Difference Techniques of Evaluation//Project, Seminar, Assignment,Portfolio

Different Evaluating Techniques

Assessments may be carried out in many different ways, depending upon the depth of information and nature of what is being assessed.

Different evaluating techniques discussed here are Projects, Seminars, Assignments and portfolios.

Project:

Project is a piece of work or an activity that is finished over a period of time and intended to achieve a particular purpose.

John Dewey initially promoted the idea of “learning by doing”. Educational research has advanced this idea of teaching and learning known as Project based learning.

Project based learning:

Project based learning [PBL] is student centred pedagogy in which students acquire deeper knowledge through active exploration of real world challenges and problems.

The teacher plays the role of facilitator, working with students, to frame worthwhile questions, structuring, meaningful tasks, coaching, both knowledge development and social skills, and carefully assessing what students have learned from the experience.

Important features of project based learning

• Students develop their problem solving skills by direct experiences and gets opportunities to create something novel.
• So called “21^st century skills” like Critical thinking, enquiry to learn, problem solving and various forms of communication are developed in PBL.
• It incorporates feedbacks and revision.
• Create opportunities for self, peer and teacher assessment of content, deeper learning skills, research and presentation.
• Social skills like cooperation, collaboration respecting others views, team spirit... get developed
• Teacher could easily assess how students learn.
• Practical knowledge and multiple skills get developed in students.

Project designing

Projects assigned to students can be of various types

• Projects vary greatly in the depth of questions explored, the subject content and activities required for their solutions and guidance available from the teacher.
• Projects can guide the entire curriculum or simply consists of some hands on activities.
• They may be multidisciplinary or based on single subject.
• Some projects involve the whole class, while others are carried out in small groups or individually.

Advantages of project based learning

• Students learn to work in group, there by taking on social responsibilities.
• It develops good work habits and attitudes towards learning.
• Students gain the ability to apply subject contents to practical life.
• Promotes self directed learning and lifelong learning.
• Provides opportunities for the teacher to move closely with students in a meaningful way.

Limitations of project based learning

• It absorbs lot of time.
• Involves much more work on the part of the teacher.
• Whole syllabus cannot be included in the collection of projects and so it is difficult to finish the syllabus in limited time.
• Textbooks and materials written on these are not available.
• The method is more expensive because students have to bear expenses of field work, outdoor activities, purchase of materials and experiments.
• Requires a well equipped library and laboratory.

Assessing students learning through project work  

 In assessing student’s project work, the following aspects are to be taken into account.

• Significance of the problem selected for investigation.
• Planning the details of gathering necessary data for the project.
• Completing the project within a stipulated time.
• Quality, appropriateness and language style of the project report submitted.
• Participation and involvement in Group work.
• Content proficiency and improvement in social skills is achieved by completing the project successfully.

Characteristics of a good project

• Project should allow the active participation of both learners and teacher.
• It should be useful and purposeful.
• It should have definite educational value.
• It should be practicable.
• It should provide maximum number of activities.
• It should not be expensive
• It should promote the investigative ability among the learners.

Conclusion:

Project work challenges students to think beyond the boundaries of the classroom, helping them develop the skills, behaviors, and confidence necessary for success in the 21^st century

Seminars

A seminar is a form of academic instruction conducted in an educational institution.

The idea behind the seminar system is to familiarise students more extensively with methodology of their chosen subject and allow interacting with examples of the practical problems that occur.

Generally 10 to 15 persons take part in a seminar.

An expert in the particular field serves as a chair person of the seminar.

The members of the audience attentively listened to the lecture in the seminar at the end of which they raise questions regarding their doubts and seek clarifications.

They can express their views and opinions also with regard to the replies given by the speakers.

It is the duty of the chairperson to regulate the proceedings of the seminar.

Merits of seminar

• Presenting Seminar helps to develop good reading habit.
• It cultivates the habit of collecting relevant information pertaining to the topic from various sources.
• Seminars give the wealth of knowledge presented on a particular topic.
• It helps students to become effective communicator.
• It develops the language ability to present appropriate ideas logically and fluently.
• It increases the spirit of participation.
• It develops the ability to face the audience and answer questions boldly.
• In this method, students get the higher skills of cognitive domain, namely analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

Demerits of seminar as a method of teaching

• Requires more time, more space and more personnel
• Only few students will be able to participate and provide quality content in the seminar methods.
• This method could be used only at higher educational levels.
• Unless the chairperson is skilful, the seminar easily degenerates into a question and answer session or a lecture.

Evaluating student’s participation in Seminar

The following aspects of student’s participation in seminar should be taken into consideration while assessing the student performance.

• Concepts that found place in the seminar paper presented, explanations and illustrations offer for the same and appropriateness of the concept advanced.
• Student’s ability to get the information related to the topic.
• Communication skill of the students.
• Appropriate use of information technology in the paper presentation.
• Ability to function efficiently in clarifying the doubts raised by the members of the audience.
• Students as an audience should be able to raise appropriate questions and seek clarifications at the end of the seminar.

Conclusion:

Thus seminars and workshops provide a chance to interact with experts from specific field.

Seminar teaching method is thus effective for improving knowledge scores, skill scores, active learning ability, student collaboration, classroom interaction between teachers and students.

ASSIGNMENTS

In teaching -learning process assignment can be defined as, the task given to students that has to be completed in a stipulated time.

Assignments can be in the form of written, practical, art or fieldwork.

Their purpose is to ensure that students understand the subject matter thoroughly.

Characteristics of Assignment

• An assignment should be related to the topic under study.
• Assignment should be clear, specific and has attainable objectives.
• It should suit the ability and interest of the students.
• It should not be too difficult, nor too easy.

Advantages of providing assignment

• Assignment helps to revise the subject done in the classroom.
• Helps the students to develop desirable habits in them, such as
• sense of responsibility to finish the task undertaken.
• undertaking self study and work with self confidence.
• self dependency in action and thought.
• It provides students the necessary freedom in learning activities.
• The rapport between the teacher and the student increases.
• Teacher could know the abilities of students and their progress in learning.
• Students too understand their respective strength and weaknesses.
• Based on the principle of learning by doing assignments, promote better student learning.
• It helps in clarifying the doubts of the students.
• It provides opportunity to think and solve independently, and to get practice in the subject.
• It gives a link for parent teacher cooperation.
• Assignments help both gifted and slow learners.

Limitations and disadvantages of assignment as a teaching device

• Not suitable for all types of students.
• Give space for cheating or copying.
• Increases the workload of the teacher.
• Have additional expenses for teachers, school management and students.
• Other practical difficulties, such as
• Lack of good textbooks and reference books.
• Difficulty in covering the heavy syllabus.
• Lack of teachers oriented to use assignment as teaching device.
• Non conformity of the present examination system with assignment system in teaching and evaluation.

Methods of assessing assignments

• Every assignment is marked according to the standard.
• Allows students to reflect on others work and get different examples of how the assignment could be done.
• Give feedback for each assignment.
• Find how does the assignment relate to learning outcomes?

Conclusion

Assignment not only helps a student in achieving a higher academic score but also gives an opportunity of understanding the subject better. This also increases their knowledge and enhances their writing skills and abilities.

Portfolio

Portfolios are collection of student’s activities, accomplishments and achievements to demonstrate growth over time, offering an alternative authentic assessment for students and teachers.

Collecting and assessing information or data regarding student learning from various sources through multiple methods and over multiple points of time is known as portfolio assessing of student learning.

Contents of Student- Portfolios:

It can include

• Drawings
• Photos
• Video
• Audio tapes
• Writing or other work samples
• Computer discs
• Copies of students answer scripts

Definitions of student learning Portfolios

Paulson and Mayer – “Student learning portfolio is a collection of student’s work that exhibits the student’s efforts, progress and achievements in one or more areas”

Grace- defines portfolio is a record of student’s process of learning. What the student has learned, and how he /she has gone about learning, how he/she thinks, questions analysis, synthesizes, produces, creates and how he/ she interacts - intellect emotionally and socially with others.

De Fina- states that portfolios are systematic, purposeful and meaningful collection of student’s work in one or more subject areas.

Thus, portfolio is described as a systematic and purposeful collection of the evidence which reflects the success, performance and efforts of the student in one or more areas over a period of time.

Portfolio types:

There is no absolute description and content for portfolios. The types of portfolios are varied according to their purpose and collected items in it. There are different types of portfolio suggested by different persons. According to Haladyn (1997) there are 5 types of portfolio.

• Ideal portfolio:

The ideal portfolio contains all the work of students. It is not used for grading.

• Showcase Portfolios:

Showcase portfolio includes the best work of students. It is important for students to select own work and to reflect their works. These types of portfolios are not suitable to be assessed and graded.

• Documentation Portfolios:

The documentation portfolio involves a collection of work, showing growth and improvement reflecting student’s learning of identified outcomes. This type of portfolio contains quality and quantity data.

• Evaluation Portfolio:

The evaluation portfolio includes a standardized collection of student’s work and could be determined by the teacher or in some cases by the student. This portfolio is suitable for grading students.

• Class Portfolio:

The class portfolio contains student grade, teacher’s view and knowledge about students in the classroom.

Designing the portfolio assessment of student learning

3 main factors guide the design and development of student learning portfolio.

They are

• Purpose,
• Assessment criteria,
• Evidence for assessment

i)Purpose

The first step in designing the student portfolios is to clarify the purpose that portfolio will serve.

whether the portfolio is going to be used for assessing students, assessing learning progress,

reporting to parents about the learning activities of their children,

identifying the special needs of students or for all of these.

ii)Assessment criteria

Once the purpose or goal of the portfolios is clear, decisions are made about

what will be considered as success or good performance and

what strategies are necessary to meet the goals.

iii)Collecting evidences for assessment

It is necessary to collect evidences for assessment from various sources, of which the following are the important ones

• Artifacts produced:

These are the items produced in the normal course of classroom or program activities. Examples, essay written by students in a particular subject content area, improvised aids developed, audio and video discs prepared etc...

• Reproductions:

Documentation of the interviews or projects that are done outside the classroom.

• Attestations:

Statements and observations by teaching staff, librarian and other staff of the educational institution testifying the participation of the students in different learning activities.

• Production:

Items prepared especially for the portfolio such as participant reflections on their learning experiences which reveals the involvement of students in learning.

Advantages of using portfolio assessment of student learning:

• Portfolio assessment helps to assess students learning over a period of time in multiple ways
• It helps to assess student’s proficiency in a given area of subject content in realistic situation than paper -pencil test.
• It allows students, teachers and parents to assess the strength and weakness of the student learning.
• It helps students to demonstrate their learning rather than describe it.
• It helps students to develop the necessary abilities to become independent and self directed learners.
• It helps students to use creative ways to share what they have learned.
• It improves the relationship among the students, teachers and parents.

Disadvantages of portfolio assessment of student learning

• It helps more to assess the quality of student learning rather than evaluating quantitatively the learning proficiency.
• It is considered less reliable in measuring the learning achievement of student as compared to written test.
• It is time consuming for the teacher to organize different learning activities and evaluate student’s performance in each of these learning activities.
• It is not practically possible in overcrowded classes.
• As portfolio assessment requires teachers to develop their own individualized criteria for evaluation of student learning, it can be felt too difficult. For some, it may be quite an unfamiliar act.
• If goals and criteria are not clear, then the portfolio will be just miscellaneous collection of artifacts. Using such portfolios does not possible to assess students learning progress and achievement.

Conclusion:

Thus to sum up portfolio assessment provides more authentic and valid assessment of student’s achievement and comprehensive views of student’s performances in contexts and encourage students to develop independent and self directed and enhances communication among teacher, student and parents.

Concluding Different Techniques of Evaluation

Thus different evaluation techniques help to assess the degree to which students understand the course content and they can provide with information about the effectiveness of teaching methods. Most are designed to be quick and easy to use and each provides different kinds of information.