Group Reflection

what is blended learning?

Blended learning can be generally understood as the way teachers and students combine or ‘blend’ multiple teaching methods and learning styles together. For example, the combination of classroom study, guided individual study, and computer-based study, is a type of blended learning. There are numerous possible components and methods that can be used to make a blend.
As blended learning is vast topic that merits days of discussion, in this one day session we aimed to demonstrate several blended learning teaching techniques, both technological and non technological. We took note of the fact that in the common Belgian English language classroom it is unlikely that a computer be available for every student. However, a large number of teachers have access to a computer outside the classroom.

MODULE 1 : Overview in assessment of learning

We, the future educators will face a resolution at the beginning of our profession all involve how best to educate children.  But first, we need to have the instructional objectives which are to determine what you want the students to learn and how you will know that they learned. Instructional objectives are requirements for high-quality development of instruction. In education, such evidences about the success on learning progress of the students are obtained through assessment. Teachers are continually making decisions about the most effective means of interacting with their students.  Assessment is a very important factor in education. An educational professional must be able to effectively evaluate and assess the students’ progress and knowledge of the subjects being taught. A teacher must also be able to assess how a student learns and if the methods the teacher is using is effective. As a teacher it is important to be aware of a student's performance in the classroom for many reasons. If a teacher is accurately able to assess a students’ progress the teacher will know if the teaching methods are working, and if and where the students need help.

But for now, we are the students who are preparing for our profession in the future. Learning about the assessment and its types and functions is a big factor and help in our job as a teacher who will be the director of the students’ learning.

Module 2: ESTABLISHING A LEARNING TARGET

We, as a future teacher, it is very important that one should know how to establish a learning target. Module 2 truly helped us a lot in preparing us for our profession. It contains lessons on the subject of its definition and types of learning targets; the role of Instructional Objective is another thing, its characteristics and uses. This module also contains the three student learning outcomes which should to be considered in making Instructional Objectives. These are the Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor.

Learning target is a classroom management tool designed to be projected in front of the class or viewed by students at their learning. It seems to be a compass in the student’s learning and for the teacher’s instructions. It should be provided so that both students and parents understand exactly what a student should understand and be able to do after carrying out each unit in various courses. So, it is important that before teaching takes place, instructional objectives should be formulated and set. Instructional objectives also lead the teacher in discovering the strength and weaknesses of the established learning process, best learning situations, and the level of growth and development of learners through a pre-determined evaluation process. In short, instructional objectives help in monitoring and evaluating the whole educational process in minute details.

In its deeper sense, without instructional objectives, teaching is analogous to a fallen leaf whose destination depends on the will of the wind. There should be a plan on how to satisfy the three domain of learning of a learner. Without instructional objectives, teachers will have nothing to follow in order to achieve what it should be achieved.

Module3: Keys to Effective Testing. 

In lesson 1-6, the student will be able to know the definition of test, uses of test, type of test. In lesson 2, the student will be able to know how to prepare a test. In lesson 3,the student will be able to know the objectives and how to instruct your student, how to assess and how to evaluate your student performance. In lesson 4, In this lesson the student will be able to know what is the factors to consider when you construct a good test for the learners. In lesson 5, In this lesson the student will be able to know the uses and the classification of a test. Lesson 6, In this lesson table of specification is one important part and step in planning for a test. This is a test map that guide teacher in constructing test and to analyze content areas. Without this, the tendency for the test maker is to focus too much on facts and concepts at the knowledge level and TOS is valuable to teacher for two reasons: First, It helps teacher decide on what to include and leave out in a test. Second, It help them determined how much weigth to give for each topic covered and objective to be tasted.

MODULE 4: DEVELOPMENT OF ASSESSMENT TOOLS

Module 4 contains lessons on Assessment tools. Assessment is the process of gathering and qualifying information about a student’s performance. In the module, we were able to understand the usage of the different types of test namely the Multiple Choice Test, True or False, Matching-type test, Completion and Cloze Test and finally the Essay test. The selection of the assessment tools depends upon what is to be assessed and the purposes or reasons of assessment. In addition, the selection of assessment tools should be coherent to the overall aims and goals of the program or curriculum.  The phase of learning both of the teachers and students affects the selection of assessment strategy or tool as one tool may be unsuitable for the purpose.

            The Multiple Choice test is a form of assessment in which students are asked to select the best answer out of the choices from the list. In this kind of test, an item consists of two parts: the stem and the set of options. All incorrect or less appropriate responses are called distracters or foils. The stem is the beginning of the item as a problem to be solved, a question asked of a student. The correct answers are called keys.

            The True or False test is an alternative choice test in which the examinee indicates whether each of several statements is true or false.  It is used to measure ability to identify whether statements of facts, principles, generalizations, relationships or evaluative statements are correct. Teachers choose this type of test to quickly poll a class as an introduction to a discussion or determine knowledge of topic.

            The Matching-type test is similar to the multiple choice test. In this kind of test, the examinee associates an item in one column with a choice in the second column.

            The Completion test item requires the student to answer a question or finish an incomplete statement by filling in a blank with the correct word or phrase. On the other hand, the Cloze test measures the students comprehension abilities by giving them a short text with blanks where some of the words should be and asking them to fill in the blanks.

            Finally, the Essay test is a type of assessment used to comment on student’s progress, the quality of their thinking, the depth of their understanding, and the difficulties they may be having. The purpose of an essay test is to assess students' abilities to construct a logical, cohesive, and persuasive writing piece.

            Assessment tools are structures to assess the students’ knowledge and skills. As future teachers, we got to select the appropriate type of test to be used depending on what domains we want to measure.        

LESSON 5: CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD TEST

In lesson 5, it talks about the characteristics of a good test. In here, the validity, reliability and objectivity of the test are concerned. And as we go along with the topics, we found out that before we construct a good test, we must follow or consider first the variables of what are the characteristics of a good test.  And in here, we found out that the most important concepts or characteristic of a test is the validity. Without this characteristic, you will have a meaningless result and have wasted a great deal of time and effort between teacher and students. Another characteristic is the reliability of the test, in order to be the test reliable, it should yield results that do not vary greatly when given at short intervals, especially if no basically significant change in the individual’s ability has occurred. The third characteristic is the Objectivity of the test in which it represents the two or more competent judges. These characteristics will help the teachers as well as the students to understand the given questions. For us future teacher, we need to consider the reliability of the test, to know how well the items that reflect the same construct yield similar results. 

MODULE 6: ANALYZING AND USING OF TEST ITEM DATA

      In lesson 6, it talks about how to analyze and use of item analysis. Item analysis is important in teaching because it gives input if the item will be rejected, accepted or retained in a particular question in a given test. We are able to identify the difficulty of the items and the extent to which each item properly discriminates between high-achieving and low-achieving students. And we learned that in analyzing the item, we will be able to select the best available item to be used in the final form of the test and we may be able to identify the areas of weaknesses of the students in a particular item that needs have remediation.  And in this lesson, we also identify and know how to get or compute the index of discrimination and index of difficulty, in which we are able to distinguish the item to be rejected, accepted or to be retained in a test. Therefore the function of the item anlysis is to quantify the amount of a specific trait that each student has. Tests cannot serve as a measuring device for all student characteristics that are of concern to teachers, but they serve to quantify many attributes important to student progress through the process of education – especially measurement of achievement.

Module 7: EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS

As future educators we should have knowledge about statistics in the field of education. This module discusses about how statistics is concerned with the teaching and learning in education. Statistics is both a formal science and a practical theory of scientific inquiry, and both aspects are considered in statistics education. At the same time, statistics is concerned with evidence-based reasoning, particularly with the analysis of data. Therefore education in statistics has strong similarities to education in empirical disciplines, in which education is closely tied to "hands-on" experimentation. The issue of quality education has increasingly becoming an area of interest and concern to many nations of the developing world. Education plays a crucial and pivotal role in development at national, regional and international levels.  There can be no argument over the fact that quality assessments have frequently been made on the basis of key indicators generated through the analysis of the statistics available. What has frequently not been appreciated, however, is that statistics is one of the essential, key instruments for the promotion of quality in education. This module attempts to highlight some points on how statistics has been, and can be used, to improve quality in education. So the lessons stated does not meant to tell you anything new, but rather to raise awareness on the importance and value of statistics in the development of quality in education.

ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING (ED 103)

(Course Syllabus)                                                                                                               

Module 1: Overview in Assessment of Learning

Lesson 1.  The Overview of the Assessment of Learning

a.        Introduction

b.       Definition of Terms

c.        Guiding Principles in Assessment of Learning

Lesson 2. Types of Measurement and their Differences

Lesson 3. Common Characteristics and Differences of Norm and Criterion  References

Lesson 4. Types of Assessment

Lesson 5. Modes of Assessment

Lesson 6. Formative and Summative Assessment

Module 2:  ESTABLISHING THE LEARNING TARGETS

Lesson 1. Definition and Types of Learning Targets

Lesson 2. Definition and Role of Instructional Objectives

Lesson 3. Characteristics of a Well Written and Useful Instructional Objectives

Lesson 4. The Three Student Learning Outcome: Cognitive, Affective, & Psychomotor

Module 3: Keys to Effective Testing

Lesson 1. Tests and their Uses in Educational Assessment

Lesson 2. General Steps in Preparation of Tests

Lesson 3. The Keys to Effective Testing

Lesson 4. Factors to Consider when Constructing a Good Test

Lesson 5. Use and Classification of Tests

Lesson 6. Table of Specification

Module 4. Development of Assessment Tools

Lesson 1. Multiple Choice Tests (MCT)

a. Advantages and Disadvantages of MCT                    b.  Suggestions for Writing MCT

c. Types of MCT                                                                  d. Checklist for Writing MCT

Lesson 2. True or False Tests (TFT)

a. Advantages/Disadvantages of TFT                             b. Pointers for TFT

c. Types of TFT                                                                   c. Checklist for Writing TFT

Lesson 3. Matching Type Tests (MTT)

a. Advantages/Disadvantages of MTT                           b. Pointers and Suggestions for MTT

c. Types of MTT                                                                  d. Checklist for MTT

Lesson 4. Completion Tests (CT)

a. Advantages and Disadvantages of CT                        b. Pointers and Suggestions for CT                  c. Types of CT

Lesson 5. Cloze Test

Lesson 6. Essay Tests (ET)

a. Advantages and Disadvantages of ET        b. Uses of ET        c. Pointers on Writing ET

d. Suggestion for rating ET                                e. Factors to Consider in Assigning Points    

f. Checklist for Writing ET

Lesson 7. Other Assessment Tools and Techniques

a. Filling the blanks                              b. Standardized Tests          c. Intelligence and Aptitude Test

d. Personality Test                               e. Interest Inventory                            f. Anecdotal Records

g. Case Study                       h. Questionnaire                   i. Rating Scale       j. Sociogram

Module 5. Characteristics of a Good Test

Lesson 1.  Validity of the Test

a. Important thing to Remember about Validity                              b. Types of Validity

c. Factors Affecting the Validity of a Item       d. Ways to Reduce the Validity of the Test Items

Lesson 2. Reliability of the Test

a.        Factors Affecting the Reliability of the Test

b.       Four Methods of Establishing Reliability

Lesson 3. Objectivity of the Test

Module 6. Analyzing and Using of Test Item Data

Lesson 1. Procedures in Item Analysis

Lesson 2. Computation for the Index of Difficulty (Df) and Index of Discrimination (Di)

Lesson 3. Interpreting Test Scores

Module 7. Educational Statistics

Lesson 1. Descriptive Statistics vs. Inferential Statistics

Lesson 2. Measures of  Central Tendency

a. Meaning and Properties of Mean                                 b. Meaning and Properties of Median

c.. Meaning and Properties of Mode

Lesson 3. Measures of Variability

a. Meaning and Properties of Range                                b. The Quartile Deviation

c. The Standard Deviation

Lesson 4. Measures of Correlation

Module 8. Rubrics, Portfolio and Performance-Based Assessment

Lesson 1. Meaning and Types of Rubrics

Lesson 2. Steps and Advantages in Developing a Rubrics

Lesson 3. Definition and Comparison of Portfolio Assessment

Lesson 4. Types, Guidelines and Uses of Portfolio

Lesson 5. Meaning and Framework of Performance-Based Assessment (PBA)

Lesson 6. Forms, Uses and Focus of PBA

Module 9. Grading and Reporting Practices

Lesson 1. Nature and Functions of Grade/Marks

Lesson 2. Purpose and Types of Grades and Marks

Lesson 3. Advantages/Disadvantages of Grades and Marks

Lesson 4. Common Grading-Related Problems

Lesson 5. Guidelines for Effective Grading

Lesson 6. Criteria for a Marking-Reporting System