Explain your understanding about understanding.

Understanding for me is being able to interpret what a concept is all about or what the
teacher said in class or what the messenger is trying to bring across through a process
that brings about a point where you have an idea of the messenge and be able to
explain the message to another person in your interpretation of the original message.
Understanding does not just include applying knowledge from the classroom but
understanding for me is just learning from experiences whether it is from your own
experience or other people’s experience.

How do you know you understood what you have to learn?

I understood what I have to learn by paying attention, listening attentively what was
said in class and by reading the material over several times to get the understanding. If
a teacher explains the concept that was taught in class, I have to internalize or take in
a what was taught and then try to analyse the concept that was taught and then use an
example to explain more clearly what was taught so that I can be able to understand
what I have learnt.

Compare and contrast the Alternative and Traditional Assessment Techniques

and Evaluation.

Comparison
Alternative Assessment
 Aids in measuring the proficiency of the student based on their analytical,
reasoning and logical thinking skills.
 Helps in recognizing a student’s unique set of abilities
 Evaluates a student’s problem-solving skills and helps in real-life application of
the knowledge.
 Develops extensive levels of cognitive skills in the students.

Traditional Assessment
 Evaluates the learning and retaining capacity of a child.
 Allows teacher to a preview of a student’s knowledge conveniently.
 Assesses a student’s learning through a set of questions curated as per the
specified syllabus.
 Develop their retaining and understanding of student’s capabilities.

Contrast
Alternative Assessment Traditional Assessment
Selecting a Response ----------------------------Performing a Task
Contrived ------------------------------------------Real-life
Recall/Recognition -------------------------------Construction/Application
Teacher-structured --------------------------------Student-structured
Indirect Evidence ---------------------------------Direct Evidence
Product Oriented ----------------------------------Process Oriented
Direct------------------------------------------------Indirect
Authentic-------------------------------------------Inauthentic
Criterion-referenced------------------------------Norm-referenced
Formative------------------------------------------Summative
Flexible--------------------------------------------Rigid and fixed
Fosters Instrinsic Motivation-------------------Fosters Extrinsic Motivation
Continuous, longitudinal------------------------One shot tests
Group projects ---------------------------------Individual projects
Feedback provided to learners---------------No feedback provided to learners
Untimed exams---------------------------------Speeded exams
Contextualized test tasks----------------------Decontextualized test tasks
Classroom-based tests--------------------------Standardized tests

Which is better and more productive in our modern era? Why?

Answer: Alternative assessment presents new ways of motivating and inspiring

learners to explore and exploit dimensions of themselves as well as the world around
them. According to learning scientists, while subject matter content recollection is
easy to test, critical thinking and creativity is difficult to assess. As they claim, long-
term retention of knowledge and information and its transfer is what should be
focused on. Alternative assessment offers the teachers a chance to realize their
students' weaknesses and strengths in variant situations (Law & Eckes, 1995).
According to Hamayan (1995), alternative assessment signifies authentic procedures
and techniques within the instructional domain which can be integrated into daily
classroom activities.

Since alternative assessment is ongoing in nature, it can signify the learners' language
proficiency and mirror the developmental processes in the educational environment
over time. Thus it becomes possible to focus both on the process and product of
learning (Hamayan, 1995). Genesee and Upshur (1996) stress the importance of this
kind of assessment to avail information on factors such as students' learning strategies
and styles, their behavior and their reactions to the course which finally affects
student achievement. Alternative assessment makes a link between assessment and
instruction by taking account of a 'feedback loop' which allows instructors to monitor
and modify instruction continuously based on what is already assessed. In other
words, if the objectives of a set instructional program are met then the process is
continued. Otherwise, it is revised (Genesee & Hamayan, 1994).

It is taken for granted that the obtained information from alternative assessment is
more informative compared to traditional test scores (Alderson & Banerjee, 2001). It
therefore provides advantages to students and their parents as well as the
administrators and teachers (Hamayan, 1195). It allows the students to gain a better
understanding of their accomplishments and to take more responsibility for their own
learning (Hamayan, 1995). Alternative assessment provides teachers with
opportunities to record the success or failure of a curriculum which helps to present a
better framework for organizing the learners' achievement. Moreover, alternative
assessment is claimed to be in congruent with the cognitive psychology framework in
that it regards learning to proceed in an uneven pace rather than a linear fashion.

Based on this view, students should be provided with the opportunities to use their
own strategies to perform the given tasks. It is also stressed that this kind of
assessment grants the students enough time to generate rather than choose a response.
No doubt, this kind of assessment is a collaborative approach which allows the
interaction of students and teachers in the learning process (Barootchi & Keshvarz,
2002). This collaboration in turn enhances students' self-esteem, sense of efficacy and
intrinsic learning motivation (Broadfoot, 2003). The learners become active
participants in the process of learning by realizing their strength and weaknesses and
in setting realistic learning goals (Luoma & Tarnanen, 2003).

How can teacher observations and questions together with student reflections be
maximized to improve learning?

Mark Van Doren said that “the art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery”.
Reflective practice is ‘learning through and from experience towards gaining new
insights of self and practice’ (Finlay, 2008). It requires teachers to look at what they
do in the classroom, and think about why they do it and if it works - a process of self-
observation and self-evaluation.

Reflective teaching is a more systematic process of collecting, recording and

analysing a teacher’s thoughts and observations, as well as those of their students, and
then going on to making changes. It’s not a once and done approach continuing
professional development, but a cyclical process that needs to occur regularly if it is
to have an impact.

Teachers use many strategies to guide students through a period of reflection and
these are discussions, interviews, questioning, and logs and journals. Teachers who
promote reflective classrooms ensure that students are fully engaged in the process of
making meaning. They organize instruction so that students are the producers, not just
the consumers, of knowledge. To best guide children in the habits of reflection,
teachers must approach their role as that of "facilitator of meaning making." The
teacher acts as an intermediary between the learner and the learning, guiding each
student to approach the learning activity in a strategic way. The teacher helps each
student monitor individual progress, construct meaning from the content
learned and from the process of learning it, and apply the learnings to other contexts
and settings. Learning becomes a continual process of engaging the mind
that transforms the mind.
 References

Mueller, J. (2018). Authentic Assessment Toolbox. Retrieved April 30, 2021, from
http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/whatisit.htm#similar

Law, B. & Eckes, M. (1995). Assessment and ESL. Peguis publishers: Manitoba,
Canada.

Bailey, K. M. (1998). Learning about language assessment: dilemmas, decisionjs, and

directions. Heinle& Heinle: US.

Hamayan, E. V. (1995). Approaches to Alternative Assessment. Annual Review of

Applied Linguistics, 15, 212-226.

Barootchi, N., & Keshavarz, M. H. (2002). Assessment of achievement through

portfolios and teacher-made tests. Educational Research, 44(3), 279-288

Broadfoot, P. M. (2003). Dark Alleys and Blind Bends: Testing the Language of
Learning. Paper presented over the 25th Language Testing Research Colloquium, 22-
25 July, University of Reading.

Luoma, S. and Tarnanen, M. (2003). Creating a self-rating instrument for L2 writing:

from idea to implementation. Language Testing, 20(4), 440-465.

Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. Chapter 12. Learning Through Reflection. Retrieved April
30, 2021, from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108008/chapters/Learning-Through-
Reflection.aspx

Finlay, L. (2008). Reflecting on reflective practice. Retrieved April 30, 2021, from
http://ncsce.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Finlay-2008-Reflecting-on-
reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf

Spalding, A. (2020, January 14). How to Encourage Reflective Teaching In Your

School. Retrieved April 30, 2021, from https://blog.irisconnect.com/uk/blog/5-
benefits-of-encouraging-teacher-self-reflection

Singh, R. (2015, July 18). What are traditional and alternative assessments? Retrieved
April 30, 2021, from https://www.ecoleglobale.com/blog/traditional-
assessment-vs-alternative-assessment/