Reflection 10.12: Assessment

During my Wednesday school visits, I’ve noticed that there are far more modes of assessment than when I went to high school. Even last year when I attended UVic there really only seemed to be two forms of assessment: exams and lab reports. I was only partially aware of what a rubric was; to me, it was a table stapled to the end of my assignment that didn’t have much to do with what I was doing.

Rubrics

Having never been told what a rubric was really for, I never paid them much attention. That was until a teacher explained it to me cohort during my first school visit. They aren’t meaningless tables, they are meant to guide students to what competencies they are being asked to develop. They make the guidelines clear and the outcomes rock solid. To me, they seem absolutely essential for any assignment or project that consists of more than a few textbook problems.

Self Assessment

This was a concept I didn’t but into when I first saw it in the classroom. I didn’t think students would take them seriously; it seemed like another idealistic 21st-century teaching technique. Well, that was until I had to do one myself for our seminar. I couldn’t believe how critical of myself I was, but not in a bad way. It was overwhelmingly constructive and I could immediately identify the areas that needed improvement. It gives you an active role in your own development and if you can give students the keys they’ll do the rest.

Summative Assessment

Let me tell you how familiar I am with summative assessment: very. Almost every course I took at UVic culminated with a dreaded final exam. Stress inducing and anxiety-producing, these bad boys were HIGH RISK. Being in the physics department, most of my exams accounted for over 40% of my final grade. A 3-hour test, winner takes all. In math, finals weights soared over 60%. 60%!!!

There has got to be a better way. Thankfully, BC did away with provincial exams; a huge relief to teachers and students alike. I’m not saying that final exams are meaningless torture devices. I think they are extremely important for some students. Ideally, they showcase the sum total of knowledge accrued over the length of a term. But making them worth half of your term mark? That’s a bit extreme. I think this can be supplemented with other summative reviews such as research projects or term-long experiments.