SITI NURHIDAYAH (0203519077)

ASSESSMENT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING STUDENTS’ FAMILY CONDITION

FOR ASSESSING STUDENTS IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC

This covid-19 pandemic condition has affected teachers and students in their
teaching-learning process. They should conduct distance online learning which sometimes
hindered their communication. In line with that, the Minister of Education published an
emergency curriculum to give flexibility for schools in providing an appropriate curriculum
based on the students' needs. As mentioned in Permendikbud number 719/P/2020, in
supporting the success of learning during the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers are no longer
required to meet the workload of 24 hours in a week. So, teachers can focus on providing
interactive learning to students without the need to pursue hours (Kemendikbud, 2020). For
assessing term, Nadiem also explained that teachers should conduct periodic assessments,
both cognitive and non-cognitive assessment. It is aimed to diagnose the impact of pandemics
on students' cognitive and non-cognitive aspects.

Related to the implementation of online interactive learning, it brought some

problems such as not all of the students are be able to access the online learning because of
the lack of facilitation (Oktawirawan, 2020), (Wekke and Saleh, 2020), and (Jayalath, et al.,
2020). Another problem is some of the students did not get live guidance when they study at
home so that makes them not monitored in using handphones and doing their tasks (De,
2020). Nurkholis (2020) argues that if this situation occurs in a long time so that not only
students’ physical condition but also their mental condition will be impacted. From the
problems above, it can be seen that not all of the students have good backgrounds to support
them in learning at home. So, teachers need to consider the students' family conditions in
assessing their students. Hopefully, doing the periodic non-cognitive assessment and
involving parents in learning evaluation can help students in facing their problems when they
are learning at home. So, in this case, I choose to explore the students' family condition as
one of the goals of non-cognitive assessment. As supported by Zhou (2016) that more
countries emphasize non-cognitive competencies in their learning objectives of the national
curriculum. Vazsonyi and Belliston in Zhou (2016) also added that the family process such as
closeness, support, and monitoring has an influence on youths' self-control in several
countries.

Some studies imply that many students and their parents feel objection to this online
distance learning because it is not effective for students and arises many psychological
problems. As Nurkholis (2020), De (2020), and Brown et. al (2020) state that besides
learning difficulties, mental health distraction also affects the students. These conditions
cause mental health problems such as a psychosomatic disorder, anxiety, panic, and fear of
the students. However, such psychological problems will threaten the children as the youth
generation whose needs to be more confident in their future self-development. In this case,
the parents' role is also important to be a support system for their children so that they will
not get more stressed at home. Parents should be ready to be good listeners to listen and give
solutions for all of the children's sighing. Here, parents not only providing physical facilities
but also psychologically.

On the other hand, Oktaria and Putra (2020) in their research about child education in
the family as an early childhood education strategy during the covid-19 pandemic, found that
(1) only three of ten parents can adjust to the role of educators for their own children and able
to create a comfortable condition when providing learning to their children at home; (2) three
of ten parents can establish good communication with teachers during educational activities
from home; and (3) ten parents expressed their concern with this condition and realized that
the role of teachers in educating their children was not easy. In another addition,
Oktawirawan, (2020), Wekke and Saleh, (2020) Jayalath, et al. (2020), and Rasmitadila
(2020), describes that some challenges that students faced are the lack of facilities.
Meanwhile, as parents, hopefully, they can be a facilitator and a support system for their
children. But, as mentioned above, most parents also feel difficulty in educating their children
in this condition. In this case, the role of teachers in considering non-cognitive aspects during
assessing students especially on the students’ family condition is very important. The kind of
assessment will useful for teachers’ evaluation to find out the solution based on the students’
problems in learning. Teachers need to invite the parents or family to discuss the children's
development physically or psychologically in learning during a pandemic. The result will be
an evaluation for teachers and parents in providing and guiding education in this condition.
 As supported by Purandina and Winaya (2020) and Rasmitadila et al. (2020) that the
success of online learning in Indonesia during the COVID-19 Pandemic was contributed by
the readiness of technology in line with the national humanist curriculum, support and
collaboration from all stakeholders, including government, schools, teachers, parents, and the
community. It is also being an acceleration towards the globalization era. The era which
brings us to be ready in using e-learning. Jayalath et al. (2020) suggest that universities and
the government can start to work closely and come up with strategies so that it can meet the
educational needs of the country. In this situation, we are forced to use e-learning actively.
Many seminars which given to provide knowledge about the importance and how to use the
technology. Next, I hope this e-learning will be used continuously as a distraction from face-
to-face learning not only in good schools but also in rural schools. In my opinion, the next
researchers can research the use of e-learning in rural schools. Regarding my experience,
many teachers in rural schools still using monotonous learning media because of the
limitedness of the teachers and also the students' knowledge about technology use.

In another term, Brown et al. (2020) suggest that although families feel more stressed
about Covid-19, providing parental support or live guidance and increasing perceived control
to their children in learning during a pandemic may be helped more in avoiding children
stress out. Nurrohmah et al. (2020) explain that it is very important to give digital literacy to
parents during the covid-19 pandemic. In this case, the government or schools provide such
webinar, online meetings, or TV shows which invite parents and teachers to discuss children
guidance in learning during a pandemic. It is aimed to give background knowledge for
parents about educating children and understanding the online learning materials so that can
minimize things such as childhood abuse and parents can be physically and psychologically
ready to support their children. For the next researchers, it will be great if there are some
researches about analyzing the parents' responsibilities in educating their children during a
pandemic, especially for working parents who can not guide their children in online learning.
The result will hopefully useful for teachers and students' evaluation in obtaining appropriate
learning.

The previous researches above, they only focus on the impact of covid-19 in
education especially on non-cognitive aspects of students' family condition and students'
psychology term. So, it needs to be a consideration for teachers in assessing their students.
But, these researchers did not discuss on how teachers can assess the non-cognitive term,
what indicators that can be assessed, the example of assessing non-cognitive term, etc. In my
opinion, besides the impact and the solution that has been delivered, it should describe the
use of the non-cognitive assessment which is appropriated to pandemic conditions.

Based on my experiences as a teacher in a rural school, it is difficult for me to invite

all of my students to participate actively in my online learning even students who usually
being active in my face-to-face classroom. But, it happened not only in my class but also in
other lessons. So, we also feel difficult to assess our students because many of them did not
do the tasks. Here, as a teacher, I should find out the problems, solve them, and give
solutions. Regarding to the issue, identifying the students' and their family's condition is
important to do.

I wonder to research the students' family responses about online learning during a
pandemic to understand how their responsibilities as parents in guiding their children during
a pandemic. Then, I will triangulate the result with the students’ responses about it and using
a depth interview to ask the homeroom teachers. The result will use as my background
knowledge to identify my students' problems in learning and solve the problems through the
collaboration evaluation from teachers, parents, and children. The indicators of the
instruments should be the indicators for assessing the students’ family condition, too.

In conclusion, each teacher needs to have the ability to do the right assessment.
Assessment should consider the physical and psychological factors of the students and the
conditions in which an assessment is administered (Brown, 2004). Non-cognitive assessment
is one of the assessments that should be done in this pandemic condition because the
implementation of online learning arises from some non-cognitive problems. To provide
solutions to these problems, teachers need to find out and solve the problems by assessing
students' condition and their family background. The result will be an evaluation for teachers,
parents, and students in providing online materials, educating, and guiding the students.
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