The Vital Role That Assessment Plays, Essay Example

The problem I was researching in my action research endeavor is close to what Stiggins (2005) discussed in his article about the vital role that assessment plays not for the administration of schools and not for teachers, but for the students deciding their future academic destiny, and determining their academic success. There is an obvious emotional component included into the process of assessment; once students who used to perform well receive bad grades, they are stimulated to correct the situation, and a low grade may serve as an additional motivating reinforcement for them. However, in case students perform poorly over a long period of time, they may just let their efforts go, and stop trying to learn better because of their fear, uncertainty, unwillingness to take risks, etc. (Stiggins, 2005).

I took the present issue of concern as the subject of my research, trying to determine the personal features that can facilitate learning for both good and bad achievers. My goal is not to keep the high achievers at one place to let poor achievers catch up with them; I am interested in finding the recipe to a supportive and proactive environment in which the high performers would be able to share not only academic knowledge, but self-empowerment and self-confidence knowledge with their classmates who fall behind them in academic performance. I believe that the core reason for success of students, especially at a younger, foundational age, is the reinforcement and recognition of their achievements they receive from peers, teachers, and parents. Once they see their own progress, and are shown the directions in which they can move, their studies become much easier and much more enjoyable. Moreover, in case students study in groups better than alone, the task of the teacher is to create a group in which the student would feel comfortable, and would take the maximum of use from the peer interaction in the class.

References

Stiggins, R. (2005). From Formative Assessment to Assessment FOR Learning: A Path to Success in Standards-Based Schools. Phi Delta Kappan (December 2005), pp. 324-328.