In the article Assessment of Young Children, the authentic assessment approach seems to veer towards looking at the student holistically, as opposed to the standardized tests that capture the child’s ability at a moment in time. I am really liking this idea of looking at the child in a multidimensional way, using personalized education, and creating growth promoting relationships, but I am wondering how this can actually be done at our public schools. I see teachers barely getting through the day with 20 to 30 children in their classrooms. It does not seem reasonable to expect our teachers to have the time to get to know each child to the point that a parent would know the child. Which leads me to wonder if some of this should fall on the parents. Where does their part come into “stimulating the growth of heart and mind”. Should we ask our teachers to spend all day with our children and know almost every aspect of their lives in order to personalize their education? Perhaps this would be more realistic if there was a greater teacher to student ratio. I am not a teacher, so perhaps I am wrong about this, so what do you teachers think?
I believe the advantages of authentic assessment far outway the disadvantages. In the reading it states that one of the disadvantages of authentic assessment is a greater chance for bias and subjectivity, but I want to point out that standardized tests may make children nervous and may not accurately represent the child’s capabilities.
I like the idea of authentic assessments over standardized tests because they dig deeper and have more room for creativity and real intelligence. However, I get the feeling that this is slightly new age because they say that performance assessments measure children’s abilities to demonstrate knowledge skills in an organic, relevant way. I find that people use that word in so many ways that it can mean just about anything. I thought the article could have given more details on what this really means because it seems like it is up for interpretation.
The Portfolio Assessment seems like it would a realist way to document a child’s progress at school. Although I am not sure how the child would develop skills in self-regulation and delay of gratification using this approach. I thought the article should have clarified how this was used to help develop these skills.
I find this idea of Self-Assessment absolutely amazing. If I had a child I would encourage them to take photographs, keep a journal, draw and take audio and video clips of things that are important to them. This is where this kind of assessment feels truly human and valuable in personal growth and knowing oneself.
I found it interesting that this article talked about inappropriate concepts for first graders. I had a teacher last semester in a developmental psychology class that said teachers in Hawaii were hindering students by assigning work that was beyond their developmental level for their age. I think it is important to take into consideration what a child is capable of at certain ages/developmental levels. I believe it is Piaget that came up with sensorimotor,preoperational etc. If we ask a child to perform a task that is beyond their level we set them up to fail.
If i do become a teacher I would seriously look into Project Spectrum. This sounds like a system that private schools would use for their students. The theory of multiple intelligences is intriguing to me because this seems to even the playing field in the classroom. It is unrealistic to expect children to be the same in all areas. Project Spectrum allows children to show their abilities in unconventional ways such as music and dance. This is fantastic because it is so realistic to actual life. There are so many people that can’t solve a algebra problem, but they can create music or write creative stories or plays. I think it is important to find the strengths that children have instead of looking for the developmental delays. These are the systems I would like to see in our schools so that they feel more like a school for people than a school for robots.
The RTI seems like a good support for teachers, but I don’t really understand exactly how this system works. Academic work can show if there is a learning disability, but how does the behavioral aspect tie into this? I’m unclear on the big picture of the RTI. When does the teacher decide to use this RTI? I suppose I would understand how this works more if I had teaching experience. How young are the students that use this program? Is it just a support until they improve?
The Collaborative Assessment Conference seems like a very structured and methodical way of evaluating a child’s work. I could imagine that teachers would feel supported by having other educators opinions and comments on teaching strategies and how to further support student’s learning and expression. Although, I wonder how teachers have so much time to get together and have a lengthy meeting about each student. In the schools I have worked I see teacher’s barely getting their teaching materials together each day and having to go to a lot of mandatory meeting as it is.
The Swedish Practicum in Childhood article gave a lot more details about what the portfolio will do for the student and how it helps teachers and communities have documentation on what children are learning in preschool. This approach seems to benefit the children and helps to guide policy makers in making proper decisions for the children. As I understand it, the portfolio allows the child to be part of the decision making process, which is democratic in nature. The portfolio also allows for documentation of the child’s work that can be used to assess and alter curriculum as seen fit by educators, parents and legislators. This article had some really interesting ideas. I understood one of them to mean that every assessment on some level is made relative to societal norms. I think that is what they meant when they said that knowledge is not value free or scientifically neutral. I am learning in another class that we can do scientific studies and come up with results, but those results still have to be interpreted, and that is where culture values and paradigms come into play. I see how the standardized tests do not account for a child’s culture, race SES, or gender, they just spit out a number that is supposed to be accurate of the child’s abilities without consideration of their personal situation. I think the people are intrigued by the Portfolio method because it allows for a richer and deeper understanding of what the child is thinking, feeling, and capable of doing.
Hi Jeanette,
ReplyDeleteI think in an ideal world, we want to get teacher to child ratios down to a level where teachers can actually get to know their children on a much more intimate level. At the preschool level, depending on the age group, the amount of children one teacher would be responsible for is a lot lower (16 at the most for four year olds), and there are typically support staff. But you bring up a good point that will come up in our readings later on - the role of families in the assessment process. This is a big idea in the Reggio programs of Italy, whose book we will read later, and you'll see how involved families are encouraged and expected to be. Because families have information that we as educators will never know, and because we have information about a child that families will never witness, we need to think of families and schools as two pieces to a puzzle - without each other, we will never see the whole picture. From a later school perspective, this gets more challenging, but from a preschool level, more achievable. But how? I'm curious to see what you think as we continue!