved in a lot of ministries including vacation bible to the choir. My faith is very strong, and I do believe that all things are possible through God. My mother raised me in church, and

Testing has felt tremendous influence from the emphasis on efficiency. University examinations have moved from individual testing by professors to nowadays where most exams are machine graded, text-book given multiple choice tests. Thus, with the infiltration of McDonaldization into the educational system, test taking has become extremely efficient for the professor.

Looking back on the past few weeks of practicum, there have been many opportunities for personal reflection and connection between my placement and the course work. To describe my role, I am placed in the Outreach and Advocacy program at Chimo Community Services. From what I understand so far, I will have a few clients each day that come in with different issues. We assist them in navigating these issues an advocating for them when necessary. For example, some clients will come in with limited English proficiencies or disabilities and will need assistance filling out forms. Other times, clients need assistance navigating complicated government and structural applications like Canada Pension Plan, BC Housing, and Income Assistance.

The debate on standardized tests and its adequacy in testing a student’s knowledge about a subject has been going on for many years. Tests, in general, has been around for centuries and without them there would not be progress and no gleams of progress. Students ranging from elementary school to high school have experienced standardized testing. Teachers, educators, and parents are also involved in the students’ lives, which revolves around the tests, one way or another. There are many views on standardized test. However, the three most common views are: educators who are for standardized test which benefits students, educators who are at the other extreme of opposing standardized tests, and educators who view tests are a benefit if done in appropriate amounts.