As unconvincing as it may sound at first, the level and quality of student knowledge is not determined by the instructional process, but the testing system! Educators have to, of course, continually improve their own knowledge, skills and attitudes and by doing so make learning easier for students. But by changing curricula or instructional methods without changing the exams, nothing will be achieved. However, changing the test system without changing the curriculum significantly influences the nature of learning and the level of knowledge (G.E. Miller). This, of course, does not mean that they should not be coordinated.
| Goals of our reference center |
Gathering, publishing, continuously updating and adding the following content to our web site: Data on knowledge assessment tools (name, origin, address, description, licensing and price information, installation instructions, brief review etc.);
Recommendations for teachers about the organization of knowledge self-assessment and assessment methods through the use of IT; Different types of questions and their advantages and disadvantages in pedagogical and technical sense.
Helping the users who post a question through web, e-mail, telephone or by coming in personally. |
Define learning objectives in order to know what and how to evaluate.
There are many evaluation methods which vary in complexity, time and finance demands, as well as reliability guarantees. We may consider their selection only when we have clearly defined learning objectives and when we know what we want to evaluate. Just like education, evaluation is a continuous process for measuring student advancement, teacher efficiency and quality of the program.
There are different types of knowledge testing, such as oral examination, practical examination, essay or a multiple choice test. There also exists a separate group of evaluation methods for skills and opinions.
Each of these methods has their advantages and disadvantages, as does their area of application.
Exams are not hurdles on the way to graduation.
The type of applied evaluation instrument significantly influences how students are going to learn. For example, if the students are required to repeat the data exactly as they were taught, the students will learn by heart. If the students are required to interpret the data or solve problems, they will approach the learning subject accordingly. The teacher has to convince the students that the goal of education is acquiring knowledge, skills, habits, while evaluation is just a part of that process. Evaluation has to be continuous and provide data about advancement. It can be formative (diagnostic) or summative. Formative evaluation follows the development of a student all the way through the program. It can be excellently applied through self-assessment of student knowledge where the results are not entered into the official records. Summative evaluation is conducted at the end of an instructional unit or period and it is used to award certain rights (passing to the next year, diploma acquisition etc). Such examination protects the society from incompetent teaching staff!
About the Reference Center
The purpose of this Reference center is to provide information which will help teachers with the construction and implementation of self-assessment and assessment of student knowledge through the use of IT. Web site of the project has been founded in October 2003, and work dynamics can be seen at http://www.carnet.hr/RC-obrazovni/spzit.
We are looking forward to cooperating with you and believe that we will be of use to everyone who wishes to conduct self-assessment and assessment of knowledge through the use of IT.
Updated: 01.02.2006.
