Assignment : The Web Assignment

One of the main controversial disputes regarding education is if test taking is actually a beneficial form of a learning technique for students. Within the context of Henry L. Roediger III’s article, How Tests Make Us Smarter, Roediger goes into depth upon how giving students “low-stakes quizzes” could help improve their memory as well as consistent and spread out practice. Psychology In Action, written by both Karen Huffman and Katherine Dowdell, also restates similar learning techniques within their first chapter.

Tests are another method of assessing learners needs: mid-way through the course I gave my learners a short quiz on the topics covered so far, showing examples which gave the learners something to compare their own answers to. I also read out the questions, ensuring that they understood what was asked of them. This enabled me to assess their progress and determine if any of the learners were struggling, however if the learners had conferred during the test then my assessment could have been false.

here is for the specter of a quiz to always be hanging over the student where he knows he

Similarly, many teachers, statewide, feel that these exams that no significant value towards a student’s overall intelligence. According to a survey by both the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Scholastic, of more than ten-thousand public school teachers, this report has found that teachers

Identify one instructional strategy or student activity from the outline of plans that could be challenging for the student.

Thinking must be practiced in each content field at each educational level. For the teacher, this means hard work. To teach students to memorize facts and then assess them with multiple-choice tests is a much easier choice to make. In a course that emphasizes thinking,

This test/quiz would give me an indication of the comprehension level regarding the lesson over the southern colonies. These questions cover all of the southern colonies; hence giving me feedback as to whether the students fully understand the main ideas/concepts regarding the southern colonies. If the students perform well enough on this assessment we would move on to the next lesson. However, if the students performed poorly I would need to go back and cover the topics again as well as reassess their knowledge on these topics before moving on to the next lesson or giving an exam over the unit. This test/quiz is a great way to gauge how well I did at teaching the lesson on the southern colonies. If students do poorly, then I must reassess

In classrooms all across America, students sit perched over their desks in the process of taking standardized tests. As the students take the tests, teachers pace nervously up and down the rows of their classroom, hoping and praying that their students can recall the information which they have presented. Some children sit relaxed at their desks, calmly filling in the bubbles and answering essay questions. These children are well prepared and equipped to handle their tests. Other children, however, sit hunched over their desks, pondering over questions, trying to guess an answer. They struggle to recall information that has been covered many times in class, but they can’t.

Unfortunately in modern time, students are more concerned to pass a test, than actually learning the material. It’s inconsiderate for schools to feel that throwing test after test will predict and showcase a student’s intelligence. “Most current U.S. standardized tests include only multiple-choice questions and provide no way for students to explain their thinking, says Swartz, of the National Center for Teaching Thinking. “So if a student answers (d) and that's correct, it still raises the question, ‘Is he

The article “More Testing More Learning,” by Patrick O’Malley, discusses that students get anxious about a big test and how more frequent test can reduce that. More tests help decrease anxiety by forcing students to study more often, therefore, they learn the material. Professors, however, don’t always like to give more quizzes because essay questions take a long time to grade. O’Malley eliminates that excuse with providing some solutions as well as a few alternative quiz question styles.

The ability to fix prior mistakes encourages students to take the risks effective learners regularly engage in. As learners grow in security and confidence, they participate in healthy competition, whether against some performance standard, imaginary opponent, or even other classmates. If well designed, this competition can bring out the best in students. Although the gamification principles discussed here only scratch the surface, the overarching theme contains the concept of process over product. Much of education focuses exclusively on the final outcome, resulting in high stakes assessments and activities. Gamification encourages

2. Cooperative learning directed towards focusing on students’ team work while doing their project assignments.

The coach adopts the use of rewards such as games with a scoring system, allowing students to progress when they can perform a skill and giving a long term goal, the floor routine assessment. He uses this in order to channel the competitiveness in the students and give those rewards for completing tasks, Reece & Walker (2007) acknowledge these characteristics in teaching as behaviourism. This external reward system is acknowledged by the likes of Pavlov (1927), Watson () and Thorndike () in their conditioned learning studies. This theory is used over the likes of constructivists and social as it provides a simple outcome for all students in the shape of a reward, the rewards can be used to stimulate all stages of learners form cognitive to autonomous (Center for research on learning and teaching, 2015). Both Pavlov (1927) and Watson during their experiment fostered the use of punishment when the outcome was not obtain, by doing so they hoped to achieve quicker learning and reduce the level of failure in their subjects. However the coach does not use this approach and favours the approach of Thorndike () who acknowledges, the use of punishment causes discomfort and unwillingness to perform. Therefore the use of conditioned learning is used as a stimulus but not as a discouragement, the coach’s objective is to use the appropriate stimulus to motivate and develop students and uses this theory for this method only. By using this theory the lessons are very much controlled, in

To achieve this clarity, we can present examples of work that illustrate high, average, and low levels of achievement. Such exemplars can significantly motivate students, as well as increase their understanding of their own ability to achieve.

Informal assessment allows students to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways which can benefit all students. It can include group or individual projects, presentations, essays, experiments, or demonstrations. Each of these can allow for “knowledge that transfers from one situation to another [which] is based on students’ abilities to understand central principles, see connections and make distinctions, and be strategic in attacking problems and analyzing information” (Darling-Hammond, p. 285). A variety of assessment methods allow for this to happen and for students to use their personal strengths to demonstrate understanding of the information. “Research into students’ preferences for alternative assessments shows that the assessments that have been positively evaluated by students were more authentic and thus made learning more realistic and powerful” (as cited in Brown, Irving, Peterson, and Hirschfeld, 2009, p. 99). Students should be able to think creatively and take hold of their own education and learning because they must ideally be prepared for a rapidly changing society where they must be able to adapt and formulate their own solutions. Teachers are able to provide feedback to the children so they know what was done effectively and what needs to be modified. Rather than teachers pressuring students to show understanding through a single examination, they will have opportunities to confidently demonstrate knowledge with less