Teaching Is Not Just About Spreading Knowledge Essay

Effective assessment practice can positively impact student learning by encouraging positive attitudes towards learning. It can prevent student disengagement and loss of motivation both of which can begin a spiral into states like failure avoidance and negative emotions about school and learning such as anxiety, described by Martin (2007 pp 413-440) as maladaptive behavioural and cognitive dimensions.

My methodology for writing this essay is so that I can gain my Ctlls qualification and support my own teaching practices. In my research for this assignment I have used books, the Internet for various websites and my notes from the lessons, as well as my own experience from teaching.

Assessment needs to be an ongoing, integral part of the teaching and learning cycle. It must allow teachers and students themselves to monitor learning. From the teacher

Ch. 1 – What are my classroom assessment responsibilities as a teacher and how can I fulfill them in ways that maximize the success of my students? This chapter speaks to the nature of what sound assessment is, and the importance of really involving students in this process. Assessment is, of course, FOR the students. The idea that assessment is used by the students, and that teachers should “demystify” assessment and the meaning of success in their classroom is a very simple one, but one that is often forgotten in the context of high-stakes test-ridden classrooms, and schools that view letter grades as the only evidence of learning.

Educational research contributes many factors to effective teaching and the effective teacher. Beliefs and values that guide the research change by the decade, however, most of the research agrees that the highest impact on achievement is the teacher. The writer feels that the three factors Marzano pinpoints are ones truly necessary to guide effective teachers. He states “the act of teaching is a holistic endeavor. Effective teachers employ effective instructional strategies, classroom management techniques, and classroom curricular design in a fluent, seamless fashion”. (Marzano, p.77) By combining these three key components, the teacher will do what is necessary to foster student achievement.

A teacher’s strategy to get their subject across to their students is the most important thing to remember when they are being evaluated. Robert Marzano

The Assessment for Learning Strategy 2008 explains the importance of assessment in education. It aims to ensure every child is aware of their performance and how to improve allowing them to become independent initiators of their own learning and by informing parents and carers of assessment outcomes, children are also

Assessment is a tool that begins and ends successful teaching. At the beginning it establishes what is currently known and at the end it establishes what has been learnt as the result of the planned curriculum.

As Stephanie Ingster outlines (lecture 2, slide 37), explains that teachers need to focus on assessment for learning as students are able to receive feedback and reflect during the unit rather that at the end of teaching. In this way, teachers and students are able to gain a better sense of direction for motivation and improvement in ongoing teaching and

Education is defined as the lifelong process of acquiring knowledge, skills, and values through either formal means, such as schooling, or informal means, such as firsthand experiences or vicarious experiences gained through reading books or discussions. Every person that is or wants to be a teacher has his or her own educational philosophy. We all have our own views, methods, and curriculum that we were taught when growing up. A lot of people may have the same teachers in school, but all of them learn different things from that teacher.

Therefore teachers’ knowledge, skills and competencies in classroom assessment practices are very important (Koloi-Keaikitse, 2012). As teachers play a major role in student achievements and preparing them for future, it is essential for them to understand how to assess and evaluate students’ learning outcomes (Koloi-Keaikitse, 2012). For this reason, Reynolds, Livingston, & Willson, (2009); McMillan, (2008); Nitko, (2001) maintain the common argument that because AFL plays a vital role in teaching and learning related activities teachers should master basic assessment competencies. Without this ability the type of assessment will be useless for the future learning of the students. For example, most common type of assessment provided in the classrooms are pen and paper tests taken at the end of a unit, the result from this is never used to improved student learning as teachers perceive the topic as completed and done with. Vandeyar and Killen (2003) argued that regardless of educational setting, high-quality assessment practices should satisfy essential principles such as validity, reliability, fairness, discrimination, and meaningfulness. For Vandeyar and Killen (2003), if teachers have a clear understanding of these principles; they can have an informed framework of using assessment results to make better-informed decisions from assessment results. When teachers misunderstand these principles, their assessment practices are more likely to generate worthless information and this might hinder them applying various classroom assessment strategies and form to assess and evaluate the students. Therefore in order to be more competent and knowledgeable in AFL; teachers are in need of professional development in order to foster effective AFL in in their classrooms. In addition, another factor that will increase an awareness of classroom assessment

After reading chapter 11 of our textbook, there were three important topics that stood out to me. The first topic that I thought was interesting was the purposes of assessments. According to Carjuzaa and Kellough, the purposes of assessments are for assisting student learning, identify students’ strengths and weaknesses, assess the effectiveness of a particular instruction strategy, assess and improve the effectiveness of curriculum programs, assess and improve teaching effectiveness, to provide data in order to communicate with parents and guardians and to involve them in their children’s learning, and to provide data that assist in decision making about a student’s future (Carjuzaa & Kellough, 2017, pg. 337-338). Assessing to identify strengths

I believe that education extends far beyond the classroom walls, and involves many more people than students and teachers. People should be learning wherever they go, and should continue learning long after they’ve graduated from high school or college. Education isn’t something that can be quantified with tests or report cards, but is instead something that people carry with them. It’s a survival pack for life, and some people are better equipped in certain areas than in others. People with a solid education are prepared for nearly anything, as they will be able to provide for their own physical, emotional, and aesthetic needs.

Every teacher has a different method of teaching. The teachers that I have had in my school career have been no exception. In this way, each teacher has set an example for me, as a future teacher, to follow or not to follow as I see fit. With the examples from my teachers and in continuing my education, I am developing my own method of teaching. I plan to use a combination of teaching methods in my own classroom. My method will be an eclectic approach because I will be using components of more than one philosophy. I will be using essentialism, behaviorism, progressivism, and existentialism.

There is no one size fits all teaching strategy for all students. Therefore teachers must use a variety of teaching strategies to cater for a variety of different learners (Gill, 2013). It is important for teachers to regularly evaluate their practices and whether they are meeting the learning needs of all students (Zeichner & Liston, 1987). Self-evaluation can assist teachers to improve the educational experiences provided for students and assist in identifying the professional education you need to further develop your capacity to teach well (Schwartz, n.d.). As a future teacher developing learning programs, teaching, assessing, providing feedback on student learning and reporting to parents/carers are skills I must be proficient in.