final exam a&e
Dr. Bernt decided, during the semester, to turn the TAWS project into a group project. How would you justify or support this decision, based upon Mertler's discussion of the merits of cooperative learning and group assessment?
Based upon mertler chapter 12, I believe that turning TAWS into a group project was beneficial in terms of assessing whether students can work together in cooperative groups to plan and create a high-quality product. Doing TAWS as a group project helped foster student learning as well as attitudes, social skills, and self-esteem.
Imagine that you and your five friends are applying for the same full-time teaching position. As part of the screening process, the school district requires each of you to complete a self-report on personal work habits. At the risk of losing this position, what might you tell the district's representatives about the validity of the information resulting from the self-reports?
people will put socially acceptable responses
Your best bet when reviewing a students standardized test report (in terms of ease of interpretation) is
percentile scores
what are several reasons that classroom teachers to not systematically assess affect on a regular basis?
political and religious groups opposed to teachers teaching or assessing values and beliefs little time to assess because it occurs after the assessment of cognitive skills has occurred can be low reliability with socially acceptable responses
how might one use the elements of classical test theory (x=t+e) to inform one's efforts to assess affective educational outcomes?
the e can be related to attitudes and self-esteem and social desirability. may skew results and inflate
What is the primary purpose for comparing a student's aptitude (or ability) scores to her achievement scores?
to determine whether the student might be over- or under-achieving in school
what is the main reason for reporting confidence bands on standardized test reports?
to establish a band or range of scores that we are reasonably confident includes the student's true ability or achievement score
Which of the following statements about using grades to motivate students is TRUE, according to Mertler?
Grades might be a motivator, but mostly for already high-achieving students.
Given an example of either a big idea or an essential question, briefly evaluate (is it really big or really essential?), based upon criteria provided for each in class.
Having the student express themselves using not only words but also images and drawing. - has a clear purpose - clear target - effectively communicates student involvement How do students express themselves verbally and on paper? - has no simple right answer - provokes and sustains student inquiry - raises other important questions - reoccurs
without providing all five levels of affective learning objectives, briefly describe the highest level and the lowest level. Why are both important?
Highest: Characterization: possessing a value system that has controlled the student's behavior long enough for the student to have developed a characteristic lifestyle; the behavior is consistent and predictable; instructional outcomes that emphasize typical or characteristic behavior would be included here. Lowest: Receiving: a students willingness to attend classroom activities, concerned with getting, holding, and directing the students attention; illustrated by active listening, showing awareness of the importance of learning, and controlling attention in a positive manner. these are important because it shows the internal characteristics that may be inferred from only students' actions in situations or their responses to carefully designed questions.
what are the limitations associated with the use of self-assessments? How can they be overcome?
a limitation could be if students' inflate their grade and are less-than honest. A way to overcome this could be if the students self-assessment was examined alongside other assessments - including peer and teacher assessments.
Why is it important to assess group skills through the use of a rubric instead of a checklist?
a rubric can assess individual activities which helps determine the extent to which individual students understand the material and can apply the group's solution to other, similarly related types of problems
In contrast to an aptitude test, an achievement test's primary purpose is to
evaluate whether one has mastered a particular set of instructional objectives.
Consider the structure of the TAWS group project being done for this course. Which of the following does it exemplify?
expert model
how is the affective domain of Bloom's taxonomy similar to the taxonomy of the cognitive domain?
both can be monitored and assessed
Which of the following is an example of an affective learning target? "the students will—"
develop a strong sense of self-confidence in their math abilities.
True of false: Mertler recommends to all student work should be graded.
false
Experts argue that affective assessment data can only be used to make decisions about instruction based upon "aggregated affective data" (or group averages). To what purpose can such assessment data be used?
for making changes to improve instruction
Comparing national and local percentile scores would give the teacher some sense of
how her school performed on the test relative to the national norming sample
A stanine score can be determined by
one's percentile score or one's Z-score.
Which of the following is the BEST example of the Comprehension / Understanding level of Bloom's Taxonomy?
Recount the story of Little Red Riding Hood in your own words.
Which has the largest standard error of measure? How do you know?
social studies - it has the largest band
Likert scales generally use a responses that range from
strongly agree to strongly disagree
Social desirability (or what Mertler calls a "socially acceptable response") is a problem--when and why?
student self-reports, because they result in inaccurate or inflated ratings
An affective self-report of academic self-efficacy asks students to indicate their extent of agreement with statements such as "I believe that I will be successful later in life." What problems might be associated with this type of statement?
students feel pressured to provide socially acceptable responses.
describe what is meant by a socially acceptable response.
students someones respond to questions in the way they think the teacher wants them to respond.
Consider the bell curve provided in the Stanford Achievement Test packet. If Jim-Bob scores a 70 on his Cognitive Skills Index test (which has a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15), what would his STANINE score be?
1
consider sadlers formative assessment loop. List the three steps in order. comment in depth about one of the steps, indicating why it is critical for formative assessment and authentic assessment, and what a future teacher needs to keep in mind particularly to help students answer the questions corresponding to the step.
1. What am I aiming for? 2. How close am I? 3. What else do I have to do to get there? 2. How close am I? - this is critical to formative assessment because it focuses on self-assessment. The student must monitor progress to figure out where they are in relation to their goal. - a teacher must keep in mind that students have to figure out a way to monitor progress. Keeping this in mind will encourage the teacher to create self-assessment rubrics for the students.
what might you tell a new teacher about the advantages of implementing cooperative learning strategies in his or her classroom?
1. allows teachers to obtain a more thorough picture of students' accomplishments 2. the teacher can measure the extent to which students can successfully interact and work with others 3. can foster student learning, as well as attitudes, social skills, and self-esteem 4. creates the ability to work together, resolve conflict, give and receive assistance, participate equally, and appropriately divide. the. labor associated with the group task.
Comment specifically upon how Dr. Bernt is grading the TAWS project, using principles and strategies discussed in mertler ch 12
1. clarify reasons for wanting to assess group skills 2. describe assessment context 3. identify/describe each collaborative skill 4. design appropriate scoring instrument teacher assessment - responsibility of teacher to figure out how to grade - individual grade/group grade taws we got presentation grade and self reflection
What are teachers responsible for, and for what should they observe when assigning group work?
1. clarify your reasons for wanting to assess group skills 2. describe the assessment context 3. identify and describe each collaborative skill 4. design an appropriate scoring instrument teachers should observe the skills that they wanted to assess
in Grading what Matters, Winger is proposing that we change what we emphasize when grading students. Briefly describe two very concrete ways that your future grading practices would implement this "new" way of grading.
1. fix the fixation on compliance by separating nonacademic and academic factors. This will ensure students focus on learning and not compliance. 2. distinguishing understanding from memorizing. this can be done by implementing higher order thinking into instruction rather than recall. separating learning targets will help with this
Consider the bell curve provided below. If Jim-Bob scores a 1200 on his SAT (which has a mean of 1200 and a standard deviation of 200), what would his STANINE score be?
5
According to Wiggins and guidelines for writing good teacher-made tests, when is the best time to create a test for a particular lesson or unit?
After writing the objectives but before instruction
A Table of Specifications (or Test Blueprint) s a 2 X 2 matrix. What are the two dimensions along which teachers classify their test items?
Areas of Content and Levels on Bloom's Taxonomy
Which of the following captures the meaning of the phrase "We measure what we treasure" as it relates to affective assessment?
Assessing affective outcomes, if done well, can actually improve both instruction and learning of affective learning targets.
Explain the following quote: "Rather than sorting students into winners and losers, assessment for learning can put all students on a winning streak."
Assessment for learning begins when teachers share achievement targets with students in a student friendly manner with examples of exemplary work. self-assessments provide students with access to feedback. students will have a clear focus on what success looks like with feedback to help them succeed.
How is it that Richard Stiggins proposes that focusing on assessment for learning will benefit students? Especially those students with a history of low achievement.
Assessment for learning begins when teachers share achievement targets with students in a student friendly manner with examples of exemplary work. self-assessments provide students with access to feedback. students will have a clear focus on what success looks like with feedback to help them succeed. redefining what success means - get involved in assessment process
What is the primary purpose of grading, according to Mertler?
Communicating information about academic achievement and progress
with respect to dividing the labor associated with a group task, distinguish between the expert model and the interchangeable model
Division of labor: disadvantage of the procedure: expert model: students will learn their respective assigned portion of the task or material. interchangeable model: students are an expert on everything
According to Mertler, what is the main reason why multiple choice items should not include "all of the above" or "none of the above" as options?
Doing so allows students to narrow down options and "guess" the correct answer.
Consider the following Learning Objective (adapted from PDESAS): Given a brief informational text passage (3-5 paragraphs), the second grade student will identify (a) the main idea of the passage and (b) the focus of specific paragraphs in the text. Which of the following phrases represents the "C" in the A-B-C-D process of writing instructional objectives?
Given a brief information text passage
Which of the following is a principal disadvantage of multiple choice items?
It is difficult to construct clear multiple choice items; it requires training, time, and effort.
Which of the following is NOT a disadvantage of norm-referenced grading?
It results in too many students doing poorly as a result of strict grading
Juan, a sixth grade student, receives a grade-equivalent score of 7.6 on a standardized vocabulary test. Write a statement offering an interpretation of this score.
Juan's performance corresponds to the performance of a typical student taking the same test in the 6th month of seventh grade.
Martha is a third grader at Senkow Elementary School; she receives the following scores on a standardized achievement test that she took in February: Local Percentile - Total Battery 79 National Percentile - Total Battery 79 Aptitude Test (IQ) Percentile 50 Which of the following statements logically follows from this information?
Martha's grade equivalent score will be higher than 3.7.
in your own words, describe the basic differences between norm-referenced and criterion referenced standardized tests.
Norm-referenced tests make comparisons between individuals, and criterion-referenced tests measure a test taker's performance compared to a specific set of standards or criteria. NRT is used for how well it can rank students from high achievers to low. CRT is selected by how how it matches the learning outcomes deemed most important.
Which of the following statements about letter grades is TRUE?
One of the biggest problems with this system is imprecision with scores near the cutoff.
Wiggins's backward design is backward because it
Starts "at the end," with clear goal-setting
Which of the following statements about Mertler's comments about publisher-developed materials is FALSE?
Such materials are carefully prepared to balance all levels of Bloom's taxonomy.
Student teachers are required to design and implement lesson plans as part of their capstone experience. Which level of Bloom's taxonomy is this assignment tapping?
Synthesis / Creation
according to grant wiggins, "why we should stop bashing tests", there is something very ironic about teachers criticizing standardized tests. How so? What is the stories that teachers tell, and what is the real story?
The irony is that many teachers believe that standardized tests promote anxiety only focus on how they relate to students. However, it is the teachers responsibility to prepare and teach students how to infer and transfer information.
the following interpretation of the percentile rank is incorrect; rewrite it so that it is accurate "the student correctly answered almost 80% of the social studies items."
The student scored higher than 80% of the other students for the social studies items.
Which of the following statements about peer assessments is TRUE?
Their purpose should be purely formative (feedback).
Which of the following advantages do all types of objective test items have in common? (you may choose more than one answer)
They are easier for students to answer; they require only recognition of the correct answer. They can be answered quickly; more questions will allow for testing a wider range of material.
Which of the following is an advantage of pass-fail grading systems, according to Mertler?
They reduce student anxiety about academic perfomance.
"Why we should stop bashing standardized tests" takes a closer look at standardized test results. What is the problem that he identifies, and how does he propose that educators and teachers can resolve this issue? Provide details from one/both of the lessons mentioned in the article.
Wiggins says that far too many students at all grade levels do poorly on questions requiring inferences. students are incapable of solving fairly simple questions requiring interpretation and transfer. He is wondering if teachers and school administrators badly misunderstood what kind of curriculum and instruction a standards-based education demands. Lesson 1: change attitudes towards test results. Teachers must assess student scores and begin incorporating higher-levels of blooms taxonomy into instruction. Better local testing would raise test scores.
According to Mertler, Which of the following types of assessment evidence should be included in summative grading?
Written tests and large scale projects
using the information provided in Figure 11.3, approximate the values on the scales below that correspond to a z-score of +.50 a. percentile rank =? b. T-score =? c. stanine =?
a. = 70 b. = 55 c. = 6
If assessment can be defined as gathering information for making decisions (it can!), then which of the following kinds of decisions does formative assessment serve most directly?
adjustment of instruction
Which of the following, according to Mertler, is the FIRST STEP is the process of assessing collaborative work skills?
clarify one's reasons and purposes for assessing group work
For exam 1, you listed several of the keys of effective assessment as laid out by Chappius and stiggins. Which two of these keys might be particularly relevant to an effort to effectively assess affective learning outcomes?
clear purpose - so the students know what they rae being assessed on student involvement - need to see student attitudes
What are the three domains of learning objectives that Bloom and his colleagues developed?
cognitive, affective, behavioral
a fellow teacher tells you that he is very committed to providing affective instruction; however, he resists your proposal that assessing affective learning outcomes is equally important. How do you respond? Address both the benefits of such assessment and the possible reasons for his resistance.
knowledge of attitudes and values can offer meaningful contributions of structuring future learning. And if teachers plan to assess affect, they are more likely to incorporate it into daily instruction. Finally, affective assessments can also provide a unique type of feedback regarding current instruction. Possible reasons for his resistance: the idea of social acceptability can create a measurement error. It is also difficult to find time to incorporate affective assessment into daily instruction because it occurs after the assessment of cognitive skills. Finally, many special-interest groups tend to apply pressure to schools with regard to the appropriateness of affective instruction and assessment.
On most individual reports for standardized tests, student percentile scores are presented using uncertainty bands or confidence intervals (see "Percentile Bands" in Appendix A for an example). These are graphic descriptions indicate the range of scores within which
the individual student's "true score" is likely to fall
The following interpretation is incorrect; rewrite it so that it is correct: "The student's true reading achievement is at the 40th percentile."
the students true reading score is between the 35% - 45%
Why, according to Krachman, is there sudden interest in SEL-related educational objectives? Explain, in your own words, whether this new emphasis makes sense to you- and what some of the pitfalls to avoid might be.
there is an emphasis on SEL educational objectives because of predictive ability of high social competence / self contrpl and hs and college graduation. employees are looking for 21st century soft skills and most teachers know value of social competency and emotional intelligence pitfalls: don't rely too heavily on self reports - teacher observations - problems with e use more than 1 measure - formative purpse
If a student has a Z-score of +3, you could conclude that he is
way, way above average, falling in the top one-tenth of 1%.
paulette receives both norm-referenced and criterion referenced scores for her performance on a standardized test in science. The norm-referenced scores indicate that she scores at the 85th percentile in "earth and space science," but the criterion referenced information indicates that she is deficient in this area. Is this possible? Why or why not?
yes. just because paulette is in the 85th percentile does not necessarily mean she has mastered the content. Making the assumption that a percentile rank should be interpreted in the same manner as a percentage of items answered correctly implies a criterion-referenced - the score she actually received - rather than a norm-referenced - her score in relation to others - interpretation.
