Purpose of Assessments and Emotional Responses (Module 1 – Part 2)

 

First of all, it was enlightening to explore both the differences and intersections in meaning among grading, measurement, and evaluation.  (Which is similar to thinking about how e‑business and e‑commerce have different meanings.)  It is a given that assessments are often thought of as being used for grading and for evaluating student progress.  But if we consider that assessments can serve many purposes, we can be more deliberate in their design.

For example, if assessments were to drive student learning, then we can focus on creating real-world or practical items, and on having various levels of difficulty so that students can be challenged while at the same time not be daunted by something that seems out of reach.  In exams and quizzes, we can create scenario-based questions where they apply their knowledge instead of merely asking for definitions.

We have discussed how assessments may cause fear/dread among some students.  Surely enough, assessments can and do evoke various emotions, and perhaps we educators can be more minful of them.

• pride:  I have seen students take pleasure in the work they have created, such as Websites or mobile apps.  So, for instance, if we want students to do a presentation, we may want to not limit them to just using PowerPoint but to possibly use video makers instead.  Of course, high scorers in tests feel good about their performance, so in elementary school settings, we might want to offer incentives to topnotchers (a meal with the principal, a gift certificate, a token, or exemption from the final exam).
• envy:  Students do compare results or grades among themselves.  If we make several versions of an exam, then we need to ensure that they are comparable in difficulty.
• anxiety:  Many students are eager to know how they perfomed in an assessment.  As a matter of policy or preference, we ought to set standands on how long it would take for us to finish grading--for example, 1 day for short quizzes, 3 days for exams, 5 days for reports or research papers, etc.
• relief:  After finishing (and hopefully passing) a major assessment, students can feel more relaxed.  Sometimes, it might be appropriate to do something fun afterwards (like a field trip), or to take it easy on lecturing again on the next topics (instead, have them watch videos related to class and write reflections/reactions, give a self-reading task with corresponding exercises and give support to students instead of doing the talking, etc.)
• hope:  Many students set target scores when they do assessments.  ("I have to pass this one"; "I need to score at least XX, so that I can get a 1.25"; etc.).  For instance, in a test, students might find it unfair or discouraging if all the questions are difficult, so it is probably better to mix in easy and medium-level items.  And I do think bonus questions are always appreciated by many students.
• anger and disappointment:  Students (as well as their parents) may not be satisfied with the results.  A well-designed rubric (for projects, reports, research papers, etc.) would provide good justificaton on why a certain grade was given.  Also, in one of the discussions, I mentioned ICQs (instruction-checking questions).  We instructors need to make sure that students understand what is expected from them, so that they will not end up doing something incorrectly or incompletely and then blame us.  As for exams, the items should include only what we covered in class and what are relevant to the learning outcome(s) being assessed.