| Musings... |
Tests and Assessment"Electronic Portfolio" sounds very technical and complicated, but it isn't. (Well it is a little but not in the way that you think).Wikipedia defines an electronic portfolio as, "...a collection of electronic evidence (artifacts, including inputted text, electronic files such as Word and PDF files, images, multimedia, blog entries and Web links etc.) assembled and managed by a user, usually online. " I took a course this week led by Dr. Helen Barrett on electronic portfolios that has led me to explore a variety of ideas surrounding the learning of my own children. The fundamental idea I came away with was the role an electronic portfolio can play in assessment for learning. Yes... "for" learning, not "of" learning. In our results based, goal oriented society we like to be able to measure accurately our progress. This has been the way assessment has been done in education. We prescribe "tests" to make sure students are learning and prescribe "assignments" because we tend to assume the production of a product equals learning. The problem with this method is two fold. First it assumes that someone that can produce an attractive "product" is learning something, and second it assumes that those that have learned will score high on tests and those that have learned less will score lower. Now before you start screaming that I am grossly oversimplifying things please understand that I know I am oversimplifying things. This is a BLOG, not a dissertation on the failures of the North American Education Model (although I reserve the right to go there sometime). Back to the issue. I want to talk about tests for a moment, particularly those standardized tests that different jurisdictions prescribe. Here in British Columbia students take standardized tests in grades 4, 7, and then provincial exams in grades 10 and 12. Now I have a personal biases against these tests. I know that I could take one of these tests and do very well. Why you ask? Because I am a great test taker. Just for fun (my idea of fun maybe a bit strange, but hey - thats me) I performed an experiment in a class I was taking at university. It was a first year psych class and along with the textbook we were required to read a book the prof had written. Each week we were to have a 10 question multiple choice quiz on his book. So I read the introduction to the book he wrote and that was it. I then took the quiz each week and never scored less than 9. Now my quiz scores would suggest I learned lots from that book, but I didn't. I didn't even read the thing. I was just really good at knowing what he wanted to hear. I am not suggesting that tests have no place - they certainly do. But I think we would be naive to think high test scores = learning ( and vice versa). I believe the same principles apply to the production of "work". Just because a student can produce an attractive project, or complete an assignment does not necessarily mean the student has learned anything. Assessment, to be meaningful, needs be individual. E-portfolios are one way to do this. It is far more work to go to a portfolio model and there is certainly a large learning curve for both teacher and learner, but it is a leap I believe we need to take.  1:28 PM - Feb. 10, 2007 - comments {0} - post commentMommy, Mommy!
Mommy, Mommy! Words that can tug your heart strings or bury it. Bury it under the pressures of all the things that must get done. But really what are those things? Maybe it is more about a clashing of agendas that make those feelings of frustration well up. Maybe it is just wanting to finish a cup of coffee or a newspaper without interruption.
Is it laziness on my part? That part of me driven by perfection says it is, but what is the truth? Experience has taught me the perfectionist self is full of pride and lies. So what is the truth? Maybe I just don’t like to be interrupted. At worst this makes me impatient. Maybe being at home with children all day everyday has taught me to grab the time I need to recharge my batteries. Perhaps at 37 I am learning something about myself. I am a better wife, mother, and friend when I have time to “research”. Other people shop, exercise, socialize, or pursue countless other things to recharge. I need to research to recharge. That is why I read new magazines in one sitting or can spend hours on line learning about all sorts of things. It is why I need (not want—need) to check the weather forecast every day. It is one of the reasons I enjoy home schooling my kids. I just like to know. The what really doesn’t seem to matter. Whether it is how to dry hydrangeas or current Israeli foreign policy I just want to know. It is essential to who I am. It doesn’t make me money or give me prestige but it makes me me and I am slowly learning the importance of that. I believe one day God will use this part of me for something because he made me this way. My job is to embrace who I am and offer it all to him and he will do the rest, perhaps he already is and I don’t even know it. I figure by the time I am 80 I will be all grown up. 1:29 AM - Sep. 17, 2006 - comments {0} - post commentMotherhood is hard.
Motherhood is hard—really hard. Sometimes we can lose ourselves in it and even resent it, feeling overtaken by it. But we don’t have to let this happen. Instead we can encourage one another and learn to appreciate who we are. And by doing this we can learn to enjoy who we are and who are kids will become. 1:25 AM - Sep. 17, 2006 - comments {0} - post comment |
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