Assessing Students' Needs
The first time we assess our students is as a form of diagnosis – to establish entry behaviour of students and to diagnose learning needs / difficulties. In the year that I have been teaching, I can say that I did not experience teaching students with major learning difficulties. I have taught students coming from different backgrounds but I have not experienced teaching students suffering from disabilities. I have only had one student who suffers from acute dyslexia but in the subjects that I teach this has not hindered or created any problems for the student. I have had a particular student which came from a difficult social condition and this affected the performance of the student. Whilst there are rules and regulations for everyone, there are situations where positive discrimination may be applied in order to make education accessible to all.
Student Assessment
One of the key components of engaging students in the assessment of their own learning is providing them with descriptive feedback as they learn. In fact, research shows descriptive feedback to be the most significant instructional strategy to move students forward in their learning.
At the beginning of the unit, I give my students a brief with a project which is divided into three or four tasks. The tasks are not handed in at a go at the end of the unit but rather on specified dates. Apart from giving lessons on the related subject, I give regular tutorials to ensure that the students are applying what is being thought in the lessons and to guide them towards improving their designs. In these tutorials I give constant feedback on their progress and probe them to help them come up with better solutions themselves, rather than me telling them what to do to improve. This I feel is very effective as it helps them develop their critical thinking skills and also creativity.
Although attendance to these tutorials is obligatory, I have noted that there are always a number of students who do not show their work and are hence losing out on important feedback which would help them improve their work. Unfortunately, these tend to be weaker students who need most guidance. I do my best to encourage them to show me their work regularly and have also stated that it is highly unlikely that anybody would fail if I have seen the work regularly, but this does not always work with everybody. I
At the end of each task, I always give my students both written and verbal feedback on their work, explaining to them their strong and weak points of their work and guiding them as to how they can improve the work presented. Although we are only obliged to give written feedback at the end of the unit, I feel that written feedback at the end of every task helps student record better how they can improve and also helps me when assessing the whole unit.
These methods of informal assessment help me analyse my own success/failure in delivering a topic and helps the student see where improvements can be made.
Providing Rapid feedback
If feedback is to be most effective, then it should be given as soon as is possible. Tutorials are an effective way of giving rapid feedback to students. Sometimes I also get my students to informally present their work in front of their colleagues. I also encourage feedback from the students themselves. Although students initially find this hard, idea sharing and getting feedback not only from the tutors but also from classmates is giving good results. It prepares students for the real working world where they will be expected to work in teams, share ideas and also accept criticism from superiors, workmates and the general public.
Although I do my best to give task feedbacks quickly, I have been in situations where this was not possible because of the work load at the time.
Ensuring that Feedback Gives Positive Motivation to the Student
Whilst we may complain that we get a lot of students who lack the motivation necessary to ensure success in their studies, educators play an important role in the motivation of these students. Motivation can come from the manner in which feedback is given.
Example of Student Feedback Form
