Assessment in Field Experience

    My field experience has provided me with the opportunity to see how assessment is used in a more concrete and practical way. For one class period (about 90 minutes in length) every week for the past dozen weeks or so, I have gone to my local high school to observe and help with a biology class. The classes I have most frequently observed are Honors Biology I classes, but I have also observed a Basic Biology class. The class I most frequently observed last semester had close to 32 students, whereas the class I am currently observing is much smaller, with about 24 students in total.

    Most of the assessments I’ve observed thus far have been informal, formative assessments. In other words, these assessments haven’t always been for grades; rather, they have been done to assess student learning at a given point in time in order to improve instruction going forward. For example, almost every class period starts with a drill question based on previously learned material. The students work on the drill, individually or with those seated near them, at the beginning of class. After a few minutes, the instructor usually directs the students’ attention to the drill problem and discusses it with the class. This warm-up problem serves as a way to review what was learned the previous day, and assess whether or not some review material may be necessary before moving on. If the students seem confident with their answers, the instructor continues with the lesson as planned. If, on the other hand, the students as a whole seem confused or one student raises their hand for clarification, the teacher stops class for a moment to discuss the question. Students are required to write down the drill problems and their answers on a specific sheet that it turned in at the end of each week. This sheet is graded for completion, but the primary purpose of the warm-up activity is to review previously learned material and get students ready for the day.

    Another formative assessment I’ve seen in my field experience is the use of Kahoot quizzes. Kahoot quizzes allow students to participate anonymously via their smartphones or the desktop computers in class. The results are also displayed immediately after each student submits their answer, or the time allotted for the question expires. Because this format provides both the instructor and the students with immediate feedback regarding student performance, the instructor uses Kahoot quizzes to review at the end of a unit and/or before an exam. Students can use their individual results to determine what they know already, and what material they’ll need to study more leading up to the next test. If a particular questions stumped a large portion of the students, however, the teacher took the opportunity to stop class and review that material. For example, I observed a Kahoot quiz in the honors level class after the students learned about mitosis and meiosis. Two questions that the majority of students answered incorrectly referred to how many chromosomes were present in the cell at a certain point during the cell cycle. After noticing how much the students struggled with these questions, the instructor stopped class and took a few minutes to review, clarifying any misconceptions the students had. The Kahoot quizzes may not have been graded, but they were invaluable for the instructor and the students to assess and improve their learning.

    Other assessments I have seen include worksheets, projects, and informal questioning. Some of these have been for grades, but most of them were more important for assessing the learning process. What I’ve learned in our course so far has made me rethink my definition of assessment. I no longer consider it a way to take a “snapshot” of what a student knows at a particular time. I understand that the results of an assessment can also help the students and teacher make adjustments that improve the learning process. Many of these assessments are neither graded nor formal, but they are all quite helpful.