Two Effective Ways of Assessment that Benefit Your Teaching
Assessments are indispensable in education. Throughout the lesson, questions are posed, students respond, and teachers answer. Homework is assigned after class, students complete it, and teachers grade it. The traditional procedure of assessment has been in a long time and is being taken for granted. However, with current modern technology, we are now prepared for a more effective way of assessment.
Effective assessment during the class
During the class, teachers usually conduct learning probes to see how well students master the knowledge, which is helpful for teachers to set the pace of the lesson. Learning probes, as a form of assessment, usually contain several questions that require a brief answer, so in a traditional classroom, only a few students will have the chance to be asked these questions. With a digital response system, every student will be assessed and taken into account.
The most obvious advantage of the real-time response system is immediate and comprehensive feedback with intuitive visualisation. Students can respond without stress and embarrassment and thus teachers are able to know about the progress of the whole class.
There are even more ways to make use of the immediate response system. For example, Eric Mazur, a Harvard physics professor, utilises the system for peer instruction. If 30-70% of the students vote for the wrong answer, he will call for a discussion and ask students to convince their neighbours. During the discussion, students will find out the right answer and teachers are able to figure out where they need to further clarify. Such a "teach-test-peer instruction-clarify cycle" enables an effective lesson with high student engagement.
Effective assessment after the class
The majority of assessment activity is done after class when the students do the homework and the teacher grade and give feedback. How can we make the assessment more effective? Here are two simple pieces of advice:
Objective feedback
A subjective grade is usually what a student will get after they submit their homework. It is the most intuitive and straightforward form of feedback. But researchers suggest that subjective grades may fail to give a true picture of their mastery. It is suggested that teachers give objective feedback, including corrective instruction and emotional support.
Corrective instruction
Grading is not the end of the assessment. Corrective instruction should be given to guide the students in order to remedy learning errors and improve. Teachers need to present the learning limitations in new ways to deepen their understanding and double-check their mastery.
Emotional support
Students can be greatly motivated if they get a positive response after hard work. This kind of positive reinforcement will foster their interest in learning and reviewing and lead to better performance in the future. To provide emotional support, teachers should focus more on their effort and progress rather than simply saying "smart".
Fan{task}tic can not only reduce teachers' workload significantly but also provide corrective instructions through our AI algorithm. We also keep track of students' progress and give out suggestions for teachers to praise their students more effectively.
Second chance
The traditional way of homework usually gives students only one chance. Now with digitalised homework, they could be allowed to have multiple attempts. One advantage of multiple attempts is that it helps to reduce stress and boost confidence for some students. It's also a perfect chance to consolidate knowledge, as they can have immediate feedback and remedy the gaps. Although many teachers believe that students should take every homework as a real exam which only has one attempt, it is important for students to have a solid foundation before facing the real exam. And a second chance is more useful in many circumstances for building the foundation and confidence.