The Shibboleth Blog

Assessment of student learning is the process of evaluating the extent to which participants in education have developed their knowledge, understanding and abilities. This blog tackles all about our ideas of education especially on the lessons in Assessment of Student's Learning commonly called Ed 103 subject under the instructions of Dr. Ava Clare Marie Robles.

Ed 103: What is it All About

This course is designed to acquaint students with major

methods and techniques of evaluation used to assess and report growth, development, and

academic achievement of learners in elementary and secondary schools, including

interpretation of standardized test information.



Course Objectives: General course objectives for the student include:

• Awareness of the role of assessment in teaching

• Understanding of the various methods of assessment and circumstances for

appropriate use of each

• Skill building in the development of various teacher-made tests and evaluative

procedures

• Awareness of the needs of special populations, such as those with disabilities,

multicultural populations and those not proficient in English, related to

assessment

• Understanding of elementary statistics as related to the interpretation and

utilization of data provided by standardized tests

• Awareness of trends and issues in assessment with regard to educational reform.

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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Students' Reflection

What was you reaction to the online blog activity?

Regine: it is basically cool and fun. While learning thing about Ed 103, we got to explore and understand the functions of the internet.
Almira: My reaction is that, it is exciting. It’s a new method of giving requirements. It’s good.
Ivorie: I think learning Ed 103 is easier with the online blog activity.
Greg: At first, we found it difficult, but when we already have it, it was fun and it is cool.
Ryan: It broadens the horizons of learning.
Rose Ann: I really had hard time thinking about it, but with the help of my group mates, it was made easy.

Are you having some difficulty configuring the use of web blogging?

Regine: None, because since high school i already have a blog. It’s not new to me and I already knew how to make and maintain a blog.
Almira: It’s easy if you have experienced it. I have experienced this just last year so it’s easy for me.
Ivorie: No, it’s easy because I already have some basic knowledge about it.
Greg: No, because our leader is so supportive. She really helps us in configuring it.
Ryan: No. Definitely no. E-learning contains wonders and excitement all throughout.
Rose Ann: It’s new to me but with the help of out EIC, I easily figure it out.

Did the activity gave you deeper or broader understanding about the use of blogs? Why?

Regine: Of course. I have a blog and it’s only for my personal posts. I didn’t expect that it could be also used as a requirement for a subject. I have learned many things about Ed 103 through the use of this technology.
Almira: Definitely yes. Blogs were used as a requirement in our subject, Ed 103. It’s nice to have a blog where you can put all the things about a certain topic especially if it’s inclined with learning.
Ivorie: Yes. It gave me a deeper understanding about the uses of blogs. In Ed 103, it is used as a means of learning. Nice one!
Greg: It really broadens my understanding about blogs. I didn’t expect it to be a tool for learning.
Ryan: Yes, it did. Browsing and exploration took place in a deeper sense.
Rose Ann: Yes. I think it is an advancement in the strategies in teaching and assessing students. 

Did the activity increase or decrease your enthusiasm, willingness or effort to learn more about technology? Why?

Regine: Technology is my better-half! Therefore, it really increased my enthusiasm to learn more about it!
Almira: Of course. I’m already curious about it because of the blog activity. It increases my stock knowledge.
Ivorie: The blog activity increased my willingness to learn more about technology because it is a need.
Greg: Yes, it increased my enthusiasm. It’s 21st century, we need to know more about it.
Ryan: It increased my excitement, which burst out to the limit. I want to know more about it.
Rose Ann: I want to understand more about technology that’s why it increased my willingness to learn more about it.

What important things have you learned from this activity?

Regine: I have learned that through the use of blogs, a student not only learns about its content but also the technologies that were used to create it.
Almira: I learned that technology has a great factor in a student’s educational years. It really boosts the student knowledge.
Ivorie: I have learned many things from this activity. One of those is the use of blogs as a learning means for students to learn effectively.
Greg: The activity is the best requirement I made. It was really fun. While having fun, I’m learning.
Ryan: I have learned that through e-learning life could even be easier and connected the most.
Rose Ann: I have gained some knowledge from the activity. I guess blogging is an effective way of teaching. It’s not spoon feeding.

What generalization can you formulate with this activity?

Regine: The use of technology (the use of blogs) while incorporating lessons in class is highly beneficial not only to students but also to teachers.
Almira: Technology has an essential use for mankind not only for socializing but also for learning.
Ivorie: Technology as a means of learning is effective.
Greg: The best way to learn is by having fun. I’m having fun while using technology. Hence, learning must be incorporated with education.
Ryan: Technology lies on every clicking of the mouse. Technology awaits us in excitement facts and incredible solutions.
Rose Ann: Technology has many uses especially in learning.

Student Portfolios: Classroom Uses

WHAT IS IT? Portfolios are collections of student work representing a selection of performance. Portfolios in classrooms today are derived from the visual and performing arts tradition in which they serve to showcase artists' accomplishments and personally favored works. A portfolio may be a folder containing a student's best pieces and the student's evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the pieces. It may also contain one or more works-in-progress that illustrate the creation of a product, such as an essay, evolving through various stages of conception, drafting, and revision.
More teachers have recently begun using portfolios in all curricular areas. Portfolios are useful as a support to the new instructional approaches that emphasize the student's role in constructing understanding and the teacher's role in promoting understanding. For example, in writing instruction, portfolios can function to illustrate the range of assignments, goals, and audiences for which a student produced written material. In addition, portfolios can be a record of the activities undertaken over time in the development of written products. They can also be used to support cooperative teaming by offering an opportunity for students to share and comment on each other's work. For example, a videotape of students speaking French in the classroom can be used to evoke a critical evaluation of each other's conversational skills at various points during the school year.
Recent changes in education policy, which emphasize greater teacher involvement in designing curriculum and assessing students, have also been an impetus to increased portfolio use. Portfolios are valued as an assessment tool because, as representations of classroom-based performance, they can be fully integrated into the curriculum. And unlike separate tests, they supplement rather than take time away from instruction. Moreover, many teachers, educators, and researchers believe that portfolio assessments are more effective than "old-style" tests for measuring academic skills and informing instructional decisions.
WHY TRY IT? Students have been stuffing assignments in notebooks and folders for years, so what's so new and exciting about portfolios? Portfolios capitalize on students' natural tendency to save work and become an effective way to get them to take a second look and think about how they could improve future work. As any teacher or student can confirm, this method is a clear departure from the old write, hand in, and forget mentality, where first drafts were considered final products. 

HOW DOES IT WORK? Although there is no single correct way to develop portfolio programs, in all of them students are expected to collect, select, and reflect. Early in the school year, students are pressed to consider: What would I like to reread or share with my parents or a friend? What makes a particular piece of writing, an approach to a mathematics problem, or a write-up of a science project a good product? In building a portfolio of selected pieces and explaining the basis for their choices, students generate criteria for good work, with teacher and peer input. Students need specifics with clear guidelines and examples to get started on their work, so these discussions need to be well guided and structured. The earlier the discussions begin, the better.
While portfolios were developed on the model of the visual and performing arts tradition of showcasing accomplishments, portfolios in classrooms today are a highly flexible instructional and assessment tool, adaptable to diverse curricula, student age/grade levels, and administrative contexts. For example:
The content in portfolios is built from class assignments and as such corresponds to the local classroom curriculum. Often, portfolio programs are initiated by teachers, who know their classroom curriculum best. They may develop portfolios focused on a single curricular area--such as writing, mathematics, literature, or science--or they may develop portfolio programs that span two or more subjects, such as writing and reading, writing across the curriculum, or mathematics and science. Still others span several course areas for particular groups of students, such as those in vocational-technical, English as a second language, or special arts programs.
The age/grade level of students may determine how portfolios are developed and used. For example, in developing criteria for judging good writing, older students are more likely to be able to help determine the criteria by which work is selected, perhaps through brainstorming sessions with the teacher and other students. Younger students may need more directed help to decide on what work to include. Older students are generally better at keeping logs to report their progress on readings and other recurrent projects. Also, older students often expand their portfolios beyond written material to include photographs or videos of peer review sessions, science experiments, performances, or exhibits. 

Administrative contexts also influence the structure and use of portfolios. While the primary purpose of portfolios for most teachers is to engage students, support good curricula and instruction, and improve student teaming, some portfolio programs are designed to serve other purposes as well. For example, portfolios can be used to involve parents in their children's education programs and to report individual student progress. Teachers and administrators need to educate parents about how portfolios work and what advantages they offer over traditional tests. Parents are generally more receptive if the traditional tests to which they are accustomed are not being eliminated. Once portfolios are explained and observed in practice, parents are often enthusiastic supporters.
Portfolios may also be used to compare achievement across classrooms or schools. When they are used for this purpose, fairness requires that standards be developed to specify the types of work that can be included and the criteria used to evaluate the work. Guidelines may also address issues of teacher or peer involvement in revising draft work or in deciding on what to identify as a best piece.
In all administrative contexts, teachers need administrative support to initiate a portfolio program. They need support material such as folders, file drawers, and access to a photocopy machine, and time to plan, share ideas, and develop strategies.
All portfolios--across these diverse curricular settings, student populations, and administrative contexts--involve students in their own education so that they take charge of their personal collection of work, reflect on what makes some work better, and use this information to make improvements in future work. 

WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SAY? Research shows that students at all levels see assessment as something that is done to them on their classwork by someone else. Beyond "percent correct," assigned letter grades, and grammatical or arithmetic errors, many students have little knowledge of what is involved in evaluating their classwork. Portfolios can provide structure for involving students in developing and understanding criteria for good efforts, in coming to see the criteria as their own, and in applying the criteria to their own and other students' work.
Research also shows that students benefit from an awareness of the processes and strategies involved in writing, solving a problem, researching a topic, analyzing information, or describing their own observations. Without instruction focused on the processes and strategies that underlie effective performance of these types of work, most students will not learn them or will learn them only minimally. And without curriculum-specific experience in using these processes and strategies, even fewer students will carry them forward into new and appropriate contexts. Portfolios can serve as a vehicle for enhancing student awareness of these strategies for thinking about and producing work--both inside and beyond the classroom. 

WHAT ARE THE DRAWBACKS? Good portfolio projects do not happen without considerable effort on the part of teachers, administrators, and policymakers. Research shows that portfolios place additional demands on teachers and students as well as on school resources. Teachers need not only a thorough understanding of their subject area and instructional skills, but also additional time for planning, conferring with other teachers, developing strategies and materials, meeting with individual students and small groups, and reviewing and commenting on student work. In addition, teachers may need extra space in their classrooms to store students' portfolios or expensive equipment such as video cameras.
However, portfolios have been characterized by some teachers as a worthwhile burden with tangible results in instruction and student motivation. (For more information on the role of administrators and policymakers in the success of portfolio programs, refer to the next issue of CONSUMER GUIDE, "Student Portfolios: Administrative Uses," to be published in December 1993.) 

This Consumer Guide is produced by the Office of Research, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) of the U.S. Department of Education. 
Richard W. Riley, Secretary of Education
Sharon P. Robinson, Assistant Secretary, OERI
Joseph C. Conaty, Acting Director, OR 

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Before Administering Tests by Regine Del Carmen

During your teaching career, you may be called upon to proctor or state standardized examinations. Although schools and school systems have different facilities for test administration, here are some general suggestions for preparing to proctor or administer a standardize test.Some schools require proctors or test administrators to stand during the duration of the examination. This means that you may be required to stand for several hours straight. In assembly-style testing areas, you will need to pace among rows of testing students. It’s important that you wear your most comfortable shoes. On testing day, go for comfort over style.

Some schools require proctors or test administrators to stand during the duration of the examination. This means that you may be required to stand for several hours straight. In assembly-style testing areas, you will need to pace among rows of testing students. It’s important that you wear your most comfortable shoes. On testing day, go for comfort over style.
The school is likely to supply you with sharpened pencils, but it pays to make sure that you have enough #2 sharpened pencils before the exam. Make sure that your pencils have good erasers. For some reason, pencil erasers smear when students try to erase their completed bubbles.

 Read the manual before the test, even if you are simply serving as a proctor. Reading the manual will help eliminate any apprehension that you feel in the testing area. You will have a better idea of what to do in the most common situations, and you will have a handle on the testing rules. In fact, it’s a good idea to keep a copy of your testing manual nearby, just in case. Do not discard your manual. You may be required to turn it in after the test.

These are simple suggestions that may have a great impact on the teacher during an examination. For some who may pass by and read this text, it may be awkward. But, in a greater sense, these guidelines can really help teachers in proctoring such tests.


The correlation between two variables reflects the degree to which the variables are related. The most common measure of correlation is the Pearson Product Moment Correlation (called Pearson's correlation for short). When measured in a population the Pearson Product Moment correlation is designated by the Greek letter rho (ρ).   

When computed in a sample, it is designated by the letter "r" and is sometimes called "Pearson's r." Pearson's correlation reflects the degree of linear relationship between two variables. It ranges from +1 to -1. A correlation of +1 means that there is a perfect positive linear relationship between variables. The scatter plot shown on this page depicts such a relationship. It is a positive relationship because high scores on the X-axis are associated with high scores on the Y-axis.

A correlation of -1 means that there is a perfect negative linear relationship between variables. The scatter plot shown below depicts a negative relationship. It is a negative relationship because high scores on the X-axis are associated with low scores on the Y-axis.

Assessment of Learning in Cognitive Domain by Rose Ann Tialang


This topic is focused on acquainting future teachers with methods and techniques of measuring learning in cognitive domain. According to Bloom, 1956, “the cognitive domain deals w/ the recall or recognition knowledge and the development of intellectual activities and skills.”
                This topic is very important and helpful for the teachers on how to measure and assess the learning levels of their students. By this, the teachers themselves may calculate the knowledge and the development of the students by assessing their intellectual abilities and skills in school.
                This topic also helps the teacher on how to prepare their assessment in cognitive learning, in which the teacher will prepare his/her test for the student in whatever type of the test his/her student are fitted.
                There’s an advantage and disadvantage of this topic. The advantage is that, the teacher will know immediately after the test will improve with his teaching strategy and the disadvantage, for the part of the teacher, it’s a hassle to check all the papers for the result of the test, but if they loved their profession they can be done it well w/ no bias at all.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Students' Reflection

What was you reaction to the online blog activity?
Regine: it is basically cool and fun. While learning thing about Ed 103, we got to explore and understand the functions of the internet.
Almira: My reaction is that, it is exciting. It’s a new method of giving requirements. It’s good.
Ivorie: I think learning Ed 103 is easier with the online blog activity.
Greg: At first, we found it difficult, but when we already have it, it was fun and it is cool.
Ryan: It broadens the horizons of learning.
Rose Ann: I really had hard time thinking about it, but with the help of my group mates, it was made easy.
Are you having some difficulty configuring the use of web blogging?
Regine: None, because since high school i already have a blog. It’s not new to me and I already knew how to make and maintain a blog.
Almira: It’s easy if you have experienced it. I have experienced this just last year so it’s easy for me.
Ivorie: No, it’s easy because I already have some basic knowledge about it.
Greg: No, because our leader is so supportive. She really helps us in configuring it.
Ryan: No. Definitely no. E-learning contains wonders and excitement all throughout.
Rose Ann: It’s new to me but with the help of out EIC, I easily figure it out.
Did the activity gave you deeper or broader understanding about the use of blogs? Why?
Regine: Of course. I have a blog and it’s only for my personal posts. I didn’t expect that it could be also used as a requirement for a subject. I have learned many things about Ed 103 through the use of this technology.
Almira: Definitely yes. Blogs were used as a requirement in our subject, Ed 103. It’s nice to have a blog where you can put all the things about a certain topic especially if it’s inclined with learning.
Ivorie: Yes. It gave me a deeper understanding about the uses of blogs. In Ed 103, it is used as a means of learning. Nice one!
Greg: It really broadens my understanding about blogs. I didn’t expect it to be a tool for learning.
Ryan: Yes, it did. Browsing and exploration took place in a deeper sense.
Rose Ann: Yes. I think it is an advancement in the strategies in teaching and assessing students. 
Did the activity increase or decrease your enthusiasm, willingness or effort to learn more about technology? Why?
Regine: Technology is my better-half! Therefore, it really increased my enthusiasm to learn more about it!
Almira: Of course. I’m already curious about it because of the blog activity. It increases my stock knowledge.
Ivorie: The blog activity increased my willingness to learn more about technology because it is a need.
Greg: Yes, it increased my enthusiasm. It’s 21st century, we need to know more about it.
Ryan: It increased my excitement, which burst out to the limit. I want to know more about it.
Rose Ann: I want to understand more about technology that’s why it increased my willingness to learn more about it.
What important things have you learned from this activity?
Regine: I have learned that through the use of blogs, a student not only learns about its content but also the technologies that were used to create it.
Almira: I learned that technology has a great factor in a student’s educational years. It really boosts the student knowledge.
Ivorie: I have learned many things from this activity. One of those is the use of blogs as a learning means for students to learn effectively.
Greg: The activity is the best requirement I made. It was really fun. While having fun, I’m learning.
Ryan: I have learned that through e-learning life could even be easier and connected the most.
Rose Ann: I have gained some knowledge from the activity. I guess blogging is an effective way of teaching. It’s not spoon feeding.
What generalization can you formulate with this activity?
Regine: The use of technology (the use of blogs) while incorporating lessons in class is highly beneficial not only to students but also to teachers.
Almira: Technology has an essential use for mankind not only for socializing but also for learning.
Ivorie: Technology as a means of learning is effective.
Greg: The best way to learn is by having fun. I’m having fun while using technology. Hence, learning must be incorporated with education.
Ryan: Technology lies on every clicking of the mouse. Technology awaits us in excitement facts and incredible solutions.
Rose Ann: Technology has many uses especially in learning.

:)

T test by Greg Clyde Divino



The t-test is a statistical test whether two sample means or proportions are equal. The t-test (or student's t-test) gives an indication of the separateness of two sets of measurements, and is thus used to check whether two sets of measures are essentially different (and usually that an experimental effect has been demonstrated). The typical way of doing this is with the null hypothesis that means of the two sets of measures are equal. The t-test was developed by “Student”, whose actual name was Williams Sealy Gossett, but the company he was working for, Guiness Brewery, wouldn’t let him publish under his own name.

It is used when there is random assignment and only two sets of measurement to compare.
There are two main types of t-test:
  • Independent-measures t-test: when samples are not matched.
  • Matched-pair t-test: When samples appear in pairs

Independent mean test is used when we have two different groups of subjects, one group performing one condition in the experiment, and the other group performing the other condition.
In both cases, we have one independent variable, with two levels. We have one dependent variable.
The matched pair t-test or dependent means test is used when the same subjects participate in both conditions of the experiment.

The value of t may be calculated using packages such as SPSS. The actual calculation for two groups is:
t = experimental effect / variability
  = difference between group means /
     standard error of difference between group means
  =  Dg / SEg
Dg = AVERAGE(Xt) - AVERAGE(Xc)
where Xt are the measures in the treatment group and Xc are the measures in the control group. Note that any minus sign is removed, so that 't' remains positive.
SEg = SQRT( VAR(Xt)/nt + VAR(Xc)/nc)
where n is the number of people in the group and VAR(X) is the variance of X.
VAR(X) = SUM((X-AVERAGE(X))2)/(n-1)

The t-value will be positive if the first mean is larger than the second and negative if it is smaller. Once you compute the t-value you have to look it up in a table of significance to test whether the ratio is large enough to say that the difference between the groups is not likely to have been a chance finding. To test the significance, you need to set a risk level (called the alpha level). In most social research, the "rule of thumb" is to set the alpha level at .05. This means that five times out of a hundred you would find a statistically significant difference between the means even if there was none (i.e., by "chance"). You also need to determine the degrees of freedom (df) for the test. In the t-test, the degrees of freedom is the sum of the persons in both groups minus 2. Given the alpha level, the df, and the t-value, you can look the t-value up in a standard table of significance (available as an appendix in the back of most statistics texts) to determine whether the t-value is large enough to be significant. If it is, you can conclude that the difference between the means for the two groups is different (even given the variability). Fortunately, statistical computer programs routinely print the significance test results and save you the trouble of looking them up in a table.