As a Mathematics major my entire education career has always comprised of achieving the correct answer and striving for the 100% on each of my tests, quizzes and assignments. As I have proceeded through an education degree in hopes to become an educator myself, this style of assessment seems to no longer connect with the majority of students. Students en route to being educators have opened my eyes to the dramatic arts, for example, and the ways they assess students. Tests and quizzes are virtually nonexistent in their classrooms. At first this confused me as I was never educated this way. However, it has opened my eyes to the whole idea of learning and assessment of learning. In the book Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment, assessment of learning (Aol) is described as the evaluation in a classroom (Drake, 16). This does not directly apply to a numerical grade, although, it instead connects to the process of learning and the students personal development. This resonated with me and has driven me to explore new ways to evaluate in a mathematics classroom, my subject of interest. I began thinking of things such as engaging students in an analytic evaluation of a concept rather than a numerical evaluation of a question. It dawned on me that the process of learning through exploration, examination of a concept was much more valuable to a student's development than attaining the correct numerical value. As a future teacher I hope to fully grasp the difference between the Process Vs. the Product of learning and potentially even evaluate my students on this basis.
I leave this week with a challenge to all future/current educators to guide students through the process of learning and assess them off this basis; off their progression.
Cheers,
MG
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